Trivia: Largest settlement without a dedicated town/city bus route

[PTR 444]

By a dedicated town/city bus service, I mean one which does not leave the boundary of a particular settlement. Yeovil, despite being a town with a population of 46,000*, now only has two such routes - the 51 between Abbey Manor Park and Lyde Road via the town centre, and the 11 which serves the Preston Grove/Larkhill Road area. This is a stark comparison to Salisbury, which has at least 10 such routes despite only having a population of 40,000*.

While the above example is a large town with only two town services, are there any similar sized or larger settlements with no such bus services at all? Therefore its only bus provision is provided by inter-urban routes or services which extend to villages outside the settlement.

* Figures are from the 2011 census. Coincidentally the 2021 results were released today which I only found about after making this post.

 

[higthomas]

I'm sure it will be beaten pretty comprehensivly, but I'll put forward Godalming, population 21,804. All local buses head onwards to Guildford at at least one end, as per the excellent Surrey County Council bus map.

Edit: Scratch that, Farnham, population 39,488 doesn't have any; see map.

 

[ALEMASTER]

Already beaten... but local one for me would be Dronfield, population 21,075, has 4 bus routes, the 43/44 Sheffield to Chesterfield operated by Stagecoach and 15/16 Dronfield to Chesterfield operated by TM Travel. It also has a railway station on the Sheffield-Nottingham line.

 

[The exile]

Guessing there’s probably some, but how many non school routes remain entirely within the boundaries.of the City of Salford?

 

[higthomas]

Guessing there’s probably some, but how many non school routes remain entirely within the boundaries.of the City of Salford?

From the map, look like at least the 70 & 74/75 do.

 

[MedwayValiant]

Towns which form part of a conurbation are perhaps a bit measly for this question, but my first thought was Gillingham (109,000). But in fact, while all of Gillingham's frequent services go to Chatham Bus Station there are two infrequent services (131 and 183) which stay within Gillingham (and don't even serve the town centre).

So that won't do as an answer, but for a standalone town how about Hatfield (47,000)? It has frequent services to St Albans and Welwyn Garden City via a variety of routes and a less frequent service to Hertford, together with the once a week 312 which goes no further than Welham Green, but none which stay entirely within Hatfield.

 

[Tatty2008]

I don’t think that Gosport (pop. Circa 82k) has any routes that don’t go out of the borough. AFAIK they all go various ways to Fareham.

 

[HullRailMan]

Not a winner but Beverley has a population of around 32,000. It has two town bus routes, but these visit neighbouring Molescroft which, despite being joined onto the town, is a village in its own right.

 

[Ken H]

I wondered if Shipley counted. But is Saltaire part of Shipley?
However, most routes go through.

 

[route101]

I would say East Kilbride in Scotland but there is the M1 service.

 

[Teapot42]

Already beaten... but local one for me would be Dronfield, population 21,075, has 4 bus routes, the 43/44 Sheffield to Chesterfield operated by Stagecoach and 15/16 Dronfield to Chesterfield operated by TM Travel. It also has a railway station on the Sheffield-Nottingham line.

Chesterfield itself isn't far off. From memory, only the 2/2a and 5 stay within town boundaries, everything else goes beyond. The 78 and 90 go to Staveley, and the 84 goes just outside to Holymoorside.

 

[Llandudno]

Chesterfield itself isn't far off. From memory, only the 2/2a and 5 stay within town boundaries, everything else goes beyond. The 78 and 90 go to Staveley, and the 84 goes just outside to Holymoorside.

I think you can add the 25 and 39 to that list?

 

[Avenger20]

Musselburgh, East of Edinburgh, with a population of 21,100. All routes either travel into Edinburgh or deeper into East Lothian. There used to be a local town service, T1 which operated wholly within Musselburgh but this was withdrawn a few years ago.

 

[Mike99]

I don’t think that Gosport (pop. Circa 82k) has any routes that don’t go out of the borough. AFAIK they all go various ways to Fareham.

Does the X5 to Southampton still operate?

 

[PTR 444]

Does the X5 to Southampton still operate?

Yes, albeit now at irregular 40 minute intervals (departure timings are different every 2 hours - one hour it is xx00 and xx40, and the other is xx20).

 

[Stan Drews]

Yes, albeit now at irregular 40 minute intervals (departure timings are different every 2 hours - one hour it is xx00 and xx40, and the other is xx20).

Is that irregular? I’d have said it was a regular interval, although not clockface!
Such frequencies are certainly becoming more common, and perhaps less of an issue, now that so many users use electronic means to check times of the next bus, or plan their journey.

 

[daodao]

Wilmslow with a population of 24,497 (2011 Census) has not had any local town routes for some years, and is now served by just 2 (through) bus routes that operate hourly on weekdays and have no Sunday service. One of these routes provides the only bus service for the adjacent settlements of Handforth (population 6266 by the 2011 Census but larger now) and Alderley Edge (2011 Census population 4780).

 

[PTR 444]

Is that irregular? I’d have said it was a regular interval, although not clockface!
Such frequencies are certainly becoming more common, and perhaps less of an issue, now that so many users use electronic means to check times of the next bus, or plan their journey.

Sorry, my bad as I should have said clockface. Despite not being irregular, i’m still not too keen on any routes having frequencies that aren’t clockface due to the fact that you have to remember different timings for each hour. With clockface, you can just memorise the same times for each hour which makes life a lot easier.

 

[Ken H]

Sorry, my bad as I should have said clockface. Despite not being irregular, i’m still not too keen on any routes having frequencies that aren’t clockface due to the fact that you have to remember different timings for each hour. With clockface, you can just memorise the same times for each hour which makes life a lot easier.

Check out the First Leeds 91. Roughly half hourly with the odd 1 hr gaps. But no regular departure times.

 

[Deerfold]

Sorry, my bad as I should have said clockface. Despite not being irregular, i’m still not too keen on any routes having frequencies that aren’t clockface due to the fact that you have to remember different timings for each hour. With clockface, you can just memorise the same times for each hour which makes life a lot easier.

Just been visiting somewhere where the most frequent service was every 19 minutes at peaks, the least frequent was every 84 minutes evenings and weekends!

 

[MaidaVale]

City of London (which admittedly only has 9,000 permenant residents, although is still city) no longer has any routes that run entirely within. The RV1 ran almost entirely within apart from the tiny section on the western end.

Not sure if Westminster does? I think there could be a few contendors, although none off the top of my head.

 

[Dai Corner]

City of London (which admittedly only has 9,000 permenant residents, although is still city) no longer has any routes that run entirely within. The RV1 ran almost entirely within apart from the tiny section on the western end.

Not sure if Westminster does? I think there could be a few contendors, although none off the top of my head.

Surely the 'settlement' is Greater London with about 1000 times as many inhabitants and hundreds of bus routes?

 

[MaidaVale]

Surely the 'settlement' is Greater London with about 1000 times as many inhabitants and hundreds of bus routes?

True, although with that the same could be said about Salford just being counted as GM, Which was mentioned further up the thread.

 

[Deerfold]

City of London (which admittedly only has 9,000 permenant residents, although is still city) no longer has any routes that run entirely within. The RV1 ran almost entirely within apart from the tiny section on the western end.

Not sure if Westminster does? I think there could be a few contendors, although none off the top of my head.

The RV1 ran within 5 different London boroughs, including both cities! It mostly ran South of the Thames and barely touches the City of London except at its eastern end - so far as I can see, less than a mile of its 6 mile length was in the City of London.

 

[MaidaVale]

The RV1 ran within 5 different London boroughs, including both cities! It mostly ran South of the Thames and barely touches the City of London except at its eastern end - so far as I can see, less than a mile of its 6 mile length was in the City of London.

Bugger, It's been that many years since I've been on it that I completely forgot it ran south of the Thames, I was getting somewhat mixed up with the 521. In that case, has there ever been a route contained wholly within the square mile. I assume not.

 

[tbtc]

With next month’s changes announced (meaning the replacement of the 9 with extra journeys/extension of the 43 through to Glenrothes), will there be anything “local” to the forty-odd thousand people in Leven/Methil/ Buckhaven/ Kennoway combined area other than some school services?

Everything else seems to run beyond the boundaries these days, as Stagecoach and Fife Council have tried to squeeze resources tighter

 

[Busaholic]

Bugger, It's been that many years since I've been on it that I completely forgot it ran south of the Thames, I was getting somewhat mixed up with the 521. In that case, has there ever been a route contained wholly within the square mile. I assume not.

Categorically, no, there really would be no point, the maximum length of it would be tiny. I can't think even of possible short-working journeys on established routes which ever would have occurred in practice, such as Holborn Circus to Aldgate on the 25, Holborn Circus to Shoreditch on the 8 or 22, Liverpool Street to Farringdon Street on the 9 or 22. The nearest would be the 21 shorts between Moorgate, Finsbury Square and London Bridge Station and the 133s between Liverpool Street Station and London Bridge Station, both of course going into Southwark Council territory over London Bridge.