Christmas Buses

[swt class 450]

The Stagecoach South operated route 32 service (Guildford - Dorking - Redhill) and route 479 service (Guildford - Leatherhead - Epsom) had some decent loadings yesterday on Boxing Day (they were running a full Sunday timetable). I am quite surprised as they mainly serve a lot of rural villages. I think this is the first time that anywhere in this area has had a Boxing Day service as the previous operator of the Sunday services on these routes (Buses Excetera) never ran on Boxing Day (although they did run on New Years Day).

It seems crazy that many small rural villages in Surrey and Sussex have gotten a full Sunday service on Boxing Day (and New Years Day) yet some large towns and cities elsewhere have absolutely nothing running at all.

Also why are there so many bus operators (especially outside of the South East) that have nothing running at all on New Years Day? I thought that New Years Day is just a normal Bank Holiday rather than a special day like Christmas Day or Boxing Day?

 

[duncombec]

From experience working in retail, New Years Day is substantially quieter in terms of footfall. Despite being the "local newsagent" for most of the town centre, we could count the number of customers before noon on the fingers of one hand, and it wasn't much busier afterwards.

This was about 12 years ago, and given how shopping has changed in that time (the Saturday before Christmas was about as busy this year as we used to be on any normal Saturday), I can't imagine things have changed much.

No, there weren't hoardes of people streaming off buses serving the hospital either.

 

[duncombec]

I have been travelling around Essen and Düsseldorf today and I can't believe how busy the trains and buses are. Other than at main rail stations, there are no shops open. We keep being told that shopping is what drives travel demand. Stayed last night near Amsterdam and transport was similarly busy well into the evening.

However, looking at Christmas Eve, which is when the majority of the German family festivities take place (as we discussed last year):

An Heiligabend, 24. Dezember 2018, wird bis ca. 15.00 Uhr nach Samstagsfahrplan gefahren. In der Zeit von ca. 15.00 Uhr bis ca. 18.00 Uhr wird im 30-Minuten-Takt gefahren. Ab 18.30 Uhr bis 7.30 Uhr am nächsten Morgen, fahren die NachtExpress-Linien stündlich. Die 0.00 Uhr Fahrt ab Essen Hbf entfällt.

Saturday services until 15:00, then half-hourly until 18:00, then hourly over a much reduced "night network" between 18:30 and 7:30, albeit with no journeys at midnight. (For context, Essen has a population of 583,000 - Wikipedia says Sheffield had 552,000 in 2011).

It was a similar state of affairs in Berlin, whilst in Cologne, the 'other Catholic capital' of Germany, trams dropped to a limited service after 15:00, whilst a number of bus routes were withdrawn completely after 16:00. The Munich and Stuttgart websites have already been updated, and I cannot get to the Rheinbahn site for Düsseldorf for "security reasons"! In Hamburg, buses run as Saturdays until 14:00 "when the shops close", then to Sundays. In the town I lived, population 28,000, services virtually cease after 14:30 except an hourly service on the "major" routes until 18:30 (i.e. as Sundays, but with no evening service at all).

Whilst that may not be no service, it is still substantially reduced at the major "close family" times. Remember that the 25th and 26th in Germany are traditionally family visiting days (many of whom may still live within the local area - Germans generally exhibiting a tendency to stay much closer to home than the UK); very different to the sit around eating lots of food days that they are in the UK.

As we discussed last year, context is key. Just going "oh, they have buses over here" is not a suitable point for debate.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Cardiff Bus really struggled yesterday for some reason, despite a very limited service on the key routes only. Many 17/18 services (City Centre to Ely via Canton and Victoria Park) were running in twos, despite being a fifteen minute combined frequency (each one running half hourly at 10 and 40 minutes and 25 and 55 minutes past) and they were full and standing throughout, even though they were fully decker operated as per the normal on a Sunday.

The traffic in the city centre wasn't even bad either with the start of the sales, so I don't know what went wrong to be honest.

Fast forward to this morning and my 17 was almost eleven minutes late at 7am this morning, with not a single vehicle on the road. I fully appreciate that some events do happen that can't be helped, but I'm not giving on this one.

 

[43055]

It seems crazy that many small rural villages in Surrey and Sussex have gotten a full Sunday service on Boxing Day (and New Years Day) yet some large towns and cities elsewhere have absolutely nothing running at all.

Also why are there so many bus operators (especially outside of the South East) that have nothing running at all on New Years Day? I thought that New Years Day is just a normal Bank Holiday rather than a special day like Christmas Day or Boxing Day?

I think it depends on the company and the routes for both dates. Only 2 companies ran services in Derby yesterday in which both run mostly out of town services as they are handled by Arriva and Yourbus which were not operating. My local bus which goes through the villages between Derby and Burton it looked like there was a good loading but listening to two drivers talking today it sounds like the faster route via the A38 took hardly anyone.

As for new years day I think because the shops are not open there isn't a real need for buses even though there is a near normal service everywhere else. It has been tried by trentbarton but I can only remember it happening one year on select routes with special timetables.

 

[AB93]

The Stagecoach South operated route 32 service (Guildford - Dorking - Redhill) and route 479 service (Guildford - Leatherhead - Epsom) had some decent loadings yesterday on Boxing Day (they were running a full Sunday timetable). I am quite surprised as they mainly serve a lot of rural villages. I think this is the first time that anywhere in this area has had a Boxing Day service as the previous operator of the Sunday services on these routes (Buses Excetera) never ran on Boxing Day (although they did run on New Years Day).

It seems crazy that many small rural villages in Surrey and Sussex have gotten a full Sunday service on Boxing Day (and New Years Day) yet some large towns and cities elsewhere have absolutely nothing running at all.

As posted elsewhere, it is commendable that Stagecoach South ran Sunday service across their patch on Boxing Day.
What was especially odd about Guildford was that (other than the new Uni 1/2 routes), their Sunday services are entirely infrequent Surrey CC tenders on fragile routes, even the Sunday service on the Kite has only recent gone up to every 30 minutes from hourly.
Having seen a 32, I was surprised at the handful of people on it - but - they will have undoubtedly lost money on it.
I guess there is some saving incurred from not having to create special duties etc etc for the day.

Buses Excetera did run the 479 on Boxing Day at least once, and I think twice, a couple of years back. They didn't last year though so I can only conclude they lost money on it.

Also why are there so many bus operators (especially outside of the South East) that have nothing running at all on New Years Day? I thought that New Years Day is just a normal Bank Holiday rather than a special day like Christmas Day or Boxing Day?

This is historic more than anything - the South East has always had standard Sunday service on New Year's Day. It came as a surprise to me when moving out of the area that most other places don't run anything.

Actually, Stagecoach South running Sunday service on New Year's Day is a relatively new thing. Traditionally, they've run no services at all.
(Hence the old King Alfred running day in Winchester made use of the empty bus station). The exception was Aldershot depot further east which did run Sunday service in keeping with the other operators in the area.

Ironically, on the first year they ran full Sunday service on Boxing Day, they didn't run anything on New Year's Day.
This was going to include the Surrey operations as well, and was announced as no service.
However things were hastily changed at the last minute and they did run Sunday service.
I can only imagine someone reminded them that the Surrey CC contracted Sunday work they do have to run New Year's Day as per the tender!

 

[Hophead]

Talking of Stagecoach South, I'm struggling to understand their New Year's Eve intentions for Worthing. On the web page, it states:

Saturday service including Nightliner N700

Whereas, for Portsmouth:

Saturday service with early finish approx 2100

So far, so obvious. But, in the footnotes, I find:

Don't miss the last bus!
Check the table below for last bus information on 24th and 31st December.

The last 700 from Wick will be at 19:22 , and the last 700 from Brighton will be at 20:00
The last Pulse from Durrington will be the 20:08, and the last Pulse from Lancing will be the 20:21

On reflection, I'm guessing that whoever compiled the information wasn't aware of the lack of early finish in Worthing tonight, and assumed that it would be the same as Christmas Eve.

Brighton & Hove, meanwhile, offer a Saturday service today (including night buses), except for no "Breeze up to the Downs" routes and a regular Sunday service on New Year's Day (Sunday night service into the 2nd January).

 

[AY1975]

Did a round trip from Putney to Roehampton earlier on this. Was surprised that it was completely full for most of the journey in both directions (not only enthusiasts too).

So did I - twice in fact (once on my own in the morning, and once with two friends in the afternoon). It ran last year (or I suppose I should really now say the year before last, i.e. Christmas Day 2017) as well. It seemed pretty well used both years but more so this time. I was staying with my parents who live on the Dover House Estate, and went on it to Roehampton and back.

I suppose they could have done more to publicise it, but then people might have been fighting to get on it! I believe that it was mainly publicised through the Putney Society, and then the word soon got around about it by word of mouth. I expect some people who were just out for a stroll saw it coming and decided then and there to take a ride on it.