Bus replacement timing

[Richardr]

I'm travelling from St Albans to Manchester today, which involves going to Bedford, getting the bus replacement to Milton Keynes, and picking up the Manchester train there. The ticket was bought from this website, but itineraries are the same elsewhere.

The train arrives at Bedford at 12:07
The bus is from 12:15 to 12:55
The advance ticket on Avanti is the 13:00 train.

It is really realistic that:

1. the replacement bus will suffer no delays at all
2. even if not, 5 minutes at Milton Keynes is sufficient to get a bus load of people, many with luggage, from the bus stop through the station and on to the train?

Why such a tight timing at Milton Keynes? It isn't possible, as far as I can see, to find a timetable for the replacement bus, and so the only alternative is to look at the previous Avanti train [which is 41 minutes earlier], and work back to get the bus timed to arrive five minutes before that one.

 

[yorkie]

I'm travelling from St Albans to Manchester today, which involves going to Bedford, getting the bus replacement to Milton Keynes, and picking up the Manchester train there. The ticket was bought from this website, but itineraries are the same elsewhere.

The train arrives at Bedford at 12:07
The bus is from 12:15 to 12:55
The advance ticket on Avanti is the 13:00 train.

It is really realistic that:

1. the replacement bus will suffer no delays at all
2. even if not, 5 minutes at Milton Keynes is sufficient to get a bus load of people, many with luggage, from the bus stop through the station and on to the train?

Why such a tight timing at Milton Keynes? It isn't possible, as far as I can see, to find a timetable for the replacement bus, and so the only alternative is to look at the previous Avanti train [which is 41 minutes earlier], and work back to get the bus timed to arrive five minutes before that one.

The connection time at MKC is correct; the bus needs to have an allowance for this.

We provide an option for increased interchange time at any station of your choice; worth bearing mind for a future trip.

If you are delayed, you can claim delay compensation based on the arrival time at your final ticketed destination

 

[Belperpete]

According to Google maps, it takes 27 minutes to drive between the two stations, so there may be some slack in the bus timings. Even so, it does seem tight.

 

[philthetube]

Carry a print out of your itinerary if possible.

 

[Class800]

Likely some padding. Try to sit near front of bus.

 

[Richardr]

Just out of interest, I got there earlier just in case. The bus took exactly 30 minutes, and was timed to go every 5 minutes, so gaining 5 minutes at least on route (the roads were clear today). 5 minutes from getting off the bus to the train was impossible, but the extra 5 minutes would have made it fine.

 

[Starmill]

The interchange times at stations are almost always not adjusted to accommodate replacement buses. In the one case I'm aware of where engineering works resulted in the adjustment it was permanently increased at Liverpool South Parkway in quite an unfair way, as it applied to all connections, not just ones between the high and low levels with the longer walking times. This resulted in some journeys becoming 35 or 65 minutes wait instead of 5. So be careful what you wish for.