Buses diverted off their normal route

Can anyone please enlighten me what is the position where a bus service is officially diverted off its normal route because of road works etc? Are they allowed to pick up or set down passengers at any bus stop while on the diverted part of the route?

Whiteway215 said:

Can anyone please enlighten me what is the position where a bus service is officially diverted off its normal route because of road works etc? Are they allowed to pick up or set down passengers at any bus stop while on the diverted part of the route?

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Buses are not allowed to pick up or drop off at stops on the diversionary route. There shouldn't be any passengers wishing to board/alight at these stops anyway as the service is not scheduled to go that way. When operators register a route they submit a map showing the route and the bus stops they intend to serve and this has to be adhered to.

robk23oxf said:

Buses are not allowed to pick up or drop off at stops on the diversionary route. . When operators register a route they submit a map showing the route and the bus stops they intend to serve and this has to be adhered to.

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This is not correct.
Buses are allowed to pick up and set down while they are on diversion.

Whether they do or not is down to the company running the route/local authority/TfL etc and generally decided on a case by case basis according to the circumstances of the diversion.

You don’t have to adjust the service registration with the Traffic Commissioner, unless the diversion is going to be over a certain amount of time (I think two weeks?) in which case you do need do need to re-register, but the cost is £0 instead of the usual charge.

With regards the point “There shouldn't be any passengers wishing to board/alight at these stops anyway as the service is not scheduled to go that way” this is often not the case - for example if buses have to serve the opposite side of a city centre than they usually do due to an event closing their normal route, then they will stop at alternative stops along the diversion route. I’m sure there’s unlimited examples of this but Leeds buses using Boar Lane instead of The Headrow is one that springs immediately to mind. If they didn’t stop along the diversion, no one would be able to get on or off in the city centre on the affected routes!

Similarly, a long diversion along a parallel road to the usual route will often see buses serve alternative stops, as this leaves a shorter walk to/from stops for affected passengers.

If a service is on an extremely long diversion, miles away from the normal route, that’s when you get into the territory of diverting non-stop as to do so wouldn’t benefit that route’s normal passengers and would exacerbate the delay from the diversion.

Whiteway215 said:

Can anyone please enlighten me what is the position where a bus service is officially diverted off its normal route because of road works etc? Are they allowed to pick up or set down passengers at any bus stop while on the diverted part of the route?

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TfL specify that buses must serve all stops on any diversion route although in practice that doesn't always happen. Elsewhere it seems to be variable.

Glasgow has frequent road closures due to parades, 10K Runs and the like, and First Glasgow don't pick up along the diversion route.

They put signs up for where the nearest stops are when the bus gets back on the correct route.

Stagecoach Hull make us pick up on diversion. Great in the area i live in. Our road runs parallel to one of the main roads, therefore any closure on there means our 30 minute bus service becomes a 5 minute service.

When advertising diversions on its website Network West Midlands ( https://www.networkwestmidlands.com/plan-your-journey/disruptions/ ) more often than not specifically states that "all stops on diversion will be served".

Cardiff Bus always appear to observe stops on diverted routes. The 17/18 in Ely sometimes travel up the whole of Cowbridge Road West instead of Grand Avenue and on the email I had the other day they said all stops on the diverted routes will be served.

By contrast, buses from the north and east of the city enter via Station Terrace and Customhouse Street as opposed to Dumfries Place, Greyfriars Road and the castle on Friday and Saturday night for crowd safety (pubs on Mill Lane/Lower St Mary Street etc) and buses have set bus stops.

robk23oxf said:

Buses are not allowed to pick up or drop off at stops on the diversionary route. There shouldn't be any passengers wishing to board/alight at these stops anyway as the service is not scheduled to go that way. When operators register a route they submit a map showing the route and the bus stops they intend to serve and this has to be adhered to.

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This is incorrect.

Additionally more often than not bus stops on a diversion route will be served as an alternative to a stop on the main route. In some cases if a diversion route does not have any bus stops temporary bus stops will be put in place, with the stopping arrangement agreed through the local authority, if the street has on street parking they will put restrictions around the area where the temporary stop is in order to allow the bus to get near the pavement.

However it should be noted that even then a driver can board/alight passengers at any point (this includes even on a normal route away from a bus stop). In some cases bus stops are poorly positioned or located in a way that it's either unsafe for the bus to stop there and/or the bus cannot get to the pavement properly, as such drivers will often stop quite some distance before the stop or quite some distance after. Again this is perfectly lawful provided it's "safe to do so". Who predicts where is safe? Well this is down to drivers judgement and some common sense (e.g it's unsafe to board or alight on/close to a junction). Finally many bus routes may "officially" operate on a "Hail & Ride" whereby there are no bus stops and as such again it falls down to the driver to decide where is and isn't safe to stop. All that actually matters is that a bus on a registered service serves all bus stops where possible and safe to do so.

AB93 said:

You don’t have to adjust the service registration with the Traffic Commissioner, unless the diversion is going to be over a certain amount of time (I think two weeks?) in which case you do need do need to re-register, but the cost is £0 instead of the usual charge.

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Not sure on exactly the amount of time, however it's certainly more than two weeks. We've had loads of lengthy diversions lately with many lasting well over a month. Only one of these has required a service alteration to be submitted and that was simply because First wanted to add additional running time, extra timing point at one end of the diversion route and an extra bus on to the PVR. However there was no requirement for them to do any of that and another service was on diversion in the same area for the same length of time and they didn't submit any changes as the diversion could be done without drastically affecting punctuality.

Pluto said:

TfL specify that buses must serve all stops on any diversion route although in practice that doesn't always happen. Elsewhere it seems to be variable.

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Indeed, it's typically just down to company policy and/or an agreement with the local authority and community council groups. There's no real legal standing here. Indeed it's not uncommon for the council to put in a temporary bus stop which a company and it's drivers deem unsafe to serve so instead will pull over to board/alight at a different spot nearby.

Jordan Adam said:

This is incorrect.

Additionally more often than not bus stops on a diversion route will be served as an alternative to a stop on the main route. In some cases if a diversion route does not have any bus stops temporary bus stops will be put in place, with the stopping arrangement agreed through the local authority, if the street has on street parking they will put restrictions around the area where the temporary stop is in order to allow the bus to get near the pavement.

However it should be noted that even then a driver can board/alight passengers at any point (this includes even on a normal route away from a bus stop). In some cases bus stops are poorly positioned or located in a way that it's either unsafe for the bus to stop there and/or the bus cannot get to the pavement properly, as such drivers will often stop quite some distance before the stop or quite some distance after. Again this is perfectly lawful provided it's "safe to do so". Who predicts where is safe? Well this is down to drivers judgement and some common sense (e.g it's unsafe to board or alight on/close to a junction). Finally many bus routes may "officially" operate on a "Hail & Ride" whereby there are no bus stops and as such again it falls down to the driver to decide where is and isn't safe to stop. All that actually matters is that a bus on a registered service serves all bus stops where possible and safe to do so.



Not sure on exactly the amount of time, however it's certainly more than two weeks. We've had loads of lengthy diversions lately with many lasting well over a month. Only one of these has required a service alteration to be submitted and that was simply because First wanted to add additional running time, extra timing point at one end of the diversion route and an extra bus on to the PVR. However there was no requirement for them to do any of that and another service was on diversion in the same area for the same length of time and they didn't submit any changes as the diversion could be done without drastically affecting punctuality.



Indeed, it's typically just down to company policy and/or an agreement with the local authority and community council groups. There's no real legal standing here. Indeed it's not uncommon for the council to put in a temporary bus stop which a company and it's drivers deem unsafe to serve so instead will pull over to board/alight at a different spot nearby.

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It's difficult to have a one size fits all rule as there can be so many variations in circumstances.

AB93 said:

This is not correct.
Buses are allowed to pick up and set down while they are on diversion.

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Good to learn something new! I guess circumstances are different in different operating areas. I drive rural routes where a diversion normally means driving miles off route, often missing out whole villages and therefore running non-stop is necessary to keep to time although I wasn't aware it's not legally required. I actually did a diversion yesterday and offered to set down at a point (not at a bus stop) that would be as near as possible to a village I was unable to serve before I continued on the detour.

Some places wont let you pick on diversion. The fare stage wont even be available on the ticket machine. Thats the drawback of modern technology.

Smethwickian said:

When advertising diversions on its website Network West Midlands ( https://www.networkwestmidlands.com/plan-your-journey/disruptions/ ) more often than not specifically states that "all stops on diversion will be served".

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Nice to have notice, around here either most closures are emergency works or the information isn't going to the independents that serve our villages.

To change the subject of the topic slightly has any operator made use of digital displays to give some details of the diversion, in bad weather when my local bus service is often diverted the additional time taken loading is quite noticeable while the driver explains to each passenger who enquires where it actually going.

Thank you all for your informed comments. The reason I asked originally was because I joined a bus on normal route and was allowed to get off at a stop on the diversion. When I tried to return from the bus stop on the diversion the driver refused to let me on (despite a completely empty double decker)
Hence I was unsure of what was allowed.

Whiteway215 said:

Thank you all for your informed comments. The reason I asked originally was because I joined a bus on normal route and was allowed to get off at a stop on the diversion. When I tried to return from the bus stop on the diversion the driver refused to let me on (despite a completely empty double decker)
Hence I was unsure of what was allowed.

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I can understand the driver not letting you on, he probably assumed that you were a regular user of that stop ignoring the destination display.

PeterC said:

I can understand the driver not letting you on, he probably assumed that you were a regular user of that stop ignoring the destination display.

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Well he could have asked me! He was stuck in a line of traffic right next to the bus stop for about three minutes.

Whiteway215 said:

Well he could have asked me! He was stuck in a line of traffic right next to the bus stop for about three minutes.

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That's poor from the driver.

Mwanesh said:

Some places wont let you pick on diversion. The fare stage wont even be available on the ticket machine. Thats the drawback of modern technology.

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Some drivers make up their own set of rules!