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TRIVIA: when have bus companies "renamed" a destination

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TheGrandWazoo

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Following on from the strangest destination screens, something entered my head.

When have companies simply decided that a place that they have always called X was suddenly renamed on their blinds, timetables etc.

As a youngster, buses in Teesside would head to Errington Park Estate until the early 1990s when it suddenly became New Marske.

More recently, in Bristol, buses to the Centre became City Centre, and buses to Cherry Gardens became Bitton. No changes of route or anything.

Any others??
 
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carlberry

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Following on from the strangest destination screens, something entered my head.

When have companies simply decided that a place that they have always called X was suddenly renamed on their blinds, timetables etc.

As a youngster, buses in Teesside would head to Errington Park Estate until the early 1990s when it suddenly became New Marske.

More recently, in Bristol, buses to the Centre became City Centre, and buses to Cherry Gardens became Bitton. No changes of route or anything.

Any others??
Not the same thing however sometime about 1980 the timing point for buses in Filton, Bristol was changed from Filton (Church) to Filton (Anchor) to reflect where the stops actually were. Cue several stroppy letters to the company and the local paper about how the company was encouraging people to drink and turning it's back on the church!
 

175mph

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The Scunthorpe to Hull 350 route use to say Hull Station on any buses with electronic destination screens, up until the new St Stephen's shopping center and new interchange at the train station opened, now it says Hull Interchange on the destination screens.
 

PeterC

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TfL seems to have abandoned " North Romford (Chase Cross)" for route 103 and gone over to simply "Chase Cross". Looking at the online route diagram they haven't kept the old London Transport names for stops.

I imagine that this is replicated across their network as they seem to have dropped the old style "Area (location)" style of destination.
 

ACBest

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There will be some in Stevenage/Hitchin soon as I’ve just finished the new set of displays for Centrebus. The 80 which currently shows Ninesprings will now show Purwell Estate. The 96/96A circulars just show Letchworth all the way round at the moment - these will now show Stotfold (96) or Arlesey (96A) on departure from Letchworth.

Last year when I did Grantham’s, anything showing ‘Grantham Bus Station’ was changed to either ‘Bus Station’ if it originated in the town, or ‘Grantham’ if it starts from outside.
 

tbtc

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Funnily enough, I was thinking of this theme on Wednesday... on a tram back from Crystal Peaks into Sheffield I passed the sign for "Elm Tree House" (on the way up from Gleadless to Manor Top).

At some time (1980ish?) South Yorkshire Transport changed "Manor Top" to the quainter sounding "Elm Tree". There's nowt quaint about Manor Top (as referred to in Reverend & The Makers "Heavyweight Champion Of The World") - it's the top of the hill near the large Manor Park council estate (and bordering other similar areas) - maybe someone thought that Elm Tree would sound more picturesque?

We've had others in Sheffield - e.g. when the SYT 21 to nearby "Woodthorpe" was replaced by the Eager Beaver 92 (in the days of double deckers being replaced by minibuses in funky colours with "cheap and cheerful" branding) the destination became the more interesting sounding "Fishponds" (despite the terminus being the same triangle of roads that the 21 had served).

The 31's northern terminus changed from Lower Walkley to Hillsborough.

The southern terminus of the long running 76 changed subtly from "Low Edges" to "Lowedges" shortly after Stagecoach started a competing 87 that referred to the suburb as one word rather than two (locals refer to it as one word, but there are other places in Sheffield where the Edge is a separate word, e.g. Nether Edge).

The SYT/Mainline/First 52 changed the name of its eastern terminus from "Woodhouse" to "Woodhouse Station" when the competing Stagecoach 52 was extended to Woodhouse Village.

To avoid doubt, the 31/52/76 continued to terminate in the same place, it's just the name used that changed.

Also, possibly not on any destination blinds, but we now refer to an area on the Sheffield/Rotherham border as "Waverley" and any mention of "Orgreave" has been banished to the 1980s (no buses terminate there, so it's off topic for this thread, but I guess nobody wants to be associated with the excesses of the Miners' Strike).

(yet, despite all this, a timetable for one of my parents local service continued to show a stop at "Safeway" ten years after the shop had become Morrisons)

More recently, in Bristol, buses to the Centre became City Centre

That's one I'd always wondered about but never got round to asking anyone - I didn't know if "Centre" was a particular place in the city centre (or just referred to the general area)?

Kind of the opposite of the Scottish thing of putting "The" at the start of something to make it sound grander (often applied to whisky brands but also referring to Waverley Station in Edinburgh as "The Waverley").
 

Andyh82

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More recently, in Bristol, buses to the Centre became City Centre, and buses to Cherry Gardens became Bitton. No changes of route or anything.

Any others??
Isn't "Centre" specifically the public square that was recently revamped, rather than the whole city centre?
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Isn't "Centre" specifically the public square that was recently revamped, rather than the whole city centre?

Formerly known as 'Tramway Centre' i.e. basically Colston Hall.

Yes and no....

The Centre is indeed the old Tramways Centre aka Colston Avenue. In recent times, Centre was being used as a more general term so now it is City Centre (Rupert Street), for example.
 

Ostrich

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Thinking of the number 9 service from Birmingham down the Hagley Road ...

Back in the 1950's, when the then BCT terminus was up the top end of Quinton, buses stopping short and coming off service for the short run up Ridgacre Lane to Quinton garage showed the destination blind "9E Holly Bush" - their last stop on Hagley Road West being outside the large pub of the same name.

Sometime - much more recently in WMT days - that pub became a nightclub and I'm fairly sure bus destination displays were changed to reflect the new name. I can't recall now what it was - maybe someone with more local knowledge will know!

That nightclub has since reverted to a Toby Carvery and regained its original name of The Holly Bush; the bus-stop outside it, however, is now designated "Quinton Lane Island" ….
 

madannie77

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Funnily enough, I was thinking of this theme on Wednesday... on a tram back from Crystal Peaks into Sheffield I passed the sign for "Elm Tree House" (on the way up from Gleadless to Manor Top).

At some time (1980ish?) South Yorkshire Transport changed "Manor Top" to the quainter sounding "Elm Tree". There's nowt quaint about Manor Top (as referred to in Reverend & The Makers "Heavyweight Champion Of The World") - it's the top of the hill near the large Manor Park council estate (and bordering other similar areas) - maybe someone thought that Elm Tree would sound more picturesque?

It was the other way round. When I was growing up in Sheffield everyone I knew called the area Manor Top and as a young child it puzzled me that Sheffield Transport referred to it as Elm Tree, which was merely the name of a pub just down Mansfield road from the top of the hill.

None of the Sheffield Transport and SYPTE timetables (dating from 1929 to 1989) in my collection uses the name Manor Top other than occasional mentions in timetables as Elm Tree (Manor Top); I don't recall seeing Manor Top on a timetable instead of Elm Tree until the early 90s, when timetable books had been replaced by a mass of leaflets (none of which I am able to access at the moment).

On the trams it was shown as Intake (Elm Tree) on the blinds until the demise of the Prince of Wales Road Route in 1958.
 

Flange Squeal

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On Stagecoach South’s route 9 circular service in Farnborough, three timing points are listed as ‘Cove’ - Whetstone Road Shops, Cripley Road and Nash Close. The last one has always been Cove, but was renamed from Potters Arms when the pub closed (fair enough). The former pair had, for decades, been ‘Pyestock Estate’ and ‘Minley Estate’ respectively, but in the last year or two Stagecoach has for whatever reason changed that.
 

Busaholic

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Catford Garage in London has now become Bellingham, with Catford Garage in smaller print afterwards.
 

cnjb8

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Nottingham City Transport buses going to Vic Centre used to say City on the blinds like every other service, but now have changed to Victoria Centre
 

PG

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The 23 in Aberdeen used to have Summerhill on the blinds despite the route having been extended years before to terminate at Sheddocksley.

Meanwhile heading northwards Stagecoach still can't even decide what they call certain stops.
In Ellon, some timetables list Ellon Market Street Interchange while others show Ellon Clydesdale Bank, both are the same stop.
Even worse one timetable has both listed consecutively with services stopping at one or the other depending on the time of day!

Peterhead also has a stop with two names depending on which bus stops there, Windmill Road @ Fire Station which is also listed as Peterhead Grange Road.
One final curiosity, again from Peterhead, is the service to Boddam which somehow has a stop listed at Stirling Village on the journey to Boddam yet it doesn't even pass this stop!
 

Statto

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Stockbridge Village in Liverpool was originally Cantril Farm, because the notorious reputation Cantril Farm was renamed Stockbridge Village in 84 but, PTE kept Cantril Farm on blinds & timetables/maps until d-reg, Merseybus changed the blinds ecc to Stockbridge Village.

Also the other notorious Ford Estate in Birkenhead was renamed to Beechwood in the 90s, buses had the blinds & timetables changed at the first available opportunity to do so.
 

Deerfold

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"Siddal: near Halifax has a low level bus war that's been going on for years with 5 buses an hour serving it on routes 542 and 555. It also used to be served by a handful of buses a day from Elland on route E3 (I think)- however these used the destination "Exley"
 

vlad

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It wasn't that long ago when pretty much all buses to Hanley said "City Centre" on the front. It was obvious where the destination was if you got on in Stoke-on-Trent - but it could be anything between mildly misleading and downright confusing if you got on outside. I've seen a Hanley-bound bus with "City Centre" on the front in Buxton. o_O
 

LancasterRed

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The new Preston Bus service 15 is advertised as terminating in Broughton.

It does not terminate in Broughton. Sunningdale isn't 'Broughton' and should not be advertised as such.

Might not be exactly what this thread was looking for but is worth bringing up nonetheless
 

edwin_m

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Nottingham City Transport buses going to Vic Centre used to say City on the blinds like every other service, but now have changed to Victoria Centre
Recently I've seen "Intu Victoria Centre" so Intu may have paid to get it changed.
 

PeterC

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It wasn't that long ago when pretty much all buses to Hanley said "City Centre" on the front. It was obvious where the destination was if you got on in Stoke-on-Trent - but it could be anything between mildly misleading and downright confusing if you got on outside. I've seen a Hanley-bound bus with "City Centre" on the front in Buxton. o_O
Reminds me of the variations on "Town Service" or "Local" that you used to see. Back in the 60s in Essex I remember buses bound for a place called "Eastern National".
 

Simon75

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It wasn't that long ago when pretty much all buses to Hanley said "City Centre" on the front. It was obvious where the destination was if you got on in Stoke-on-Trent - but it could be anything between mildly misleading and downright confusing if you got on outside. I've seen a Hanley-bound bus with "City Centre" on the front in Buxton. o_O
Any inter urban service to Stoke-On-Trent says 'Hanley ' not Stoke-On-Trent
 

MotCO

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When ScanBus operated the 283 in London, the destination became Schepherds Bush; maybe that's how they spell it in Finland!
 

winston270twm

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Thinking of the number 9 service from Birmingham down the Hagley Road ...

Back in the 1950's, when the then BCT terminus was up the top end of Quinton, buses stopping short and coming off service for the short run up Ridgacre Lane to Quinton garage showed the destination blind "9E Holly Bush" - their last stop on Hagley Road West being outside the large pub of the same name.

Sometime - much more recently in WMT days - that pub became a nightclub and I'm fairly sure bus destination displays were changed to reflect the new name. I can't recall now what it was - maybe someone with more local knowledge will know!

That nightclub has since reverted to a Toby Carvery and regained its original name of The Holly Bush; the bus-stop outside it, however, is now designated "Quinton Lane Island" ….

In WMT days The Holly Bush was called Jeffersons, Quinton Garage Mark I Metrobus 2400 carried an all-over advert for it:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/59615439@N03/16211134989
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcwmetrobuses/12179452665

The 19E's returning to Quinton garage used to display Jeffersons, Hagley Road West.
 

Martin2012

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I seem to recall that back in 2012/2013 the bus stop adjacent to SGS College in Filton was officially called Filton, Rodney Works but I've got a feeling the online Traveline timetables for the services using the stop have always referred to that stop as being called Filton College.

Think the timetable at that stop now refers it as being called "Filton College" although in reality it should probably be called "SGS College".
 
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Galvanize

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Croydon in recent years...

Buses terminate in various areas, namely:
Fairfield Halls
High Street (Flyover)
Katherine Street

all a short distance from one another, but in the last decade or so, were all simplified to...
Croydon Town Centre.
 

peterblue

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I was in Norwich yesterday and saw a lot of buses featuring the destination "Buses on Diversion - ask driver for details". This is due to a load of nearby roadworks in the city centre.

Another one I saw was by the local independent Sanders Coaches who had route 210 to "Norwich via Buxton". Obviously not the same Buxton in Derbyshire but it amused me nonetheless!
 

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