TRIVIA: How far can you travel without a ticket

[PeterC]

I mean legally of course, just without any form of paper or electronic ticket.

With tap on on TfL and tap on/tap off on GoAhead's Oxford companies the longest that I can think of without research is Brentwood to Witney via Reading.

 

[JKP]

Borders Buses do not issue tickets for Scottish Concessionary Passes so Edinburgh to Carlisle at 90 plus miles is probably the furthest on one single bus.

 

[PeterC]

Borders Buses do not issue tickets for Scottish Concessionary Passes so Edinburgh to Carlisle at 90 plus miles is probably the furthest on one single bus.

I meant by any adult, not just pensioners.

 

[Chutters 73]

Many many passengers in Warrington try to blag a ride on a 100 to Manchester ‘to see my kid/granny/dealer/probation officer’ (delete as needed) which is a fairly long trip.

 

[YorkRailFan]

Tap On Tap Off allows a ticketless journey on Coastliner 840 from Leeds all the way to Whitby (although you could argue the Tap Off is pointless as you'll still be charged £3 anyway) a journey of roughly 4 hours and some beautiful scenery as you cross the North Yorkshire Moors.

The same applies for the 843 allowing a ticketless journey from Leeds to Scarborough, which takes roughly 3 hours
20 minutes End to end, although it's less scenic than the 840.

 

[AB93]

With tap on on TfL and tap on/tap off on GoAhead's Oxford companies the longest that I can think of without research is Brentwood to Witney via Reading.

Would Kent Fastrack from Gravesend into the TfL network eclipse Brentwood to/from the east?

Then the other side of London, there’s the 702 towards Reading (or other combinations of First Slough/Carousel/Thames Valley if the 702 doesn’t count as a normal bus), 1 to Newbury and 3 to Hungerford. It gets a bit sparse thereafter but X46/46A to Swindon on Swindon Bus gets you there, and then there’s the X5 to Marlborough to make the jump across to Bath on the once a day X76(!). Then First West of England to First Buses of Somerset to wherever is furthest depending on how you measure it.

If not as the crow flies, you could get down to First Dorset from First Somerset, re-enter Go South Coast territory and then head for Portsmouth via Southampton!

I’m sure there’s better ways but does look like you can just about get through the Stagecoach blockade mid-country!

 

[py_megapixel]

Tap On Tap Off allows a ticketless journey on Coastliner 840 from Leeds all the way to Whitby (although you could argue the Tap Off is pointless as you'll still be charged £3 anyway) a journey of roughly 4 hours and some beautiful scenery as you cross the North Yorkshire Moors.

The same applies for the 843 allowing a ticketless journey from Leeds to Scarborough, which takes roughly 3 hours
20 minutes End to end, although it's less scenic than the 840.

Most divisions of First Group now allow tap-on as well. So from Leeds you could get to Huddersfield via a variety of different routes, which looks like it would add on roughly another 2-3 hours based on my skim-reading of timetables.

Huddersfield is an extremity of TfGM's massive tap-on system covering the whole of Greater Manchester, so, after sitting on the 184 into Oldham, you can travel some huge distances. For example, we could circumnavigate a huge chunk of Manchester: Oldham - Ashton (409) - Stockport (330) - Manchester Airport (313) - Altrincham (288) - Trafford Centre (245) - Wigan (132) - Bolton (607).

From Bolton we could proceed via Transdev routes 1 and 152 to Preston, by which point we would have travelled, by my rough measurement, somewhere between 150 and 200 miles since we left Scarborough!

I got bored at this point, but Preston Bus and Blackpool Transport both seem to have tap-on so I'm sure someone can take it from here...

 

[KHCT]

Tap On Tap Off allows a ticketless journey on Coastliner 840 from Leeds all the way to Whitby (although you could argue the Tap Off is pointless as you'll still be charged £3 anyway) a journey of roughly 4 hours and some beautiful scenery as you cross the North Yorkshire Moors.

The same applies for the 843 allowing a ticketless journey from Leeds to Scarborough, which takes roughly 3 hours
20 minutes End to end, although it's less scenic than the 840.

You could then carry on from Whitby using Arriva tap on/off all the way to Berwick via Middlesbrough and Newcastle.

 

[Simon75]

Arriva 724 Harlow to Heathrow (3 1/2 hours about 54 miles ) you can do without a ticket on one bus