Towns with Good Bus Services.

[Bletchleyite]

I would imagine that going much beyond 7pm is going to require a third shift.


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[ashworth]

I think it's more of a case of reduction in local authority subsidies in recent years. Many of these evening and Sunday services in the shire counties have been subsidised for years and now the money is being rapidly withdrawn. It's just leaving very sizeable towns with good services during the day that are commercially viable and then nothing in the evening. I don't think people living in cities with regular buses until midnight realise how sparse evening buses have become away from the big cities even in quite sizeable towns. It's got to a point where if go out somewhere for the day by bus you have to start your journey back mid afternoon to get home before the bus services begin to wind down after 6pm.

 

[childwallblues]

That's exactly my point. I travel into Bristol and can only hope that Metrobus and associated priority helps to improve that situation. The current spiralling congestion is killing the viability of the network.

Then we have Joe Anderson in Liverpool......

Thank goodness that Uncle Joe was not chosen for the Metro Mayor nomination. His removal of the bus lanes in Liverpool has created traffic chaos

 

[carlberry]

Well from the 1st March 2017 the former county of Avon becomes a Combined Authority, the WoECA, a sort of Avon PTE hopefully information on the AvonRider scheme will be a lot eaiser to find considering that the Travelwest website seems to be broken and the printed stuff is hard to obtain.

The AvonRider scheme is promoted by the operators, the councils dont really like it.
For example South Gloucestershire recently tendered a lot of services in their area (that used to be covered by the scheme) to Stagecoach that isn't part of the scheme and, as being part of the scheme wasn't part of the tender, the end result of which is a vast are of 'Avon' suddenly isn't covered. My local councilor has been 'investigating' for the last month!

 

[Busaholic]

The AvonRider scheme is promoted by the operators, the councils dont really like it.
For example South Gloucestershire recently tendered a lot of services in their area (that used to be covered by the scheme) to Stagecoach that isn't part of the scheme and, as being part of the scheme wasn't part of the tender, the end result of which is a vast are of 'Avon' suddenly isn't covered. My local councilor has been 'investigating' for the last month!

South Glos will apparently always try to b*gger up any scheme that has anything to do with Avon, perhaps on ideological grounds. Nicholas Ridley's spirit lives on!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

South Glos will apparently always try to b*gger up any scheme that has anything to do with Avon, perhaps on ideological grounds. Nicholas Ridley's spirit lives on!

Tbf, North Somerset have form in wanting to do their own thing e.g. Rejection of the Western Powerhouse

 

[NorthernSpirit]

I think it's more of a case of reduction in local authority subsidies in recent years. Many of these evening and Sunday services in the shire counties have been subsidised for years and now the money is being rapidly withdrawn. It's just leaving very sizeable towns with good services during the day that are commercially viable and then nothing in the evening. I don't think people living in cities with regular buses until midnight realise how sparse evening buses have become away from the big cities even in quite sizeable towns. It's got to a point where if go out somewhere for the day by bus you have to start your journey back mid afternoon to get home before the bus services begin to wind down after 6pm.

Its not just Shire counties which are having to cut back as PTE / CA areas have also seen reductions. Take the 435 / 436 Holmfirth to Wakefield as an example - around five years ago you use to see the route finish at around 11pm every night, only recently the Sunday service has been cut so that there is now no longer a bus after 6pm. The 900 has been cut to three buses a day all other journeys are either 901's with one per day as a 902.

The 25 between Holmfirth and Penistone is also getting axed however that is getting bolted onto the 29 so that it runs as a through service between Holmfirth and Chapeltown via Penistone.

 

[Hophead]

I'll nominate Crawley as having a good service.

The main cross-town routes run at 10-15 minutes intervals and continue into the evening. Unfortunately, after County Council cutbacks a few years ago, they have to run commercially, so every 60 minutes, rather than half-hourly, but the last bus is 23:00 - 23:30. Sunday services are every 20 - 30 minutes and also run in the evening (but finish an hour earlier).

The highlight is Fastway 10, running 24/7/365, between the Crawley estates and Gatwick Airport. The 100 & 200 also provide overnight services.

Of course, having a busy international airport on the doorstep helps; but then so does having a competent operator in Metrobus. It's hard to believe that the network would be thriving quite so much if still in Arriva's hands (they sold out in 2001).

Of the new towns around London, Crawley has by far best bus service: one which compares well with the operations in London Transport days back in the 1960s.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

My home town of Epsom has a quite good service - as long as you don't want to go south... then again, we are pretty much a suburb of London rather than a distinct town these days.

We have a hub of local routes with E prefixes plus the longer TfL sponsored routes 406, 418 and 166 along with a small number of other routes run by smaller operators - one of which appears to be an expert at carting fresh air around!

 

[MedwayValiant]

Of the new towns around London, Crawley has by far best bus service: one which compares well with the operations in London Transport days back in the 1960s.

Stevenage isn't bad. Arriva has never shown a huge amount of interest in it, but there are five main routes. Stevenage has eleven designated neighbourhoods, and betwen them, routes 1, 2/3 (circular which runs in both directions), 4/5 (ditto), 7, and 8/9 (again) serve all of them. (6, lest you were wondering, is a slightly pointless route which I suspect is lightly used.)

8/9 stops at 1900 and so three of the neighbourhoods have no evening service (although it does run on Sundays). The other four routes have an evening service seven days a week, and in two cases that service is better than hourly.

Harlow, Hemel Hempstead, and Welwyn Garden City all have fairly poor services.

 

[Hadders]

I agree about Stevenage although some evening and weekend services were cut a year ago.

I live on the SB1 route and the service starts before 6am with the last bus just before midnight. A 10 minute frequency operates throughout most of the day dropping to 20 minutes in the evenings and Sundays. Unfortunately the cut backs have reduced the frequency to 40 minutes after 2000 which is not so good but still far better than many other places.

 

[childwallblues]

I'll nominate Crawley as having a good service.

The main cross-town routes run at 10-15 minutes intervals and continue into the evening. Unfortunately, after County Council cutbacks a few years ago, they have to run commercially, so every 60 minutes, rather than half-hourly, but the last bus is 23:00 - 23:30. Sunday services are every 20 - 30 minutes and also run in the evening (but finish an hour earlier).

The highlight is Fastway 10, running 24/7/365, between the Crawley estates and Gatwick Airport. The 100 & 200 also provide overnight services.

Of course, having a busy international airport on the doorstep helps; but then so does having a competent operator in Metrobus. It's hard to believe that the network would be thriving quite so much if still in Arriva's hands (they sold out in 2001).

Of the new towns around London, Crawley has by far best bus service: one which compares well with the operations in London Transport days back in the 1960s.

Crawley is bound to have a good bus service due to its proximity to Gatwick Airport. Services should be well used by airport workers living locally as I bet staff parking is at a premium,

 

[pitdiver]

Milton Keynes - admittedly difficult to serve, better than it was - but a terribly lackadaisical service by Arriva - dirty buses, hit-and-miss punctuality etc.

So not "good" in that sense.

Good - Edinburgh and Nottingham are the shining lights, aren't they? (I wonder what they have in common? )

Neil, do you remember when they started using those "Breadvans" for buses. Can't remember what they were called but their punctuality was horrendous. The drivers kept getting lost around the estates.

 

[Mr Manager]

Ipswich has a very good bus service. Council owned and First provide 99% of the services which in IBL case most routes have a good late night service with simplified fares and 98% full sized Buses.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Neil, do you remember when they started using those "Breadvans" for buses. Can't remember what they were called but their punctuality was horrendous. The drivers kept getting lost around the estates.

Yeah, they caused me to buy a car as I was getting a sore back from being catapulted in the air at every speed bump.


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[Mitch in Notts]

Add in the 154 to Leicester, the 16 to Coalville, the 129 to Ashby and Paul Winson's routes 3 and 13.

You forgot Roberts tender 27 to Thurmaston via Walton & Seagrave....


Many towns have no evening or Sunday services for the simple reason that keeping open or opening up a depot to have just one or two vehicles on the road isn't economic. Its not just just the drivers who have to come in.....

 

[ivanhoe]

You forgot Roberts tender 27 to Thurmaston via Walton & Seagrave....


Many towns have no evening or Sunday services for the simple reason that keeping open or opening up a depot to have just one or two vehicles on the road isn't economic. Its not just just the drivers who have to come in.....

Not as simple as that Mitch. Kinch has its main garage in Loughborough and chooses to not bother on some routes in the evening. It never has tried and failed miserably on its Shepshed flier a number of years ago. It chooses to operate as it does , probably under orders from Welglade Group. Don't get me wrong, they do some things good but they have not expanded much in Loughborough town for years. At least Arriva have been consistent in their approach but if you can't make money on 127/126 route, you're doomed. All the hard work on that route was done for them though by Midland Red, many years ago, as were routes 5 and 11/12 which prior to deregulation, were run by Trent .

 

[anti-pacer]

Not as simple as that Mitch. Kinch has its main garage in Loughborough and chooses to not bother on some routes in the evening. It never has tried and failed miserably on its Shepshed flier a number of years ago. It chooses to operate as it does , probably under orders from Welglade Group. Don't get me wrong, they do some things good but they have not expanded much in Loughborough town for years. At least Arriva have been consistent in their approach but if you can't make money on 127/126 route, you're doomed. All the hard work on that route was done for them though by Midland Red, many years ago, as were routes 5 and 11/12 which prior to deregulation, were run by Trent .

I used to hate the 126/7 routes down there. Friday evening peaks at St Margaret's Bus Station were a nightmare and waits up to 40-50 minutes were not uncommon. One evening I got off the bus in Mountsorrel and 4 other buses were behind us. I wouldn't mind but traffic was rarely that busy I found down there - compared to West Yorkshire anyway.

When the 126/7's ran as intended however, it was a great service.

 

[Mitch in Notts]

Not as simple as that Mitch. Kinch has its main garage in Loughborough and chooses to not bother on some routes in the evening. It never has tried and failed miserably on its Shepshed flier a number of years ago. It chooses to operate as it does , probably under orders from Welglade Group. Don't get me wrong, they do some things good but they have not expanded much in Loughborough town for years. At least Arriva have been consistent in their approach but if you can't make money on 127/126 route, you're doomed. All the hard work on that route was done for them though by Midland Red, many years ago, as were routes 5 and 11/12 which prior to deregulation, were run by Trent .

To be honest I thought Loughborough has a good evening bus service for a town its size. There is only route 5 (and the 11 - virtually a reverse of the 12) with no evening/sunday service and that is partly covered by diverting the 12 to Hazel Road and the 126/7 on Old Ashby Road. You can't have evening/sunday services down every residential street - the passenger volumes simply aren't there. Also bear in mind that they commercialised the 2 in the evening/sunday when the council withdrew the subsidy (then run by Woods i believe).

 

[ivanhoe]

Good points well made Mitch. I'm lucky in that I live on the 126/127 route

 

[PeterY]

I think Watford has a good service , whenever I go there are always some tfl buses and some Light green turquoise kinda buses .

Hemel Hempstead isn't too bad for buses, especially during the day time.
What makes the buses unreliable around here is the heavily congested roads especially during the school run. 08.00 until 09.15.

 

[Robertj21a]

Not as simple as that Mitch. Kinch has its main garage in Loughborough and chooses to not bother on some routes in the evening. It never has tried and failed miserably on its Shepshed flier a number of years ago. It chooses to operate as it does , probably under orders from Welglade Group. Don't get me wrong, they do some things good but they have not expanded much in Loughborough town for years. At least Arriva have been consistent in their approach but if you can't make money on 127/126 route, you're doomed. All the hard work on that route was done for them though by Midland Red, many years ago, as were routes 5 and 11/12 which prior to deregulation, were run by Trent .

When did Kinch run a Shepshed Flier ? - I know about the Winson's route 4 that was the Shepshed Flier, but can't recall Kinch on there.

 

[ivanhoe]

When did Kinch run a Shepshed Flier ? - I know about the Winson's route 4 that was the Shepshed Flier, but can't recall Kinch on there.

It was called Shepshed Sprinter(my mistake) ,Number 4. It was operated by Kinch until sometime between 2005/9, when Winson took over. Originally, it went to Loughborough Station but Winson cut this back before they abandoned the route as it was loss making. Interestly, Arriva don't operate a Sunday evening service to Shepshed with the 127 terminating at Pitsford Drive, (Old Ashby Road).

 

[175mph]

I'll nominate Scunthorpe as having a good bus service.

In Scunthorpe we have two operators running our bus services, Stagecoach, and an independent operator Hornsbys.

Many of Stagecoach's services run every hour which may seem bad, but some of the service run in close proximity to each other so you could end up with one road essentially getting an every 10 minute service into town from there.

There is one service that runs every 10 minutes and is a joint service between Stagecoach and Hornsbys, who run their service every 20 minutes and is coordinated so that the service is every 10 minutes overall.

What I appreciate the most though is when all the other services have stopped running after 18:00, Stagecoach run two council-subsisdised circulars that run every hour with the last bus returning to the bus station at 23:30. (00:30 on Friday and Saturday nights). These two circulars cover a bit of everywhere, where the daytime services would normally have covered otherwise. The two circulars also replace the daytime services on a Sunday, and run every half hour, then the same night time frequency in the evening as week days.

The main issue with the Scunthorpe bus network is that unlike most towns that can quite easily be divided into key corridors extending out from a central area, Scunthorpe is essentially a square of low density semi-detached housing, not ideal bus operator territory at all, very difficult to serve all areas with a good service AND it not be a complicated network. (Which is why you get a lot of overlapping services in many areas).