What's the most tightly timed bus route you can think of?

175mph · 24 Jul 2019

When I look at the timetable for the Humber Fastcat 350 route, it doesn't appear to be be tightly timed from reading the times, however, on the way back to Scunthorpe, all it takes is for two or three minutes of a traffic delay on Anlaby Road in Hull to seemingly end up causing a late return back to Scunthorpe of at least 15 minutes. Then it becomes obvious that it is rather tightly timed.

What's the most tightly timed bus route anywhere you've ever come across? It can be a route within a town or city or a rural route serving several locations like the 350 route I just mentioned.

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TheGrandWazoo · 24 Jul 2019

175mph said:
When I look at the timetable for the Humber Fastcat 350 route, it doesn't appear to be be tightly timed from reading the times, however, on the way back to Scunthorpe, all it takes is for two or three minutes of a traffic delay on Anlaby Road in Hull to seemingly end up causing a late return back to Scunthorpe of at least 15 minutes. Then it becomes obvious that it is rather tightly timed.

What's the most tightly timed bus route anywhere you've ever come across? It can be a route within a town or city or a rural route serving several locations like the 350 route I just mentioned.

United Auto service 30 had a new timetable at deregulation courtesy of NYCC. Between the villages of Muker and Thwaite, the council allowed ONE minute - average speed required 80 mph on a Yorkshire Dales road.

You’ll not find tighter than that.

robk23oxf · 24 Jul 2019

The 19 between Witney and Carterton in Oxfordshire used to have a morning journey which required an average speed of 90mph between Bampton and Black Bourton to keep to time.

175mph · 24 Jul 2019

TheGrandWazoo said:
United Auto service 30 had a new timetable at deregulation courtesy of NYCC. Between the villages of Muker and Thwaite, the council allowed ONE minute - average speed required 80 mph on a Yorkshire Dales road.

You’ll not find tighter than that.

I bet that 99% of the time, the bus was at least a few minutes late.

philthetube · 24 Jul 2019

175mph said:
When I look at the timetable for the Humber Fastcat 350 route, it doesn't appear to be be tightly timed from reading the times, however, on the way back to Scunthorpe, all it takes is for two or three minutes of a traffic delay on Anlaby Road in Hull to seemingly end up causing a late return back to Scunthorpe of at least 15 minutes. Then it becomes obvious that it is rather tightly timed.

What's the most tightly timed bus route anywhere you've ever come across? It can be a route within a town or city or a rural route serving several locations like the 350 route I just mentioned.

This suggests that with no traffic it would be 12 late anyway, so 12 late is the best that it can perform. Is this correct?

Aidan1 · 24 Jul 2019

Tightest I’ve driven with First Glasgow is the SPT tendered 205, bus is never on time and at the terminus in Hamilton it only has 1 minute turnaround time.

175mph · 24 Jul 2019

philthetube said:
This suggests that with no traffic it would be 12 late anyway, so 12 late is the best that it can perform. Is this correct?

I'm not so sure, all I do know is from experience as a very regular user of that route, even when the traffic conditions have been OK, it is very rare for the bus to even get to the first stop within Scunthorpe on time.

Tom B · 24 Jul 2019

I recall reading several timetables in the SYPTE area where the recovery time between trips was 0 minutes.

PaulMc7 · 24 Jul 2019

The M11 between Clydebank and Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow has a 4 min turnaround at one end and 5 at the other and considering it's mainly older people that use it and it covers 2 main roads that's really not a lot

175mph · 24 Jul 2019

PaulMc7 said:
The M11 between Clydebank and Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow has a 4 min turnaround at one end and 5 at the other and considering it's mainly older people that use it and it covers 2 main roads that's really not a lot

And I hate to sound nasty here, but it won't be the elderly people helping keep the bus on time either, what with many being slower than younger people to enter and exit the bus and fumbling about for their concessionary passes.

PaulMc7 · 24 Jul 2019

175mph said:
And I hate to sound nasty here, but it won't be the elderly people helping keep the bus on time either, what with many being slower than younger people to enter and exit the bus and fumbling about for their concessionary passes.

Yeah if it's not the fumbling about then it's the ticket machine not working because they've got their pass in a thick sleeve or wallet

route101 · 25 Jul 2019

Aidan1 said:
Tightest I’ve driven with First Glasgow is the SPT tendered 205, bus is never on time and at the terminus in Hamilton it only has 1 minute turnaround time.

Have seen that run late back from Hairmyres a lot .

route101 · 25 Jul 2019

The late evening/nightbuses buses on the 6 for example out to East Kilbride seem to timed tightly , driver on the gas and shifted more quickly than usual . Think the times are up to 15 min more quicker than daytime

darloscott · 25 Jul 2019

Reading's Lion 4 once you drop to evening times is very tightly timed. I made the mistake recently of relying on it (2000 ex Reading if I remember right) to connect in Bracknell onto the last 703 of the night back to Heathrow and if I hadn't been rescued by a friend would have missed it by a long way. Starting in Reading nearly 10 min late having been late from the Depot didn't help and was about 20 min late by the time I bailed. It was still fairly busy and one of those trips where it was too busy to drop to evening running times.

Statto · 25 Jul 2019

41/42 Woodchurch-Mill Park circular at both ends, but new timetable it's a 5 minute wait at one end, buses can regully be 10 minutes late & later.

Jordan Adam · 25 Jul 2019

In Aberdeen due to an "admin" error a little while back the Stagecoach N17 service was timetabled to take 2 minute to travel from Union Square to Woodend Hospital. In order to manage this you'd have to travel at 115MPH!

Caleb2010 · 25 Jul 2019

According to the Elgin area timetable one of the journeys on the new service 39 gets 1 minute to get from Granton on Spey to Cromdale - 4.2 miles, I worked that out to something like just over 240 miles an hour. Not bad for a stagecoach enviro

Jordan Adam · 25 Jul 2019

Caleb2010 said:
According to the Elgin area timetable one of the journeys on the new service 39 gets 1 minute to get from Granton on Spey to Cromdale - 4.2 miles, I worked that out to something like just over 240 miles an hour. Not bad for a stagecoach enviro

Possible typo as the other journeys get 10 minutes? Although even then the rest of the timing to Aviemore on those runs would be wrong too.

Caleb2010 · 25 Jul 2019

Except Fri school days apparently!

Busaholic · 25 Jul 2019

Having once been a collector of old bus timetables, errors were rampant, mostly inadvertent I'm sure but some operators obviously never proof checked: can't say I really blamed them, it would be a thankless task to anyone other than an obsessive! The 'red book' London Transport timetables (mostly first and last journeys except on the sparsest of routes) were particularly bad in this regard.

Statto · 25 Jul 2019

Busaholic said:
Having once been a collector of old bus timetables, errors were rampant, mostly inadvertent I'm sure but some operators obviously never proof checked: can't say I really blamed them, it would be a thankless task to anyone other than an obsessive! The 'red book' London Transport timetables (mostly first and last journeys except on the sparsest of routes) were particularly bad in this regard.

I've got a few PTE timetables way back to the 70s, most PTE routes had what looks like generous timetable points compared to now, in my area[Merseyside] at least, i always remember the PTE buses waiting an age the last stop before the terminus so they get to the terminus on time, also there was buses on the same route already on layover, the PTE could have a 25 minute layover on routes sometimes longer & that's every journey not just a dinner break.

Nowadays it's getting buses to turn around asap, so you'll often see buses with as little as 2 minute layover, especially common on routes which take 28/58 minutes on either 15/30 or 60 minute frequency

Busaholic · 25 Jul 2019

Statto said:
I've got a few PTE timetables way back to the 70s, most PTE routes had what looks like generous timetable points compared to now, in my area[Merseyside] at least, i always remember the PTE buses waiting an age the last stop before the terminus so they get to the terminus on time, also there was buses on the same route already on layover, the PTE could have a 25 minute layover on routes sometimes longer & that's every journey not just a dinner break.

Nowadays it's getting buses to turn around asap, so you'll often see buses with as little as 2 minute layover, especially common on routes which take 28/58 minutes on either 15/30 or 60 minute frequency

Yes, the pendulum always seems to swing too far one way or the other! At one time finding terminal spaces for buses wasn't a huge problem in the majority of places, but with closure of bus stations and space being at a premium (with so many parking restrictions) now it's regarded as a necessary evil.

Caleb2010 · 25 Jul 2019

In Brighton and the surrounding area, during the pre go-ahead days, last journeys were speeded up in the timetable on purpose.

The driver's were going to put their foot down, so the company took advantage of this and were able to cut times and therefore duty length.

Darklord8899 · 25 Jul 2019

Not quite "tight timetabling"....but relevant none the less
but the other morning i was waiting a bus that had started out of the Garage (two stops before the one I was at) it was 10 minutes late

So if it left the Garage 10 mins late, what hope has it of ever being on time? Even with a slack schedule still going to be a task and a half!

Statto · 25 Jul 2019

Busaholic said:
Yes, the pendulum always seems to swing too far one way or the other! At one time finding terminal spaces for buses wasn't a huge problem in the majority of places, but with closure of bus stations and space being at a premium (with so many parking restrictions) now it's regarded as a necessary evil.

Yep, plus a lot of bus stations back then were also depots especially bus stations owned by NBC group companies, a lot of which have been sold to the developers, case in point Southport which was a depot & a bus station, now a supermarket.

_toommm_ · 25 Jul 2019

Tom B said:
I recall reading several timetables in the SYPTE area where the recovery time between trips was 0 minutes.

The old 34, which is now the 26 (Rotherham to Whiston circular) was given 14 minutes to do Bus Station to Greystones Road. Even if it left on time, it was always 5 minutes late by the time it left Broom Valley.

I always felt aswell that giving buses 11 minutes to get from Rotherham Bus Station to Rotherham Hosptial was far too tight even in light traffic, with how busy Moorgate Road was with students going to Thomas Rotherham College and it seemingly stopping at every stop.

Kahuna47 · 25 Jul 2019

The First GM 163 can be a bit tight, especially on Saturday evenings. They give you an hour to do the full trip, which can be just about done on normal evenings, but on a Saturday with all the revelers going into town you've got no chance. They've recently installed a speed alert thing on their Greenroad system so if you go over the speed limit, its tea and buscuits time.

At least it's only for a little while longer before the cowboys come to town and rip it out

K

lastbus · 25 Jul 2019

Darklord8899 said:
Not quite "tight timetabling"....but relevant none the less
but the other morning i was waiting a bus that had started out of the Garage (two stops before the one I was at) it was 10 minutes late

So if it left the Garage 10 mins late, what hope has it of ever being on time? Even with a slack schedule still going to be a task and a half!

Driver probably needed to get a change of bus before leaving depot.

Darklord8899 · 25 Jul 2019

lastbus said:
Driver probably needed to get a change of bus before leaving depot.

Probably, it has happened before ......
.....or he had to drop off a "big package" before he left

On a different occasion, the allocated bus wouldn't start, second allocated bus had faulty ticket machine, third time lucky and 15mins late he managed to leave Garage :lol:

vlad · 25 Jul 2019

It doesn't run any more but the evening First PMT 17 between Newcastle and Hanley was operated by a single vehicle with a 1-minute turnaround at each end.

It used to do 3 or 4 return journeys, so I've no idea how it managed to keep to time!

What's the most tightly timed bus route you can think of?

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