• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Aylesbury Bus Staion

Status
Not open for further replies.

aylesbury

Member
Joined
3 Feb 2012
Messages
622
Has anybody on here used or are using the apology for a bus station that is Aylesbury?It is a dingy dirty smelly place that never recieved the full refurb that it should have received due to the owners of the site wishing to get rid of it.Anybody got any views?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

MidnightFlyer

Veteran Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
12,857
One of very, very, very few bus stations I have used outside my local area, however I agree. I didn't see much of the actual passenger facilities, but judging from the bays, it isn't the nicest bus station out there. As I recall I didn't see daylight until I left it :|
 

MK Tom

Established Member
Joined
31 Aug 2011
Messages
2,421
Location
Milton Keynes
Did you go in it before it was refurbished around 2009/10 time? That made a massive difference, although it is still a bit damp and dark but it's a lot better than it was before. It has a shopping centre on its roof, other than that it's fine for the town's size!
 

Ivo

Established Member
Joined
8 Jan 2010
Messages
7,307
Location
Bath (or Southend)
Did you go in it before it was refurbished around 2009/10 time? That made a massive difference, although it is still a bit damp and dark but it's a lot better than it was before. It has a shopping centre on its roof, other than that it's fine for the town's size!

Are you kidding? It's almost as bad as Greyfriars! I dread to think what it was like before this "refurbishment"...

I agree that it is a good size for the town though.
 

madannie77

Member
Joined
12 May 2009
Messages
404
Location
The Station Garden of Eden
Still a dump :o. It was truly horrible when I was last there in 1992, although not as bad as Luton in the same year. I would have expected it to have been swept away by now, as so many Bus Stations of that type have been.
 

Mojo

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
7 Aug 2005
Messages
20,382
Location
0035
I thought Aylesbury bus station was quite nice with its indoor glass waiting room and direct lifts/stairs to the shopping centre.

Although I understand the town is now not so nice, with the Market a fraction of the size it was, the Post Office replaced by a Pound Land and Friars Square now a ghost town.

Certainly a million times better than the old High Wycombe bus station.
 

MK Tom

Established Member
Joined
31 Aug 2011
Messages
2,421
Location
Milton Keynes
I thought Aylesbury bus station was quite nice with its indoor glass waiting room and direct lifts/stairs to the shopping centre.

Although I understand the town is now not so nice, with the Market a fraction of the size it was, the Post Office replaced by a Pound Land and Friars Square now a ghost town.

Certainly a million times better than the old High Wycombe bus station.

Aylesbury is a lovely town in my opinion. It might have something to do with the fact I went to school there, but it's one of my favourites in the country. The market square is lovely and overall it's a strong and vibrant town that is mainly let down by neglect to certain areas and is economically hindered by having absolutely awful transport connections.

That to me is Aylesbury's one and only major failing as a town. It is to my knowledge the largest town in the UK to have absolutely no National Express service. It only has trains to the south as we on here all know, and that will change over the next decade but only as far as MK. The furthest a direct bus from Aylesbury goes is Luton Airport. The M1 and the M40 if you look at a map seem to purposefully move apart to avoid the town. Even on the canals it's at the end of an impossibly narrow and hard to navigate branch.

So basically I love the town and have a lot of respect for it but I think if it is to thrive and live up to its potential it needs to massively improve its transport connections. As for the bus station, the refurb definitely improved it a lot but it still needs more modernising and lightening up done to it. Also Aylesbury's bus services do suffer from the fact Arriva enjoys complete market dominance on all urban and rural routes.
 

aylesbury

Member
Joined
3 Feb 2012
Messages
622
Not to sure that Aylesbury is a lovely town even though I live there, our council seem only to want to build houses with no employment and transport refurbs.The old bus station in Kingsbury Square was a darn site better place to catch a bus than the current black hole.Red Line is running a service to High Wycombe and Z&S run to Leighton Buzzard some days but Arriva is the problem ,old buses and a lack of information in the bus station.We have a state of the art info kiosk that was built by the County and was staffed for all of two weeks ,now its dirty ,and self service.Arriva have invested in three routes ,280 Oxford ,300 High Wycombe,and 500 Watford but the dedicated buses get replaced by crap.The HW route was only upgraded because of the crazy reorganisation of our hospitals,people have to shuttle between Aylesbury and HW for treatment .The town is full of empty units and charity shops . Origonaly we were to have doors on the bus bays and the waiting area was to be refurbed but RBS and Grovenor Estates combined to delay permisions in the hope that the bus stn would be closed with stops put on surrounding streets,one idiot from the council said that bus stations dont count cars are king.That sums up AVDC stuff the residents we know best.
 

anthony263

Established Member
Joined
19 Aug 2008
Messages
6,518
Location
South Wales
Aylesbury bus station sound to me like it is a very depressing place a bit like Swansea's quadrant bus staion was till the council finally re-built it.
 

AlterEgo

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Dec 2008
Messages
20,036
Location
No longer here
The bus station before it was revamped was utterly dreadful. I used it every day as I got the bus to school in Aylesbury. Even in the middle of the day, all sorts of unsavoury characters hung around there.

I must confess I haven't been since it's ''makeover''.
 

John S

Member
Joined
16 May 2012
Messages
6
Location
Poole
As an Aylesbury exile I have very pleasant memories of this in the 50s.
I can recall 9 bus companies using the square. I wonder if anyone can name them all! There was also a Midland Red service from Buckingham Street.
Wish I'd had a camera then!
Also, how many others have boarded trains from Aylesbury High Street & South Aylesbury Halt. The latter was also useful for a quiet snog and underage puff!
 

aylesbury

Member
Joined
3 Feb 2012
Messages
622
Buses in Aylesbury ,Red Rover,United Counties,London Country,Green Line,Oxford City,Midland Red ,cant think of any more at the moment,it was a long time ago.At the moment we have Arriva, Z&S,Red Line,Red Rose,(reincarnation of Red Rover)plus a few school bus operators with some rather crappy vehicles.
 

John S

Member
Joined
16 May 2012
Messages
6
Location
Poole
Also:

Eastern National to Luton, and a local service to Southcourt.
Red Rose to Wendover and RAF Halton
Queens Park to Wendover and Weston Turville
Thames Valley to High Wycombe and Reading.

I recall Oxford City being branded as City of Oxford at that time, services to Oxford (Gloucester Square) via Thame, and Bicester via Grendon Underwood, Edgcott, Blackthorn and Launton.

United Counties went to Bedford, and then, amazingly,, St. Ives, then in Huntingdonshire! By far the closest to tidal waters that it was possible to achieve on a regular service from Aylesbury.

I used to travel on the Eastern National service to Luton, changing there for Hitchin, to trainspot on the ECML.
 

MK Tom

Established Member
Joined
31 Aug 2011
Messages
2,421
Location
Milton Keynes
Buses in Aylesbury ,Red Rover,United Counties,London Country,Green Line,Oxford City,Midland Red ,cant think of any more at the moment,it was a long time ago.At the moment we have Arriva, Z&S,Red Line,Red Rose,(reincarnation of Red Rover)plus a few school bus operators with some rather crappy vehicles.

Not forgetting Star Travel. Back when I went to AGS between 2001 and 2008, Z&S operated my MK-Ayles school bus for several years with a dilapidated Leyland Titan. It hardly seems like the same company that runs routes like the 33 nowadays.
 

brianthegiant

Member
Joined
12 May 2010
Messages
588
Tory council, always has been, always will be...
maybe has something to do with it?

old streets of Aylesbury demolished in the 60s for 'modern' concrete shopping centre, never really recovered.

now many people from Aylesbury area go shopping to MK, Brent Cross, Oxford, etc for the department stores. So the town centre has for a long time been a bit lack-lustre for a town of its size.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top