Strangest bus destination screens?

NorthernSpirit · 17 Feb 2020

geoffk said:
The last bus at night from Halifax still terminates at Portsmouth.

You can also bus it from Otley to both Weston and Cambridge, 965 to Weston (also serves Wharfedale hospital and Newall) and the 964 serves Cambridge Drive but from what I remember bus destination blinds did show it as "Cambridge 964".

There's also an Eastbourne in Pontefract, however any buses will simply show Chequerfield on the blind.

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Statto · 17 Feb 2020

TheGrandWazoo said:
Been through Pity Me many times. Most (all?) routes that head from Chester le Street to Durham so they tend to pass through and always did.

There is the Arnison Centre (a sprawling retail park with a large Sainsbury) nearby and the local services to Newton Hall and Brasside that loop around the large housing development (rather than head to Pity Me) were extended there in the early 1990s but the services continue to stop short of Pity Me.

@Geordie driver might recall if journeys ever did run TO Wideopen. I can remember it being served by the slow Morpeth stopper, but don't know if any local services terminated there or if all continued to Brunswick/Dinnington?

Arriva 43 Newcastle-Cramlington-Morpeth runs through Wideopen, Arriva 45 Newcastle-Dinnington runs through part of the Village then goes down Stalks Road to Dinnington.

philthetube · 17 Feb 2020

Burnley and Pendle used to have many Terminating at Heifer Lane, which was where the Colne depot was, the only issue being that there is no evidence that there ever was a Heifer lane in the area.

341o2 · 17 Feb 2020

London Country 464 to Holland and another to Fort Halstead, also Kemsing Noah's Ark
London trolleybus destination "Nr Willesden Jcn"
and for passenger enquiries
"What do I get for the Elephant (as in Elephant & Castle)
"Try buns"
"Is this a Barking bus?" - "No, it only goes broom broom!"

Statto · 17 Feb 2020

Rhodes is an area of Middleton in Manchester, don't know if buses ever showed it on blinds or on via blinds.

talltim · 17 Feb 2020

richw said:
How about a spelling mistake. Should be Quintrell Downs

I frequently see an A1 service in Sheffield going to Medowhall

Bookd · 17 Feb 2020

Stockton Corporation used to have a destination of SWEETHILLS which sounded like a good place for a picnic; in fact it was a paint research site on the edge of the ICI chemical works.

Geordie driver · 17 Feb 2020

geoffk said:
The last bus at night from Halifax still terminates at Portsmouth.

A few others (mostly of historic interest now as I've shown the former operator)

Babes-in-the-Wood Yorkshire Woollen District
Tea House Barrow Corporation
Two Ball Lonnen Newcastle Corporation
Spittal Tongs ditto
Sea Beach Aberdeen Corporation
Bleak House Burnley, Colne & Nelson Jt Committee
Bleachworks Wigan Corporation
Water Rawtenstall Corporation
Battery Morecambe & Heysham Corporation
Bare ditto
Barming Maidstone Corporation
Clock Face St. Helens Corporation

Growing up in Bristol I never found Sea Mills or Fis

geoffk said:
The last bus at night from Halifax still terminates at Portsmouth.

A few others (mostly of historic interest now as I've shown the former operator)

Babes-in-the-Wood Yorkshire Woollen District
Tea House Barrow Corporation
Two Ball Lonnen Newcastle Corporation
Spittal Tongs ditto
Sea Beach Aberdeen Corporation
Bleak House Burnley, Colne & Nelson Jt Committee
Bleachworks Wigan Corporation
Water Rawtenstall Corporation
Battery Morecambe & Heysham Corporation
Bare ditto
Barming Maidstone Corporation
Clock Face St. Helens Corporation

Growing up in Bristol I never found Sea Mills or Fishponds odd but some visitors find them amusing.

Spittal Tongues, nice little place right on the edge of Newcastle city centre. I was about to say no services would have it as a destination but then remembered the 9/9a, Kenton Bar circular via Spittal Tongues on the screen, driven this service probably thousands of times. It was this service I was talking about in another thread where we were expected to drive for 5 and a half hours without a break, how I loathed it!

341o2 · 17 Feb 2020

Hell in Norway, served by both bus and train
New York has Polar Bear Junction, the service also goes to Bronx Zoo

Bletchleyite · 17 Feb 2020

Bookd said:
Stockton Corporation used to have a destination of SWEETHILLS which sounded like a good place for a picnic; in fact it was a paint research site on the edge of the ICI chemical works.

It does seem that nasty places seem to have nice names, doesn't it? One that springs to mind (outside the UK) is "Muemmelmannsberg" in Hamburg, which translates as "Bunny Hill" but is in fact just about the nastiest, roughest and ugliest major complex of Council flats you can imagine, not dissimilar in concept to the Byker wall in Newcastle.

duncombec · 17 Feb 2020

Bletchleyite said:
[...] One that springs to mind (outside the UK) is "Muemmelmannsberg" in Hamburg, which translates as "Bunny Hill" but is in fact just about the nastiest, roughest and ugliest major complex of Council flats you can imagine, [...]

Actually "hare hill", so given the Hare is arguably the Bunny's uglier cousin, perhaps it is accurate!

Bletchleyite · 17 Feb 2020

duncombec said:
Actually "hare hill", so given the Hare is arguably the Bunny's uglier cousin, perhaps it is accurate!

In a typical "Denglisch" way the locals do actually call it "Bunny Hill", though.

"Hare Hill" does somehow sound a bit more like an ugly council estate, though it's also not on a hill per-se. It's more the sort of name you'd expect for e.g. those tower blocks that used to stand above the station in Sheffield.

duncombec · 17 Feb 2020

Kent can offer the perennial humourous destinations of "Hoo" (albeit with a qualifier of "Marina" or "St John's Road") and "Wye".

Less obviously funny, "Sandwich", (for hungry bus drivers?), and "Deal". Buses also pass through River, although it looks like only one journey on Mon-Fri school holidays actually terminates there, most continuing to other destinations.

And surely there are buses that terminate at "Ware".
Customer (dumps money on tray): "Ware".
Driver: Where?
Customer: Ware.
Driver: Yes, where?
Customer: Ware.
Driver: I'm going to Ware. Where are you going?
Customer: Ware!

duncombec · 17 Feb 2020

Bletchleyite said:
In a typical "Denglisch" way the locals do actually call it "Bunny Hill", though.

"Hare Hill" does somehow sound a bit more like an ugly council estate, though it's also not on a hill per-se. It's more the sort of name you'd expect for e.g. those tower blocks that used to stand above the station in Sheffield.

Ah, I'd never heard that, but then again, I don't think I ventured to Hamburg's eastern suburbs very often - perhaps a trip to Bergedorf once or twice. Most of my dealings were North and West, or further out into Schleswig-Holstein.

Bletchleyite · 17 Feb 2020

duncombec said:
Ah, I'd never heard that, but then again, I don't think I ventured to Hamburg's eastern suburbs very often - perhaps a trip to Bergedorf once or twice. Most of my dealings were North and West, or further out into Schleswig-Holstein.

The Wiki article (in German) suggests it's falling out of use, though, my experience is late-90s.

It is however used as a name for the ground of a local baseball team.

Anyway, back to buses (which do have the correct name on the front!)...

Deerfold · 17 Feb 2020

duncombec said:
Kent can offer the perennial humourous destinations of "Hoo" (albeit with a qualifier of "Marina" or "St John's Road") and "Wye".

Less obviously funny, "Sandwich", (for hungry bus drivers?), and "Deal". Buses also pass through River, although it looks like only one journey on Mon-Fri school holidays actually terminates there, most continuing to other destinations.

And surely there are buses that terminate at "Ware".
Customer (dumps money on tray): "Ware".
Driver: Where?
Customer: Ware.
Driver: Yes, where?
Customer: Ware.
Driver: I'm going to Ware. Where are you going?
Customer: Ware!

My wife used to live in Ware.

She never tires of me saying "What was that place you used to live during your placement year"? "Ware" "Sorry, yes, Where was it you used to live?".

And by never, I mean the first time I did it.

Deerfold · 17 Feb 2020

Bletchleyite said:
In a typical "Denglisch" way the locals do actually call it "Bunny Hill", though.

"Hare Hill" does somehow sound a bit more like an ugly council estate, though it's also not on a hill per-se. It's more the sort of name you'd expect for e.g. those tower blocks that used to stand above the station in Sheffield.

Harehills is a suburb to the east of Leeds. It's fairly rough.

NorthOxonian · 17 Feb 2020

Deerfold said:
My wife used to live in Ware.

She never tires of me saying "What was that place you used to live during your placement year"? "Ware" "Sorry, yes, Where was it you used to live?".

And by never, I mean the first time I did it.

Worse, I went to university with a lad who was the youngest ever mayor of Ware. You can imagine the jokes!

TheGrandWazoo · 17 Feb 2020

Statto said:
Arriva 43 Newcastle-Cramlington-Morpeth runs through Wideopen, Arriva 45 Newcastle-Dinnington runs through part of the Village then goes down Stalks Road to Dinnington.

The 45 to Dinnington was what I remembered. The Morpeth one ran via Wideopen and Stannington as the 414/5 which later became the 44 before culled, rather than the circuitous 43.

Statto · 17 Feb 2020

Speke in Liverpool, is a strange destination too, bringing the old jokes

Passenger, "is this bus going to Speke"
Driver "I've been driving it all day, & still hasn't said a word"

How do i get a Parrot to Speak, send it on the 82 bus!

Mentions of Cemetery Gates brings up destinations from On The Buses sitcom.

Simon75 · 17 Feb 2020

duncombec said:
Kent can offer the perennial humourous destinations of "Hoo" (albeit with a qualifier of "Marina" or "St John's Road") and "Wye".

Less obviously funny, "Sandwich", (for hungry bus drivers?), and "Deal". Buses also pass through River, although it looks like only one journey on Mon-Fri school holidays actually terminates there, most continuing to other destinations.

And surely there are buses that terminate at "Ware".
Customer (dumps money on tray): "Ware".
Driver: Where?
Customer: Ware.
Driver: Yes, where?
Customer: Ware.
Driver: I'm going to Ware. Where are you going?
Customer: Ware!

Arriva have a garage in Ware

Simon75 · 17 Feb 2020

PMT has buses that had Oxford on it it
In Devon or Cornwall there is a Sheffield

delt1c · 17 Feb 2020

When I worked at LT Dalston Garage on 11's , we used to go to "Worlds End". Interestingly we always returned.

Busaholic · 17 Feb 2020

Simon75 said:
PMT has buses that had Oxford on it it
In Devon or Cornwall there is a Sheffield

Sheffield is a hamlet in West Cornwall reached by a rather steep hill from Newlyn, with a regular daytime bus service, the no. 5, from Penzance that terminates there and does, indeed, show SHEFFIELD as its destination. Gave me a surprise when I moved to PZ in 1988!

Is there still a bus from Canterbury to Preston?

Busaholic · 17 Feb 2020

delt1c said:
When I worked at LT Dalston Garage on 11's , we used to go to "Worlds End". Interestingly we always returned.

I only remember Chelsea, Stanley Arms on the blinds though. As an aside, did you get many passengers beyond Liverpool Street on ''when working'' garage journeys via Bethnal Green Road?

Bletchleyite · 17 Feb 2020

I guess a lot of them are to do with odd pub names. "Black Bull" was a common one in north Liverpool. "No, it's not a bull, it's a bus".

Elephant and Castle is probably a classically odd combination!

I always thought buses showing "Australia" were a bit lost (this is in the Porthmadog area; the town centre stops are called that because of, again, the name of the pub where they are).

delt1c · 17 Feb 2020

Busaholic said:
I only remember Chelsea, Stanley Arms on the blinds though. As an aside, did you get many passengers beyond Liverpool Street on ''when working'' garage journeys via Bethnal Green Road?

Rarely passengers beyond Liverpool St for Bethnal Green road, wont go into detail reasons why here. Different story in the morning as always picked up passengers. similairly when 9's worked via Dalston Junction picked in morning outward and 47's via Hackney road was same. Interesting route taken on 9's and 11's was from Shoreditch to Liverpool St.

Contains Nuts · 17 Feb 2020

I also like Fatherless Barn in the West Midlands (213/214 from Cradley Heath) and Whirly Barn in Cheshire (19 from Macclesfield, although buses all now run through to Prestbury).

Whistler40145 · 17 Feb 2020

Morecambe Battery always sounds like an interesting destination

Bletchleyite · 17 Feb 2020

One of the disreputable small operators serving MK on tendered services (remember those?) used to have a blind that said Wolverton. Not a lot remarkable there. Except it didn't, because they had made a mistake ordering it and had ordered it with Wolverhampton, so they coloured in "hamp" in black marker pen and sent it out anyway.

Strangest bus destination screens?

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