Stagecoach South & South East

[Hophead]

The Argus is reporting cancellation of the 701 with the last day being 16th November.

 

[aswilliamsuk]

In addition there also appears to be another bunch of changes in the Folkestone and Dover area (https://bustimes.org/licences/PK0000098).

As far as I can tell:
The introduction of the Fastrack D service in Dover looks be part of some tweaks to the local network as well - the 61 (the existing service to Whitfield) gets a "route change", the 64 appears to be being split into a 64 (Aycliffe) and 65 (River).
Over in Folkestone, the big change appears to be the 102. By the looks of the registration, the Dover - Hythe "shorts" become the 104/105, and the 102 becomes the 102/103 between Folkestone and Lydd/Lydd-on-Sea (presumably the 102 goes to one, the 103 goes to the other). Reliability on this very long route (25 miles Dover to Lydd, or thereabouts) has been a problem all summer (even worse than previous years), so perhaps splitting the route is logical after all. Then again, I wonder if the 102/103 might be a circular at Lydd (New Romney - Lydd-on-Sea - Lydd - New Romney one way, and vice versa?) as the last change to the 102 cut quite a few links.

Quite what the frequencies will be is another question - folk south of Hythe were distinctly unimpressed when it was cut back to twice per hour last year alongside the removal of the 16 from Hythe - and cutting the Lydd workings back to Folkestone might well result in a lower frequency between Folkestone and Dover, too (unless there are going to be Folkestone-Dover shorts as well!).

 

[Bishopstone]

Regarding the 701, the hourly daytime-only frequency was never going to represent serious competition for Brighton & Hove's 12/12X. That said, I would have amended the service by stopping the circuit of the Newhaven one-way system, and using the 10 minutes saved to run through the Cuilfail Tunnel and serve Lewes Tesco, which is walkable to the other key shops in Lewes town centre.

 

[alex397]

The 4 Enviro400MMCs 11556-9 new for the Canterbury Park & Ride (which were recently displaced by nearly-new ex Bee Network MMCs) have since been put to work on Herne Bay’s other routes, mostly the 400/600 etc. The next stop displays and announcements have been quickly adapted for these routes. They are the higher quality computer screens rather than the dot matrix (not sure of the exact terminology!). The announcements sound good, rather than completely robotic, the screens are clear, and the screens show at least 2 or 3 upcoming stops rather than just the next stop - I find this far more useful. They also don’t announce the entire official stop name which I find is information overload - for example, the system announces “Westgate Towers” instead of the official name “St Dunstan’s, after Westgate Towers”. The system appears more reliable than South East’s other examples - The E200MMCs on the Thanet Loop seem to often have them switched off, only half working (announcements but no display) or it just cuts out randomly. This seems a big improvement.
I was even more impressed to see the display working on routes other than just the main 400/600 etc route - these buses have been occasionally appearing on other routes such as the 5, Uni2 and the system has been working on those routes. So, well done Stagecoach, I’m pleased to see how well it is working.

Interestingly, the newer E400MMCs at Dover have the older style dot matrix display rather than the better quality screens - hopefully the newer screens will be the default now.

I’ve been waiting to see this sort of next stop display on UK buses for years, which I’ve seen in places like Germany and Poland for a while now. Really user friendly in my opinion and I enjoy seeing/hearing the stop names rather than following the route on my phone.

 

[duncombec]

They also don’t announce the entire official stop name which I find is information overload - for example, the system announces “Westgate Towers” instead of the official name “St Dunstan’s, after Westgate Towers”.

Whilst there are some companies that do this, isn't the "official name" the NAPTAN name? I notice that Bustimes uses "St Dunstan's, after Westgate Towers", whereas Google Maps just used "Westgate Towers".

It's probably a good thing generally to avoid the initial qualifiers where they can be dropped - especially in a city like Canterbury, where almost everywhere could plausibly begin with a St Something! -, not least because the stop after is St Dunstan's [Church], and much more associated with the name, in my experience.

By contrast (and just as a counterpoint, rather than a desire to go more generally off topic), I remember a journey on Metrobus 291 some years ago which didn't refer to village names at all, and thus had a number of stops called useful things like "Petrol Station", "War Memorial" and "Fire Station". Yes... which village's petrol station, war memorial or fire station! (There is more than one of each along the route).

 

[aswilliamsuk]

The 4 Enviro400MMCs 11556-9 new for the Canterbury Park & Ride (which were recently displaced by nearly-new ex Bee Network MMCs) have since been put to work on Herne Bay’s other routes, mostly the 400/600 etc. The next stop displays and announcements have been quickly adapted for these routes. They are the higher quality computer screens rather than the dot matrix (not sure of the exact terminology!). The announcements sound good, rather than completely robotic, the screens are clear, and the screens show at least 2 or 3 upcoming stops rather than just the next stop - I find this far more useful. They also don’t announce the entire official stop name which I find is information overload - for example, the system announces “Westgate Towers” instead of the official name “St Dunstan’s, after Westgate Towers”. The system appears more reliable than South East’s other examples - The E200MMCs on the Thanet Loop seem to often have them switched off, only half working (announcements but no display) or it just cuts out randomly. This seems a big improvement.
I was even more impressed to see the display working on routes other than just the main 400/600 etc route - these buses have been occasionally appearing on other routes such as the 5, Uni2 and the system has been working on those routes. So, well done Stagecoach, I’m pleased to see how well it is working.

Interestingly, the newer E400MMCs at Dover have the older style dot matrix display rather than the better quality screens - hopefully the newer screens will be the default now.

I’ve been waiting to see this sort of next stop display on UK buses for years, which I’ve seen in places like Germany and Poland for a while now. Really user friendly in my opinion and I enjoy seeing/hearing the stop names rather than following the route on my phone.

The E400MMCs you mention at Dover - the 116xx batch - do indeed have the older screens, but I've not seen one working yet since the verbal announcements went live. Maybe I was just unlucky - but it was notable that the announcements do have a habit of glitching, and apparently turn off when the doors close, so they are all too often truncated too!

 

[OptareOlympus]

Any bus on regular service use that was built since 2019 needs to comply with the new AIR next stop announcements regulations from this month. I'm sure, but not certain, that the scrolling dot matrix style screens are non compliant hence the new LCD screens with compliant font sizes etc.

 

[aswilliamsuk]

Any bus on regular service use that was built since 2019 needs to comply with the new AIR next stop announcements regulations from this month. I'm sure, but not certain, that the scrolling dot matrix style screens are non compliant hence the new LCD screens with compliant font sizes etc.

If that's the case, it beggars belief that one year-old vehicles were installed with screens that are already non-compliant...

 

[Big Jumby 74]

It is believed that the whole scheme is cancelled or at least 'deferred' - Woking Borough Council is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy,

The whole thing has stagnated as far as I know. Use to commute on the 34 (mid 20 teens) when it was still allocated a decker, and justifiably so in the peak/school run times. Sometime round about 2014 or so, my memory is a bit vague, the route went over to single deck only under Arriva. Being from the transport industry myself I got to know some of the drivers, who use to say how Arriva had wound down things at GF, and they were struggling to keep vehicles on the road. Only here-say perhaps, but some of their buses sounded like a bag of nails on some days. Stagecoach taking over was a very welcome bit of news as far as I was concerned (I might have been biased at that time), but as of today their buses appear/sound to be in far better condition than the Arriva examples of yester-year.

The only change to Victoria Arch (AFAIK) was the addition of height restriction bars hanging from the southern portal, which was due to the road level, having long been shallower than the northern portal. The recent increase in frequency of the 34 (3 per hour vice 2) has been a very welcome change. Have experienced trying to join at certain times, North bound, in vicinity of Guildford college (Stoke Road) and been unable to join, due to volume of students travelling North on certain occasions, so 20 min interval is far better.

 

[Man of Kent]

If that's the case, it beggars belief that one year-old vehicles were installed with screens that are already non-compliant...

It's not true. The minimum font size is 22mm, which means many dot matrix displays can actually display two lines of information.
The screens in the ex-Canterbury Park & Ride buses were to a higher spec, as they were diverted from their intended home of the Jet 727 in Aberdeen.
The screens in the current Canterbury Park & Ride fleet are different again, meeting the specification set by Transport for Greater Manchester.

 

[alex397]

Whilst there are some companies that do this, isn't the "official name" the NAPTAN name? I notice that Bustimes uses "St Dunstan's, after Westgate Towers", whereas Google Maps just used "Westgate Towers".

Not quite sure of this myself.

It's probably a good thing generally to avoid the initial qualifiers where they can be dropped - especially in a city like Canterbury, where almost everywhere could plausibly begin with a St Something! -, not least because the stop after is St Dunstan's [Church], and much more associated with the name, in my experience.

By contrast (and just as a counterpoint, rather than a desire to go more generally off topic), I remember a journey on Metrobus 291 some years ago which didn't refer to village names at all, and thus had a number of stops called useful things like "Petrol Station", "War Memorial" and "Fire Station". Yes... which village's petrol station, war memorial or fire station! (There is more than one of each along the route).

A good example there of the opposite. This is why local knowledge is really important. A couple of stops in a small village probably should also include the village name, whereas in a large town or city you probably don’t need to mention the town/city at every stop. It appears Stagecoach have used some local knowledge here, though I’m interested to travel on that batch on some other routes to see/hear what they do for certain stops.

The E400MMCs you mention at Dover - the 116xx batch - do indeed have the older screens, but I've not seen one working yet since the verbal announcements went live. Maybe I was just unlucky - but it was notable that the announcements do have a habit of glitching, and apparently turn off when the doors close, so they are all too often truncated too!

Indeed, it appears is is very unreliable on this batch at Dover. I’ve occasionally seen it working on the 16 route, but not when they are on other routes (and sometimes not at all on the 16). This is why I was sceptical of the 11556-9 batch working properly, but it appears reliable on these - I’m not sure what is causing the difference of reliability.

It's not true. The minimum font size is 22mm, which means many dot matrix displays can actually display two lines of information.
The screens in the ex-Canterbury Park & Ride buses were to a higher spec, as they were diverted from their intended home of the Jet 727 in Aberdeen.
The screens in the current Canterbury Park & Ride fleet are different again, meeting the specification set by Transport for Greater Manchester.

Thank you for this information, interesting to know.
Talking of the Bee Network batch - the next stop displays/announcements for the Park&Ride routes were up and running quickly. Again, I was sceptical it would be working when I tried it out, such as if there were different systems used compared to the older batch.

 

[RDP]

From the Stagecoach website.

Service Changes in the Dover, Folkestone, and New Romney Area​

We’re making changes to some local bus services from Sunday 17th November. Most services in the area will have new timetables and there’ll be some new and changed bus routes.

In Dover, the new ‘Fastrack’ rapid bus transit service will begin operating - linking Whitfield, the town centre and Dover Priory Rail Station. There will also be some associated changes to bus services at Whitfield and some local town bus routes will change to offer more direct and reliable journeys.

Our coastal service linking Dover, Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh will be changed to improve reliability and punctuality and create new connections.

And at Folkestone there’ll be some changes to timetables to help make services more resilient to the impact of delays from elsewhere on the network.

Below you can find out what's happening in more detail.



Dover
Fastrack route ‘D’ will offer a brand-new rapid service between Whitfield, the town centre, and Dover Priory Rail Station. There will be changes to local town bus routes at Whitfield and Buckland Valley (Roosevelt Road and Friars Way), and buses for River and Aycliffe will be separated into two dedicated routes. Most other routes including those connecting to Folkestone, Deal and Canterbury will have new timetables.

You can view a new route map of the Dover bus network here.

Route number	Route description	Details
D Fastrack	Whitfield - Dover Castle - Dover Town Centre - Dover Priory Railway Station	Fastrack will operate 7 days a week, with buses every 20 minutes on Mondays to Saturdays and hourly on Sundays. The route will use some new roads, as well as dedicated busways which will give the buses priority over other traffic. The Fastrack project is a partnership between Kent County Council, Dover District Council, and Stagecoach. View the new Fastrack timetable here.
12	Deal - Walmer - Whitfield - Canterbury	There will be a new timetable for this service. Buses will run hourly on Mondays to Saturdays, but with an extra journey during the afternoon school-time peak. View the new 12 timetable here.
15	Dover - Lydden - Canterbury	Some bus times will be adjusted. View the new 15 timetable here.
61	Whitfield - Melbourne Avenue - Buckland Valley - Dover Town Centre	This service will operate on a changed route. It will no longer serve North Whitfield due to the introduction of Fastrack and will operate between Dover town centre, Whitfield Tesco, and Menzies Road. It will also serve Buckland Valley (Roosevelt Road and Friars Way) replacing route 62. View the new 61 timetable here.
62	Buckland Valley - Dover Town Centre	This service will be replaced by route 61. Buses will no longer serve The Linces due to safety issues caused by parked vehicles.
63	Tower Hamlets - Elms Vale - Dover Priory Railway Station - Dover Town Centre	Some bus times will be adjusted. View the new 63 timetable here.
64	River - St Radigund's - Buckland Hospital - Dover Town Centre	This route will be split into two dedicated services. The 64 will operate hourly between River and Dover town centre, serving Market Square before continuing into Pencester Road. Sadly the number of passengers using the service to River is very small and does not support the cost of providing two buses an hour. The new hourly frequency will help reduce costs to a more sustainable level. A service to Aycliffe will be provided by new route 65. View the new 64 timetable here.
65 (NEW)	Aycliffe - Dover Town Centre	Route 65 offers a new dedicated service between Aycliffe and Dover town centre (replacing a section of route 64). Buses will continue to provide a 30-minute frequency service. View the new 65 timetable here.
91	Folkestone - Alkham - Dover	Some bus times will be adjusted. View the new 91 timetable here.
102	Dover - Folkestone - Hythe - Romney Marsh	Please see below.
School-time service 95	Aylesham - Nonington - Sandwich Technology School	Some bus times will be adjusted. View the new 95 timetable here.
School-time services 980, 981, and 983	Aylesham/Elvington and Villages to and from Dover Schools	Bus times will be adjusted.

Folkestone
We’re making our services more resilient and reliable by separating some routes so they operate independently of one another. For example, the 16 and 71/71A services are currently ‘interworked’ which means the same buses are used on both routes. From 17 November they will become ‘standalone’ so that a delay on one won’t have a knock-on impact on the other.
There are also some new connections being created as part of the changes to our coastal routes. This means East Cliff (Stanbury Crescent) will now have buses linking to Folkestone and Dover.

Route number	Route description	Details
10/10A	Folkestone - Hythe - Ashford	Some evening bus times will be adjusted. View the new 10 and 10A timetables here.
16	Folkestone - Hawkinge - Canterbury	Some bus times will be adjusted and this service will now operate independently which means it won't be affected by delays elsewhere on the bus network. This will help improve timekeeping and reliability. View the new route 16 timetable here.
19	Swingfield - Hawkinge - Folkestone	The early morning route 19 bus from Swingfield will no longer operate. Sadly this journey carries too few passengers to be sustainable.
71/71A	Cheriton - Folkestone Town Centre	There are no changes to the timetable, but this service will now operate independently which means it won’t be affected by delays elsewhere on the bus network. This will help improve timekeeping and reliability.
76	Creteway Down - East Cliff Stanbury Crescent - Joyes Road - Folkestone Town Centre	Route 76 will no longer operate and the section around Stanbury Crescent will be covered by the new route 105. Buses will no longer go down Joyes Road. 105 buses will operate every 30-minutes serving Hill Road and Stanbury Crescent, and providing connections to Folkestone town centre and Dover. Please see route 105 below for the new timetable.
102	Dover - Folkestone - Hythe - Romney Marsh	Please see below.

Coastal Services - Dover, Folkestone, Hythe, and Romney Marsh

The 102 service will become four routes; 102, 103, 104 and 105. Each of these routes, together with the existing route 100, will cover a section of the coast. This new arrangement is carefully designed to make sure we’re offering journey options to suit you.
There are new connections – such as between Hythe, Sandgate, Folkestone Central Rail Station and Folkestone Harbour - and where routes overlap, they provide a higher frequency service where demand is greatest.

Buses between Folkestone and Dover every 15 minutes.
4 buses an hour between Hythe and Folkestone (including Folkestone Central Railway Station and Folkestone Harbour)
2 buses an hour between New Romney, Dymchurch, and Folkestone (including Folkestone Central Railway Station and Folkestone Harbour)

The services we operate between Folkestone and Romney Marsh (102 and 103) will be moved to run from our local operations base at Old Romney. We expect this to further improve their performance and reliability.

Route number	Route description	Details
102	Folkestone - Hythe - New Romney - Lydd	The 102 will provide an hourly service between Lydd and Folkestone, it will also now serve Folkestone Central Railway Station and Folkestone Harbour. Coupled with its new sister service, the 103, there will be a combined frequency of buses approximately every 30 minutes.
103	Folkestone - Hythe - New Romney - Greatstone - Lydd-on-Sea	The 103 will provide an hourly service between Lydd-on-Sea, Greatstone, and Folkestone. It will also serve Folkestone Central Railway Station and Folkestone Harbour.
104	Dover - Folkestone - Hythe	The new route 104 will provide buses on a 30-minute frequency, which, combined with its new sister service, the 105, will offer buses every 15 minutes between Folkestone and Dover. The 104 will also serve Folkestone Central Railway Station and Folkestone Harbour in both directions.
105	Dover - Folkestone	This new service will operate between Folkestone and Dover via East Cliff (Stanbury Crescent) every 30 minutes. It will only serve Folkestone Harbour on the way from Dover towards Folkestone town centre.
View the new 102 and 103 timetable here. View the new 104 and 105 timetable here.

 

[alex397]

The new Fastrack D finishes rather early! Hardly a way to encourage the new homeowners of Whitfield to not use a car. Not particularly surprising knowing it’s funded by Kent County Council. Some people, even people who use buses, have a life beyond 7pm.
Seems a shame to spend that huge amount of money on busways only for the bus services to be designed for those who have no other option.

 

[RDP]

Par for the course with Dover town services none of which now operate in the evenings although ironically Folkestone town service 71 which is operated by Dover depot does.

 

[Edvid]

Press release from Kent County Council in light of the announced changes:

Kent County Council's statement on Dover Fastrack

Following the public concern about Stagecoach's changes to bus services in Dover, Kent County Council (KCC) Cabinet Member for Highways & Transport, Neil Baker, has released the following statement:

news.kent.gov.uk

“I completely understand the local disappointment and frustration over Stagecoach’s decision to change bus services in Dover.”

“It has always been KCC’s ambition to make public transport more reliable for residents, which is what Dover Fastrack is built to provide – however, it is clear from these commercial developments that some local communities will be left out of having a service.”

“Following conversations we’ve had with Stagecoach, we will be providing an additional timetabled bus service for the area affected in north Whitfield using Bus Service Improvement Plan funding.”

“We have also had confirmation from Stagecoach that the operating hours of Dover Fastrack will be extended to coincide with the London high speed timetable in 2025.”

“We, along with our partners behind the project, are hopeful that Dover Fastrack will reach its full potential in connecting communities and providing residents with reliable public transport services.”

 

[Trainguy34]

Ouch! The people in north Whitfield (which isn't really Whitfield or a walkable place anyway) now have to use the Stagecoach Connect DRT which is £3.50 per person. One Way. So now from £4 return to £7 return. And the £4 aswell if you want to get anywhere interesting as the DRT only goes to the big Tescos and nothing else.

 

[RDP]

The recent move of four short E200 MMCs (37497-37500) from Stagecoach West Scotland would suggest that these are intended for temporary use on the Fastrack service pending delivery of new electric buses.

 

[alex397]

Press release from Kent County Council in light of the announced changes:

Kent County Council's statement on Dover Fastrack

Following the public concern about Stagecoach's changes to bus services in Dover, Kent County Council (KCC) Cabinet Member for Highways & Transport, Neil Baker, has released the following statement:

news.kent.gov.uk

This appears remarkably proactive from Kent County Council, which, in my opinion, is not often the case with public transport.

I’m pleased to hear the operating hours for the D will be extended, as a main bus service finishing in the early evening is not ideal if we want to make public transport a viable option. The last full journeys are at 19.20 in both directions on Mon-Sat (and 19.00 from Dover/19.30 from Whitfield on Sundays).
The operating hours for some of Dover’s other routes, and many other Kent routes, should ideally also be extended but this is unlikely to happen.

 

[Kite159]

Coastal Services - Dover, Folkestone, Hythe, and Romney Marsh

The 102 service will become four routes; 102, 103, 104 and 105. Each of these routes, together with the existing route 100, will cover a section of the coast. This new arrangement is carefully designed to make sure we’re offering journey options to suit you.
There are new connections – such as between Hythe, Sandgate, Folkestone Central Rail Station and Folkestone Harbour - and where routes overlap, they provide a higher frequency service where demand is greatest.

So similar to what they did with the 700 between Portsmouth & Brighton, other than renumbering the various parts?

 

[Class450/4DES]

Do you think that buses in the Alton/Fleet area will have a good network again?

Stagecoach used to have a lot of routes in these two towns but in nowadays the buses there are quite useless. Many villages around had good bus connection but now they have none at all. Lets take Alton as an example. Alton used to have its own depot but now it only has 3 routes that run regularly while the others have been cut and only run on certain days of the week. The 9 is really useless and only runs three times a day and for some reason operated by Aldershot, the 9 originally used to be a "variation of the 13" and before the it was known as route 23. Speaking of the 13, when it was diverted via Selbourne, it gave Selbourne a good bus connection, the 38 only runs on weekdays at least 5 or 6 times a day. There was talks of a route 13a & 13b but I am not sure they even took off because since then, the taxishare route 205 to Farringdon was withdrawn leaving yet, another nearby village without a transport connection. This is sad to see, specially when Labour want to make buses better in the UK, its a shame this area always seems to get the short end of the stick. Buses towards Fareham and the 13a/b could work wonders for the local area.

If anyone knows what's going on with Alton or Fleets route's, especially about the 13a & 13b, please let me know.

Edit: If any admin wants to move this to a different thread, feel welcome to!

 

[telstarbox]

Is anyone planning to try out the Dover Fastrack service next Sunday?

 

[alex397]

Is anyone planning to try out the Dover Fastrack service next Sunday?

I’m hoping to visit if I have enough time. Be aware it’s just an hourly service on Sundays though.

 

[Park47515]

Presumably, this isn't actually a Decker on the 17? https://bustimes.org/vehicles/scpy-10962

 

[Class450/4DES]

Presumably, this isn't actually a Decker on the 17? https://bustimes.org/vehicles/scpy-10962

Probably a ticket machine change. May just be an Enviro 200MMC.

 

[RELL6L]

Presumably, this isn't actually a Decker on the 17? https://bustimes.org/vehicles/scpy-10962

Isn’t the low bridge at Horsham - it hasn’t been there, so it could be?

 

[Park47515]

Bridge at Horsham, and I believe. the actual depot at Henfield. Looking at the tracking this morning, it came from Worthing so could well be.
Other than last year for Brighton pride, can't have happened recently - if of course it has!

 

[Sussexwatch]

Double deckers have appeared on the 17 several times in recent weeks. Not sure which way they go in Horsham.

 

[Hophead]

On 1st September, Stagecoach (with BSIP assistance from West Sussex CC) increased the 17's frequency between Brighton and Shermanbury to half-hourly, with an hourly evening and Sunday service coming in as well. The Horsham buses go direct up the A281, with the Partridge Green and Littleworth loop just seeing buses to Brighton for most of the day, which hasn't been received well in those 2 villages.

The 17 short workings have seen Enviro 400s fairly regularly since the change. These don't go to Horsham due to a low bridge on Queen Street, and I very much doubt loadings require deckers on the journeys they have covered.

Double deckers did turn out on the full route during Brighton Pride a few years ago - these ran via St Leonards Road and Harwood Road in Horsham to avoid the low bridge. Back in the late 1980s the privatised Alder Valley ran Olympians on what was then the 107 on Sundays as an extension of the route from Guildford (which itself may have had a different number at that time - 263 springs to mind, though memory may be playing tricks on me there). These used Oakhill Road and Elm Grove in the back streets of Horsham for the same reason.

 

[Park47515]

SN18 KOE is currently operating a 17 in Patcham boarded for Horsham, so clearly not that infrequent since the enhancement!

 

[alex397]

I went to Dover today to travel on the new Fastrack D service between Whitfield and Dover Priory Station, via the new bus only roads.

Positives:
- Stagecoach appeared well prepared for this. 5 year old buses new to West Scotland were in service, though some could easily assume they were new for the Fastrack. Surprisingly, they have been painted in full Fastrack livery and the buses (I saw two examples today) looked smart.
- The bus stops looked smart, with most flags being updated with new Fastrack stops which looked good. Timetables all updated, including for other Dover services (well, all the bus stops I saw anyway, I haven’t seen every stop in Dover!). I also think a few existing bus shelters may have been cleaned up recently too, for example the Whitfield Leisure Centre stops. Most unusual for Kent!
- It’s good that this service has been introduced well before completion of the new housing estates. There is often criticism that bus services are introduced way too late to new housing estates. Hopefully the empty fields we went through near Burgoyne Heights will have some development though!
- The long established housing estate at Burgoyne Heights (I believe these is former military housing) now has a far better service. It was previously only served by the infrequent 93 (this goes into the estate, while the D sticks to the main road). There was a mum who presumably lives there taking her kids on the D to show them how to get to school, which was nice to see.
- If I lived in Whitfield (well not the area that’s completely lost it’s bus service with these changes), I’d be rather pleased to have a quick route in into the town centre.
- I have realised there is now a direct bus service from Dover Priory Station to Dover Castle. Hopefully tourists will become aware of this.

Negatives:
- We went through the new Richmond Park estate (I think this is the name of the development in Whitfield). Most completed houses were detached with slightly hilarious Romanesque columns and BMW cars parked outside. I can’t imagine they will be using the Fastrack. Though I could see some more ‘normal’ houses completed or nearing completion.
- I hope the timetable will be improved. The hourly Sunday service is not great, highlighted when the one bus broke down. Another bus was sent out but with delays of up to 30 minutes. The last buses every day are just after 7pm which isn’t particularly attractive. Though, saying this, the new housing estates this is designed for are barely completed or still active agricultural land, so perhaps they don’t want to commit too many resources to this quite so soon.
- the road between Dover Castle and Burgoyne Heights is very narrow, not much more than a country lane. It could be tricky along here if the traffic is heavy.
- Hopefully a minor thing that will be corrected, but there is no bus stop flag on the southbound Dover Castle stop. If visitors to Dover Castle are to be encouraged, hopefully this will be rectified to avoid confusion.
- No paper timetables that I am aware of, though I did not check at the Pencester Road office, and the tourist information is shut on Sundays.