Bus routes that have increased in frequency in recent years

[poshfan]

In my area, the Stamford to Grantham bus has increased in frequency from 3 a day to a whopping 5 a day each way in recent years. It still takes 1 hour and 15 mins though, the train is faster even though it is double the distance and requires a change at Peterborough. The bus doesn't use the A1, but uses a less direct B road, and makes 3 excursions off that to take in nearby villages.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

One suggestion for North Yorkshire would be Otley-Harrogate. First withdrew their few times a day service in July 2009 and ConneXions Buses introduced an hourly service, which is a commercial success.
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Can you remind me what the old 36 and 36A did, please? Also let's not forget that the 36 was 6 buses an hour for a time.

Depends how long ago you want to go back but services in North Yorkshire are much better than 15 years ago, though the last set of cuts and the future ones are set to undo much of the good with Sunday, evening and town services decimated!

The 93 is one example with the Scarborough to Whitby hourly service now extending to Middlesbrough (when it used to be roughly two hourly). The Sunday service is even more impressive with Scarborough to Whitby going from 4 to 9 journeys and Whitby to Middlesbrough going from 1 journey to 6. Meanwhile, the 5 from Whitby to Loftus had its frequency doubled to 2 bph a few years ago.

Then take the dales. Swaledale gets services 6 days a week when it didn't before rural bus funding. Similarly, the motley collection of services in Wensleydale got replaced by an hourly combined service (though since been eroded, it is still better). Richmond to Leyburn is hourly (was 4 a day) whilst Leyburn to Ripon ran twice a week not two hourly. I can remember when the 36 was hourly from Ripon to Harrogate and then half hourly after there to Leeds.

Fact is that, as others have said better than me, a lot of services and variations have been cut as operators have concentrated on main flows. Also, evening services have suffered as subsidy has gone but also because longer opening hours have fragmented the evening trade. Conversely, Sunday services have probably never been busier or as commonplace as Sunday trading and the like have promoting their use.

 

[johnnychips]

I have an old North Western timetable from the late 60s, and it is surprising how bad some of the services in the Peak District are compared with today.

 

[gingerheid]

What is open in Cambridge after 6pm?

Anything to do with being sociable. Cambridge is busy in the evening and during the night 7 nights a week!

 

[Statto]

Particularly the night bus routes; which really shows the growth of the 'night time economy' in London.

TfL's N29 has 18 bph on Fri/Sat nights; one every 3-4 mins. That's more frequent than the afternoon service on the 29 (15 bph). On other nights, the service is 'only' 8 bph; every 7-8 mins. (Although when the Piccadilly line starts running 24-hours at the weekend, I'd expect the weekend N29 service to be considerably reduced.)

20 years ago, at weekends the N29 had 4 bph until about 03:30, then 2 bph. During the week, the service was half that level.

I have a London night bus timetable from 1994 most of the services then were either 30 or 60 minutes or certain journeys only, & all but 1 service N253 called at Trafalgar Square. The N29 was quite complicated basic Sunday to Thursday frequency was every 30-60 minutes doubling in frequency Friday & Saturday nights. All night buses then had the prefix N & had there own route & numbers like N15 was the N95 & diverting to Dagenham, N207 was N89.

 

[Be3G]

Of course, back then London's night buses had their own fare structure too – I don't have much memory of it (I was too young to be catching night buses back then) but I seem to recall that a long journey could cost a few pounds. No doubt one of the reasons for the massive increase in popularity has been the standardisation with cheaper daytime fares.

 

[transmanche]

All night buses then had the prefix N & had there own route & numbers like N15 was the N95 & diverting to Dagenham, N207 was N89.

Back in the day, all night buses were numbered in the N8x and N9x series (having much earlier been in the 28x and 29x series). Some trace their lineage back to trolleybus or tram days. E.g. the night service on the 543/643 trolleybus became the N83 on conversion to motorbus; whilst the daytime service was numbered 243/243A.

As mentioned earlier, back in the 1980s/1990s, many late/early journeys on daytime routes became the core of a separate night service; using the same number as the daytime route with an N prefix (e.g. 29-N29) - with routes diverted in central London to serve Trafalgar Square as a hub. So the special series of N8x/N9x routes eventually had to be renumbered; e.g. the N83 became the N243.

Finally, as more night routes were introduced, it wasn't necessary to have a central hub at Trafalgar Square anymore and the night routes followed their daytime counterparts - so the N243 became simply the 24-hour 243. Nowadays, I think the only routes which retain the N-prefix are those that run further than their daytime counterparts - sometime following the 'traditional' patterns used before the routes were truncated (e.g. N29 running all the way to Enfield, whereas the daytime service is now split between the 29 & 329.

There were some odd routes in the 1990s; my 1993 guide shows the N92 as running between Potters Bar and Kingston! (Although there were no through journeys along the complete route, there were some through services between Kingston and North Finchley.)

Of course, back then London's night buses had their own fare structure too – I don't have much memory of it (I was too young to be catching night buses back then) but I seem to recall that a long journey could cost a few pounds. No doubt one of the reasons for the massive increase in popularity has been the standardisation with cheaper daytime fares.

I think the thing that gave night buses a big boost was when One Day Travelcards became valid for use on N-prefixed routes.

 

[Deerfold]

Back in the day, all night buses were numbered in the N8x and N9x series (having much earlier been in the 28x and 29x series). Some trace their lineage back to trolleybus or tram days. E.g. the night service on the 543/643 trolleybus became the N83 on conversion to motorbus; whilst the daytime service was numbered 243/243A.


As mentioned earlier, back in the 1980s/1990s, many late/early journeys on daytime routes became the core of a separate night service; using the same number as the daytime route with an N prefix (e.g. 29-N29) - with routes diverted in central London to serve Trafalgar Square as a hub. So the special series of N8x/N9x routes eventually had to be renumbered; e.g. the N83 became the N243.

Oddly the N97 still exists, being quite different from the 97 - and formerly being the main Heathrow night route before swapping that part of the route with the N9.

Finally, as more night routes were introduced, it wasn't necessary to have a central hub at Trafalgar Square anymore and the night routes followed their daytime counterparts - so the N243 became simply the 24-hour 243. Nowadays, I think the only routes which retain the N-prefix are those that run further than their daytime counterparts - sometime following the 'traditional' patterns used before the routes were truncated (e.g. N29 running all the way to Enfield, whereas the service is now split between the 29 & 329.

There was also the fact that at weekends Trafalgar Square is pretty much full, especially since the northern road was pedestrianised.

Generally an N indicates that the day service does something different, usually an extension - sometimes a very significant extension such as the N207, N21, N89.

Uniquely the 63 extends along the route of the 71 overnight but doesn't get an N for some reason.

There were some odd routes in the 1990s; my 1993 guide shows the N92 as running between Potters Bar and Kingston! (Although there were no through journeys along the complete route, there were some through services between Kingston and North Finchley.)

There also tended to be a lot of odd short workings along routes, with, on some routes, the full route being rarely or never run.

I think the thing that gave night buses a big boost was when One Day Travelcards became valid for use on N-prefixed routes.

Definitely.

I recall in the mid and late nineties letting an N15 go past so I could get a 15 - night buses often started a hour or more before the day services gave up.

Most annoying was the weekend travelcard, valid Saturdays and Sundays but not overnight between them.

If I was intending to catch more than a couple of nightbuses over a long weekend I'd get a weekly travelcard - a night bus fare could be up to 3 quid, a lot back then.

 

[Statto]

N5-N20-N97-N550-N551 are unique in that there's no daytime equivalent, as N5=N20-N97 mainly replace the Tube, with most night routes are either 24hour or extend further than the daytime service. N550-N551 have day routes but only covering a small section of the routes, to cover N551 during the day & this is from East Beckton to Canning Town you have to catch 6 different day routes.

In London whilst a lot of day frequencies have increased, most routes have been cut back due to either traffic conditions & or sell off, of the London bus companies with new routes added or some routes diverted to cover the withdrawn sections.

 

[Be3G]

There were some odd routes in the 1990s; my 1993 guide shows the N92 as running between Potters Bar and Kingston!

Blimey. Though that does highlight a way in which London's night buses have got worse over the years: they've been successively withdrawn from the bordering Home Counties, such that the only night bus which travels outside London now is the N279, and even that's only by a mere few hundred metres as the crow flies.

I think the thing that gave night buses a big boost was when One Day Travelcards became valid for use on N-prefixed routes.

Point taken, though it amounts to the same thing really – parity with daytime buses and tickets rather than having their own separate fare structure. (Unless the inclusion in day travelcards happened at a different time to the removal of special night fares? I can't remember…)

 

[vicbury]

Here in Bath there have been a fair few improvements courtesy of First.

The 14 is now every 9 (15) minutes weekdays, 12 (15) minutes Saturdays and 20 (30) minutes Sundays. The boost on weekends is impressive as previously the route may have relied on passengers going to and from the hospital but now appears to have captured the leisure market from the suburbs during the weekends.

The 339 Bristol - Bath has gone from nothing after midnight to every 60 minutes until 0200.

The 173 / 178 / 184 Bath - Radstock corridor has increased from every 20 to every 15 minutes through adding a new route 379.

Other routes have seen a reversal of cuts brought in during the recession and I'm sure there have been other improvements too.

 

[CatfordCat]

Indeed, in fact I think the N29 was developed from a handful of very late/very early journeys on the 29.

Yes - from a 1976 'red book', the 29 has one bus which finished at Wood Green at 0209. Since the first journey of the day was 0451, I think this would have been a very late 'late shift' rather than a night shift.

Some routes were '24 hour' routes at that time - the 11, 177 (Sat night only) 185 and 220 each had one or two all-night duties. (The 177 was a particular scheduling oddity, remaining crew operated for quite a few years after the daytime service went - as then was - OMO.)

With the exception of the 11, these were all ex tram / trolleybus routes - and I think the late journeys on the 29 didn't come from its absorbing the 269 trolleybus replacement route.

Your subsequent post is spot on in respect of the pre-1970s route numbering. The N68, N81 and N82 were 1970s additions to the numbering sequence, all being variations of the 168, 181 and 182 routes (all tram replacement routes) - the night service on the N82 stayed several years after the 182 disappeared. (the 182 at one time ran something like Monday to Friday daytimes, and every night)

It's also notable that the south London night route network didn't budge from the tram route along Victoria Embankment to the logical traffic objectives of Trafalgar Square and Fleet Street for a long time.

And similarly, some routes did not extend to logical suburban termini - the N85 terminated (apart from one odd journey) at the site of the Downham Way change-pit (unstaffed at night) rather than extend through to Grove Park...

That having been said, LT tended to overlook the night routes - I've read somewhere that when the trolleybus to bus conversion took place between 1959-62, they noticed that the 'all night' services were still running on the revised timetables introduced to cope with the blackout conditions of the 1939-45 war...

 

[Statto]

Looking at the N19 timetable, the N19 nowadays is every 30 minutes, 20 minutes weekends throughout the night, all journeys operating end to end, the 1994 timetable, Northbound every hour although no service from 2:50am to 5:20am then last one a short journey 6:05am. Southbound, only 2 journeys operated end to end, rest of the service was short journeys.

The rest of the night network has has similar improvements, but as been mentioned allowing one day travelcards & passes & reducing the fares to the same as normal daytime routes has boosted passengers, & quite a few night routes have been introduced that done go anywhere near Central London. Trafalgar Square was the hub, but meal breaks were taken at Victoria, & didn't the old Victoria bus station have a refuelling area?

 

[CatfordCat]

Trafalgar Square was the hub, but meal breaks were taken at Victoria, & didn't the old Victoria bus station have a refuelling area?

Up to the 1980s improvements, some night routes also had meal breaks at Liverpool Street, and the SE London routes at New Cross garage. The N99 was about the only 'suburban' night route (although the N82 never got further in to central London than New Cross) and the meal break for the N99 crew was at West Ham garage.

Some of the night routes disappeared off timetable at points like Aldgate or Trafalgar Square for meal breaks - making these journeys 'live' was a first step in expanding the network.

As for the second point, I'm pretty sure there was never a fuelling area at Victoria Bus Station, assuming we're talking about the site between Victoria Station and Terminus Place.

However, there was a bus park at the side of Victoria bus garage (Gillingham Street / Wilton Street) which was used as a terminus by some routes - I can't remember whether you could board buses there, although I've a feeling it was used as the terminus of the relatively short lived London - Birmingham 'London Liner' express coach (a joint venture between London Buses and West Midlands Travel in the late 80s). Victoria garage would have had a fuelling point.

 

[PrestonPark]

Most routes run by Brighton & Hove.

Robert

A quick look through past editions of 'Bus Times' show significant increases on most Brighton&Hove routes especially the 1/1A, 5/5A/5B, 6, 7,25, 27 and 49. As well as increased frequency during the day, the peak hours have been stretched so that higher frequencies also operate during the evening and at weekends. Coming up this April I see that the 27 is to increase from 30 minute to 20 minute frequency.

 

[Stan Drews]

There have been a number of improvements in Fife over recent years.
The 99 group of services between St.Andrews and Dundee has gone from a basic Mon-Sat daytime 30ms, to every 20, and then every 15 with a 30ms eve/Sun, and now it runs every 10 mins on Mon-Sat, 20 mins on Suns, and every 30mins evenings.
The X59 between St.Andrews and Edinburgh has also seen the frequency between Glenrothes and Edinburgh doubled to two per hour recently.
The Fife - Glasgow express services have also gone from 2 to 3 per hour.

 

[Mitch in Notts]

In my area, the Stamford to Grantham bus has increased in frequency from 3 a day to a whopping 5 a day each way in recent years. It still takes 1 hour and 15 mins though, the train is faster even though it is double the distance and requires a change at Peterborough. The bus doesn't use the A1, but uses a less direct B road, and makes 3 excursions off that to take in nearby villages.

Think you will find it was cut back again in 2012, though slightly improved this year (the 1645 also now runs Saturdays).
From Grantham: 0712(SX), 0900 & 1300
From Stamford: 0915, 1115 & 1645.