[TRIVIA] Longest Dead Runs

wiltshirebloke · 22 Sep 2019

Not sure if they actually have any local outstations, but Sullivans from Potters Bar run the 950 from Staines to Thorpe Park.
They also run a 951 Watford to Thorpe Park on Mondays to Fridays during school holidays, Saturdays and Public Holidays which cuts down on one dead mile route ! - these services only run when Thorpe Park is open.

RailUK Forums

Flange Squeal · 22 Sep 2019

wiltshirebloke said:
Not sure if they actually have any local outstations, but Sullivans from Potters Bar run the 950 from Staines to Thorpe Park.
They also run a 951 Watford to Thorpe Park on Mondays to Fridays during school holidays, Saturdays and Public Holidays which cuts down on one dead mile route ! - these services only run when Thorpe Park is open.

They have a licence for 5 vehicles at Thorpe Park.

richw · 22 Sep 2019

First Kernow have some pretty long dead runs.
Summercourt to Liskeard for the once daily 252 is approx 25 miles each way,

westcoaster · 24 Sep 2019

causton said:
I realise that this doesn't happen every day but Uno frequently seem to swap buses between their Hatfield and Northampton depots - at 53 miles probably straight down the M1 and A414 (ex-M10) that must be a fun ride for the drivers!

On a normal day, the 724 I believe is resourced only from Harlow depot and starts one run eastbound at St Albans - that is some dead run of 23 miles!

I'm sure there used to be a 724 run empty for the first northbound from Heathrow.

When holidaying in the lake District we followed a stagecoach bus all the way from Greenoad to near Sellafield, I suspect the bus came from barrow in Furness.

Simon75 · 25 Sep 2019

Some First Essex (Colchester) run dead to/from Clacton 15 miles away an Walton On the Naze 18 miles away

Simon75 · 25 Sep 2019

Arriva Midlands (Cannock)
Stafford town services run from Cannock garage about 10 miles away

northrob · 25 Sep 2019

A few years back, Arriva Yorkshire won the tender for the 142 York - Ripon service and operated it out of their Selby depot. While most of the service was operated by interworking the service with their existing 415 York - Selby service, at least one bus would run dead from Selby to Ripon and vice versa to commence or after working the early morning/late afternoon services - a distance of 43 miles...

Simon75 · 4 Oct 2019

Some First Potteries journeys on 'Kingfisher ' formerly the 32, run dead to/from Adderley Green garage to Uttoxeter 14 miles

njlawley · 5 Oct 2019

Last Christmas, Go South Coast ran some journeys on the Nat Ex 821 between Heathrow and Victoria. That would have involved dead runs of 98 and 110 miles!

MotCO · 5 Oct 2019

njlawley said:
Last Christmas, Go South Coast ran some journeys on the Nat Ex 821 between Heathrow and Victoria. That would have involved dead runs of 98 and 110 miles!

It would have made sense to run a live feeder service - are we sure this did not happen?

omnicity4659 · 5 Oct 2019

Unsure if Arriva's old X16 between Newcastle and Belford ran dead in between runs (one journey north in the morning, and one south in the evening)... but it would be 50 miles!

njlawley · 5 Oct 2019

MotCO said:
It would have made sense to run a live feeder service - are we sure this did not happen?

Nope, there was no interworking between that or the 806 from Poole.

Simon75 · 5 Nov 2019

Arriva Winsford, although still open major engineering has now closed, and comes from Runcorn

Deerfold · 5 Nov 2019

Simon75 said:
Arriva Winsford, although still open major engineering has now closed, and comes from Runcorn

What does?

Statto · 5 Nov 2019

Deerfold said:
What does?

He means buses based at Winsford, go dead to/from Runcorn if they require anything major being done to them.

Deerfold · 5 Nov 2019

Statto said:
He means buses based at Winsford, go dead to/from Runcorn if they require anything major being done to them.

That sounds like a different category to the rest of the thread. I'm guessing there's a lot of operators have minimal facilities at smaller depots.

221129 · 6 Nov 2019

Dartline run their Tiverton Town and the 398 Services from Clyst St Mary. With an additional vehicle acting as the staff taxi most days.

Jordan Adam · 6 Nov 2019

Stagecoach Bluebird have a duty on a Saturday morning that does one outbound run on the 35 from Aberdeen due to a error in the timetable. Because of this it returns to Aberdeen dead, the total dead distance is around 60 miles.

Statto · 6 Nov 2019

Jordan Adam said:
Stagecoach Bluebird have a duty on a Saturday morning that does one outbound run on the 35 from Aberdeen due to a error in the timetable. Because of this it returns to Aberdeen dead, the total dead distance is around 60 miles.

Lol, some North Scotland routes start very early because of the distances, 10 & 35 have a few short[in loose terms] journeys before 5am rather than run dead

Jordan Adam · 6 Nov 2019

Statto said:
Lol, some North Scotland routes start very early because of the distances, 10 & 35 have a few short[in loose terms] journeys before 5am rather than run dead

The 35 timetable is a bit of a mess, but in short the Aberdeen operated Saturday run isn't registered and was added on to all the timetables in error, rather than fix the mistake they just operate it anyway.

There's a similar error in the 220 timetable in that it gets 24 minutes to go from Northern Hotel to Craibstone P&R when it should really only get about 10 minutes.

InspectorBloke · 6 Nov 2019

Simon75 said:
Some First Essex (Colchester) run dead to/from Clacton 15 miles away an Walton On the Naze 18 miles away

To add, First Essex (Chelmsford) have quite a few long dead runs.

Chelmsford to Colchester (Sunday) - 26 miles
Chelmsford to Burnham-on-Crouch (Monday to Saturday) - 24 miles
Chelmsford to Southend (Daily) - 22 miles

BVW · 7 Nov 2019

jamesontheroad said:
In terms of an entire fleet, rather than one route, KonectBus in Dereham must clock up a shed load of dead heading miles. At least 15, maybe 20 of their buses run empty to/from Norwich every day to run the Park & Ride and city routes, which is a 30 mile round trip. Not all of them can be booked onto the 8, which seems to have its own fleet. You sometimes see two or three of them dead heading in convoy on the A47.

Do that six days a week and you’re adding 9,000 miles a year to each vehicle.

This certainly used to be the case several years ago but Konect have had an operating centre at Rackheath, just north of Norwich since 2015 to help minimise this.

extendedpaul · 8 Nov 2019

There's a T4 from Newtown to Cardiff departing at 06.35.

Would this run dead the 55 miles from Brecon Depot to Newtown ?

56131 EllColl · 8 Nov 2019

Evening SPT subsidised service 84B Kirkintillooch-Twechar-Kilsyth-Banton finishes at Banton and must return to McColls Dumbarton depot some 30miles by road perhaps on the twisty Strathblane roads! This service typically runs empty Kilsyth-Banton so in effect is a further three miles! Been like this for a.number of years and tendered to McColls same.

156443 · 8 Nov 2019

Go North East’s X21 service which operates from Chester-Le-Street depot has dead mileage from the depot to the starting point in Bishop Auckland and is 20 miles away

RELL6L · 8 Nov 2019

omnicity4659 said:
Unsure if Arriva's old X16 between Newcastle and Belford ran dead in between runs (one journey north in the morning, and one south in the evening)... but it would be 50 miles!

I think this runs dead from Ashington to Belford in the morning - 38 miles per the AA - for a 07.07 start. Looking at "Bus Times" at this journey and what the vehicle did the day before looks like it could be any bus (usually a decker at least on schooldays) that finishes at Ashington depot the day before. There do appear to be five buses outstationed somewhere at Alnwick - all deckers - two for the X15, two for the X18 and one for the X20 (which does an X15 Berwick return first thing). But I don't think the Belford starter comes from Alnwick. Having done one journey on the X18 it then runs dead from Alnwick to Longframlington to take up service on the X14 for much of the rest of the day.

Another long one is the Stagecoach 65 - the one from Sheffield to Buxton, operated by Chesterfield depot. One bus runs out from Chesterfield and back in service but the other appears to start and finish in Buxton. The evidence on "Bus Times" would suggest it runs dead to and from Chesterfield before and after, which is a long way - 24 miles of slow A-road. Stockport would be quite a bit closer! Intrigued to know how they do crew changes and breaks as there's no obvious inter-working opportunities for drivers and neither bus comes close to the depot all day. I guess they just work hard!

Mitch in Notts · 8 Nov 2019

RELL6L said:
Intrigued to know how they do crew changes and breaks as there's no obvious inter-working opportunities for drivers and neither bus comes close to the depot all day. I guess they just work hard!

Probably send a driver out to Sheffield on the X17 to change over and other driver returns same method. Trent barton do this quite a bit - you often get a number of drivers board the 'Black Cat' at Langley Mill depot going to the Ilkeston office & vice versa.

[TRIVIA] Longest Dead Runs

Member

RailUK Forums

Established Member

Veteran Member

Established Member

On Moderation

On Moderation

Member

On Moderation

Member

Established Member

Member

Member

On Moderation

Veteran Member

Established Member

Veteran Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member