Trivia: Routes with different variations that share the same number

[PTR 444]

Typically, a variation of a particular bus route will have a suffix added, or take a neighbouring number. One place where this is the exception however is on the Isle of Wight, where there are three such routes but both variations share the same number. They are the 1 (Newport - Cowes via Round House or Park & Ride), 7 (Newport - Alum Bay via Shalfleet or Calbourne), and 9 (Newport - Ryde via Fairlee or Staplers).

On the mainland (but not too far away), Bluestar 9 from Southampton has two separate branches which split from the trunk route at Blackfield - one to Langley & Lepe and the other to Fawley & Calshot. Also, in Wiltshire, Salisbury Reds operated two separate X5 routes (albeit following the same corridor as far as Amesbury) from Salisbury to Swindon and Larkhill before the latter was renumbered as the X4 a few years ago.

Are there any other similar examples?

 

[TheSel]

Typically, a variation of a particular bus route will have a suffix added, or take a neighbouring number. One place where this is the exception however is on the Isle of Wight, where there are three such routes but both variations share the same number. They are the 1 (Newport - Cowes via Round House or Park & Ride), 7 (Newport - Alum Bay via Shalfleet or Calbourne), and 9 (Newport - Ryde via Fairlee or Staplers).

On the mainland (but not too far away), Bluestar 9 from Southampton has two separate branches which split from the trunk route at Blackfield - one to Langley & Lepe and the other to Fawley & Calshot. Also, in Wiltshire, Salisbury Reds operated two separate X5 routes (albeit following the same corridor as far as Amesbury) from Salisbury to Swindon and Larkhill before the latter was renumbered as the X4 a few years ago.

Are there any other similar examples?

There will be many. Here are just two, one in England, one in Wales.

Al's Coaches '22' (West Kirby - Chester) operates via Willaston or not (roughly 50% via the village), and via Mollington village (Townfield Lane) or not (one each way Monday - Friday via the village). But the 'To Chester' journey that operates via Mollington serves Willaston, whereas the 'From Chester' journey that serves Mollington omits Willaston. So that's four versions: via Willaston (only) via Mollington (only) via Willaston and Mollington (one direction only), and omitting both Willaston and Mollington. Additionally, on schooldays, one 'From Chester' journey also diverts via Calday Grange Grammar School - so that's a fifth version!

Service 14 (Mold - Denbigh) is shared by two operators. M&H Coaches pretty much sticks to the main road (A541), but one (and only one) of their journeys serves Waen Aberchweller [in English, Aberwheeler]. The P&O Lloyd journeys generally serve Waen Aberchweller (one by request only), mostly (but not all) divert a couple of miles up and back down a lane to serve the village of Cilcain (some on request only), and one schooldays journey extends to Mold Campus.

Latest timetables attached.

 

[Mal]

Lothian group have a few city routes like that. 21 Gyle Centre or Clovenstone - Royal Infirmary; 26 Clerwood - Seton Sands or Tranent. 31 East Craigs - Bonnyrigg or Polton Mill, 37 Silverknowes - Easter Bush or Penicuik (Deanburn), 44 Balerno - Wallyford or Whitecraig.
*East Coast Buses 106 Dunbar or Haddington - Fort Kinnaird
*Lothian Country 276 Bathgate or Loganlea - Broxburn
* Part of Lothian Buses group

As most Lothian Group buses have route number and destination on the front, back and side, there is little chance of confusion.

 

[Darklord8899]

Lothian group have a few city routes like that. 21 Gyle Centre or Clovenstone - Royal Infirmary; 26 Clerwood - Seton Sands or Tranent. 31 East Craigs - Bonnyrigg or Polton Mill, 37 Silverknowes - Easter Bush or Penicuik (Deanburn), 44 Balerno - Wallyford or Whitecraig.
*East Coast Buses 106 Dunbar or Haddington - Fort Kinnaird
*Lothian Country 276 Bathgate or Loganlea - Broxburn
* Part of Lothian Buses group

As most Lothian Group buses have route number and destination on the front, back and side, there is little chance of confusion.

...Unless the driver forgets to change the destination
...it does happen!

 

[Flange Squeal]

White Bus have several such routes. https://www.whitebus.co.uk/bus-services/

01: Various routings around Windsor Great Park area, and some express journeys avoiding Sunningdale.

73: One morning and evening journey on weekdays runs via a faster route avoiding Horsell, which is about half the route.

437: All journeys from Woking serve the Community Hospital and Oriental Road, but only two towards Woking do - the others run a more direct route into town.

462/463: Some morning journeys (and afternoon towards Woking) omit the various residential roads of Old Woking, instead running along the main A247. A number of Woking-bound journeys also omit the double-run to/from Ripley.

500: Morning and afternoon weekday journeys avoid some residential roads in Lightwater, while Saturday journeys avoid the village entirely and run to/from The Meadows Tesco/M&S instead of Frimley Park Hospital.

Stagecoach South’s 46 Guildford to Farnham has several - some do/don’t serve Elstead Cockhill double-run, some do/don’t serve Shackleford village, and one Farnham-bound journey avoids both plus part of residential Farnham. There is also a school variation. https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/...66/Stagecoach-46-timetable-29-August-2021.pdf

 

[Ken H]

Harrogate Bus Co has some Harrogate - Leeds journeys extended to or from Starbeck, which is not on the normal Leeds Harrogate - Ripon route. It's basically buses running from the garage to the bus station being able and willing to take passengers.

 

[Deerfold]

Harrogate Bus Co has some Harrogate - Leeds journeys extended to or from Starbeck, which is not on the normal Leeds Harrogate - Ripon route. It's basically buses running from the garage to the bus station being able and willing to take passengers.

As well as some on the 36 starting at Jennyfield or Bilston in a morning.

 

[tbtc]

Lothian group have a few city routes like that. 21 Gyle Centre or Clovenstone - Royal Infirmary; 26 Clerwood - Seton Sands or Tranent. 31 East Craigs - Bonnyrigg or Polton Mill, 37 Silverknowes - Easter Bush or Penicuik (Deanburn), 44 Balerno - Wallyford or Whitecraig.
*East Coast Buses 106 Dunbar or Haddington - Fort Kinnaird
*Lothian Country 276 Bathgate or Loganlea - Broxburn
* Part of Lothian Buses group

As most Lothian Group buses have route number and destination on the front, back and side, there is little chance of confusion.

Yeah, Lothian are pretty terrible at this, especially when you consider the attention to detail that they focus (or focused!) on other parts of the operation

We’ve historically had a number of other examples of it in Edinburgh too:
3: Wasn’t the southern end split between Mayfield/ Dalkeith Heights?
10: until very recently it’s southern terminus was Torphin *or* Bonaly
11: IIRC the southern terminus was either Hyvots Bank or Fairnilehead (during the era when First competed with it)
23: Southern terminus of Morningside or Greenbank
32/52 circular and 34/35 circular: both had a different route in Leith during evenings (and Sundays) but no suffix to indicate
41: southern terminus of Kings Buildings or Morningside (Greenbank?)

Yet Lothian have had a separate number for some journeys that only varied slightly from the normal route (e.g. the 43/44A serving a couple of different stops in Balerno to the main 44)

It’s a tricky one; do we need a variation on the X18 journeys that divert into RBS or is that minor enough not to matter?

Oddly, when the Prestonpans/ Tranent services were “express”, they had separate numbers (85/86, later X85/X86), but when they were replaced by the all stops 26 they had just one number (okay, it was a bit different, the 86/X86 ran “Tranent via Prestonpans” whilst the 85/X85 ran “Tranent via the A199”, rather than having a common route to Prestonpans then one running to Seaton Sands)

 

[NorthOxonian]

Stagecoach's cross-border 79 service has two variations. Both run from Carlisle to Longtown, Gretna, and Annan, but some journeys run a fast route through these places and then continue to Dumfries, whereas others go into residential areas in Longtown and Gretna (and take a slightly different route into Carlisle).

Until very recently, these were numbered separately - 79 for fast journeys to Dumfries, 179 for slow journeys, but now they seem to share the same number.

 

[Deerfold]

A couple of my local Transdev Keighley routes do this.

On the 66 Skipton- Keighley service, on short runs from Crosshills - the 0530 on Mondays to Fridays and the 0554 and 0624 on Saturdays make a 16 minute double run ending in a loop off the main route to go round Silsden before the 62 (Ilkley - Silsden - Keighley) starts.

On the 62 Keighley - Ilkley, one service every evening and 3 on Sundays do a double run to Airedale Hospital off the main route. There's nothing to indicate which ones do this except by looking at the timetable. For quite some time there was a short trip from Sildsden to Keighley 5 minutes behind a trip which did this, so the second bus arrived in Keighley first.

 

[JMcD99]

Trentbarton have a few routes that share the same number/name for different destinations:

i4: Both variations start in Nottingham, but end in either Sandiacre or Derby. Each variation is 20 minutes, for a 10 minute frequency from Sandiacre to Nottingham.

indigo: Also starts in Nottingham, but end at Long Eaton Briar Gate or Derby. Each variation runs every 20 minutes, with a 10 minute frequency from Long Eaton town centre.

my15: Start in Ilkeston - ending either in Old Sawley (every 20 minutes) or East Midlands Airport (hourly).

Skylink Nottingham: All start in Nottingham, but the variations end at East Midlands Airport/Gateway, Coalville, or Loughborough.
However, the Loughborough leg is due for withdrawal in October.

 

[Roger1973]

There must be a heck of a lot of rural routes that (like the White Bus examples listed above) have journeys that serve different combinations of villages.

Then there are routes with journeys that divert off to serve a school or large workplace, then there are routes that only go in to a supermarket site during shopping hours, or have a different town centre terminus arrangement, or don't serve a particular residential area evenings and / or Sundays. Or market day variations when a bit of a town centre is closed on market day.

In terms of regular major variations, I can think of Arriva route Z which has two different routes through Houghton Regis between Luton busway and Dunstable town centre.

First Berkshire 90 had a spell of having two different routes between Wokingham and Bracknell, which became 4 and X4 under Reading Buses.

London Buses 161 had a few years in the 1980s when it was combined with the 161A and ran Woolwich - Chislehurst and then either Sidcup or Petts Wood (presume so it could be jointly scheduled.) Such 'bifurcations' were traditionally not done on London Transport central buses.

 

[90019]

23: Southern terminus of Morningside or Greenbank

The 23 used to be either Greenbank or Glenlockhart, with the latter being replaced by the 36.

41: southern terminus of Kings Buildings or Morningside (Greenbank?)

It used to be either King's Buildings or Craighouse, with the Craighouse section being cut when the uni campus was closed.
There was a short lived single deck 41 shuttle service to replace it that ran between Hanover Street and the turning circle at Balcarres Street - it used one bus and was cut within a few months because nobody used it.

 

[Ken H]

Stagecoach 555 Lancaster - Keswick does some journeys between Lancaster and Kendal via the M6, missing out Hest Bank, Carnforth and Milnthorpe.

 

[SteveHFC]

Arriva Z service between Luton and Dunstable alternates Mondays to Saturdays to run via Parkside Drive or Windsor Drive in Houghton Regis.

Centrebus 37 service between Luton and Lewsey Farm has variable routings at different times of the days.

It seems, locally at least, that there is a reluctance to use suffixes any more.

 

[Bantamzen]

There are quite a few services in Bradford that serve / terminatfie at City Centre stops during the day, but serve / terminate in the Interchange in the evenings. For example the 636/7 from Bradford to Clayton, 640/1 Buttershaw - Bradford - Five Lane Ends.

 

[-Colly405-]

Stagecoach West's Bristol 12...

After Patchway, some run to Aztec West where they become an 11, but most instead run to Little Stoke and then Parkway Station, where they also become an 11.
The 11 normally starts at Parkway, but the peak journeys start back at Aztec West, so the alternatives are:
(12) Severn Beach - Patchway - Little Stoke - Parkway (becomes 11) - UWE - Avonmouth
or
(12) Severn Beach - Patchway - Aztec West (becomes 11) - Bradley Stoke - Parkway - UWE - Avonmouth

Additionally, most journeys run via Durban Rd in Patchway, but a few stick on the main Coniston Rd.

Further, most operate via Asda Cribbs Causeway, some don't

 

[Alex365Dash]

Following the beginning of the term and the withdrawal of First Solent’s 7C to South Downs Campus, a few buses on route 7 during college days are diverted via South Downs Campus rather than the usual route through Crookhorn Precinct.

 

[341o2]

Imberbus, with three routes, plus journeys direct between Chitterne and Warminster

 

[Flange Squeal]

Falcon Buses route 408 runs generally hourly Epsom - Ashtead - Leatherhead, with alternate journeys then splitting and continuing to either Cobham via Oxshott or Effingham via Bookham.

https://www.falconbuses.co.uk/media/1426/408_06apr2021.pdf

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Stagecoach Oxfordshire West's S3 service goes from Oxford to Woodstock and then either Chipping Norton or Charlbury:

https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/Oxford_Timetables/S3_current.pdf

 

[Segedunum]

Go North East's 310 picks up the loop of Hadrian Park when the 311 finishes up for the evening. Otherwise during the day it runs direct from Battlehill towards Middle Engine Lane.

 

[NorthOxonian]

Stagecoach Oxfordshire West's S3 service goes from Oxford to Woodstock and then either Chipping Norton or Charlbury:

Just to add to the confusion, some evening services go via both, and one or two peak time services run via Chadlington and Spelsbury instead of Enstone.

 

[Deerfold]

Transdev's X43 Manchester - Burnley has a handful of journeys which take a faster route through Machester City Centre, with 3 of the 7 overtaking the trip before them.

 

[DunsBus]

The 23 used to be either Greenbank or Glenlockhart, with the latter being replaced by the 36.


It used to be either King's Buildings or Craighouse, with the Craighouse section being cut when the uni campus was closed.
There was a short lived single deck 41 shuttle service to replace it that ran between Hanover Street and the turning circle at Balcarres Street - it used one bus and was cut within a few months because nobody used it.

The 1/6 circle had different routes in Leith depending on the time of day: weekdays via the Shore, evenings and Sundays via Duke Street.

For a few years either side of deregulation the 14 route split at Niddrie during weekday daytimes with buses then continuing to The Jewel (ASDA) or Newcraighall, and there was also the spell from 1987 to 1993 where evening and Sunday journeys served Stanley Road in Newhaven.

 

[JD2168]

First Sheffield 52a runs from Woodhouse Station to either Wisewood or Loxley.
TM Travel 218 from Baslow goes directly to Bakewell & also goes via Chatsworth House to Bakewell showing the same number.
The Stagecoach x17 on Monday to Saturday runs Barnsley to Chesterfield & Sheffield to Matlock via Chesterfield.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Sep 2022 ==

The Stagecoach Sheffield 25 shows Bradway, Longford Road or Bradway Terminus on the blinds.
The First Sheffield 24 in the evenings shows Bradway but daytimes shows Lowedges as an extension when the 25 is not running.
The Globe Coaches 94 shows either Cannon Hall Farm or Denby Dale.
The Stagecoach 50 during daytimes shows Eckington, Birk Hill but in the evenings & on Sunday shows Chesterfield.
First Sheffield 57 can show either Sheffield, Hillsborough, Oughtibridge & Stocksbridge depending on the start & finish place of the route.

 

[LancasterRed]

Lancaster 40 and 41 vary whether they serve the University, the key difference between routes is the route they take through Garstang if not mistaken. This varies even further on market days.

School/college variants are a thing across the board, Preston Bus had the 31 and 88 run extra school services as part of the main route and I believe most services in counties such as Dorset and Devon will deviate from the core route to serve schools.

 

[Flange Squeal]

Woking has a weekday Shopperbus 39 service, with variations 39A, 39B and 39C, which was recently taken over by Safeguard Coaches from Stagecoach South. The three routes run alongside one another between Woking town centre, Morrisons and Goldsworth Park Waitrose, where they then split.

The 39A however has four variations of itself, all numbered 39A! Of the three journeys that reach Woking, between the town centre and St Johns one in each direction…

• Runs via Morrisons, The Triangle and Goldsworth Park as per the 39B and 39C, and Surrey County County local area map.
• Runs via the bus stop-less Lockfield Drive instead of Morrisons and The Triangle to reach Goldsworth Park (presumably to reduce journey times against typical shopper flows for operational efficiency).
• Runs via St Johns Road, totally avoiding Morrisons, The Triangle and Goldsworth Park.

The fourth variation of the 39A sees one of the three journeys from Chobham avoid the ‘Bird Estate’ in Knaphill, instead staying on the Chobham Road.

https://www.guildfordbus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Route-39A-Timetable.pdf

 

[DanNCL]

Go North East's Q3 alternates between a clockwise loop and an anti-clockwise loop of Newcastle Great Park. When this was introduced in July the route was renumbered 'QA' and 'QB' depending on which way round it was doing the loop, but has reverted to being the Q3 regardless of which way round it does the loop.