Your all-time favourite bus trip (and why?). Reports welcome

[scottish rider]

I particularly like a bit of variety on a journey, setting out from a large town or city, having a mix of dual carriageway or motorway for a bit of speed and then a bit of rural road.
A few have already been mentioned but some I have enjoyed (in no particular order) are:
Parks (Citylink) M91 Edinburgh - Inverness, only once a day now but with many pleasant diversions off the A9 into various towns
Citylink 913 Edinburgh - Fort William, great contrasts in scenery on the same journey
Stagecoach X4 Cardiff to Abergavenny, great mix of city, rural and in town running
Newport Transport X30 Cardiff - Newport, not anything rural but a nice fast trip along the motorway
West Coast Motors 479 from Rothesay to Dunoon was also rather nice including the ferry crossing from Rhubodach to Colintraive
Stagecoach 97 from Leven to St.Andrews, great views from a quiet rural road and usually worked by double deck vehicles
Go North East X21 from Newcastle to Durham and Bishop, nice scenery and usually double decks
Arriva 10 from St.Helens to Liverpool, urban contrasts and a chance to pick up a bit of speed on the dual carraigeway sections depending on traffic conditions
The former Southend Transport X1 /721 London to Southend, not that scenic but great contrasts from picking through the west end and city traffic to the A13 and then along London Road into Southend
Think I'll miss the X90 between London and Oxford although hopefully the Tube will still run on that once we get back to normal

I also rather like some London routes too:
85 Putney Bridge - Kingston
96 Woolwich - Bluewater
123 Wood Green - Ilford
269 Bexleyheath - Bromley
Much more urban, but with a bit of running on higher speed roads too

 

[martinsh]

Great read. Why does Pinki sound like a Carry On type name though.....or is it just me?

It's actually pronounced Pin-t-yee as there are a couple of accents in the name that I haven't bothered with

 

[martinsh]

Some more memorable rides from elsewhere in Europe.

Starting off with a tram journey, as there’s no way this time-warp phenomenon could be left out of the list.

Porto, February 1999. By this time there was only one tram route left, and operation was sporadic. The tourist office had told us where to catch it, but warned it might not be running. Luckily one turned up within a couple of minutes of us arriving at the appointed place. What a gem ! Dating from at least the 1930s, wooden longitudinal bench seats and a cord for you to pull when you wanted to get off. Driver had a large brass bell to ring to warn traffic of our approach. He had to use it a lot as numerous car drivers hadn’t expected a tram to turn up when they parked ! We rode the whole route from city centre out to the coast at Foz, then back to Boavista. Actually we did it in two hops as the weather was so glorious we got off at Foz for coffee and ice creams in a café.

Later on the same year I was working on a part time basis (every other week) in Utrecht. I was fascinated by the DAF/ Hainje midibuses that GVU had, so one day I caught one. Turned out the route they were used on needed special vehicles to get through a narrow archway near the Domkerk. I think the route only ran in one direction ?

And the next year, on holiday in Switzerland having to catch a rail replacement bus for the one stop from Vers L’Eglise to Les Diablerets. What should turn up but an identical DAF / Hainje midibus ! [ I believe it was secondhand from Geneva. ]

Later on that holiday having a ride on a Setra S215UL of BVB from Agile to Villars – hairpin bends and sheer drops galore !

That’s all for now – back to Latvia tomorrow …

 

[ian1944]

There used to be a through bus between Hanley and Sheffield, X18 I think. Originally PMT, then First. Many years ago on a Peak Wayfarer I did Manchester to Buxton (Transpeak for Nottingham), to Leek (X18 for Hanley) then back to Manchester (201 ex-Derby). The X18 bit was a spectacular traversal of Axe Edge with all of the precipitous ups and downs, and I was fortunate to catch a clear, sunny day to highlight the broken terrain. The Transpeak no longer does the full route, the 201 has gone and there's nothing doing the full X18 route.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Probably my most memorable if not quite favourite journey was with Catch 22 Bus

It's a mystery why they lost their O-licence, isn't it?

More recently Keswick -> Keswick (via Honister and Buttermere) was another hour-and-a-half well spent.

It's a good ride. I last did it back when they still used the Merc 709s with the manual gearboxes, I didn't envy the driver one bit. I did it anti-clockwise via Buttermere then Honister and bailed at Seatoller for the open-topper back to Keswick.

Serious trip envy here

I've not been back to Australia or Hong Kong since. When this all blows over...

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I've not been back to Australia or Hong Kong since. When this all blows over...

Indeed - when not if.... this too shall pass!

I was thinking mainly of UK but all this worldwide talk got me thinking. Most of my foreign trips have either been the standard tourist coach trip albeit to some nice places (like around Nordfjord in Norway) or grinding through some European city on a Citaro.

However, I did do the Greyhound from Vancouver to Whistler. The outward trip was in fog and mist and not that interesting. It was a bright blue sky when we left Whistler and the Sea to Sky Highway is pretty stunning!!!

 

[delt1c]

Imberbus - cancelled for this year
Isles of Scilly - Vic's Tours and Woodcock's buses
Bradford's last trolleybus in public service
Last days of RT's at Palmers Green garage, where one did a last substitution for RM to Victoria on route 29
Shortage of buses LT mid 70's which led to RT's being reintroduced to garages and routes usually RM such as 26, 30, 104, 230
RCL's on route 279/A
And the one which never happened....plans to introduce ex Northern General RM's on 26
View attachment 76764

Worked for LT in 80’s the general rumour was to put the ex Northern Gerneral RM’s on the 45 as replacements for DM’s. However they were deemed to be to non standard and never happened.

 

[Busaholic]

Worked for LT in 80’s the general rumour was to put the ex Northern Gerneral RM’s on the 45 as replacements for DM’s. However they were deemed to be to non standard and never happened.

Yet the front entrance RMAs ex- British European Airways that had no destination blinds were OK to work on the 175 out at Romford. Not much consistency there!

 

[delt1c]

Yet the front entrance RMAs ex- British European Airways that had no destination blinds were OK to work on the 175 out at Romford. Not much consistency there!

The reason that was stated at the time was not the fact they were front loaders but was to do with chassis , suspension and running gear. The problem with RMA’s and RCL’s was lack of hand rails in the saloons which made it difficult for the conductor on really busy routes especially with standing passengers.

 

[delt1c]

Have to admit a journey from Hammond St with an RCL was great as a passenger especially on a Sunday morning with light load and a spirited run. A journey on the 253 with an RCL was a nightmare

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

It's actually pronounced Pin-t-yee as there are a couple of accents in the name that I haven't bothered with

Thanks - it just tickled me as written with memories of Carry On places like Fircombe or the Indian hill top town of Jacksie

 

[martinsh]

Back to Latvia for some more memorable journeys.

Starting off with my last ever ride on a “double-traction” trolleybus (see my previous post if you need to have the term explained). But we need to set the scene first. Late October 2000 – my first trip to Latvia that year. Weather in England had been appalling, with torrential rain for two months, and much flooding. And the Hatfield train crash had made travel very difficult. Was flying from Gatwick and train from Crewe to Euston took 4 hours. (Took 6 hours on the way back !) Asked an enthusiast contact in Riga whether the Skoda 9Tr “trolleybus trains” were still running. He said yes – there were 2 left ! He found out when they would be running (peak hours only), and we went out to the depot. Sure enough, there was one sitting in the yard ready to leave. Took numerous photos, and wasn’t asked by the driver if I would like to drivbe it as far as the depot gates ! [ Lake of experience meant I had to decline ] Anyway, I climbed aboard and I rode it into the city centre, where it picked up the normal route. [ One of these was supposed be being preserved, but got send for scrap by mistake ]

Not sure about the dates for the next one, but it was probably some time in 2001. Since the mid 90s there had been private “taksobuses” running in Riga. Gradually they had become regulated and the routes legitimised. Each route run by a different operator. One operator had a fleet of Leyland LOB / Den Oudsten buses. It felt very strange to be standing on a street in a foreign country and hear the distinctive sound of a Leyland 680 engine ! Had a few rides on these vehicles, but the most memorable was when I wanted to go out into the suburbs to see some friends, but all the buses and trams were cancelled due to works on an intervening bridge. I suddenly realised that I could have a ride on a Leyland bus that would get me there via a very roundabout route. So I did, was wonderful sitting on the back seat listening to that engine roar. My friends were very impressed when I told them how I got there.

PS1 for anyone with knowledge of Riga reading this, my trip was Centrala Stacija to Teika via Purvciems. The route continued to Mezaparks.

PS2 early in 2002 all the “taksobus” routes in Riga got shut down and taken over by the city operator Rigas Satiksme. Surprisingly the Leylands survived this and were acquired by Ogres Auto. I managed to catch up with them there as well.

Now to October 2004. Had a trip out from Riga sorted as Majori then Sloka then Tukums. First surprise was when I got asked for directions in Majori by someone who turned out to be English ! Anyway, my journey from Sloka to Tukums was to be run by a company called ”Satiksme-K”, who I had never come across before. What should turn up but an ex Swedish Volvo B10M with a body by Aluminiumbuss – who only ever bodied three vehicles ! A very heavily built solid looking thing it was too. [ Satiksme-K didn’t survive the reorganisation of Latvian inter-regional bus routes in 2009, but the bus did pass to Nordeka for a few months ]

That’s it for Latvia, back to the wider world for my next posting …