Six bus passengers have won an array of prizes in a competition run by local operator Stagecoach.  All of the winners had entered into a prize draw during September by sending in their bus tickets and the winners were selected at random at the beginning of October.

Ashraf Al-Shboul won a rowing machine, Mrs M Stuart won an Apple i-pod, Kath Foster won a Digital Camera, Judith Van Den Heuvel  won £100 worth of shopping vouchers,  Mrs M A Robinson won a Gameboy Advanced and Mrs Sylvia Mcletchie won a kids' Bouncy Castle.  All of the winners were resident in Darlington.  Mrs Mcletchie said, “This is great, the kids will love playing on it."

The competition was introduced as part of a campaign on the 20, 24 and 25 services, which went on throughout September and received a great response.  Marketing Manager Jodine Milne said, “We received almost 2000 entries for this competition, which is a phenomenal amount.  This goes to show that bus travel is thriving on these routes and we have seen some great levels of patronage in Darlington recently." She continued, “All of the operators and councils seem to be working very well together to encourage people to use public transport and even small competitions like this can make a difference to people’s attitudes to using the bus."