Trivia:- Which town or city centre had the most bus stations?

[Ken H]

Not counting bus stations in suburbs, which town/city centre had the most bus stations concurrently?

I will start with Leeds
Central bus Station (the current leeds Bus Station is on the same site)
Cross York Street. Where the 'Tramway' red West Riding buses went from. There is a co-op and some flats on the site now.
Vicar Lane. West Yorkshire Road Car Companies facility. Building still there as a cafe.
Wellington Street. Really a coach station but some stage carriage services used it.
Rockingham Street. Used by Leeds City Transport. But it closed in 1960. It was where Morrisons Merrion centre is now.

so that is 5

and Yorkshire Woollen, Hebble and some Samuel Ledgard services went from streets in the west of the centre.

Where has/had more?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Not counting bus stations in suburbs, which town/city centre had the most bus stations concurrently?

I will start with Leeds
Central bus Station (the current leeds Bus Station is on the same site)
Cross York Street. Where the 'Tramway' red West Riding buses went from. There is a co-op and some flats on the site now.
Vicar Lane. West Yorkshire Road Car Companies facility. Building still there as a cafe.
Wellington Street. Really a coach station but some stage carriage services used it.
Rockingham Street. Used by Leeds City Transport. But it closed in 1960. It was where Morrisons Merrion centre is now.

so that is 5

and Yorkshire Woollen, Hebble and some Samuel Ledgard services went from streets in the west of the centre.

Where has/had more?

Newcastle had 6 - Haymarket (United), Gallowgate (United), Marlborough Crescent (United and Northern), Eldon Square (Northern), and Worswick Street (Northern) as formal bus stations plus Bewick Street as a central terminus point (Corporation/PTE).

Haymarket and Eldon Square survive but totally changed, Gallowgate has offices on there (?), Marlborough Crescent has the Centre of Life, Worswick St was derelict for years but was recently demolished for redevelopment, whilst Bewick Street is much the same as always.

(main operators serving the location) - all were still going into the early 1990s.

 

[Glasgowbusguy]

Glasgow has:
Buchanan bus station
Silverburn
Braehead (Renfrew/Glasgow)
Glasgow Fort
Partick
Queen Elizabeth University Hospital

 

[Stan Drews]

Glasgow has:
Buchanan bus station
Silverburn
Braehead (Renfrew/Glasgow)
Glasgow Fort
Partick
Queen Elizabeth University Hospital

4 of which are in the suburbs, with one in neighbouring Renfrewshire, so I think you can rule them out, based on the OPs criteria.
However, if you’d like to have a go at the numerous city centre bus stations that used to exist, you might be in with a shout?

 

[JD2168]

Until 2006 when Frenchgate opened Doncaster had two bus stations, North where the current one is now & South at roundabout of Trafford Way & Cleveland Street which is now a Multi Storey Car Park.

 

[Bus Lightyear]

4 of which are in the suburbs, with one in neighbouring Renfrewshire, so I think you can rule them out, based on the OPs criteria.
However, if you’d like to have a go at the numerous city centre bus stations that used to exist, you might be in with a shout?

I'm open to correction but I recall Dundas Street and Killermont Street Bus Stations which both closed in 1976 and replaced by Buchanan Bus Station for services mainly to the east and north from Alexander Midland and Eastern SMT.

A few years earlier Waterloo Street Bus Station closed and was replaced by Anderston (a horrid place) which then closed in the mid 90s. Western and Central services operated from these bus stations.

St Enoch Square was a sort of bus station which was only ever used by Glasgow Corporation/Strathclyde's Buses services to Rutherglen and Castlemilk and closed in 1999.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

It always surprised me that Kingston upon Thames has two (Cromwell Road and Fairfield) considering it isn't the biggest of places.

 

[Megafuss]

If we count zone 1 as central London, then it has 8.

Aldgate
Victoria (Station)
Victoria Coach Station (Nat Ex)
Green line Bus Station
Euston
Liverpool Street (Although much reduced)
London Bridge
Vauxhall

 

[johnnychips]

How about Manchester? I can think of Chorlton St and Lower Moseley St but I’m sure there are/were more.

 

[markymark2000]

How about Manchester? I can think of Chorlton St and Lower Moseley St but I’m sure there are/were more.

Piccadilly Garden & Shudehill for buses. Chorlton Street is just NatEx.

 

[Clydeflyer]

I'm open to correction but I recall Dundas Street and Killermont Street Bus Stations which both closed in 1976 and replaced by Buchanan Bus Station for services mainly to the east and north from Alexander Midland and Eastern SMT.

A few years earlier Waterloo Street Bus Station closed and was replaced by Anderston (a horrid place) which then closed in the mid 90s. Western and Central services operated from these bus stations.

St Enoch Square was a sort of bus station which was only ever used by Glasgow Corporation/Strathclyde's Buses services to Rutherglen and Castlemilk and closed in 1999.

Add to that Parks City Coach Terminal maybe? Where all the non-SBG operators went between 1990 and 1996 when then were then allowed into Buchanan. The original Magicbus operation also used St Enoch despite repeated attempts by Strathclyde stance controllers to stop them getting in.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

How about Manchester? I can think of Chorlton St and Lower Moseley St but I’m sure there are/were more.

Did the Arndale coexist with LMS?

I guess there was Victoria bus station though it was technically Salford

 

[Whisky Papa]

Did the Arndale coexist with LMS?

I guess there was Victoria bus station though it was technically Salford

I'm not 100% certain but my gut feeling is that Lower Mosley Street had closed before the Arndale BS opened.

I'm not sure here if the OP was defining bus stations as needing to incorporate a privately-owned, bus-only area rather than stops adjacent to the highway. If so, Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens would not have qualified as there was still traffic on Parker Street and Piccadilly. If not, you might certainly add Stevenson Square and maybe Victoria Railway Station, plus perhaps Cannon Street pre-Arndale.

 

[Snow1964]

It always surprised me that Kingston upon Thames has two (Cromwell Road and Fairfield) considering it isn't the biggest of places.

Cromwell Road replaced 2, one in front of station where the downhill approaches to underbridge now are, and a bus garage (where Rotunda complex is now).

Although TfL call Fairfield a bus station, it is now just bus stands, all the stops are now on road outside. There are at least 5 marked bus stands around Kingston, but some are only used rarely

 

[Bus Lightyear]

Add to that Parks City Coach Terminal maybe? Where all the non-SBG operators went between 1990 and 1996 when then were then allowed into Buchanan. The original Magicbus operation also used St Enoch despite repeated attempts by Strathclyde stance controllers to stop them getting in.

I can't say I can remember the City Coach terminal or its location.

The Magicbus terminus was on Dixon Street at the side of the Gateway supermarket. When Stagecoach re-entered the Glasgow bus scene in the late 90s they were permitted to use St Enoch prior to its closure.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I'm not 100% certain but my gut feeling is that Lower Mosley Street had closed before the Arndale BS opened.

Had a hunt on Flickr so looks like the former closed in 1973 whilst Arndale didn't open until the late 1970s.

 

[Clydeflyer]

I can't say I can remember the City Coach terminal or its location.

The Magicbus terminus was on Dixon Street at the side of the Gateway supermarket. When Stagecoach re-entered the Glasgow bus scene in the late 90s they were permitted to use St Enoch prior to its closure.

Was at the corner of Killermont Street and West Nile Street... where the Royal Concert Hall (stage door end) now stands. Was waste ground with a couple of portacabins really! I'd guess from the name it was Parks of Hamilton that owned it but I've a vague recollection it was Stagecoach's name above the doors though since they were the biggest users. But I'm sure anybody doing express services and not SBG/NBC ended up terminating and starting in there.

 

[Bus Lightyear]

Was at the corner of Killermont Street and West Nile Street... where the Royal Concert Hall (stage door end) now stands. Was waste ground with a couple of portacabins really! I'd guess from the name it was Parks of Hamilton that owned it but I've a vague recollection it was Stagecoach's name above the doors though since they were the biggest users. But I'm sure anybody doing express services and not SBG/NBC ended up terminating and starting in there.

Ah yes, I remember now thanks!

 

[Simon75]

Chester had 2, Delamere Street and Exchange

 

[Chris 76]

For a very small city Hereford still has what are grandly known as the Country Bus Station and the City Bus Station. 'Country' is a down-at-heel collection of stops off Commercial Road, near the rail station. 'City' is a couple of shelters on a reserved section of St Peter's Square.

https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/downloads/file/1596/where-to-catch-your-bus-in-hereford-city-centre-updated-may-2022-

Long may this eccentricity continue. I imagine the Country station has survived because it's away from the centre and has so far avoided redevelopment.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

For a very small city Hereford still has what are grandly known as the Country Bus Station and the City Bus Station. 'Country' is a down-at-heel collection of stops off Commercial Road, near the rail station. 'City' is a couple of shelters on a reserved section of St Peter's Square.

https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/downloads/file/1596/where-to-catch-your-bus-in-hereford-city-centre-updated-may-2022-

Long may this eccentricity continue. I imagine the Country station has survived because it's away from the centre and has so far avoided redevelopment.

The history is as follows:

The Country bus station is the historic bus station that was traditionally used by Midland Red, Red and White, and any small indies. The historic building with the canopies was the former Midland Red and later Yeomans travel office.

The City bus station came about when minis replaced big buses on the city services. It was known as the Hopper bus station.

 

[Simon75]

Didn't Luton have 2 once ?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Didn't Luton have 2 once ?

Only recall the hellhole that was Bute Street. There were temporary ones that predated it

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

If we count zone 1 as central London, then it has 8.

Aldgate
Victoria (Station)
Victoria Coach Station (Nat Ex)
Green line Bus Station
Euston
Liverpool Street (Although much reduced)
London Bridge
Vauxhall

There was also the old Kings Cross coach station.

 

[Busaholic]

It always surprised me that Kingston upon Thames has two (Cromwell Road and Fairfield) considering it isn't the biggest of places.

I believe that since 1922 there has only been a comparatively short period (1936 to 1940) when Kingston had only one bus terminus, that at Kingston Garage of LPTB in Cromwell Road.

 

[oldman]

I'm open to correction but I recall Dundas Street and Killermont Street Bus Stations which both closed in 1976 and replaced by Buchanan Bus Station for services mainly to the east and north from Alexander Midland and Eastern SMT.

A few years earlier Waterloo Street Bus Station closed and was replaced by Anderston (a horrid place) which then closed in the mid 90s. Western and Central services operated from these bus stations.

St Enoch Square was a sort of bus station which was only ever used by Glasgow Corporation/Strathclyde's Buses services to Rutherglen and Castlemilk and closed in 1999.

Macbrayne's also had a bus station at Parliamentary Road (info here) and until the mid-50s at the Broomielaw (see timetable here).

 

[Geordie driver]

Newcastle had 6 - Haymarket (United), Gallowgate (United), Marlborough Crescent (United and Northern), Eldon Square (Northern), and Worswick Street (Northern) as formal bus stations plus Bewick Street as a central terminus point (Corporation/PTE).

Haymarket and Eldon Square survive but totally changed, Gallowgate has offices on there (?), Marlborough Crescent has the Centre of Life, Worswick St was derelict for years but was recently demolished for redevelopment, whilst Bewick Street is much the same as always.

(main operators serving the location) - all were still going into the early 1990s.

If you are including Bewick street, then could you include Newgate Street? It was bus only,3 or 4 stops and it was the terminus/starting point for services. Covered too.

 

[chessie]

Matlock in Derbyshire still has two bus stations which is ridiculous for the size of the town

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

If you are including Bewick street, then could you include Newgate Street? It was bus only,3 or 4 stops and it was the terminus/starting point for services. Covered too.

Oooh.... that's a good point. IIRC, it was where OK's services went from, and possibly Andersons of Westerhope? Also, some of the Northern services out to places like High Spen and Winlaton called in?

 

[Geordie driver]

Oooh.... that's a good point. IIRC, it was where OK's services went from, and possibly Andersons of Westerhope? Also, some of the Northern services out to places like High Spen and Winlaton called in?

I seem to recall we ( Northumbria) had a secured service that did a circle round Lobely Hill from there. There was a name for it,, Newgate Street bus stand or similar, I forget.
It had the feel of a small bus station.