Your longest time spent on a bus or coach?

Geordie driver · 29 Mar 2020

I was reading the thread about running boards and a long shift, got me thinking, what's the longest you have ever spent on a bus, either as a driver or passenger?

We had a few shifts where you got in the cab and got out 5 hours 30 minutes later, bang on the maximum and you were stuck in are driving position when you had to get off, one of the reasons I left.

I once went to Spain on a coach, 36 hours with a break for the ferry and one 30 minute stop half way down France. Never again.

Another driving one, we were sent down to London to pick up some second hand Decker's, not sure of the type we called them MCWs? Ten drivers and a couple of fitters from Newcastle to some service station north of London, forget which one.

Jumped in and off we went, not a bad bus but 3 speed box and a top speed of just over 30mph, took me about 9 hours to get to Newcastle, never stopped once. It was middle of winter and freezing too, fortunately I had wrapped up well and had my radio and flask with me, some drivers were not so lucky.

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bussnapperwm · 29 Mar 2020

Not counting journeys where the bus interworks and you have to get off/on at each terminus to allow for layover...

As a passenger It's gotta be at whatever the length of time Birmingham to Newcastle via Leeds on NX is for a coach. Either that or Megabus Birmingham to Sheffield via Manchester and Leeds.

For a bus, it's to be the full Length of the Outer Circle from Acocks Green...on a Metrobus

Bletchleyite · 29 Mar 2020

As a passenger, London to Glasgow.

route101 · 29 Mar 2020

Either Budva to Belgrade or Melbourne to Sydney , both around 12 hours.

In the UK , Glasgow to London.

route101 · 29 Mar 2020

bussnapperwm said:
Not counting journeys where the bus interworks and you have to get off/on at each terminus to allow for layover...

As a passenger It's gotta be at whatever the length of time Birmingham to Newcastle via Leeds on NX is for a coach. Either that or Megabus Birmingham to Sheffield via Manchester and Leeds.

For a bus, it's to be the full Length of the Outer Circle from Acocks Green...on a Metrobus

I done Birmingham to Newcastle last year on NX , went via Leicester , Nottingham , Leeds , Middlesboro and Sunderland.

woodhouse122 · 29 Mar 2020

Did Glasgow to Meadowhall interchange on a Megabus last summer ,I was dreading it but i actually prefered it over the train

Pat1105 · 29 Mar 2020

409 from London to Telford. About 4.5 hours with a 30 minute layover in Digbeth

Darandio · 29 Mar 2020

26 hours or so from Ferryhill to Estartit with Sun Travel, did it 5 times. Would do it again in a heartbeat, used to love it.

scotrail158713 · 29 Mar 2020

Edinburgh to Manchester doesn’t seem very long now

TheGrandWazoo · 29 Mar 2020

The old NX404 overnight from Hayle to London Victoria via everywhere... Camborne, Truro, St Austell, Liskeard, Plymouth, Totnes, Paignton, Torquay, Exeter, Exeter Services (45 min break), Taunton and then Heathrow and into Victoria.

Actually caught the 404 down the previous night (Victoria to St Austell) getting fits and starts of sleep and then had a day travelling on Western National before getting the 404 back from Hayle. I couldn't do it now but youthful vigour seemed to carry me through. I think I slept the entire way back.

Statto · 29 Mar 2020

336 Plymouth to Glasgow one year, over 13 hours, i've also done the full 421 Blackpool-London at just over 8 hours.

higthomas · 29 Mar 2020

Done Oxford to the French Alps and back overnight a couple of times; about 21 hours. Terrible, but surprisingly ok.
Mainly because I was either really excited or really tired depending on the direction.

Bletchleyite · 29 Mar 2020

Oh, hang on, I missed a rather large one, wasn't a service coach though. Aylesbury to Kandersteg, Switzerland. Though it was broken up with a few stops e.g. on the boat.

philthetube · 29 Mar 2020

NAT hols used to run to Salu, Spain, sometimes the coach would have done a feeder from Glasgow, 3am departure arriving Salou around 3.pm 36 hours, which some passengers made.

ValleyLines142 · 29 Mar 2020

Pat1105 said:
409 from London to Telford. About 4.5 hours with a 30 minute layover in Digbeth

That's quite a short journey for a layover in Digbeth. Some of the London to Aberystwyth via South Wales services don't have a particularly long stop.

mikeg · 29 Mar 2020

About 22 hours from Victoria to Prague. Only got off the coach onto the ferry at Dover. Forget how long that was for and at which point.

cnjb8 · 29 Mar 2020

I went from Nottingham to Rue in North France. We set off at 5:30am and got there for about 4pm. It was a lovely ride on the Van Hool.

sftfan1909 · 29 Mar 2020

On a normal bus, did the TrawsCymru T4 route from Cardiff to Newtown the entire way which was a little over 4 hours. Spent a couple hours there (not very interesting) and promptly came back on another 4 hour trip

NorthOxonian · 29 Mar 2020

Probably a megabus from Newcastle to Oxford which was about 8 hours. In terms of on a regular service, it would be pretty close between a trip on the Coastliner (from Leeds all the way to Falsgrave Road on the edge of Scarborough), a 555 run from Keswick to Lancaster, and the 69/620 service from Bath to Stroud (which took far longer than I expected).

61653 HTAFC · 29 Mar 2020

School trips to the likes of Köln, Unna (NRW) and Clermont-Ferrand all involved frequent rest-stops, so the longest unbroken trip would have to be a National Express run from Huddersfield to London of almost 6 hours (thanks to the non-Motorway run from Meadowhall to the city centre then over the hills to Chesterfield), extended further by accidents on the M1.

As a driver the largest vehicle I'm allowed to drive is a Transit minibus, which I drove from Ormskirk to Cardiff with only a short leg-stretch at Strensham services!

richw · 29 Mar 2020

School trip Falmouth to Cologne via the euro tunnel. Can’t remember how long it took now as it was coming up for 20 years ago!

I went as a passenger to a running day and a couple of us couldn’t find hotels at short notice so we took sleeping bags and bed down overnight on the Bristol
VR we were travelling on. The allocated drivers took what hotel rooms were available. As we were sleeping on the bus I guess we doubled up as security!

Furrball · 30 Mar 2020

Not massive in time - but 36mph flat out down the M1 on Stevenson's PAX466F on a couple of occasions to the likes of ShowBus as a kid in the 80's

jumble · 30 Mar 2020

Bletchleyite said:
Oh, hang on, I missed a rather large one, wasn't a service coach though. Aylesbury to Kandersteg, Switzerland. Though it was broken up with a few stops e.g. on the boat.

Would this be Scouts by any chance ?
My son did this about 10 years ago

90sWereBetter · 30 Mar 2020

I've had two journeys in excess of six hours. The first was a 6 and a half hour journey on the Excel, Norwich-Peterborough-Norwich in January 2017. This was during my short period working for First Eastern Counties, carrying out research and observing the route (I'm not mad enough to do the complete journey as a mere passenger. :lol:

).

The second was during the Beast From The East, where I got on the 0640 X2 at Lowestoft...and didn't get off until 1245! We made slow but steady progress up until the outskirts of Norwich, and then took two hours to go from the A146/A47 junction to the Trowse roundabout, whereupon we immediately turned around and returned to Lowestoft, as the bus fleet was called off the road. Quite the experience!

Bletchleyite · 30 Mar 2020

jumble said:
Would this be Scouts by any chance ?
My son did this about 10 years ago

It was indeed.

Typhoon · 30 Mar 2020

In the early seventies I went on a coach journey, Portsmouth to Coventry (probably pre-National Express) via just about every town in between, took a good eight hours. 'The things we do for love'.

Jamdougnut · 30 Mar 2020

The longest I’ve been on a bus/coach was was almost 3 hours and that was because of an accident on the amazing M4

Jordan Adam · 30 Mar 2020

I once done the first 35 of the day from Aberdeen to Inverness via Banff, 6 and a half hours on a Plaxton Profile with no toilet isn't fun! Perhaps what sets the 35 apart from all the other journeys mentioned on here is that it's a local stopper service.

mlambeuk · 30 Mar 2020

York to Fieberbrunn (Austria) as part of a School trip 26 hours with a break for the Ferry Plus a couple of 30min comfort stops and.

carlberry · 30 Mar 2020

Furrball said:
Not massive in time - but 36mph flat out down the M1 on Stevenson's PAX466F on a couple of occasions to the likes of ShowBus as a kid in the 80's

Always a scary experience for a driver because of the speed difference.

I have a friend who was rear ended whilst driving a modern day Titan on the motorway a few years ago by a lorry driver who 'didnt see him', possibly being awake at the time might have helped!

Your longest time spent on a bus or coach?

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