Trivia: Services/Journeys withdrawn, but later reinstated

[Simon75]

Are the many examples of services and journeys (eg evening services ), which have been withdrawn, but later re introduced?

 

[Flange Squeal]

Safeguard Coaches' Sunday provision over the Guildford - Station - The Chase - Hospital - Park Barn section of their local circular route 4/5 has come and gone - in various guises each time between withdrawals - several times over the years (not just a Covid phenomenon).

Currently they are a standalone hourly Guildford - Station - The Chase - Hospital service, with the Guildford - Woodbridge Hill - Park Barn section of the circular every 15 mins and no link between the two parts (Hospital to Park Barn).

Monday to Saturday the routes do full circles - 4 anticlockwise and 5 clockwise. One can only presume that on Sundays the northern part of the circular Guildford to Park Barn via Woodbridge Hill does exceptionally better patronage wise than the southern section Guildford to Park Barn via Hospital.

 

[Martin1988]

National Express Service 318 between Bristol and Birmingham. It originally operated on Fridays and Sundays but in October 2013 was reduced to Sunday only. However the Friday service was reinstated in November 2018 and ran for about 15 months before equivalent 7 day a week journeys replaced it (and then sadly got withdrawn during Covid).

 

[DunsBus]

In Edinburgh, Eastern Scottish gained a number of contracts from Lothian Region Transport (LRT) at deregulation, including evening and Sunday journeys on LRT services 23 (Trinity - Morningside), 34/35 (Sighthill - Lochend, circle) and 42/46 (Portobello - Cameron Toll, circle).
Whilst the latter two reverted to full day operation by LRT in July 1989 following retendering, the 23 had its evening and Sunday service restored by LRT on a commercial basis in September 1987.

However, Eastern then decided to run its former contract journeys commercially before adding a daytime service a few weeks later - thus starting a bus war on the 23 corridor which was to last for just over seven years.

 

[SSmith2009]

Arriva recently made changes to their 2/2A services in Derby which involved most of the evening buses to/from Swadlincote being cut.

however from early December they were restored after some council funding was awarded to arriva.

 

[Intercity110]

The 3 in Northampton was originally the 12, it went to Tesco, then that was withdrawn in around 2012 and it was curtailed to Whitefields surgery, then expanded back to Tesco Mereway, and then it was curtailed a few months ago.

 

[Martin1988]

First Potteries Service 3 (or possibly its predecessor Service 20) between Hanley and Crewe had a spell of not serving the village of Haslington, running to Crewe Road via Narrow Lane rather than via Slaughter Hill and therefore omitting the village. However, from what I understand it was rerouted back through the village again due to a mixture of complaints and the fact Narrow Lane proved to be a more difficult route.

 

[Segedunum]

The Go North East 41/41A have had on/off spells of running beyond Hadrian Park to Howdon.

They made a right mess of it ever since they stopped running in a loop (Hadrian Park - Howdon - Wallsend - High Farm - Hadrian Park) and started terminating at Howdon.

Long gone are the days of running every 10 minutes (with the long-extinct 40C and 41C supplementing on the relevant sections) between Coniston Road/Ridley Avenue and Wallsend.

 

[RELL6L]

I think some services in Cornwall were withdrawn or severely cut back last autumn and now reinstated.
Buses between Pensilva and Liskeard were cut back to little more than school journeys but now the 74 now runs 2 hourly (the timetable on BusTimes is horribly wrong)
I think also some villages in east Cornwall were cut off last autumn and have now been reinstated.

 

[Chris 76]

The Stagecoach 41 Northampton-Bedford lost its Northamptonshire section and was cut back to Turvey-Bedford a few months ago (besides a couple of peak services through to Northampton). But the latest Stagecoach East service changes announce the restoration of the full route from 4th June. There is 'new short term local authority funding'

https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/East/FINAL%20JUNE%204%20SERVICE%20CHANGE%20BOOKLET.pdf

I hope people return to the restored service and justify its long-term future. The market town of Olney particularly lost out, losing regular buses to Bedford and Northampton, and being left only with a reasonable service to Milton Keynes. There used to be a railway from Northampton to Bedford, and it was a United Counties trunk route, continuing to Cambridge.

 

[43055]

Some of Derbyshire Bus Service Improvement Plan is going towards improving some services which have had cuts including:
401 Burton - Uttoxeter - More evening services which was cut around 2016/2017
Transpeak Derby - Buxton - Sunday service from 2 hourly to hourly
the comet Derby - Chesterfield - New Sunday service after it was cut during 2020
185 Buxton local - reinstatement to Harper Hill after being cut in the last year I think.

 

[nw1]

The Bluestar 13 in Southampton now runs on a Sunday, after First withdrew its equivalent service (also the 13) on a Sunday some time ago.

 

[PTR 444]

The Bluestar 13 in Southampton now runs on a Sunday, after First withdrew its equivalent service (also the 13) on a Sunday some time ago.

Likewise, Bluestar’s 19 which replaced First’s City Red 3 is in fact its second incarnation of said route. The City - Thornhill section of the 19 was originally introduced in Autumn 2019 to compete with First at the time, and lasted for 6 months before being withdrawn at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown.

 

[MedwayValiant]

The Stagecoach 41 Northampton-Bedford lost its Northamptonshire section and was cut back to Turvey-Bedford a few months ago (besides a couple of peak services through to Northampton). But the latest Stagecoach East service changes announce the restoration of the full route from 4th June.

It must be nearer thirty years than twenty since I've travelled on that route, but this is of course welcome news.

But does anyone know what Britannia Bus are up to? That company announced in January that "We are really pleased to announce that we are due to start operating a new service between Northampton and Bedford, via Olney and Lavendon", but there has been nothing since. It also announced a route between Milton Keynes and Woburn Sands, to replace one withdrawn by Arriva, but despite an announced start date of 27 March that one hasn't appeared either the company said "We are unable to comment" on a reason why not.

https://www.britanniabus.co.uk/2023/en-gb/company/newsandupdates.php

 

[EdinRH]

The Lothian 35 (Ocean Terminal to Airport) was renumbered to 300 and higher fares introduced on the Maybury-Airport section. The 300 subsequently became a Cameron Toll- Airport service (later curtailed to Tollcross-Airport, then withdrawn). The 35 number was then reused for a route following the same route as previously from Ocean Terminal to Sighthill, now extending to Heriot-Watt University rather than the airport.

Lothian Buses reinstated services to South Queensferry and West Lothian in the 2010s, having withdrawn from these areas in 1994. (albeit through the Lothian Country subsidiary, whereas the early 1990s services were run by the main Lothian Region Transport, as Lothian Buses were then known)

 

[LUYMun]

For eight months in 2015, Stagecoach South's number 72 diverted to travel to Farnborough from Fleet instead of Aldershot. Angry residents campaigned, and Stagecoach found enough money behind their sofa to reinstate the 72 (renumbered 7) back to Aldershot while using former college bus routes as a template for the number 10 between Farnborough and Church Crookham.