Busathon

[Statto]

Revised itinerary...

WED:

0901 Berwick 1126 Newcastle (X15 Arriva) - 10.50 Exp NE
1200 Newcastle 1325 Middlesbrough (X10 Go NE)
1420 Middlesbrough 1637 Scarborough (X93 Arriva)
1705 Scarborough 1813 Bridlington (12 EYMS) - 12.00 EYMS Day
1830 Bridlington 2005 Hull (121 EYMS)

Total: £22.50

THU:

0850 Hull 1024 Grimsby (HF - Stage EM) - 9.00 EM Day Out
1040 Grimsby 1145 Louth (51 Stage EM)
1150 Louth 1340 Skegness (59 Stage EM)
1400 Skegness 1512 Boston (57 Stage EM)
1600 Boston 1646 Spalding (B13 Brylaine) - 5.30 Single
1657 Spalding 1819 King's Lynn (505 Stage East) - 5.00 Single

Total: £19.30

FRI:

0820 King's Lynn 0955 Thetford (40 Coach Services) - 3.60 Single
1015 Thetford 1047 Bury St Edmunds (86 Coach Services) - 3.30 Single
1140 Bury St Edmunds 1411 Colchester (753/754 Chambers) - 7.00 Single
1425 Colchester 1544 Chelmsford (71 First Essex) - 8.25 First Day Essex
1605 Chelmsford 1648 Brentwood (351 First Essex)
1656 Brentwood 1723 Romford Station (498 S/c London) - Oyster 1.50
1730 Romford Station 1850 Canning Town (5 Blue Triangle) Oyster 1.50

Total: £12.75

**DAY ONE - If the X93 is late into Scarborough, we will take the advice of jay38a.
**DAY TWO - If we miss the connection in Louth, there are alternative buses later to still get to King's Lynn at a reasonable time.

There is an Arriva North East X12 Newcastle-Middlesbrough via Durham departs Newcastle Eldon Square Bus Station 11.50 arrives Middlesbrough 14.00, you can then do Berwick-Scarborough section on an Arriva North East Regionwide Day Ticket £8

The timetable has the X12 split at Durham but think it's a through service.

 

[BlueFox]

Is the Explorer North East valid before 09.30 on a weekday?

Yes, it's valid all day.

 

[Dentonian]

Glasgow-Manchester is still doable in 1 day but you arrive in Manchester quite late, but you have a tight connection from the 555 to the 41 at Lancaster, miss the 41 you're not going to get to Manchester. timings.

Glasgow-London itinerary
09.15, X74 Glasgow-Dumfries arrives 11.25
12.10, 79 Dumfries-Carlisle arrives 13.50
14.02, 104 Carlisle-Penrith arrives 14.44
15.15, X4 Penrith-Keswick arrives 16.02
16.30, 555 Keswick-Lancaster arrives 19.25 or between July & end of September catch the 17.00, 555 instead, arrives Lancaster 1916
19.35, 41 Lancaster-Preston arrives 20.34
20.50, 125 Preston-Bolton arrives 22.16
22.30, 8 Bolton Manchester arrives 23.23

Can start early on Day 2, itinerary for early start can be
04.01, 43 Manchester-Manchester Airport arrives 04.48
05.15, 199 Manchester Airport-Buxton arrives 06.25
07.30, TP Buxton-Derby arrives 09.05
09.20 Skylink Derby, Derby-Leicester arrives 11.00
11.24, X7 Leicester-Milton Keynes arrives 13.50, this is the new X7 timetable with most journeys going Leicester-Milton Keynes
14.20 150 Milton Keynes-Aylesbury arrives 15.33
15.50, 500 Aylesbury-Watford arrives 17.44
17.57, 142 Watford-Brent Cross arrives 19.15
19.22, 189 Brent Cross-Marble Arch arrives 20.12
or, 17.57, 142 Watford-Edgware arrives 18.49
18.55, 113 Edgware-Oxford Circus arrives 20.04.

Assuming Day 2 is a weekday, I would be tempted to have an hour* extra in your hotel bed, and catch the 0457 to Stockport. On paper, you would have 8 minutes to cross the road from Mersey Square to the Bus Station (about 200 metres to the 199 on stand Y at 0530). Noting that the 199 is likely to be late as it has no stand time at either end when doing a ST-Airport "short", and you also have the option of the 192 continuing parallel with the 199 (6-7 mins in front) as far as Hazel Grove. Admittedly, if it doesn't work you will (just) miss your connection in Buxton.

 

[Statto]

Assuming Day 2 is a weekday, I would be tempted to have an hour* extra in your hotel bed, and catch the 0457 to Stockport. On paper, you would have 8 minutes to cross the road from Mersey Square to the Bus Station (about 200 metres to the 199 on stand Y at 0530). Noting that the 199 is likely to be late as it has no stand time at either end when doing a ST-Airport "short", and you also have the option of the 192 continuing parallel with the 199 (6-7 mins in front) as far as Hazel Grove. Admittedly, if it doesn't work you will (just) miss your connection in Buxton.

Not a bad idea, but i'd stay on the 04.57, 192 beyond Mersey Square to anywhere past Stockport College when the 199 uses the same route as the 192 from Stockport College to Hazel Grove, although Mersey Square is round the corner to Stockport Bus Station it saves that messing about if your not familiar with Stockport Town Centre. I don't expect the 199 to be that delayed that much, 15 minutes Stockport-Manchester Airport is easily doable that time of the day

 

[Tetchytyke]

The timetable has the X12 split at Durham but think it's a through service.

It's a through service, but can be unreliable, not unusual for X12s to be 15 late into Boro.

 

[A0wen]

There is a quicker way doing Milton Keynes-Watford instead of via Aylesbury
14.00, 99 Milton Keynes-Luton arrives 14.55
15.05, 321 Luton-Watford arrives 16.48[16.43 on school holidays]
16.57, 142 Watford-Edgware arrives 17.39
17.42, 113 Edgware-Oxford Circus arrives 18.59 or 17.49, 113 Edgware-Oxford Circus arrives 19.06
Or stay on the 16.57, 142 to Brent Cross arrives 18.21
16.25, 189 Brent-Cross-Marble Arch arrives 19.21 or 18.34, 189 Brent Cross-Marble Arch arrives 19.29

Or alternatively from Luton 15:25, 610 to Potters Bar arriving at 17:07.

17.16, 313 Potters Bar - Enfield arriving 17.42
17.45, 231 Enfield - Turnpike Lane arriving 18.20
18.22, 29 Turnpike Lane - Camden Town arriving 19.00
19.02, C2 Camden Town - Oxford Circus arriving 19.29

I suspect there might be an even quicker way using the 298 to Arnos Grove....

Or - you could jump off that 321 at St Albans at 15.45, pick up an 84 at 15.53 which gets to New Barnet station at 17.05, from there

17.08, 384 to Lyonsdown Road arriving 17.11
17.16, 263 Lyonsdown Road to Archway arriving 18.05
18.09, 134 Archway - Camden Town
18.32, C2 Camden to Oxford Circus arriving 18.59.

 

[Statto]

It's a through service, but can be unreliable, not unusual for X12s to be 15 late into Boro.

Hear's a thought if the X18s are unreliable as you say they are, you might be able to catch the delayed 11.20, X18 departure from Eldon Square due to arrive in Middlesbrough 13.3. Arriva X18 is easy to follow using the Arriva live map, on the Arriva app.

 

[atraindriver]

THU:

0850 Hull 1024 Grimsby (HF - Stage EM) - 9.00 EM Day Out
1040 Grimsby 1145 Louth (51 Stage EM)
1150 Louth 1340 Skegness (59 Stage EM)
1400 Skegness 1512 Boston (57 Stage EM)
1600 Boston 1646 Spalding (B13 Brylaine) - 5.30 Single
1657 Spalding 1819 King's Lynn (505 Stage East) - 5.00 Single
...
**DAY TWO - If we miss the connection in Louth, there are alternative buses later to still get to King's Lynn at a reasonable time.

I strongly recommend that you reschedule this day; you are pretty much guaranteed to miss the connection in Louth as 51s generally get in 5-10 late owing to the awful roads around Louth hospital and getting through the town centre. I have managed that 5 minute connection once, but only because the 9 (renumbered 59 earlier this year) had been delayed getting in itself.

16 minutes in Grimsby is OK, but check your bus stop locations as the "bus station" is in reality on-street stops spread over quite a wide area. Google Maps is probably easiest...
20 minutes in SkegVegas is 20 minutes too many, but will be less depressing than the 48 you spend in Boston. The Pilgrim Fathers left Boston for the New World, and it hasn't improved any since!

You don't seem to have made any allowance for food stops (or toilet breaks). So, here's a bit of local info:

• Grimsby, nearest toilets are hidden at the far side of the shopping centre. There's not much grab-and-go food-wise near the bus station unless you're OK diving into the pound shops for chocolate, crisps and a bottle of pop.
• Louth, bus station has toilets; if your connection fails you will no doubt have seen a couple of chippies from the bus as it comes down from the Market Place to the bus station, which are OK. The road at the "exit" end of the bus station also leads back to the Market Place and passes a pub or two on the way. Louth's OK for an hour, especially if the market's on as that means more food options!
• Skegvegas, toilets are I think in the railway station; there's a Lidl at the bus station, a Tesco nearby, and if you walk past the railway station you'll see chippy row the other side of the roundabout. Quality is fairly low but quantity tends to be fairly high. You'll see a couple of pubs too. The yobs hanging around the bus station smoking are either fellow passengers or Stagecoach staff; pity them all.
• Boston is Boston. The eastern Europeans and Portuguese are generally friendlier than the natives. There's basically nothing at the bus station (barely a shelter, in fact), in demonstration of the contempt Lincolnshire County Council holds public transport users. There's an ASDA the other side of the railway which probably has the closest public toilets (the railway station's facilities will likely be closed by the time you get there), or you can follow the locals into the town.
• Spalding, there's a Sainsbury's across the car park with toilets at that end of the bus station.

It's a long while since I did any decently long trips by bus (my bladder can't cope nowadays, for starters), but it certainly sounds like fun. I hope it all goes well and you have a good time

 

[Statto]

Here's a plan how about do instead
10.40, 53 Grimsby-Lincoln arrive 12.29 Stagecoach EM
13.00, IC5 Lincoln-Boston arrive 14.43 Brylaine Travel

The IC5 is hourly but the 14.00 Lincoln-Boston only operates through to Boston on Saturdays & School Holidays, terminates at Coningsby on Schooldays, not sure what the reliability is like on the IC5 but the 14.00 if your going on School Holidays could be the better one to catch arrives in Boston 15.43.

http://uploads.ainsley.findmybus.uk/brylaine/timetables/21-02-2017/ic5 boston lincoln (1).pdf

 

[atraindriver]

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