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Your longest time spent on a bus or coach?

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Pat1105

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That's quite a short journey for a layover in Digbeth. Some of the London to Aberystwyth via South Wales services don't have a particularly long stop.
The 30 minute layover at Digbeth is not only recovery time, but also allows for the driver changeover. There are no services to Aberystwyth via South Wales, only the 409 which goes via mid Wales.
 
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Pat1105

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I once done the first 35 of the day from Aberdeen to Inverness via Banff, 6 and a half hours on a Plaxton Profile with no toilet isn't fun! Perhaps what sets the 35 apart from all the other journeys mentioned on here is that it's a local stopper service.
I never did do the whole of the 35, although was top of my list to do before I moved South but just never got round to it. My favourite part was between Portfordon & Banff with views out to the coast. I often used to make the journey from Elgin to Peterhead but I used the 10 instead. I wouldn’t want to do it now, not with those E400MMC’s.
 

Jordan Adam

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I never did do the whole of the 35, although was top of my list to do before I moved South but just never got round to it. My favourite part was between Portfordon & Banff with views out to the coast. I often used to make the journey from Elgin to Peterhead but I used the 10 instead. I wouldn’t want to do it now, not with those E400MMC’s.

Elgin to Peterhead is quite a interesting journey as you could get the 60 to Ellon, 49 to Inverurie then the 10 to Elgin, the 69 to Fraserburgh, 271/272/273 to Banff then the 35, or if the timings didn't match up you could get the 60/63 to Aberdeen and catch the 10 from there. Regardless quite a decent trip. I agree the E400MMCs as nice as they are shouldn't have been bought for the 35 they lack a toilet and are too uncomfortable for a 2-3 hour ride.
 

ValleyLines142

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The 30 minute layover at Digbeth is not only recovery time, but also allows for the driver changeover. There are no services to Aberystwyth via South Wales, only the 409 which goes via mid Wales.

Megabus operate the M7 at 14:30 via Cardiff, Swansea, Carmarthen and Lampeter, and from the timetable it doesn't look as if there's any big layovers.
 
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Pre privatisation drivers at my company were entitled to 2 free return journeys anywhere in the UK on National Express, including your family, we had one bloke who used to take his wife and 3 kids to Cornwall from Newcastle twice a year, quite a trip.

I used mine to watch Newcastle play in London, 5 hours in each direction. Many drivers didn't use their allocation and the company didn't seem to care if people took their tickets and let other drivers use them.
 

route101

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I never did do the whole of the 35, although was top of my list to do before I moved South but just never got round to it. My favourite part was between Portfordon & Banff with views out to the coast. I often used to make the journey from Elgin to Peterhead but I used the 10 instead. I wouldn’t want to do it now, not with those E400MMC’s.

Done it last year ,Elgin to Aberdeen , one bonus is the views from a double decker.
 

route101

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Elgin to Peterhead is quite a interesting journey as you could get the 60 to Ellon, 49 to Inverurie then the 10 to Elgin, the 69 to Fraserburgh, 271/272/273 to Banff then the 35, or if the timings didn't match up you could get the 60/63 to Aberdeen and catch the 10 from there. Regardless quite a decent trip. I agree the E400MMCs as nice as they are shouldn't have been bought for the 35 they lack a toilet and are too uncomfortable for a 2-3 hour ride.

Is there not a bus from Banff to Fraserborough ?
 

Bobdogs

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Good Friday 2000, myself and 3 friends left home at 3.30am to catch a coach in Carmarthen at 4.30am for a 4 day trip to Paris.
We then proceeded to pickups at Cross Hands, Swansea, Port Talbot, Bridgend, Cardiff, Newport and Bristol.
Onto the M4 and hopefully next stop Channel Tunnel.
Wrong
Into a very busy, even 20 years ago, London for pickups in Croydon and one other place I can't remember. Back onto another motorway where we very shortly pulled into a service area to join about 15 other coaches. It turned out each coach was going to a different location so passengers and luggage were exchanged appropriately.
Half an hour later, a late comer arrives and the business starts all over again.
Off we go to Folkestone,onto the train and off at Calais. Onto the autoroute and Parapherique eventually. Traffic at a crawl, we went past the Stad de France where there was an international playing, past the Palace of Versailles which was close to the hotel where we were staying about 10.30pm.
Of course the bar was closed and, as it was Good Friday, every thing was shut thereabouts.
Saturday and Sunday were spent, very enjoyably doing touristy things.
8am Monday morning, back in the coach. I am not sure if my memory is playing tricks as I seem to remember passing an airport and seeing Concorde take off. It was 20 years ago.
The return journey was equally interminable, also having to wait at the service area for 2 hours for a delayed coach.
We arrived back in Carmarthen about 2am, home about 3.
The coach drivers were great blokes, it turned out that they had been"volunteered"and had never been to Paris before. Subsequently, I discovered that we joined the Parapherique clockwise travelling about 270 degrees when we should have travelled anticlockwise.
I said never again, but given present circumstances, I would jump at the chance.
 

richw

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It turned out each coach was going to a different location so passengers and luggage were exchanged appropriately.
Half an hour later, a late comer arrives and the business starts all over again.

this is a common thing One of the large European coach tour groups do... possibly Shearings. My parents experienced this on numerous trips abroad. Coaches all meet at services near Folkestone where they swap passengers about
 

Jordan Adam

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Is there not a bus from Banff to Fraserborough ?

Not sure where Fraserborough is :p. However i did mention the Banff - Fraserburgh bus in my post!

the 69 to Fraserburgh, 271/272/273 to Banff then the 35

Done it last year ,Elgin to Aberdeen , one bonus is the views from a double decker.

But a regular passenger doesn't care as much about that. As many people up here keep saying "they bought the wrong buses for the route, but it's okay so long as you can get a bonnie view fae the top deck". :rolleyes:
 

MotCO

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In my younger days I went from Dover to the middle of Norway, all overland via Zeebrugge in a Transit, camping as we went. From memory it took a fortnight, and were in Norway for 5 days, so 10 days travelling. It was an organised holiday (Tentrek). Great fun, though.
 

Eyersey468

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Hull to Normandy on a Leger trip to the D Day beaches about 10 years ago.
 

Eyersey468

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Just thought I've done Southampton to Berlin via Ypres before as well when I was about 16 on a school trip.
 

route101

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Not sure where Fraserborough is :p. However i did mention the Banff - Fraserburgh bus in my post!





But a regular passenger doesn't care as much about that. As many people up here keep saying "they bought the wrong buses for the route, but it's okay so long as you can get a bonnie view fae the top deck". :rolleyes:

Woops confused , not been between Fraserburgh and Peterhead , on the do to list
 

DunsBus

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Berwick to London on an NX 594 a couple of years ago. What should have been an 8.5 hour journey became an 11-hour one, as the coach got caught up on the M1 somewhere in Bedfordshire in a traffic queue resulting from an earlier accident. Thankfully, the return trip a few days later was less eventful!
 

DaveHarries

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Longest time spent on a coach:
- in public service: doing an end-to-end Plymouth to Bristol trip on a Stagecoach SouthWest Falcon service during launch week.
- which was on private hire: doing Bristol to York with a group from my local church: destination was York Minster when the wife of the former vicar of my local church was consecrated as a Bishop.

Dave
 

Deerfold

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My wife spent the best part of a week on one on a tour of Italy (stating and ending in the UK) which more or less put her off coach travel for life (though we've done a return journey from London to Scotland which did the rest of the job - on the return journey the loo was out of order and the driver stopped at pretty much every set of services on the way).

My longest unexpected time on a coach was a megabusplus service. It should have taken 2.5 hours from East Midlands Parkway to Keighley but we were a bit more than 3 hours late after the radiator sprang a leak and the replacement coach driver got lost as he misheard "Shepley" as "Shipley".
 

route101

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Berwick to London on an NX 594 a couple of years ago. What should have been an 8.5 hour journey became an 11-hour one, as the coach got caught up on the M1 somewhere in Bedfordshire in a traffic queue resulting from an earlier accident. Thankfully, the return trip a few days later was less eventful!

What was reason choosing the coach over the train from Berwick?
 

route101

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I done the megabus overnight from Glasgow to London last month. Kinda a false ecomany if youve been squished in by the person next to you . Couldn even get my bag into the over head lockers.
 

TechDan2002

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Falmouth to Gilwell Park for CubJam 2013 when I was 10. Journey took 8 hours, stopping for 45 minutes at a service station near Almondsbury Interchange. More recently I went from Truro College to Gatwick Airport in February 2020 for a trip to Toronto with fellow Geography A Level students, journey up took 6.5 hours stopping at Taunton for 30 minutes and journey back took 8ish hours stopping at Cobham and Taunton, both for 30 minutes
 

delt1c

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As a passenger Edinburgh to London, as a conductor in London once during the bombings did 8 hours when we were stuck and nothing moving .
 

arbeia

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New a bus conductor who was a bit of a fanatic. In late 70's he went from Uxbridge to Keswick, all on stage carriage buses. He set off at 0530 arriving midnight!
 

rg177

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My longest would be London to Newcastle on the NX425 in 2018, 23:00 arriving 06:30. There were only about 10 of us on board and it was a fairly sedate amble up north, if a bit difficult to sleep.

It was rather amusing when we had a break at Woodall services, at about 3am, and a few of us ended up sat with the driver having a McDonald's before we went onwards.

I won't use National Express for such journeys anymore but happily use them between Sheffield and London as it only takes three hours with reasonable traffic and the drivers are usually brilliant. Brand new coaches too.
 

Pat1105

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Elgin to Peterhead is quite a interesting journey as you could get the 60 to Ellon, 49 to Inverurie then the 10 to Elgin, the 69 to Fraserburgh, 271/272/273 to Banff then the 35, or if the timings didn't match up you could get the 60/63 to Aberdeen and catch the 10 from there. Regardless quite a decent trip. I agree the E400MMCs as nice as they are shouldn't have been bought for the 35 they lack a toilet and are too uncomfortable for a 2-3 hour ride.
I always did the 10 to Aberdeen then either the 60 or 63 (usually 63) up to Peterhead. Personally, I prefer the 60 going North & 63 going South, don’t know why. I did think about going via Fraserburgh a few times, but the thought of having one of those horrible E200’s on the 271/2/3 (2007/8 models) put me off.
 

Jordan Adam

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I always did the 10 to Aberdeen then either the 60 or 63 (usually 63) up to Peterhead. Personally, I prefer the 60 going North & 63 going South, don’t know why. I did think about going via Fraserburgh a few times, but the thought of having one of those horrible E200’s on the 271/2/3 (2007/8 models) put me off.

Strange because i'm the other way round. I prefer the 63 going north and 60 going south! Depends when it was but the 271/272 were/are normally a coach or Enviro400 as they interwork with some school duties. Buchans E200s tend to be on the 69 or 270 whereas Macduff's are normally on the 301. The 273 (only operates to Fraserburgh on Saturdays) is normally a Solo. Regarding the E200s however it's not the 2007/8 models that are bad (actually Buchans 36049/50 are fantastic), it's the 3 speed 63 plates (36957-59) you need to watch out for!
 

Tetchytyke

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6 hours on a football coach from Bradford to Norwich, with a 20 minute stop at a Burger King on the outskirts of Grantham. Thankfully Bradford City won, it was just as far back.

On a service bus it'll be the 2h45 or so the 685 used to take Newcastle-Carlisle on the service that went through Gilsland and Low Row, or the 2hr30 on the 723 from Darlington to Newcastle.
 

philthetube

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If you go back to the 80's and before you will find that 8 hours plus was common and not just for the few, many Yelloway services were in excess of 8 hours end to end, Clacton Blackburn comes to mind, and were done on stage licence, allowing the driver to drive up to 10 hours, if I remember correctly that route had 53 stops on it, many just roadside ones,
 

Bletchleyite

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New a bus conductor who was a bit of a fanatic. In late 70's he went from Uxbridge to Keswick, all on stage carriage buses. He set off at 0530 arriving midnight!

I haven't quite done that, but I have had whole days "on the buses" before. That's a bit different from the question, though, as a tour around a few towns by bus with a break for a walk around each is a bit different than a long-haul on one bus.
 
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