Train to Sunderland. Walk to the ‘interchange’. What is an interchange? It’s a bus station. Who has created this bizarre vocabularly of public transport?

The bus to Easington doesn’t show up. It simply gets deleted from the electronic display. There is NO ONE to ask why, where or how. I walk to the ‘travel centre’ who tell me ‘it’s Arriva buses – no one ever tells us anything’.

After a very productive meeting at Easington I set off for Redcar. I somehow miss a bus to Peterlee by popping into a cafe to get a pie. Ok, that’s my fault.

The other person waiting at the bus stop phones up the travel information line. The next bus to Thornaby is an hour away. Take the bus to Peterlee. Here most of the glass doors have been smashed. The bus to Thornaby doesn’t turn up and again, there is NO ONE to ask. The next bus to Hartlepool also doesn’t turn up.

Eventually get a bus to Hartlepool and train to Thornaby and then to Redcar.

The moral of this tale. Do NOT rely on Transport Direct for bus and local information. I should have plotted everything out on a map rather than looking on the internet.

The phone number for the travel information doesn’t give you local knowledge. I was told that there was a fast bus from Peterlee to Middlesbrough but the person on the phone only knew it was ‘on the A19′.

Sometimes it’s quicker to retrace the journey and start again.

What do you do if you don’t have a mobile phone?