Shortest bus route?

[Heinz57]

Hi all,

Inspired by the 'Long Distance Bus Routes' thread, what is the shortest bus route you know of?

It needs to be a service route. Campus shuttle busses, terminal shuttle busses etc dont count.

I'll kick us off. There is a bus that runs between the Broadmarsh and Victoria shopping centres in Nottingham called 'Centre Link' It is a free bus, it makes a few stops along the way. It runs every 10 minuites. The route uses Optare Solos.

All in all the route is probably a mile, perhaps a tiny bit more

Over to you.....

Heinz

 

[First class]

Chester Station to Chester Town Centre

 

[Greenback]

Hi all,

Inspired by the 'Long Distance Bus Routes' thread, what is the shortest bus route you know of?

It needs to be a service route. Campus shuttle busses, terminal shuttle busses etc dont count.

I'll kick us off. There is a bus that runs between the Broadmarsh and Victoria shopping centres in Nottingham called 'Centre Link' It is a free bus, it makes a few stops along the way. It runs every 10 minuites. The route uses Optare Solos.

All in all the route is probably a mile, perhaps a tiny bit more

Over to you.....

Heinz

There is a free bus in Swansea which trundles around the city centre in a sort of circle. It's only temporary though, it's main reason for existenc eis to link the various bus stops that are being used while the bus station is refurbished (taken over a year already mind you!).

 

[jamesontheroad]

Likewise Sheffield has the FreeBee circular.

There's the Glasgow Central - Glasgow Queen Street bus, numbered in the 300s I think. It's probably not the shortest because of the one way system but for distance travelled it's pretty short

 

[Oracle]

Free bus ['CITYLINK'?] from Southampton Central to Asda- West Quay - Town Quay for the Hythe/Cowes ferries, replacing an original Southampton Corporation then CityBus link from the station to the Red Funnel ferries. Runs every 15 minutes. The original was in theory timed to meet London trains.

http://www.redfunnel.co.uk/travel-connections/bus-connections/citylink/

 

[John @ home]

You can add the Free Town/City Buses in Bradford, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Leeds and Wakefield. The links show timetables and route maps.

 

[cainebj]

we had one in Workington called 30S. it was Workington Bus Station to Workington Rail Station, a journey time of 2 minutes each direction.

 

[Nightrider]

Leaving aside free buses between stations and ferry terminals, the shortest journey bus i know of was back in the days when local ratepayers owned the buses.
Glasgow Corporation ran a single decker from Gairbraid Ave to the Cadder Housing estate and return.
Total distance there and back was less than a mile.
In saying that, the estate was at the top of a hill.
The service ran from morning till teatime and was regarded as a cushy number for corporation bus drivers.

 

[mickey]

Chester Station to Chester Town Centre

Surely that counts as a 'terminal shuttle' as discounted in the OP?

 

[Oracle]

Golden Miller [now Tellings - Golden Miller] ran an unusual service in the dim and distant past, unusual because it was in the LT area and unusual because it ran from a wastleand turning area in Bedfonr Lane, Feltham, next to the level crossing, and ran up Bedfont Lane to Bedfont proper, and then turned left, and then came back again.

I can't think of any very short LT services save for the A1 Airport Express that had garage journeys from Hounslow West station to Hounslow Garage and vice versa, non-stop, as a seperate service from the HW to Heathrow Central non-stop one.

 

[Heinz57]

Surely that counts as a 'terminal shuttle' as discounted in the OP?

Nah it was airport terminals I meant. I should have made chat clearer, sorry.

Because an airport terminal shuttle, it isnt a bus someone would catch frequently (Unless they do ALOT of flying)

 

[jopsuk]

These City Circle services are pretty common (Cambridge details)

Should we disqualify them?

 

[Any Permitted]

When I lived in San Francisco there was an anomaly called the 89 Laguna Honda that used to run from Forest Hill Muni station to Laguna Honda Hospital, ridiculously short, just 1 or 2 minutes but it went up a really steep hill.

It's gone now and I wrote it's obituary here (The first one).

From what I can make out the T32 Tramlink feeder bus from New Addington to Addington Village is the shortest bus route in London at 2 miles. That might not count so the next shortest is the 129 I believe which runs from North Greenwich station to the Cutty Sark.

 

[Ivo]

Here in Bath we have a roughly two-hourly service on three subsidised routes, numbered 700, 716 and 734. All three use one vehicle between them! The 716 is the only notable one of the three. It takes up roughly half of the journey time allocated to the three. The 700 and 734 both run for about a mile, and the latter (the 734) is virtually copied by the 18 (the University of Bath service) anyway.

There are similar routes in Ormskirk, but I forget their numbers (75/76/77, maybe?); one of the three runs for about a mile even allowing for its return journey!

 

[Oracle]

This probably does not count but there is a Park and Ride from the new Petersfinger car park on the A36 in Salisbury to the city centre and back which must be about a mile by crow. It seems to run virtually empty when I have seen it.

 

[anthony263]

There is a free bus in Swansea which trundles around the city centre in a sort of circle. It's only temporary though, it's main reason for existenc eis to link the various bus stops that are being used while the bus station is refurbished (taken over a year already mind you!).

This has since been withdrawn although SWT have started running a similar service on behalf of Tesco

 

[Ivo]

Another few from me. These days, the Oaklands Park area of Chelmsford has a service every 30-minutes as an extension of the 46 route to Ongar. However, many of the services around midday run south of Chelmsford only, resulting in a service which takes almost no time at all! It is probably less than a mile long. It used to be worse, though; until about 2004 (not sure exactly when), the service used to run one Mercedes Vario (i.e. minibus, in a town full of Solos, Darts and the odd Olympian) every hour, numbered 43. It would sit idle on Duke Street for roughly 40 minutes every hour...

Another example from home is the Clintona Minicoaches service 99. This route is famous among the rail crowd in Thurrock, for it is the modern incarnation of the line to Tilbury Riverside...

Meanwhile, Southend's shortest route is probably the 6A, which is ironic because it doesn't even serve Southend itself (Leigh-on-Sea local [commuter] service)...

 

[317 forever]

A slightly far-fetched example maybe, but around 1987 there was a bus strike in London, and London Country South West ran route 110 but only from Twickenham Station to King Street, less than a mile!

 

[Greenback]

This has since been withdrawn although SWT have started running a similar service on behalf of Tesco

Not really surprised, there never seemed to be more than 2 people, if any, on the thing!

 

[BrummyBoy]

National Express West Midlands and Midland route 350

Walsall - Walsall Mannor Hospital every 30/60 mins, probably not much more than a mile as the crow flies

 

[route101]

First Glasgow. Service 120 East Kilbride Bus Stn to South Lanarkshire College .

 

[Mojo]

I've always thought the "Red Arrow" 507 bus to be an odd one, running from Waterloo to Victoria stations, around 4km. Still it's a pretty popular route, and runs every 3-4 mins during the peaks and every 5-6 mins during the day.

Of a similar length is the W7 from Finsbury Park station to Muswell Hill or the Tramlink feeder T32 which is even shorter (Wiki says 2 miles).

 

[mickey]

I've always thought the "Red Arrow" 507 bus to be an odd one, running from Waterloo to Victoria stations, around 4km. Still it's a pretty popular route, and runs every 3-4 mins during the peaks and every 5-6 mins during the day.

And to think I that in the days of Eurostar at Waterloo I used to walk this frequently! It's such a nice walk though that I'm glad no one ever told me a bus ran it this often...

 

[route101]

In 2008 there was the First Glasgow 66A running half hourly from Clarkston to Busby as the main 66 was diverted via Waterfoot and the A726 gso.

 

[Tom B]

Similarly, earlier in the year when gas works were in operation, a 0.8 mile service 20 operated between Longstone and Kingsknowe, connecting with the main service 20 that was diverted.

 

[Oracle]

Probably does not count but First Hampshire & Dorset run two buses, X6 and X7 from Stoneham to Valley Park I think, as a park and ride? The X7 seems to be for Aviva but that may cease shortly if the site is closed down.

 

[Deerfold]

First's hourly T2 in Todmorden takes a total of 8 minutes to return to its starting point. It takes 9 in the morning peak and 13 in an evening as it diverts via the rail station and hangs around a bit there. It's being run by Tyrer Tours from next weekend.

http://www.wymetro.com/NR/rdonlyres/094BFD1E-F9F9-48B8-9270-09E56323A2A4/0/T02bustimetable.pdf

http://www.wymetro.com/NR/rdonlyres/7CDEB990-6F18-41EC-8411-94D0185C1834/0/T002bustimetable.pdf

This is the shortest of 6! regular local services in Todmorden using a total of 2 buses to run.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A candidate for the shortest TfL route has to be 12 minutes on http://www.notrog.plus.com/busroutes/900series/route917.htm

 

[PaulLothian]

Durham's Cathedral Bus service links the Cathedral with bus and rail stations, and has termini about 0.75 miles apart in a straight line. Because of the intricacy of its route, it drives about twice that, taking 11 or 12 minutes.

 

[deltic1989]

I got beaten to the Broadmarsh-Victoria Centre free bus in Notts. So ill offer up the Lincoln City Loop,Run by the city council has a journey time of around 10 mins not as short as some of the ones that have been offered up before though so i lose.