I've moved from a city road which had a bus service all night to a village which has a service once a week! Lots of features of this kind of operation were new to me. Here's a few:
1) The outward journey to the market town always runs to route and time, unless there are any passengers for one specific village to which the bus only calls if requested by the previous day, in which case it runs about ten minutes later to the rest of the route.
2) On the return journey, the driver is free to take the quickest route to serve the destinations of the passengers actually on the bus when it leaves town. Thus the route isn't really suitable for inter-village journeys as it may well miss some out on the return! However, the bus often makes little detours to drop passengers with shopping right at their doors if they live slightly off-route.
3) Tickets are a novelty - generally the driver writes one ticket per village and gives it to one of the regulars!
4) I am usually the only person who actually pays a fare, although one or two passengers often drop a pound into a collection box. Needless to say it's heavily subsidised and the drivers are volunteers.
5) On many of the roads the bus takes up the whole width of the road with regular manoeuvres into farm gateways, etc when a tractor, delivery van, flocks of sheep or the occasional car is met.
6) Other incidents can occur. Last winter a broken branch blocked one road, fortunately two of the male passengers jumped off and held the branch back whilst the bus passed. A few weeks ago we ran very slowly for a couple of hundred yards so as not to squash a red squirrel which insisted on running up the middle of the road. Once a passenger picked up the wrong shopping bag from the luggage area - after the trip the driver drove all the way back to her house with the correct one. One of the very regulars, a very elderly man, failed to catch the bus one week so the driver stopped whilst another passenger knocked at his door to check he was OK and really wasn't coming that week.
7) A few weeks ago a guy who looked to be a transport enthusiast seemed quite intrigued by the bus and was considering taking a trip, until we pointed out that he couldn't get back from any of the places the bus served, even though it was only early afternoon.
8) The service has been worked by a new minibus for the last few weeks, which actually incorporates a route number and destination! Previously, well, you just knew it was the right bus because it was the only one around.
1) The outward journey to the market town always runs to route and time, unless there are any passengers for one specific village to which the bus only calls if requested by the previous day, in which case it runs about ten minutes later to the rest of the route.
2) On the return journey, the driver is free to take the quickest route to serve the destinations of the passengers actually on the bus when it leaves town. Thus the route isn't really suitable for inter-village journeys as it may well miss some out on the return! However, the bus often makes little detours to drop passengers with shopping right at their doors if they live slightly off-route.
3) Tickets are a novelty - generally the driver writes one ticket per village and gives it to one of the regulars!
4) I am usually the only person who actually pays a fare, although one or two passengers often drop a pound into a collection box. Needless to say it's heavily subsidised and the drivers are volunteers.
5) On many of the roads the bus takes up the whole width of the road with regular manoeuvres into farm gateways, etc when a tractor, delivery van, flocks of sheep or the occasional car is met.
6) Other incidents can occur. Last winter a broken branch blocked one road, fortunately two of the male passengers jumped off and held the branch back whilst the bus passed. A few weeks ago we ran very slowly for a couple of hundred yards so as not to squash a red squirrel which insisted on running up the middle of the road. Once a passenger picked up the wrong shopping bag from the luggage area - after the trip the driver drove all the way back to her house with the correct one. One of the very regulars, a very elderly man, failed to catch the bus one week so the driver stopped whilst another passenger knocked at his door to check he was OK and really wasn't coming that week.
7) A few weeks ago a guy who looked to be a transport enthusiast seemed quite intrigued by the bus and was considering taking a trip, until we pointed out that he couldn't get back from any of the places the bus served, even though it was only early afternoon.
8) The service has been worked by a new minibus for the last few weeks, which actually incorporates a route number and destination! Previously, well, you just knew it was the right bus because it was the only one around.
