First X78 Sheffield - Doncaster

[Mugby]

Getting back to the X78, I used it on Saturday, I travelled on the 18.10 from Doncaster to Sheffield.

As tbtc suggested, if the Conisborough circuit was eliminated, it would cut at least 5 mins off the running time, possibly more and I seem to remember no one got on or off round there on my journey which was lightly loaded throughout. There is also a 5 min. stand at Rotherham included in the timetable.

Arrival in Sheffield was around 19.25 with only about six passengers on the bus. Strangely, I noticed that the ones leaving Sheffield in the opposite direction seemed quite well loaded.

 

[sheff'd victoria]

In which case you'd need something like the old 501 and 601 services (e.g. to serve the Royal Mail at Brightside) which would need a lot of buses to run parallel routes to shave a couple of minutes off the X78s journey time.

Surely though, as its a commercial service, First could do whatever they wanted with it? Why would the PTE be able to block this?

The 501 from Batemoor to Meadowhall with the bendy buses were a great service.

Im told from my contact that the X78 came under the Sheffield North bus partnership, thus a number of areas had to have a number of buses running on them.

 

[vicbury]

There are still plenty of express services down here in the West of England. We've got the X39 Bristol - Bath (bypasses Keynsham), X1 Bristol - Weston-super-Mare (limited stop), and the X3 Bristol - Portishead (bypasses Pill).

All seem to be doing well and have received new or upgraded vehicles and liveries in the last two years.