Supermarket free bus routes.

[Man of Kent]

You still can't run a scheduled service with them no ? I've seen minibus run service bus routes but they all have had some kind of lift or ramp since normal buses had them fitted

As per the regulations, small buses on scheduled services do not have to be accessible. Although manufacturers offer low floor versions, most minibuses can't kneel. This means that the use of ramps is problematic, as they would be at a steeper angle than may be appropriate for safe use. And I'm sure many of those with tail lifts never see them used in anger.

 

[stadler]

Not free, but The Sussex Bus used to operate multiple Tesco bus services between the Burgess Hill superstore and surrounding villages of Ditchling, Keymer and Cuckfield as well as services into Haywards Heath/Lindfield and some villages near there, too.

The Sussex Bus: TS1 to TS4 - Tesco Shopping Services

The Sussex Bus company provides bus services throughout Sussex including Albourne, Brighton, Bolnore, Burgess Hill, Chichester, Crawley, Cuckfield, Ditchling, Eastbourne, Hassocks, Haywards Heath, Heathfield, Henfield, Horsham, Houghton, Hurstpierpoint, Patcham, Plumpton, Pyecombe...

web.archive.org

They would be asking up to £2.70 for an Adult Single in 2015!

View attachment 173027View attachment 173028

I'd say a fair few consider Compass's Route 100 which, for some bizarre reason, operates between Burgess Hill and Horsham, via Pulborough and Washington (not D.C.) as a shopper service. I often see people waiting at the Tesco Burgess Hill bus stop for it, and getting off of it.

View attachment 173029

I keep intending to do the whole journey, but I haven't mustered up the courage for it yet. I do wonder why this route exists in its current form. The services almost act like trains by displaying "false destinations" to discourage people using it for travel between Burgess Hill and Horsham itself.

Similarly, the 33 service operated by Compass Bus, ex-Sussex Bus, ex-Countryliner between Hurstpierpoint and Haywards Heath acts as a shopper service to the Haywards Heath Sainsbury's. You could probably argue the 40/40X were also similar shopper services but for Brighton.


Back in the day, there was also a 922, 923, 924, 925 and 926!

They were actually free. That was just to get ENCTS money. The four TS1 TS2 TS3 TS4 routes were Tesco Free Bus contracts but they just charged fares (well officially but most drivers never bothered taking payment) for anyone who was making intermediate journeys or not travelling to visit the supermarket. Go Ahead Metrobus also did exactly the same on all of their Asda (Crawley Asda) and Sainsburys (801 802 803) and Tesco (901 902 903 904 905 906 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 921) free bus routes they previously ran. Countryliner did this too on their Broadbridge Heath Tesco (922 923 924 925 926) free bus contracts. It was a clever way to get ENCTS reimbursement money. Most of the passengers that use those buses are OAPs so if the bus company registers them as ordinary routes then they can also claim ENCTS reimbursement for almost every passenger. I am surprised more operators have not done that with their supermarket free bus contracts as it is easy money.

There was also the Hollingbury Asda (A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12) free bus routes too. These were originally Brighton & Hove and then taken over by Countryliner in the mid 2000s (at Countryliner we even had a bus specifically painted in to Asda livery for these routes) and then taken over by Renown (but only half of them) after Countryliner went bust. There was one that went up to Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath and Cuckfield so they covered a good distance.

Up until early 2024 there was also the Hove Neville Road Coop free bus that Brighton & Hove ran. This was an odd one. There was a weekly C1 then went to Hurstpierpoint and Hassocks and Ditchling. There was also a weekly C4 that went to Upper Beeding and Bramber and Steyning. There was a C2 and C3 which were local Brighton services but they were withdrawn many years earlier.

Compass Bus also had the Shoreham Tesco free bus until late 2020 i think. They were gradually withdrawn and cut back and by 2020 i think there was only three routes left. Those routes went far. One went up to Burgess Hill (originally it was Haywards Heath i remember) and another to Peacehaven and another to the Midhurst and Petworth area.

Compass Bus also had the Asda Ferring free bus routes which was one of the shortest lived service. It lasted just under a year. They painted an E200 in a special Asda livery for it only to scrap all of the routes just under a year after it begun.



Sussex had a huge amount of these previously. Almost every village in Sussex was served by supermarket free bus routes back in the 90s and 00s. Some villages had as many as six different supermarket free bus routes. Hardly anything left nowadays.

 

[GatwickDepress]

I remember the T8 from Ninfield to Tesco Hollington very well. Operated by Rambler, as all the Hastings routes were, and usually ran with a rattly Volvo B10B or Dennis Dart. Must have disappeared around 2018.

Can't remember many of the other Rambler routes, except for the T4 from Pett to Hollington and the T1 from Sidley that usually served the Tesco at Glyne Gap, but was extended to Hollington on some days as the latter store is much bigger.

Jempson's had an extensive network of routes that mostly ran once a week until being withdrawn in 2018, as per Buses. Unusually, the supermarket ran the service themselves and held a national operator licence.

 

[Cesarcollie]

They were actually free. That was just to get ENCTS money. The four TS1 TS2 TS3 TS4 routes were Tesco Free Bus contracts but they just charged fares (well officially but most drivers never bothered taking payment) for anyone who was making intermediate journeys or not travelling to visit the supermarket. Go Ahead Metrobus also did exactly the same on all of their Asda (Crawley Asda) and Sainsburys (801 802 803) and Tesco (901 902 903 904 905 906 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 921) free bus routes they previously ran. Countryliner did this too on their Broadbridge Heath Tesco (922 923 924 925 926) free bus contracts. It was a clever way to get ENCTS reimbursement money. Most of the passengers that use those buses are OAPs so if the bus company registers them as ordinary routes then they can also claim ENCTS reimbursement for almost every passenger. I am surprised more operators have not done that with their supermarket free bus contracts as it is easy money.

There was also the Hollingbury Asda (A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12) free bus routes too. These were originally Brighton & Hove and then taken over by Countryliner in the mid 2000s (at Countryliner we even had a bus specifically painted in to Asda livery for these routes) and then taken over by Renown (but only half of them) after Countryliner went bust. There was one that went up to Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath and Cuckfield so they covered a good distance.

Up until early 2024 there was also the Hove Neville Road Coop free bus that Brighton & Hove ran. This was an odd one. There was a weekly C1 then went to Hurstpierpoint and Hassocks and Ditchling. There was also a weekly C4 that went to Upper Beeding and Bramber and Steyning. There was a C2 and C3 which were local Brighton services but they were withdrawn many years earlier.

Compass Bus also had the Shoreham Tesco free bus until late 2020 i think. They were gradually withdrawn and cut back and by 2020 i think there was only three routes left. Those routes went far. One went up to Burgess Hill (originally it was Haywards Heath i remember) and another to Peacehaven and another to the Midhurst and Petworth area.

Compass Bus also had the Asda Ferring free bus routes which was one of the shortest lived service. It lasted just under a year. They painted an E200 in a special Asda livery for it only to scrap all of the routes just under a year after it begun.

View attachment 173041

Sussex had a huge amount of these previously. Almost every village in Sussex was served by supermarket free bus routes back in the 90s and 00s. Some villages had as many as six different supermarket free bus routes. Hardly anything left nowadays.

You can’t claim ENCTS if the service is free. There is no ‘fare foregone’!

 

[MrJeeves]

You can’t claim ENCTS if the service is free. There is no ‘fare foregone’!

Ah but if a driver just happens to use their discretion to not charge every passenger without an ENCTS...

 

[Cesarcollie]

Ah but if a driver just happens to use their discretion to not charge every passenger without an ENCTS...

Then there will be no data to show any fares paid!

 

[stadler]

You can’t claim ENCTS if the service is free. There is no ‘fare foregone’!

But the service was only officially free if using it to travel to or from the supermarket to do your shopping. Otherwise fares existed. The way those free buses worked was that every ENCTS passenger was recorded on the ticket machine and issued an ENCTS ticket (this was before the smartcard reader machines were introduced) even if they were travelling to or from the supermarket. Therefore they could legitimately claim ENCTS reimbursement from the council. As such the routes had to be registered and the routes had to have fares to claim ENCTS reimbursement against. Officially the routes were free for anyone (whether an OAP or not) if using them to travel to or from the supermarket for shopping or paid if using them for any other purpose. But the way they treated them was that all OAPs (which is normally 99% of passengers on these routes) were treated as not going to do shopping (even though they were) and recorded on the ticket machine. Anyone other than OAPs could just walk on for free. Even if they were not going to the supermarket the drivers did not care and would just let them on for free. It was a very clever trick to be able to legitimately and legally claim ENCTS reimbursement for a supermarket free bus route. I am only aware of these couple bus operators doing it and i am surprised no others discovered this.

 

[RustySpoons]

Interesting thank you. I never knew that bus route existed. These are so poorly publicised. It is amazing how many of these supermarket free bus routes have zero publicity anywhere. Out of interest what type of vehicle have you seen used? Is it a coach or do AMB Travel have an actual low floor bus now?

For a good number of years up until just before Covid there was a free bus in Burnley from the town centre to the local Asda. Various operators ran it over the years but it was never advertised anywhere. Even staff at the store didn't know anything about it. Occasionally you'd see the bus making its way to the store, mostly empty but on the odd rare occasion it'd have one or two passengers.

In the last year or so of it running a badly photocopied timetable was stuck up in an unused office window in the bus station.

Like you I was amazed that it ran for so long with so little publicity.

 

[Cesarcollie]

For a good number of years up until just before Covid there was a free bus in Burnley from the town centre to the local Asda. Various operators ran it over the years but it was never advertised anywhere. Even staff at the store didn't know anything about it. Occasionally you'd see the bus making its way to the store, mostly empty but on the odd rare occasion it'd have one or two passengers.

In the last year or so of it running a badly photocopied timetable was stuck up in an unused office window in the bus station.

Like you I was amazed that it ran for so long with so little publicity

But the service was only officially free if using it to travel to or from the supermarket to do your shopping. Otherwise fares existed. The way those free buses worked was that every ENCTS passenger was recorded on the ticket machine and issued an ENCTS ticket (this was before the smartcard reader machines were introduced) even if they were travelling to or from the supermarket. Therefore they could legitimately claim ENCTS reimbursement from the council. As such the routes had to be registered and the routes had to have fares to claim ENCTS reimbursement against. Officially the routes were free for anyone (whether an OAP or not) if using them to travel to or from the supermarket for shopping or paid if using them for any other purpose. But the way they treated them was that all OAPs (which is normally 99% of passengers on these routes) were treated as not going to do shopping (even though they were) and recorded on the ticket machine. Anyone other than OAPs could just walk on for free. Even if they were not going to the supermarket the drivers did not care and would just let them on for free. It was a very clever trick to be able to legitimately and legally claim ENCTS reimbursement for a supermarket free bus route. I am only aware of these couple bus operators doing it and i am surprised no others discovered this.

I’m not sure that’s ’legitimate or legal’. It’s fraud. If no one else was actually charged a fare (registered service or not) then there is no basis on which to claim through the ENCTS scheme. And if required, there would be no data on the average fare paid by cash payers.

 

[Simon75]

Yes, I am aware of that, but what I stated was that the information was still displayed in the bus shelter. People have suggested that the Bee Network staff could remove them, but Handforth Dean being situated in Hanforth, a part of Cheshire East, is exterior to the Greater Manchester Coun ty, so notification was sent to the Macclesfield council offices to ask for the removal.

I was making others reading this aware that it was withdrawn in 2024, that was all

 

[AWWisher]

How many of those Supermarket Free Bus routes still exist nowadays?

I remember throughout the 1980s and 1990s and 2000s there was hundreds and hundreds of these bus services. Almost every large supermarket branch had one. But they started withdrawing so many in the 2000s and 2010s and now in the 2020s there are hardly any left.

Asda and Tesco both used to have hundreds of these routes but gradually withdrew them and i believe both supermarkets cancelled all of their final contracts around 2021 at some point. Coop and Waitrose used to have a few too but i believe those are all gone now. The final Coop one (Hove) was withdrawn in 2024 and the final Waitrose one (Newark) was withdrawn i think around 2022 a few years back. Marks & Spencer and Morrisons also used to have a few but they appear to have none left that i can find. Sainsburys may be the only one left to still have free bus routes.

I believe the following all still exist:

• Sainsburys - Bognor Regis - (Compass Bus)
• Sainsburys - Chichester - (Compass Bus)
• Sainsburys - Crawley - (Compass Bus)
• Sainsburys - Harrogate - (Connexions Buses)
• Sainsburys - Lancaster - (Stagecoach)
• Sainsburys - Littlehampton - (Compass Bus)
• Sainsburys - Newport - (Newport Bus)
• Sainsburys - Staplehurst - (Hams Travel)
• Sainsburys - Team Valley - (Go Ahead North East)
• Sainsburys - Watchmoor Park - (Stagecoach)

There is also the Crawley Asda (Go Ahead Metrobus) and Poole Asda (Go Ahead Morebus) which were previously free buses and have now been taken over as commercial services.

I am surprised that almost all the supermarkets have withdrawn them as these routes always seemed busy whenever i used them. When i was a bus driver i used to drive some of these now withdrawn supermarket free bus contract routes and we had quite a few passengers. There was lots of regulars and you could easily get twenty passengers on some buses.

Does anyone know of any other Supermarket Free Bus routes that still exist? Either for Sainsburys or any other supermarket? I have a feeling there might at least be some other Sainsburys ones still running that i have missed off my list?

As I recall, in 2014, Keighley bus 719 ran Bracken Bank-Keighley-ASDA every 15 minutes 08:00 to 18:00. After the renumbering, 719 became K9 Bracken Bank-Keighley only. A new route K8 Keighley-ASDA ran but I don't think it lasted long. I don't think any of it was free.

 

[Martin1988]

Remember once having a ride on a shopper's bus between Chippenham Bus Station and Cepen Park Sainsburys and back again. It was being operated by Coachstyle using a 70 seat Plaxton coach. Don't think it was a free journey but rather a short journey on one of their other services (36 or 76 rings a bell). Seem to remember being the only passenger out to Sainsburys and there being about 3 or 4 others on the way back (which were the driver's family).

Remember ABUS running some services to Longwell Green ASDA until about 2018. According to the book produced by the company the introduction of Concessionary Fares made the ASDA services unviable.

 

[robertclark125]

Back in the 1980s, supermarket free bus services sprang up. These were services, running twice a week, from certain villages and towns, to a supermarket. Travel was free, and the supermarket in question paid the costs.

They were a little bit contentious though, as it was said they could abstract passengers from normal bus routes.

Here in my fife town, Rennies ran one from 1987, to the Fine fare supermarket in cowdenbeath town centre. Fine fare became gateway, and is now morrisons. It ran on a Tuesday and Saturday, and me and my parents used it a few times, always on a Saturday.

To get around the abstraction problem, in lochgelly, the bus came off auchterderran road, and went round a few streets that were otherwise unserved by buses, before going back onto the main road near lumphinans, and operating non stop to Fine fare. Incredibly, you didn't need to show the driver your receipt from Fine fare, for the return journey, so you could have got off at Fine fare, but done shopping elsewhere, then got back on the free bus.

The Cardenden to morrisons free bus ended in 2002, and was run latterly by a Mercedes minibus, again from Rennies.

Where else were there supermarket free buses, who ran them, which supermarket did they serve, do they still run, and what's your thoughts on the abstraction issue?

 

[SuspectUsual]

There were at least two supermarkets in Coventry that sponsored free buses when they opened in the late 1970s (Sainsbury's at Cannon Park) and very early 1980s (Asda in Walsgrave). Can't remember how long they ran for though, but would guess most of the 1980s

Because these were estates to out of town supermarket, I don't think there was much prospect of abstraction

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

In Hull there were services to Asda at Bilton and Tesco at Orchard Park. In the late 80s they were run by Humber Stagecoach.
I believe they ran from a different area each week day.

The only one I used was the Thursday Tesco service which passed our house in Willerby. On the way there it was a Leyland National, but the return trip was a coach from Humber Stagecoach's parent Good News Travels, complete with radio blasting out pop music!
There was no abstraction of trade as it provided a link which was not really possible on scheduled services, at least not without multiple changes and an unrealistic journey time.... your frozen stuff would have defrosted by the time you got back!

AFAIK a reduced network passed to Pride of the Road when they took over the Humber Stagecoach operations (Good News decided to concentrate on coaches), and on to North Bank Travel when they took over Pride of the Road's Hull operations.
The last time I recall seeing the service was in c.1999.

 

[RoadCar]

TJ’s Coaches of Brigg operated the Tesco Brigg shuttle Bus service till 2020 Covid killed that one off. Three or four different routes. TJ’s packed up after Covid I believe. At least 20 years or more the Bus service lasted.

Had been operated by several different firms over the years. Johnsons of Goxhill, Holloways then TJ’s Coaches.

 

[lewlott]

In Hull there were services to Asda at Bilton and Tesco at Orchard Park. In the late 80s they were run by Humber Stagecoach.
I believe they ran from a different area each week day.

The only one I used was the Thursday Tesco service which passed our house in Willerby. On the way there it was a Leyland National, but the return trip was a coach from Humber Stagecoach's parent Good News Travels, complete with radio blasting out pop music!
There was no abstraction of trade as it provided a link which was not really possible on scheduled services, at least not without multiple changes and an unrealistic journey time.... your frozen stuff would have defrosted by the time you got back!

AFAIK a reduced network passed to Pride of the Road when they took over the Humber Stagecoach operations (Good News decided to concentrate on coaches), and on to North Bank Travel when they took over Pride of the Road's Hull operations.
The last time I recall seeing the service was in c.1999.

The service continued with Alpha and onto Veolia. EYMS then operated both the Asda Free Bus and Tesco free bus after the subsequent purchase of Veolia but I don’t think it lasted long! As you say, in the 90s it was an interesting operation.

 

[SCH117X]

Connexions operate a free bus service to the Sainsburys next to Harrogate Showground on Wednesdays -Fridays. Its linked off their web site "front" page but nothing on the store web site. 5 different routes either running Wednesday & Friday or Thursday only. https://www.connexionsbuses.com/harrogate-sainsburys-free-bus

 

[EYFanatic]

The service continued with Alpha and onto Veolia. EYMS then operated both the Asda Free Bus and Tesco free bus after the subsequent purchase of Veolia but I don’t think it lasted long! As you say, in the 90s it was an interesting operation.

EYMS ran it until just before covid using Olympians and then a President... Used to use it quite often as it ran through the Avenues