Trivia: Special work site bus routes?

[stadler]

Following on from my thread about bus routes with the same timetables on all seven days of the week, it made me realise that a lot of these are services that operate specifically for workers to get to or from a specific work site, and are likely paid for by that work place. I never realised before that these kinds of services existed. But i am just looking in to it now and there are so many.

So i am looking to make a full list of all of these buses that currently operate across the country.

I am talking about bus routes that specifically operate just to get people to or from that work place and often even turn off and stop at a special bus stop within the grounds. So not just ordinary frequent routes that serve a major workplace. Unless of course it is some kind of combined ordinary route and special work route.

I have found the following bus routes so far:

Amazon Bristol (BRS1/DBS3):
• AZ1 - First Bristol - Severn Beach to Bristol
• AZ2 - First Bristol - Severn Beach to Newport

Amazon Chesterfield (MAN4):
• MAN4 - First South Yorks - Barlborough to Sheffield

Amazon Dartford (LCY3):
• A - Go Ahead - Dartford to Gravesend
• AZ - Go Ahead - Dartford to Gravesend
• N - Go Ahead - Dartford to Gravesend

Amazon Doncaster (LBA4) & iPort Logistics:
• A1 - First South Yorks - Loversall to Sheffield
• A1X - First South Yorks - Loversall to Sheffield
• A2 - First South Yorks - Loversall to Mexborough
• A3 - First South Yorks - Loversall to Scunthorpe
• i4 - First South Yorks - Loversall to Doncaster

Amazon Knottingley (DSA7/LBA9) & T K Maxx:
• A1 - First West Yorks - Knottingley to Leeds
• TK1 - Arriva Yorkshire - Knottingley to Wakefield
• TK2 - Arriva Yorkshire - Knottingley to Wakefield

Amazon Leeds (LBA5):
• A4 - First West Yorks - Knowsthorpe to Bradford
• A5 - First West Yorks - Knowsthorpe to Leeds

Amazon Mansfield (EMA2):
• A1 - Stagecoach East Mids - Sutton to Kirkby
• A2 - Stagecoach East Mids - Sutton to Mansfield
• A3 - Stagecoach East Mids - Sutton to Nottingham

Amazon Milton Keynes (STN8):
• M5 - Magna Park to Wolverton
• M6 - Magna Park to Milton Keynes

Amazon Swansea (CWL1):
• AZ10 - First Wales - Jersey Marine to Sketty Cross

Amazon Tilbury (LCY2):
• Z3 - First Essex - Tilbury to Southend
• Z4 - First Essex - Tilbury to Pitsea

Amazon Warrington (MAN2):
• B52 - Omega Busways - Great Sankey to Warrington
• B52A - Omega Busways - Great Sankey to Warrington
• B52H - Omega Busways - Great Sankey to Warrington

Bakkavor Eythorne:
• BK1 - Stagecoach South East - Eythorne to Margate

Barfoots Of Botley:
• 69 - Stagecoach South - Sefter Farm to Littlehampton
• 725 - Stagecoach South - Sefter Farm to Portsmouth

Dounreay Nuclear Power Site:
• 74 - Stagecoach - Dounreay to Thurso
• 274 - Stagecoach - Dounreay to Bettyhill
• 275 - Stagecoach - Dounreay to Latheron
• 276 - Stagecoach - Dounreay to Staxigoe
• 280 - Stagecoach - Dounreay to John O Groats
• 281 - Stagecoach - Dounreay to Wick
• 282 - Stagecoach - Dounreay to Thurso or Wick
• 921 - Dunnetts Transport - Dounreay to New Reay

Omega Business Park:
• 921 - Omega Busways - Bold Heath to Eccleston

There are certainly far more of these kind of routes than i had realised existed.

Can anyone think of any other work routes similar to the above ones? I am trying to make a full complete list of all of them if there are any others? With so many Amazon sites i suspect i may have missed some of those too?

Also does anyone know how does the funding of these services work? Am i correct in guessing that the work places fully fund these? Or are they run commercially as the bus companies know they will get a lot of passengers?

 

[Vexed]

The Bluestar 61 Bevois Valley - Nursling Industrial Estate is timed around the shift changes for the Tesco distribution centre.

61 - Bevois Valley - Nursling Industrial Estate

Bluestar

bustimes.org

 

[signed]

Not in the UK, but some notable examples I know of

- In Rennes, France, the Stellantis Factory of the Joliette has a full 3 cross-city lines going into it (return is done by regular lines), once a day, every workday morning at around 4am. All under the STAR network as Navette Touche Tizon.

- In Brest, the naval base has also 3 cross-city lines (21,22,23) under the regular Bibus network, with every day service, and most interesting serving multiple stops inside the base itself.

- In Paris, Sanofi (the medicine company) runs a few times a day shuttle between Paris Porte d'Orléans and its south of Paris plant

 

[M60lad]

Not sure if they actually have a service number but there's the Manchester Airport Bus Station-Manchester Airport Amazon Fulfilment shuttle service that First Manchester currently operate with 3 vehicles these are not public operated services and are supposedly only for Amazon employees only.

Arriva Yorkshire's TK1 & TK2 services despite being Amazon services are actually open to the public as I remember using one of them from Castleford to Wakefield last year.

 

[Ballyheigue]

I'm sure the TK1 and TK2 are funded by TK Maxx rather than Amazon, but are open for anyone to use so Amazon staff can use them as well. Is there still a 7 days a week service from various Cumbrian locations to Selafield? I'm sure one was from Barrow or Millom to Selafield or something like that.

 

[Ken X]

Are you including staff car park buses such as those which run around the perimeter roads at Gatwick and serve other companies on the way?

 

[Dwarfer1979]

There will be thousands of these, I suspect pretty much every Amazon warehouse will have something, they aren't available to the general public so few have any details available in the public realm and they can come and go pretty quickly as requirements change (a number are provided on behalf of employment/temping agencies for instance) but it is a growing market as planning permissions for these big warehouses and factories will often now require some form of transport and their location can mean they are difficult to get to if you don't always have access to a car.

You can see several coaches from small local operators in Leicester passing through the city centre at the sort of times in the afternoon that align with timings of our own similar contracts (rather than obviously school times) which suggest a number of them but most are fairly anonymous coaches on anonymous routes - one exception is I think Roberts provided a service from Leicester City Centre to the Next Head Office at Enderby on the edge of the city where the coaches often have Next on the blinds.

 

[CN12 AWU]

In Hull there are a couple
255/256 - North Bransholme to Wren Kitchens
7M (Previously 241) - North Bransholme to Heron Foods and I now believe Amazon in Melton

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

First operate a shuttle for Wessex Water in Bath
British Airways contract a network of routes linking the Heathrow terminals with Hatton Cross, car parks and Waterside HQ

 

[m0ffy]

Stagecoach operates an electric shuttle bus service for National Grid, running between Leamington town centre, the station, and their office in Warwick. It runs in NG corporate livery.

 

[edwin_m]

There is an extensive network of white-painted buses, operated by First, serving the Hinkley Point power station construction site. I believe these run as far away as Bristol.

 

[dgl]

Do we include holiday park buses that are paid for by the holiday park and where the regular passengers pay but the staff do not. Arguably it is a regular scheduled service but funded by the place it serves.

 

[Man of Kent]

Amazon Dartford (LCY3):
• A - Go Ahead - Dartford to Gravesend

runs every 15 minutes throughout the day, so falls into the category of

ordinary frequent routes that serve a major workplace

 

[IanMac]

Stagecoach East Midlands run 3 routes to the Glenair factory near Sutton-in-Ashfiled (A1 from Kirkby-in-Ashfield, A2 from Mansfield, A3 from Nottingham; also 4 to Bakkavor factories (B1 Boston to Leake Commonside, B2 Boston to Holbeach Marsh, B3 Lincoln to Newark, B4 Forest P&R Nottingham to Newark).

 

[stadler]

I forgot there are some closed door ones too only for employees. Those are much harder to find out about. No public information anywhere. I think all of the ones on my initial list are open door ones that can be used by the public too.

What is the logic behind running some as registered public routes and some as staff only routes? I presume the unregistered ones require staff to pre purchas bus passes but on the public ones they buy a ticket onboard like a normal bus?

The route A in Dartford is an interesting one as it is an ordinary frequent bus route but yet turns off the road to serve the Amazon site. But i think the AZ and N are proper dedicated work routes.

 

[RDP]

Bakkavor, Eythorne also have a closed door contract service from Folkestone operated by Bayliss of Deal and there could be others.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

Several in west London. Sky have a network running from their studios at Osterley to Osterley station, Ealing Broadway and Chiswick.

Ealing Broadway also has the University of West London shuttle. Other universities with shuttles restricted to staff and students include Kingston and Greenwich.

Feltham has shuttles to BP at Sunbury and Bloom business park.

 

[mm333]

The Stagecoach East Midlands 255 and 256 go from Hull to Wren Kitchens in Barton upon Humber.

They also run 4 services to the Moy Park chicken processing facility in Anwick:
M1: North Hykeham to Anwick
M2: Lincoln to Anwick
M3: Skegness and Boston to Anwick
M4: Grantham to Anwick

 

[SSmith2009]

Arriva Midlands run the X45 to Magna Park from Leicester via Narborough Road, Blaby and Lutterworth with 3 return journeys daily.

First Leicester operate a single AM journey Mon-Sat on service 13W from Fosse Road North to Optimus Point business park in Glenfield then it continues through to Glenfield Hospital and terminates at Beaumont Leys Centre.

Although they are mostly for the shift workers they are open to the general public.

 

[Trainguy34]

Bakkavor, Eythorne also have a closed door contract service from Folkestone operated by Bayliss of Deal and there could be others.

Also runs via Ashford and Dover.

 

[CN12 AWU]

The Stagecoach East Midlands 255 and 256 go from Hull to Wren Kitchens in Barton upon Humber.

They also run 4 services to the Moy Park chicken processing facility in Anwick:
M1: North Hykeham to Anwick
M2: Lincoln to Anwick
M3: Skegness and Boston to Anwick
M4: Grantham to Anwick

No the 255/256 go from North Bransholme (Hilltop Farm) then operate like a 10 to Bransholme then a 7 to Hull then via Anlably Rd, Boothferry Rd and Barton

The 7M (241) goes same way to Boothferry from North Bransholme then into Hessle Square, Boothferry Rd and Ferriby

 

[duncombec]

The route A in Dartford is an interesting one as it is an ordinary frequent bus route but yet turns off the road to serve the Amazon site. But i think the AZ and N are proper dedicated work routes.

No - they can be used by members of the public as well. I have travelled on the AZ (which is essentially a mix of the A and B, timed at major shift changeovers) and it is included in the public timetable, and the N is nothing more than a regular night bus route.

The "bus station" at Amazon is open to the public - there are no restrictions on boarding or alighting there, just Amazon favour doing things that way. There are, however, some restricted routes to LCY3 operated by Stagecoach London, and a network to LCY8 (Kingsnorth) operated by ASD Coaches.

@markymark2000 has a thread on this some years ago and had/still has a list of them on a spreadsheet. The thread is probably still findable with some judicious searching.

 

[Sleepy]

Asda used to run an extensive number of free buses for shoppers quite a few years ago.

 

[Flange Squeal]

White Bus run the BID service in Bracknell, linking the railway station with the southern and western industrial estates and open to workers only. When launched, it was operated by Thames Valley Buses.

BID | White Bus

www.whitebus.co.uk

 

[Magdalia]

I forgot there are some closed door ones too only for employees. Those are much harder to find out about. No public information anywhere. I think all of the ones on my initial list are open door ones that can be used by the public too.

Granta Park has a dedicated service to/from Cambridge railway station operated by Richmond's of Barley. The timetable used to be on the Granta Park website but doesn't seem to be there now.

Capital Park used to have a similar service, operated by Grey's of Ely, I'm not sure if that is still going.

 

[py_megapixel]

The route A in Dartford is an interesting one as it is an ordinary frequent bus route but yet turns off the road to serve the Amazon site.

A similar example is TfGM route 313, which is a half-hourly public route but turns off the main road to terminate in the grounds of the World Freight Terminal at Manchester Airport.

TfGM route 38 terminates at "Logistics North" - I have no idea where this is, I've just seen it on the front of buses, but I assume it's a another large warehouse facility served by the bus for its employees.

 

[38291018]

Arriva Midlands run the X45 to Magna Park from Leicester via Narborough Road, Blaby and Lutterworth with 3 return journeys daily.

First Leicester operate a single AM journey Mon-Sat on service 13W from Fosse Road North to Optimus Point business park in Glenfield then it continues through to Glenfield Hospital and terminates at Beaumont Leys Centre.

Although they are mostly for the shift workers they are open to the general public.

Arriva midlands also has routes 15, 29/29A/X29 for bardon amazon open to public with the 29 actually going inside amazon and the 15 stopping outside.
Also
Stagecoach east mids do the 28B to Eakring national grid
Nottsderby runs the 2 from derby to moy park in Ashbourne

I forgot there are some closed door ones too only for employees. Those are much harder to find out about. No public information anywhere. I think all of the ones on my initial list are open door ones that can be used by the public too.

Closed door services
I think centrebus north do a few 3 or 4 to different places with one being Melton foods to Leicester which tracks as BF on bustimes,
First Leicester have the bus which tracks on bustimes as BHX5 from Coventry to rugby amazon
Nottsderby runs some closed door Rollsroyce buses throughout the day from to different sites and city centre

What is the logic behind running some as registered public routes and some as staff only routes? I presume the unregistered ones require staff to pre purchas bus passes but on the public ones they buy a ticket onboard like a normal bus?

In regards to this, they may be many reasons, for example reasons for registering a route could be the bus company may find it commercially viable to extend a current registered route a little further for staff as a major company for extra income on a current public service or with a little help from the company itself to add on the extra service/diagram which public can also use which I'll assume is a little less than putting out a contract to run dedicated work routes. Another example could be the bus company may also find the villages it's running through to the work place a viable place for a route to serve or replace making it registered so public have a new route or alternative route.

Reasons it may be closed is its funded fully by the company and may have a contract which says non public not allowed. Plus it's cheaper for the operator as they don't need register it although I think it's only 60 pound I heard somewhere. Could be that it goes onto a private site and don't want public to enter so it's mitigated by having no public services entering.

Could be endless reasons why some are public and some are closed

 

[JD2168]

Stagecoach Yorkshire run the 2a from Sheffield to GXO Logistics at Grimethorpe, always a decker & full. Ordinary passengers can catch it.

Others from Barnsley to GXO are mixed in with the normal services 27/27a/27b/28 which have specific early Sunday morning services a couple of hours before the normal services run & are the only services that run in Barnsley on Boxing Day & New Year’s Day

 

[MotCO]

Stephenson's route 14 may qualify. It runs from Southend on Sea to Great Wakering, but for those personnel or residents approved by the MOD, allows passengers to continue to Churchend and Courtsend.

Roger French blogged about this route:

Britain’s Top 10 Quirky Bus Routes: 4 Stephensons 14

Saturday 16th August 2025 Regular readers may recall I blogged about this quirky bus route three years ago. It’s the one where security personnel remove you from the bus six miles before it reaches…

busandtrainuser.com

 

[61653 HTAFC]

If you're accepting historical examples, Yorkshire Tiger (as was, and their predecessors) ran works services for the Bon Marche distribution depot at Grange Moor. These ran from Huddersfield bus station, but I don't think they were open to non-employees. "Bon Marche" was included on the destination screen reels though.