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Trivia: Smallest place with a National Express/Megabus/Flixbus/Citylink coach service

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johnnychips

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Following this thread, about which was the largest place without a coach service


I wonder what the smallest place is with a coach service. A couple of years ago, I would have thought possibly Crowden, on the A628 Woodhead route between Sheffield and Manchester on the 350 route. It is basically a few houses, an outdoor activity centre, and it used to have a Youth Hostel - not really sure if it is still open. However, it was on the Pennine Way and had no other public transport. On the same route was Langsett, which had a coach stop, but was slightly larger, and does, I think, still have the odd bus or two.

However, the 350 has stopped after Covid, and been superseded by the Hulley’s X57, which goes over the Snake, not Woodhead.

Any ideas?
 
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GusB

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There are quite a few places along the west coast Citylink routes that surely must qualify. I'm finding it difficult to get population figures, but the smallest places I could get numbers for along the Glasgow to Campbelltown route were:

Furnace (200 - Wikipedia)
Luss (200-450 - Luss Estates/Wikipedia)
Inverary (560 - https://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/info/population-where-we-live)
 

NorthOxonian

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I definitely think Scottish Citylink is likely to be the best place to look for these tiny places, and route 961 seems to serve a large number. The difficulty with some of them is that it's hard to know whether or not they count as settlements - Aultguish is listed as a timing point but appears to consist of an inn and nothing else - does that qualify? Garve is certainly a settlement and appears to have a population of 134 (the village appears to be equivalent to the S00119598 census area and that is the estimated population who live there).

Tyndrum and Crianlarich would also be good shouts. With two stations and ten coaches per day in each direction, Tyndrum's 167 residents really do have an absurdly good public transport service.
 

johnnychips

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I notice that my title has been moderated to include Citylink, which is why I didn’t include it in the first place, as I expected there would be many Scottish places that would qualify. They are interesting, but not the purpose of the thread I proposed, namely

“Smallest place with a National Express/Megabus/Flixbus coach service”


 

GusB

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I notice that my title has been moderated to include Citylink, which is why I didn’t include it in the first place, as I expected there would be many Scottish places that would qualify. They are interesting, but not the purpose of the thread I proposed, namely

“Smallest place with a National Express/Megabus/Flixbus coach service”

Taking into account the fact that the other thread was simply "Largest place without a coach service", it seemed sensible to include Citylink services in this one as well.
 

johnnychips

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Taking into account the fact that the other thread was simply "Largest place without a coach service", it seemed sensible to include Citylink services in this one as well.
No problem, as long as it doesn’t preclude English and Welsh answers, if they feel they can’t possibly compete with the Scottish ones :D
 

backontrack

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I think Bowermadden, on Stagecoach's X99 from Inverness to Thurso, takes the cake here.
 

MedwayValiant

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Looking at English places which are actually served by National Express, I'll open with Hickstead.

It's a dozen houses, a pub, and a petrol station, a mile from Twineham within which parish it falls. The whole parish had a population of 306 (2011 census), and Hickstead can't be more than 50. It doesn't even have a famous showjumping venue, which is a mile away in Sayers Common (different parish) - but it does have two National Express services.
 

johnnychips

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I think Bowermadden, on Stagecoach's X99 from Inverness to Thurso, takes the cake here.
I’m impressed, as it even hasn’t got a page on Wikipedia: so what, or exactly where, is Bowermadden? However, is it a coach service served by National Express, Megabus, Flixbus or Citylink as per the title? If the X99 is Citylink, I will be delighted.

I don’t know if this will be merged into the previous post - it has been - but which National Express route is Hickstead on, and has it any buses?

Looking at English places which are actually served by National Express, I'll open with Hickstead.

It's a dozen houses, a pub, and a petrol station, a mile from Twineham within which parish it falls. The whole parish had a population of 306 (2011 census), and Hickstead can't be more than 50. It doesn't even have a famous showjumping venue, which is a mile away in Sayers Common (different parish) - but it does have two National Express services.
 
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MedwayValiant

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Hickstead is served by National Express 25 (London - Brighton) and 727 (Brighton - Norwich).

It is also served by two bus services: Compass Travel 100 (Burgess Hill - Horsham) which is hourly Mon-Sat, and Metrobus 273 (Crawley - Brighton) which offers five return journeys a day.
 

duncombec

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Black Prince on the A2 is a hotel so technically has no permanent population?
That's little more than the random name of the junction rather than a place: there are dozens of houses in visible distance of the junction.
 

backontrack

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I’m impressed, as it even hasn’t got a page on Wikipedia: so what, or exactly where, is Bowermadden? However, is it a coach service served by National Express, Megabus, Flixbus or Citylink as per the title? If the X99 is Citylink, I will be delighted.
The X99 isn't Citylink, but Citylink do allow you to buy tickets for it through their website.
 
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