Best Open-Top Bus Route You've Been On

[OptareLover]

I'll start off, Stagecoach CNL's 78 to/from Keswick is an absolutely amazing ride (even in the rain!)
It's almost like a rollercoaster when it's windy and it's quite fun sort of ducking down to not get hit by trees! (Obviously you can't actually get hit, but it's close.)
And to make it better, it's operated by ALX400s!

However, I didn't have such a good time on Xplore Dundee's Discover Dundee (DD1) open-top tour this year.

1) The route isn't excellent; adjustment suggested and needed
2) I know ALX400s are fab, but this one wasn't (9903) Here's why:
- Stinking of oil
- Slow
- Had an oil leak and broke down on a Bridge! For those who know the Dundee/Fife area, the Tay Bridge.

I did get a refund, but 10 other people also did on that day!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 May 2023 ==

I believe the other thread got closed, so here's a new one.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 May 2023 ==

I'd love to hear about everyone else's trips!

 

[delt1c]

RMC when it was out in normal service in London on route 23 in early 2000's

 

[Urobach]

As a child growing up the in the 90s, a highlight of the summer was visiting my Grandad in Parkstone and riding on the Wilts and Dorset 150 (which passed very near his house) over to Swanage via the Chain Ferry.

The 150 has since been renumbered to the 50 and rerouted away from where we would have boarded

 

[JKP]

Plymouth City Transport in the 1970s had Leyland Titan PD2 number 358 on the Hoe circular. For a longer trip, Atlantean open tops ran from the city centre eastwards to Bovisand and westward to Western Kings.

 

[WM Bus]

Think I went on 264ERY round Birmingham, I remember travelling along the Wake Green Road. It used to be based at Aston Manor when they were in Witton opposite the Aston Villa football ground. Preserved in the Guide Fridays Stratford On Avon tour livery. Probably some 15 years ago.
Not sure what's happened to that bus today though.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Depends whether you're referring to the route or the bus itself?

For the route, it HAS to be the Exmoor Coaster. It is absolutely stunning. Starting from Minehead which is a very pleasant town, out through Porlock and its picture postcard streets, then the brutal Porlock hill as the bus negotiates a series of hairpin bends of which the steepest is about 1 in 4. Once conquering that, you have views on your left of sumptuous Exmoor countryside with hues of green, brown and purple. On your right, views across the Bristol Channel to the Vale of Glamorgan, and then you descend via Countisbury Hill which is a mere 1 in 5 and down into the car park at Lynmouth where the river Lyn meets the sea. It really is the best (and it's being extended for 2023 to Ilfracombe). My photos added

Best open top bus? Probably the Volvo B10Ms that were new to Badgerline and ended up in Cornwall for many years.

 

[OptareLover]

Depends whether you're referring to the route or the bus itself?

Hi,

Sorry I should've been more specific - I was referring to the route, but hearing about your favourite actual bus is good too. I've adjusted the thread's name. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Snow1964]

I will vote for Big Bus Dubai blue route.

Includes Palm Jumairah, past Dubai Marina, and a breezy trip along a motorway.

 

[Ostrich]

Back in the late 50's / early 60's, the Crossville-operated North Wales Coast open-top service, probably Prestatyn to Llandudno, but I recollect Conwy might have come into it somewhere?

 

[Statto]

Back in the late 50's / early 60's, the Crossville-operated North Wales Coast open-top service, probably Prestatyn to Llandudno, but I recollect Conwy might have come into it somewhere?

Crosville Cymru operated an open top service 100 Talacre to Conwy known as the Happy Dragon, later transferred to Arriva, not sure when Arriva withdrew the service, posted in the other thread one of those services i wish i went on.

 

[86247]

Before the 100 crosville operated the service as the M87 which was pensarn to Prestatyn with shorts to Robin Hood camp.

 

[islandmonkey]

The 40(50?) from Bournemouth station to Swanage is a great open top bus that uses the chain ferry to reach Swanage. And it's £2 single until the end of June.

 

[318266]

The Summer Sundays McGill's opentop service from Greenock to Largs, on top of an ex-London Pulsar Gemini X23BUS. Was great fun to rocket down the main road in a 2005 DAF!

 

[jackot]

As mentioned above the Exmoor Coaster is wonderful.
The 21C from Barnstaple to Croyde is pretty stunning too, with great views of Saunton Sands towards the end.

 

[Deerfold]

For the bus itself, it has to be Walsh's open top minibus.

B20 TJW TJ Walsh Ford Transit with Dormobile body at Halifax Aug97 (Copy)

Explore focus- transport's 7019 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

Initially used on a route linking Halifax's tourist spots it then went into general service, serving some of the rougher areas around Halifax - I was less keen on it on those routes.

 

[Ken H]

Borrowdale. Just stunning

The Stratford upon Avon one isn't bad.

 

[yorksrob]

I would recommend the coaster between St Ives and Penzance via Lands End.

Some beautiful scenery.

 

[Russel]

The 599 Windermere - Grasmere or the 78, Keswick to Seatoller are impressive open top routes.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I would recommend the coaster between St Ives and Penzance via Lands End.

Some beautiful scenery.

That would be my third-placed choice (though it's close with the Jurassic Coaster).

1. Exmoor Coaster

2. Jurassic Coaster - the X52 (as was - it's now split into two this year with the eastern half as the X50) would leave Monkey World and Wool but then descend through rolling green hills and countryside and chocolate box villages with thatched cottages down to Lulworth Cove before clambering back out and more big sky territory before dropping down through more rolling green hills to the long sea front at Weymouth.

After a trundle along the prom, it makes its way back out through Chickerell and then you'll bounding along the open road with Chesil Beach on the right. Portesham and Abbotsbury are lovely little villages with the chapel on the hill at the latter. You then have the brutal Abbotsbury Hill which is a 1 in 6. The view from the top of there is spectacular over Chesil Beach and The Fleet, or across West Bay and Golden Cap. You then descend back down into Burton Bradstock (very cute) and the little tourist trap of West Bay before arriving in Bridport which is as pleasant a town as you'll find in England.

3. The Lands End Coaster is a rollocking run out. Based on a clockwise run, the first bit out of Penzance and Newlyn is ok, but it does get better and better as you get height towards St Buryan. There's a trip down into Porthcurno and you end up along increasingly narrow roads to Lands End (which in itself isn't that great). However, the run into Sennen is a must do and then your Volvo screams back up the hill in pain before going out to St Just and starting on the most wild and windswept section. Past Geevor tin mine and then towards Gurnards Head and Zennor as the bus dips down and bobs up as you hug the coastline. It becomes less dramatic as you head into St Ives though that is a real tourist trap and rightly so with the most scenic bus station in the country. The last bit is pleasant enough through Carbis Bay and St Erth but then you have a last high point as you head into Marazion, exiting to have panoramic shots of St Michaels Mount and the expanse of Mounts Bay across to Penzance.


As an aside, the three best IMHO are First operated, and they do have a raft of open top operations - some honourable mentions to Portland Coaster, Atlantic Coaster and the Somerset Coaster in Weston super Mare. Stagecoach also have some O/T operations but I have some questions that I wonder if anyone has answers to...

• First Cymru is back with the Tenby service this year and looks like two vehicles are based there rather than one, so a spare is available. Only three O/Ts seem on fleet so does anyone know if Porthcawl and Mumbles have lost their services now?
• It's probably a dumb question (as it would require them to be entrepreneurial) but does Arriva have any O/T services now? I recall Rhyl and a limited Southport offering in the past.

 

[D6130]

A few years ago - I think it was in the Summer of 2014 - my younger sister and her husband and three children were visiting us in West Yorkshire and we spent a day on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. At that time there was a connecting semi-circular open top bus service operating between Haworth and Oxenhope via Penistone Hill and the moorland lanes, using a preserved Southdown Leyland Titan PD2 (....or PD3?). It was included in the price of the rail ticket, although with a donations box at the entrance/exit. It was a warm, but windy, overcast day....but the kids loved the exhilarating ride across the moors and we had a slightly scary encounter with a low-hanging tree on the descent into Oxenhope. Not sure whether it still runs, though.

When I lived on the Isle of Wight in the late 1980s, I often used to take visiting friends and family on the Summer-dated open top services from Ventnor to Freshwater and Freshwater to the Needles, which were also very enjoyable.

 

[Amos]

Back in the late 50's / early 60's, the Crossville-operated North Wales Coast open-top service, probably Prestatyn to Llandudno, but I recollect Conwy might have come into it somewhere?

This would get my vote too. It was still operating in the early 80’s; I used to love it when I was a kid.

 

[Russel]

• It's probably a dumb question (as it would require them to be entrepreneurial) but does Arriva have any O/T services now? I recall Rhyl and a limited Southport offering in the past.

I don't believe Arriva operate any open top services in North Wales now.

Though, it goes without saying, with it being Arriva, finding any concrete information either way isn't easy.

 

[Andyh82]

sea front at Weymouth.
3. The Lands End Coaster is a rollocking run out. Based on a clockwise run, the first bit out of Penzance and Newlyn is ok, but it does get better and better as you get height towards St Buryan. There's a trip down into Porthcurno and you end up along increasingly narrow roads to Lands End (which in itself isn't that great). However, the run into Sennen is a must do and then your Volvo screams back up the hill in pain before going out to St Just and starting on the most wild and windswept section. Past Geevor tin mine and then towards Gurnards Head and Zennor as the bus dips down and bobs up as you hug the coastline. It becomes less dramatic as you head into St Ives though that is a real tourist trap and rightly so with the most scenic bus station in the country. The last bit is pleasant enough through Carbis Bay and St Erth but then you have a last high point as you head into Marazion, exiting to have panoramic shots of St Michaels Mount and the expanse of Mounts Bay across to Penzance.

When I travelled on the Lands End Coaster we met a lorry on the way out of Sennen Cove, so we had to back up half way back down the hill onto the prom, to let it past and then have another go

The Atlantic Coaster to Padstow is also good for some ridiculously narrow roads and also some twisty hair pin hills as the road drops down and then up again in and out of various bays along the route. You area always guaranteed to meet the parallel closed top 56 service at the tightest moment

 

[randyrippley]

The 555 a few weeks ago when Kendal sent the Lakes open toppers out in the snow must have been spectacular

 

[OptareLover]

The 555 a few weeks ago when Kendal sent the Lakes open toppers out in the snow must have been spectacular

Wait, they did? I've always thought that would've been fun for open toppers.

 

[ALX400boi]

The 555 a few weeks ago when Kendal sent the Lakes open toppers out in the snow must have been spectacular

When exactly was this?

 

[randyrippley]

About six weeks ago - I started a thread about it. "Snow Bus"
Can't link using this phone

 

[adc82140]

A vote from me for the Needles Breezer- certainly the last bit from Alum Bay along the cliff road to the Needles Battery.

But I will also concur with earlier posts that the Exmoor Coaster is stunning.

 

[ALX400boi]

About six weeks ago - I started a thread about it. "Snow Bus"
Can't link using this phone

I can't seem to find it. If someone could link it, that would be awesome.
Don't want to get too off-topic from this thread's purpose!

I agree too, Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire's 78 is stunning!

 

[randyrippley]

Snowbus

After the overnight snow Stagecoach Kendal sent out an open topper on the 555 which arrived in Lancaster around 08:00 today No idea if this was due to a positioning move, disruption - or whether someone in management thought it was a one-off attraction. The thought of riding it in the snow to...

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