TRIVIA - Hail & Ride Buses

[WiltsBus]

Good Morning Folks,

With the December withdrawal of the Hail & Ride segment of the Redbridge 364, it got me thinking if it would be possible to tick off all the Hail & Ride services remaining in the UK.
I was surprised how many London still has.
I may accept temp yellow signs on diversion routes.
A friend who used to work for First Glasgow said their 81 service still uses this stopping pattern - can anyone confirm?

TIA

 

[Steve440]

In theory, Bee Network 184 (Oldham to Huddersfield) has a Hail & Ride section between the point where it diverts off the A62 near the old 'Great Western' along Mount Road to the old Hard End terminus above Marsden, but I've not tried it out!

 

[stadler]

Almost all buses in the countryside are hail and ride. It might not be officially advertised as "hail and ride" but most of them work like that. On rural country lanes you can just put your arm out anywhere or tell the driver to drop you off anywhere. There must be hundreds of sections like this left.

 

[WiltsBus]

Almost all buses in the countryside are hail and ride. It might not be officially advertised as "hail and ride" but most of them work like that. On rural country lanes you can just put your arm out anywhere or tell the driver to drop you off anywhere. There must be hundreds of sections like this left.

That's a fair point, for example the Devizes Swindon 49, perhaps we could focus on urban hail & ride segments?

 

[stadler]

That's a fair point, perhaps we could focus on urban hail & ride segments?

Even urban hail and ride has hundreds and hundreds of unadvertised examples. Most of those town bus routes in smaller and medium sized towns are hail and ride in all of the residential areas despite not being advertised. For one random example in Lewes you have the Compass 127/128 and CTLA 129/132 which are hail and ride on all of the urban residential roads but it is not publicised anywhere. The place where hail and ride is rarer are the large towns and cities. Places like London and Birmingham and Manchester have very little hail and ride.

 

[WiltsBus]

Yes, the unadvertised factor is the thing I think. Stagecoach used to have a bulkhead instruction labelled "Let's make Hail & Ride as safe as possible". I guess it may become an issue for a tourist going to a family or friend's and doesn't know where to board or alight if relying on stops shown on Google Maps

 

[StoneRoad]

I seem to recall that a number of the tourist tours using open-toppers were "hail and ride" [no idea if they still are]

 

[WiltsBus]

The opposite problem often occurs in newbuild developments, where there are brand new bus stops with no services

 

[ChrisC]

Almost all buses in the countryside are hail and ride. It might not be officially advertised as "hail and ride" but most of them work like that. On rural country lanes you can just put your arm out anywhere or tell the driver to drop you off anywhere. There must be hundreds of sections like this left.

This may be the situation in theory but it does not always work out like that. This all works very well on rural routes operated by a small local bus company with a small pool of local drivers who are on the routes regularly and know the routes and the passengers. It is not always the case when larger bus operators run routes through rural areas with a a big turnover of staff and drivers who are not local. There can be an attitude of “it’s more than my jobs worth“ to stop somewhere where there isn’t a bus stop sign.

Just a couple of examples I have witnessed.
A few years ago I travelling on a Stagecoach bus in the Castle Douglas area of Dumfries and Galloway. I wanted to visit Threave Gardens which is situated around 2 miles outside the town. There is a regular bus service along the road which passes the gates but no bus stop. I’d asked for Threave Gardens when I got on the bus and the driver wouldn’t stop at the gates because there was no bus stop there. Even though the bus passes the gates with a perfectly safe place to stop I was left with almost a mile to walk from nearest bus stop.

Another example and again Stagecoach. On my local route in Nottinghamshire there are a number of bus stops on rural parts of the bus which are for both directions. I have known drivers refuse to stop because it doesn’t say both directions on the bus stop sign, even though on the timetable displayed at the stop it says wait opposite. One driver tried to argue with an elderly person who had been using a stop for almost 40 years that he wasn‘t allowed to stop there because there isn’t a both ways sign on the bus stop. He told her that she needs to report it to the local authority.

When I am out walking in rural parts of the country I am always very cautious about relying on buses stopping where there isn’t a signed bus stop and usually try to start and finish my walk in the centre of villages where there is an official marked bus stop.

 

[Neilandrewhall]

My local bus the 193 in Hornchurch still has Hail and Ride in quite a lot of sections.

 

[341o2]

Morebus 120 Lymington - New Milton,

The sections of route along May Avenue in Lower Buckland and Church Lane, Manchester Road and Brighton Road in Sway do not have fixed stops and operate as a hail and ride section. The driver will pull over at a safe place to pick up any customers along these sections.

https://www.morebus.co.uk/new-route-120-lymington-new-milton

 

[stadler]

This may be the situation in theory but it does not always work out like that. This all works very well on rural routes operated by a small local bus company with a small pool of local drivers who are on the routes regularly and know the routes and the passengers. It is not always the case when larger bus operators run routes through rural areas with a a big turnover of staff and drivers who are not local. There can be an attitude of “it’s more than my jobs worth“ to stop somewhere where there isn’t a bus stop sign.

Just a couple of examples I have witnessed.
A few years ago I travelling on a Stagecoach bus in the Castle Douglas area of Dumfries and Galloway. I wanted to visit Threave Gardens which is situated around 2 miles outside the town. There is a regular bus service along the road which passes the gates but no bus stop. I’d asked for Threave Gardens when I got on the bus and the driver wouldn’t stop at the gates because there was no bus stop there. Even though the bus passes the gates with a perfectly safe place to stop I was left with almost a mile to walk from nearest bus stop.

Another example and again Stagecoach. On my local route in Nottinghamshire there are a number of bus stops on rural parts of the bus which are for both directions. I have known drivers refuse to stop because it doesn’t say both directions on the bus stop sign, even though on the timetable displayed at the stop it says wait opposite. One driver tried to argue with an elderly person who had been using a stop for almost 40 years that he wasn‘t allowed to stop there because there isn’t a both ways sign on the bus stop. He told her that she needs to report it to the local authority.

When I am out walking in rural parts of the country I am always very cautious about relying on buses stopping where there isn’t a signed bus stop and usually try to start and finish my walk in the centre of villages whee there is an official bus stop.

Yes i think a lot depends on the bus operator. The small operators tend to happily do hail and ride in any rural area or urban residential roads. Compass Bus are one of my local operators and they happily do hail and ride almost anywhere despite not being officially advertised. But the big group companies like Arriva / First / Go Ahead / Stagecoach etc are less likely. It is similar on rail replacement buses where most of the drivers on the small operators will happily drop you off anywhere away from the station but most drivers on the big group operators refuse.

 

[CarrotPie]

ASD Coaches' 185 from Chatham to Davis Estate seems to still have its Hail and Ride section along Wilson Avenue, according to the Medway Bus Map...don't know if that's accurate, though.

 

[WibbleWobble]

Damory 1 and 2 are hail and ride for the vast majority of their routes.

 

[ElBoiii]

There are some hail and ride routes in Sheffield, mostly if not all M-prefixed routes. Going off the timetables on Travel South Yorkshire's website, the M17 (Dore - Jordanthorpe), M44/M45 (Crystal Peaks - Frecheville circulars), M55 (Crystal Peaks - Plumbley) and M92 (Hillsborough - Harley) have hail and ride sections

 

[MEC]

In Nottingham the 20 (previously L5 has two hail and ride sections in wollaton) interestingly the bus has to do a 3 point turn at what is arguably the terminus

 

[175mph]

On the Stagecoach 250 service between Grimsby and Hull, there is a section of the route near Brockelsby where the audio visual announcement mentions a hail and ride stop, I would never have known about the stop otherwise, Google Maps didn't seem to know about it.

 

[WiltsBus]

Damory 1 and 2 are hail and ride for the vast majority of their routes.

Exactly what I'm looking for thanks

 

[341o2]

The Isles of Scilly community bus, on St Marys, has only one fixed stop at Holgate Green.

 

[cool110]

Stagecoach have the seasonal Sunday/BH only 125R with a hail and ride section through Rivington area.

 

[joieman]

The opposite problem often occurs in newbuild developments, where there are brand new bus stops with no services

In the Grange Park estate in Loughborough, I found one raised kerb in each direction on Highland Drive in the middle of the estate.

Last year Kinchbus's service 5 was rerouted to serve the estate, and ironically neither of the raised kerbs seem to have been used as actual bus stops (certainly not the eastbound kerb as the 5, being a circular service, only runs westbound through the estate.)

 

[DarrenGM]

I know that the 544 (Bee Network - Manchester) is hail and ride on parts of its route through Little Lever. I'm sure there are many other examples in Greater Manchester on routes through residential areas.