Detling has been weaned off the main bus network in various stages.
Firstly, the direct southbound entrance into the village was sealed up. The alternative has a rather short deceleration lane, followed by a sharp 180 degree turn - not ideal in a bus, and less so before the speed limit was reduced to 50mph.
Secondly, the direct northbound exit, involving crossing the carriageway was sealed up. The manoeuvre was considered risky enough that in the past, Maidstone & District Leyland Nationals allocated to the route had reflective strips applied behind the rear wheels to improve their visibility when using this junction.
That meant that northbound buses had to return southwards to the M20 roundabout to turn before finally heading towards Sittingbourne, adding around 3 or 4 minutes on to a 30 minute journey from Maidstone to Sittingbourne - more in the peaks.
When Jade's Crossing was built, the northbound services were removed from the village, except for the peak afternoon school bus. I think it was at this point that the northbound bus stop on the A249 was opened - there were previously none south of the top of the hill (the County Showground, in fact - another place where there was no proper provision to cross the road).
But because there is no A249 southbound stop, Maidstone-bound buses continued to run through the village. As with many rural settlements, the volume and size of cars has increased - it was almost impossible to pass through the village without having to drive on the pavement at some point to pass a parked SUV.
Eventually some common sense prevailed - the bus would attract far more passengers if it stayed on the main road and zipped past in a few seconds, rather than a meandering diversion frequently neither picking up nor setting anyone down. Indeed, when Arriva doubled the frequency, the new 334 journeys did not serve the village, and in time, the 333 followed; all except the morning school journey, that is.
With a flush local authority at the time, the Detling Hopper service was started to fill the gap. The timetable has been modified since its introduction; it now serves a wider area and that it survived Kent's bonfire of subsidy reductions says something about its passenger figures, but they certainly aren't all coming from Detling.
Finally, Arriva's withdrawal from the route saw Kent ask Stagecoach to divert one morning journey through the village for school traffic. The X3 is otherwise registered as limited stop along the A249, with only the Rumstead Lane stop observed - and as
duncombec notes, most other stops had been closed on safety grounds anyway.
I'm sure there are similar stories elsewhere, where the impact of crossing a dual carriageway adds considerable time and risk to the operation, and ultimately, more people are inconvenienced than benefit from the diversion. One that persists is on the 4 between Ayr and Kilmarnock, which dives into Symington, but it is no longer an in-and-out, but a double run to a turning circle and retrace your steps back to the dual carriageway, using a flyover in the southbound direction. Remarkably, this diversion continues to run every 30 minutes, seeing four buses an hour use the turning circle, but the 37 minute Ayr to Kilmarnock journey time of 35 years ago is now 49 minutes.
