Trivia: consecutive service numbers running together

[py_megapixel]

What is the the longest run of consecutively numbered routes serving the same corridor? Note I'm not expecting a single conclusive answer here as I don't have a fixed idea of what counts or a fixed definition of the "same corridor". more just hoping to stimulate some discussion.

The inspiration for this was the recollection that some stops in Salford display route numbers "35 to 38" rather than showing 35, 36, 37, 38 separately. But elsewhere in the TfGM area, there is actually a longer run if we count letter variants as separate numbers: 41, 42, 42A, 42B, 42C, 43 all serve the Wilmslow Road / Oxford Road corridor.

 

[Mike99]

In East London the 173, 174 and 175 have served Dagenham Chequers to Dagenham Heathway Station for best part of 50 years or so

 

[MotCO]

At Chislehurst Common, for a few stops you get the 160, 161 and 162 stopping.

 

[davehsug]

Many years ago, in Stoke-on-Trenr, the part of the route between Hanley and Leek Road via Bucknall New Road, would have been served by 39,40,41,42,43,43A.44 and 45. There would have been numerous others, but that would have been the longest consecutive run.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

What is the the longest run of consecutively numbered routes serving the same corridor? Note I'm not expecting a single conclusive answer here as I don't have a fixed idea of what counts or a fixed definition of the "same corridor". more just hoping to stimulate some discussion.

If we take a VERY generous definition of "same corridor" then bus stations should propose some interesting answers

I propose the 601-611 in Wigan Bus Station, a run of 10.


It looks like on Moston Lane in North Manchester, the 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118 and 119 all serve the same road.
However, the 113 is 2 bus per day Southbound only.
The 115 and 116 are loops, with 115 anticlockwise (Southbound on Moston Lane) and 116 clockwise (Northbound on Moston Lane), so only the runs 112-115 and 117-119 serve the same stops.

 

[JamesC357]

In Southend city centre there are a few stops that are served by Arriva’s services 6,7,8,9 and 9A.

 

[Roger1973]

Reading Buses' routes 15 (and 15a), 16 and 17 serve the first mile or so of Oxford Road, to the west of Reading.

At one time, route 18 also ran along Oxford Road (the recently introduced 18 serves part of Oxford Road, but only after the 15 and 17 have turned off) - although I can't remember now whether the current 15 and 16 routes existed as such at the time.

Routes 22, 23 and 24 all run from central Reading across Caversham Bridge, 25 also serves Caversham but doesn't quite touch route 22.

Thames Valley 127, 128 and 129 share some sections of route along the A4 between Reading and Twyford (although they divert off the A4 to serve parts of Woodley or Sonning.)

There must be several town / city centres where several routes serve short sections of road in the town centre and / or approaching a bus station.

First Beeline 190 to 193 used to share the route between Reading and the western edge of Wokingham, then took a variety of routes in to Wokingham and then onward to Bracknell or Camberley, but that was some time ago now.

 

[Busaholic]

In East London the 173, 174 and 175 have served Dagenham Chequers to Dagenham Heathway Station for best part of 50 years or so

Not quite the same, but the 144,145,147,148 and 150 used to meet at Ilford Station.

 

[JD2168]

Barnsley Interchange to Barnsley Hospital has 93, 94, 94a, 95, 95a & 96 with a gap to 96b & 96c.

 

[Trainguy34]

A while ago (2014 I think this stopped), the 12,13, 14, 15 and 16 used to all run up New Dover Road in Canterbury. Unsure if there were lettered variants of these, help with that would be welcome.

 

[43106]

Edinburgh City Transport used to have the 17 (Melville Drive - Muirhouse), 18 (Barnton - Burdiehouse), 19 (Boswell Circular service) and the 20 (Barnton - Hyvots Bank) at a few stops between Queensferry Street and Orchard Brae.

 

[W176 XMA]

8 9 10 and 11 in Flintshire, there used to be numbers 12 and 13 as well

 

[stadler]

There is a very long section from Brighton Old Steine to Hassocks Stone Pound Crossroads where the 270/271/272/273 all follow the same route.

There is a short section from Brighton Old Steine to Brighton Clock Tower where the 24/25/26/27/28/29 all follow the same route.

There is a short section from Chichester Bus Station to Chichester Cathedral where the 50/51/52/53/54/55/56 all follow the same route.

There is a short section from Hastings Railway Station to St Leonards Warrior Square where the 20/21/22/23 all follow the same route.

There is a very short section in Bexhill town centre where the 94/95/96/97/98/99 all follow the same route.

There is a very short section in Crowborough town centre where the 224/225/226/227/228/229 all follow the same route.

 

[Statto]

In Liverpool theirs the 8, 9, 10, 10A, 10B that all use the same route between Queen Square Bus Station & Pilch Lane, known as the Prescot Road corridor

 

[MedwayValiant]

Let us take ourselves to Milton Keynes. We are at Central Station, and we should like to go to The Point about one mile away.

Almost every service in MK covers that mile, and we could take a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8, quite apart from a C1, MK1, X1, 2A, 3A, X4, X5, and two different X6's.

 

[MotCO]

You will find towns with town services will often have a local operator running routes 1,2,3,4,5 etc. The previous post quotes MK, but it is similar in Sevenoaks with Go-Coach, although there is no route 4.

 

[AJM580]

In Norwich 36, 37,38 & 39 serve Aylsham Road as far as Mile Cross Library

 

[43055]

Nottingham City Centre to Trent Bridge has routes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9(x2), 10 & 11 (some with variants). There is a 1 as well but no 2.

Derby to Duffield & Belper has 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 as part of the sixes from trentbarton.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

The Guildford to Godalming corridor is served by the trio of Stagecoach routes 70, 71 and 72. They all follow broadly the same routing down the A3100 (except the 72 which takes a slight detour to serve Catteshall) and then split off to different destinations after Godalming.

 

[150249]

Best example I can find is Old Market Street in Bristol which is served by 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 and, I believe, 50

 

[318266]

The A8 corridor from Greenock to Port Glasgow has the 530, 531, 532, 533. Granted, the 530 runs down this part once a day, compared to the combined every 6-7 minutes of the other 3. (There's also a 535 that runs once a day westbound only on a short section of the corridor from Gibshill Rd to Ratho St, but sadly the 534 doesn't exist anymore (and it didn't go west of Port Glasgow anyway)).

Also from Larkfield Depot to Cardwell Junction, the 801, 802 and 803 all share the same routing (being deadruns).

 

[Halsebee]

In Worthing in 1970s the 200,201, 202, 203, 204,206,207,208,209 (one evrning journey),210,211,212 all ran from Worthing Pier up Chapel Rd. If 'Worthing Pier' is considered a location then the 205 and 213 could be added to the list

 

[DunsBus]

The Guildford to Godalming corridor is served by the trio of Stagecoach routes 70, 71 and 72. They all follow broadly the same routing down the A3100 (except the 72 which takes a slight detour to serve Catteshall) and then split off to different destinations after Godalming.

Likewise, Aldershot to Farnham is served by another trio of Stagecoach routes - 17, 18 and 19, which all go their different ways south of Farnham.

 

[aswilliamsuk]

A while ago (2014 I think this stopped), the 12,13, 14, 15 and 16 used to all run up New Dover Road in Canterbury. Unsure if there were lettered variants of these, help with that would be welcome.

Sadly no longer - the 12, 15 and 16 go up the New Dover Road, the 17 and 18 up the Old Dover Road (and the 18 turns off by the Cricket Ground onto Stone Street).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Aug 2024 ==

Digbeth in Birmingham has the 2, 3, 4, 5A, 5 and 6.

 

[JGurney]

In the days of Tees Buses, consecutive numbers were used to indicate minor variations of routes and so they often occurred together e.g. the 88 and 89 were variants on the Loftus - Redcar route and the 98 and 99 were variants of the Lingdale - Middlesbrough - Darlington one. Arriva's renumberings have largely erased these, but they have followed the same pattern in numbering the summer-only variant of the X93 as the X94 (it takes a different route through the suburbs of Scarborough).

 

[Springs Branch]

. . . 41, 42, 42A, 42B, 42C, 43 all serve the Wilmslow Road / Oxford Road corridor.

If we're allowed historical examples, then in SELNEC / GMT days Oxford Road used to have services 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49.

While a couple of these ran in peak hours only, the all-day services were timed to provide a (theoretically) even 3-minute headway along Oxford Road to Rusholme - so an attempt at a properly coordinated 'corridor'. Alternate buses also did clockwise or anticlockwise loops around the City Centre - even service numbers going around one way, odd numbers the other (I can't remember which was which). Nor how the PTE handled the numbers on the bus stops - possibly just listed them all, as there were other routes serving Oxford / Wilmslow Rds too.

Also in Manchester back in the day, Princess Road between Moss Side & Wythenshawe did even better with services 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111. That's a sequence of 13, plus 116, 117, 200 & 232 on top. Some of these were limited stop (200 was the Airport Express coach at that time) so all the numbers possibly only appeared on major bus stops like Southern Cemetery.

 

[Whisky Papa]

What is the the longest run of consecutively numbered routes serving the same corridor? Note I'm not expecting a single conclusive answer here as I don't have a fixed idea of what counts or a fixed definition of the "same corridor". more just hoping to stimulate some discussion.

The inspiration for this was the recollection that some stops in Salford display route numbers "35 to 38" rather than showing 35, 36, 37, 38 separately. But elsewhere in the TfGM area, there is actually a longer run if we count letter variants as separate numbers: 41, 42, 42A, 42B, 42C, 43 all serve the Wilmslow Road / Oxford Road corridor.

In the mid 1980s when I was one of the Greater Manchester Transport schedules team, the Oxford Road corridor boasted all numbers from 40 to 49, although the 40, 43 and 47 were peak-hour only services (actually the 40 also covered some daily journeys in the early mornings).

Elsewhere, the Princess Road corridor had 99 to 109, Hyde Road had 202 to 208 (and then 210 and 211) along it and Chester Road 252 to 259. The 251 can't really be added as it was express past the Old Trafford to Davyhulme Road East section that was common to the others, and the 258 was also peak only, with just a couple of journeys each way.

I can give further details, if anyone is that interested!

EDIT - largely burned off by @Springs Branch, never mind.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Aug 2024 ==

If we're allowed historical examples, then in SELNEC / GMT days Oxford Road used to have services 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49.

While a couple of these ran in peak hours only, the all-day services were timed to provide a (theoretically) even 3-minute headway along Oxford Road to Rusholme - so an attempt at a properly coordinated 'corridor'. Alternate buses also did clockwise or anticlockwise loops around the City Centre - even service numbers going around one way, odd numbers the other (I can't remember which was which). Nor how the PTE handled the numbers on the bus stops - possibly just listed them all, as there were other routes serving Oxford / Wilmslow Rds too.

Also in Manchester back in the day, Princess Road between Moss Side & Wythenshawe did even better with services 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111. That's a sequence of 13, plus 116, 117, 200 & 232 on top. Some of these were limited stop (200 was the Airport Express coach at that time) so all the numbers possibly only appeared on major bus stops like Southern Cemetery.

The odd numbered journeys terminated at Albert Square and ran outwards via Cross Street, Cannon Street and Piccadilly (so clockwise), even numbers terminated at Piccadilly and then ran anti-clockwise out via Cross Street and Princess Street. In theory it was possible to ride over the terminus for the same fare, as they only got the minimum five minute stand in the city centre, but in some cases very long layovers at the out termini.

Did you miss 43 intentionally or is that a typo? It was a peak only service in from Wythenshawe and Palatine Road.

 

[edwin_m]

Nottingham City Centre to Trent Bridge has routes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9(x2), 10 & 11 (some with variants). There is a 1 as well but no 2.

11 takes a different route though. One of the 9s is operated by Kinch. I think there was a 2 as well a few years ago.

 

[SSmith2009]

Leicester has consecutive numbers
4, 5, 5A, X5, 6, 6A all serving the area of Melton Road commonly known as The Golden Mile.

To add to the mix a new 4E also launches later this month too.

 

[Springs Branch]

Did you miss 43 intentionally or is that a typo? It was a peak only service in from Wythenshawe and Palatine Road.

I was looking at a SELNEC route map from the early 1970s for that list. This showed no service 43, although Oxford Road did have a 46 back then (Royal Exchange - Palatine Rd - Northenden - Styal).

By the 1977 GMT route map, the 46 had disappeared, but the 43 had appeared.