[Trivia] The Smallest Difference Between Two Services

Simple version: What’s the smallest difference between two services?

Rules are:

• Compare the full route of one service to the full route of another service
• We can talk about the difference in number of stops served, the number of unique stops, the difference in stops served compared to the length of an overall route… different areas of the country will have different levels of difference! Any local suggestions welcome though (so we can see the “smallest” in each region of the UK)
• The two services can both be current or both be historic but must have been operated by the same operator in the same era (a simple renumbering wouldn’t qualify – e.g. many operators removed the “hundred” from route numbers in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, so a 473 would become a 73, but as these were service numbers used at different times they wouldn’t qualify for this thread)
• By “operator” I’d include all operations under the same ultimate company (e.g. for the purposes of this thread, Magicbus is the same as Stagecoach, First Leeds is the same as First Bradford, Yorkshire Tiger is the same as Arriva, everything under one group is considered part of that same group)
• By “difference” I mean *anything* with a different number or letter. So, for example, the 73 is a different service to the 72 or the 73a or the X73 or the 73X or the 74… any distinction in the route number/ prefix/ suffix etc is a different service for the purposes of this thread.
• Let’s say that routes must each have at least half a dozen stops (e.g. you can’t compare two services that are non-stop between termini)
• I’m fine with “Express” services (e.g. comparing a peak “express” service to the regular stopping version of that service) but we are talking “buses” rather than “coaches” (no National Express, no Scottish Citylink)
  
• I’m fine with a different number for “premium” journeys (e.g. a night bus, where the N73 is numbered that to show that regular fares charged on the daytime 73 aren’t permitted), as long as there is at least some difference in stops
• I’m fine with “part route” numbers (like a “73E” to denote “exceptional” journeys on the 73 corridor) – as long as we are comparing the full length of each separate service
• I’m *not* counting examples where the council have a separate number to distinguish subsidised journeys on otherwise identical routes – I know that this is the case (or has been the case) in the Central Belt and Merseyside – as that isn’t necessarily any different to the commercial route – but would accept examples where the council subsidised service differs slightly from the commercial journeys (e.g. the tendered 135a from Rotherham to Sheffield sticks to the main road at the Rotherham end, compared to the regular commercial 135 journeys)

A few examples:

In Dundee, some journeys on the cross-city 22 corridor were extended beyond Downfield to serve a new housing development (half hourly, compared to the main ten minute service) and numbered 22c to distinguish them as serving Craigowl – again, only a handful of stops.


In Edinburgh, some eastbound journeys on the long established LRT/Lothian Buses Wallyford – Balerno service used to run anti-clockwise around Balerno rather than along the east side in both directions. These journeys (roughly hourly) were numbered 43 and later 44a to distinguish them from the main 44. The difference was only a couple of stops (compared to the 44). Everything now runs anti-clockwise around Balerno now, so only one number required. There were also only fairly minor differences between cross-city journeys on routes like the 9/10 corridor or the 5/51 corridor

In Sheffield there’s only three stops difference beteween the 72 and 72a (the difference being the “business park” at Tankersley)

But I'm sure you can do better than me...

The 13 and 13A between Cambridge and Haverhill differ only in taking as slightly different route leaving Haverhill.

The first/Midland Bluebird service 38 and x38 were almost identical, and from what I remember the only difference (I think?) was that the 38 turned into Newbridge before hitting the roundabout where as the x38 went straight on to the roundabout like it does now as a standard 38.

Oh and we eventually got a change with 38 and 38A, the same bus except the A would divert via the Gyle shopping centre in both directions to and from Edinburgh.

Quite a few examples on the Isle of Man, my favourite being the 1H. This only runs in one direction, towards Douglas, and is the same as a 1 except it extends a few hundred yards to the Business Park. Except it actually runs between Douglas and business park as a 10, and doesn't do it on a schoolday. So it's basically no different to a 1.

Bus Vannin is a great example of what happens when busmen pedantry doesn't have a marketing team to dilute it

Here in Newcastle we have the 32 and 32A, no difference except one is clockwise and one anti-clockwise.

From 1963 to 1970 LT route 194 became a 194C on a Sunday, the only route variation was a diversion in Shirley via Shirley Way rather than the direct Shirley Road causing an additional .4 of a mile, 704 yards in old money . At London Transport in those days all route variations from the main service number had to have a suffix letter.

21 vs N21 on Go North East - the latter extends to many Durham University colleges, but that only adds a handful of stops.

I don't know to what extent you count loops, but routes like the 53/54, 93/94, and so on run on virtually the same streets, but completely different stops.

The various 2 routes from Oxford to Kidlington just take different routes within the latter. You also have the 1 and 5 (which are the exact same route but different operators), but this may not count. The X39 and X40 run on the same route but one of them serves Woodcote (which only has a handful of stops) and the other runs fast. But the X38 is completely different - running via Henley and the eastern part of Caversham despite having the same branding as the X39 and X40!

An unusual one is the 400 and U1 in Oxford. One is a park and ride service (and is limited stop in some areas), the other is a Brookes University service (and extends to Wheatley), but in terms of roads served, they run the exact same route in urban Oxford.

The 10/10A between Bollington and Macclesfield?

Would 10/10A Liverpool-St Helens count, both follow mostly the same route Liverpool-Prescot & Toll Bar-St Helens, but the 10 follows the A58 through Eccleston Park, whilst the 10A goes via Whiston Hospital, Rainhill & Thatto Heath, also daytime 10 starts at Victoria Street & terminates Queen Square in Liverpool, 10A Liverpool One bus station. The frequencies are different as well 10 is every 20 minutes daytime, 30 evening & Sunday, 10A, every 6 minutes daytime, 10 Sunday daytime, 15 evenings & Sunday mornings, 10 is Arriva, 10A Arriva & Stagecoach joint service.

2/2A in Dudley. Only difference is off peak 2A journeys go via Brierley Hill fire station

Nottingham City Transport's 10C serves five extra stops compared with the 10, amounting to less than a mile of extra route.

In the mid-2010s, the First 98 and Arriva 92 (I think) ran identical routes between Newcastle-u-L and the Stoke suburb of Ball Green. The timetables on the two routes changed far too often as both companies tried to get the upper hand

When Arriva bowed out of Stoke their depots were taken over by D&G, who promptly stopped running the 92 for fairly obvious reasons.

NorthOxonian said:

The various 2 routes from Oxford to Kidlington just take different routes within the latter. You also have the 1 and 5 (which are the exact same route but different operators), but this may not count. The X39 and X40 run on the same route but one of them serves Woodcote (which only has a handful of stops) and the other runs fast. But the X38 is completely different - running via Henley and the eastern part of Caversham despite having the same branding as the X39 and X40!

An unusual one is the 400 and U1 in Oxford. One is a park and ride service (and is limited stop in some areas), the other is a Brookes University service (and extends to Wheatley), but in terms of roads served, they run the exact same route in urban Oxford.

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Thought of a few of these, the 1 and 5 don't count I think as they are different operators but they are fairly unusual as they are a partnership service with co-ordinated timetable and identical routes, yet different numbers!
Also in Oxford the 16/16A, where the 16A has a small loop off the main route skipping one stop. Another set of routes are the X3, 13 and X13 - the X3 runs Abingdon to Oxford whilst the 13 runs Oxford to the JR Hospital - the X13 is a Sunday variant which links the two services together and provides a through service.

LRT also have a couple of 34 journeys which go to/from Royal Mail at Sighthill, at 5am or whatnot, only one extra stop serviced.

First Mainline had a few school journeys on the 57 service in Doncaster which diverted to serve a school, between two stops about 150 yards apart, diversion was maybe 500 yards.