Coach Station but no Bus Station

[6Gman]

A trip to Chesterfield (my first in 40+ years) yesterday and I discovered it has a "Coach Station" but no "Bus Station", which set me wondering how many places have such a combination.

The only place I could think of was Birmingham.

However, it does all depend on how you define coach and bus stations! The Chesterfield CS actually has more bus departures than coach departures (notably the Pronto to Nottingham), and is next to the main on-street bus stands (Beetwell Street?).

[After a bit more thought, does Llandudno have a Coach Station these days? Certainly no Bus Station.]

 

[EM2]

Brighton has a Coach Station at Pool Valley, but no Bus Station as far as I know.

 

[Mwanesh]

Chesterfield used to have one years ago where the now closed BHS store stands.The on street bus stands work very well .

 

[Andyh82]

Plymouth

Blackpool

 

[Man of Kent]

Southampton

 

[Bletchleyite]

Edinburgh (I think it's called the bus station, but it's only for coaches - Scottish vernacular, like the US, tends to call coaches buses).

Milton Keynes doesn't *officially* have an active bus station (but does have the Coachway, plus a disused one used as a car park), though the stops outside the station do a pretty good impression of looking like one. There's also Bletchley as part of MK which does have one.

 

[Termy]

Swansea has a bus station, with two dedicated coach bays.

 

[Man of Kent]

Edinburgh (I think it's called the bus station, but it's only for coaches - Scottish vernacular, like the US, tends to call coaches buses).

Milton Keynes doesn't *officially* have an active bus station (but does have the Coachway, plus a disused one used as a car park), though the stops outside the station do a pretty good impression of looking like one. There's also Bletchley as part of MK which does have one.

Edinburgh *is* used by service buses, especially from the Borders. Many of the Fife routes are effectively bus services worked by coaches.

 

[InterCity:125]

Bristol has a bus station which all intercity buses depart from.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Edinburgh *is* used by service buses, especially from the Borders. Many of the Fife routes are effectively bus services worked by coaches.

I suppose it depends what you mean by coach vs. bus. Scotland, due to its relatively poor rail network, has quite a lot of "regional express" bus services like the United Counties X5, which might be registered local bus services (the X5 is a string of them throughout) but would be described by most as coaches due to the vehicles used.

 

[Andyh82]

I’d say National Express, Megabus, Scottish CityLink are coaches, pretty much everything else is a Bus. Therefore all the Stagecoach services from Edinburgh Bus Station to Fife and beyond are bus services. Therefore it doesn’t qualify for this thread

Bristol certainly doesn’t.

 

[PeterC]

A lot depends on what you would define as a "bus station" in the first place. Does Abergavenny still have a "bus station" when they have closed the waiting facilities and moved the boarding points to the opposite end of the car park? What about off road boarding areas in station forecourts as at Oxford? Certainly the only place called a "station" dedicated to road vehicles at Oxford is Gloucester Green which is purely for coaches.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I’d say National Express, Megabus, Scottish CityLink are coaches, pretty much everything else is a Bus. Therefore all the Stagecoach services from Edinburgh Bus Station to Fife and beyond are bus services

What would be the requirement - the option of advanced booking? (Not everyone books Citylink in advance, they also sell walk-up tickets - and some of their services such as the Edinburgh-Glasgow shuttle is no more "coachy" than the X5).

 

[Hophead]

Brighton has a Coach Station at Pool Valley, but no Bus Station as far as I know.

You are correct. No buses in Pool Valley, and no bus station within the city (I'm not counting the 3 stands right outside Brighton train station).

 

[Darklord8899]

Edinburgh has St. Andrew Square Bus Station (it is officially called a bus station, not a coach station) and can be used by any bus/coach operator (willing to pay the price!)
However, due to the cost per vehicle to use it, First use Waterloo Place*, Lothian (Country) service 43 uses St. Andrew Square itself, not thebus station, Lothian Buses have never used the Bus station as a terminal point (possible exception in the days of the old bus station where the joint Eastern Scottish/Lothian service 61 ran from there to Balerno)
Stagecoach and Borders Bus both use the Bus Station. Admittedly SC services tend to use more coach like vehicles than buses, but technically I think are still bus services. I can't comment on what Borders Bus mainly use, but again I'd say they are running bus services not coach services.

* First moved to use Waterloo Place whilst old bus station was demolished and rebuilt, they never moved back refusing to pay the associated costs in using the Bus station.

 

[carlberry]

Cardiff since the local Councillors decided bus stations attracted plebs and they preferred offices. However the coach station is about as inconvenient for the city as it could be as well!

 

[Termy]

Cardiff since the local Councillors decided bus stations attracted plebs and they preferred offices. However the coach station is about as inconvenient for the city as it could be as well!

Oh God, Sophia Gardens is so appalling. But aren't they meant to be relocating back to the city center when a new station is built underneath the new BBC HQ?

 

[carlberry]

Oh God, Sophia Gardens is so appalling. But aren't they meant to be relocating back to the city center when a new station is built underneath the new BBC HQ?

That's the story they've been telling everybody for the last few years and, I suspect, will carry on using until they quietly announce that, as everybody has got used to how things are, they'll not bother!

 

[Deerfold]

Certainly the only place called a "station" dedicated to road vehicles at Oxford is Gloucester Green which is purely for coaches.

Whilst many coaches use Gloucester Green, a few bus services use it too, including the 7 (evenings only), 66, S1 (evening and nights only), S2, S3, S6 (Sundays only), X5 and X9.

 

[Robertj21a]

Edinburgh has St. Andrew Square Bus Station (it is officially called a bus station, not a coach station) and can be used by any bus/coach operator (willing to pay the price!)
However, due to the cost per vehicle to use it, First use Waterloo Place*, Lothian (Country) service 43 uses St. Andrew Square itself, not thebus station, Lothian Buses have never used the Bus station as a terminal point (possible exception in the days of the old bus station where the joint Eastern Scottish/Lothian service 61 ran from there to Balerno)
Stagecoach and Borders Bus both use the Bus Station. Admittedly SC services tend to use more coach like vehicles than buses, but technically I think are still bus services. I can't comment on what Borders Bus mainly use, but again I'd say they are running bus services not coach services.

* First moved to use Waterloo Place whilst old bus station was demolished and rebuilt, they never moved back refusing to pay the associated costs in using the Bus station.

Borders uses Versas on their services from the bus station - hardly coaches !

 

[PeterC]

Whilst many coaches use Gloucester Green, a few bus services use it too, including the 7 (evenings only), 66, S1 (evening and nights only), S2, S3, S6 (Sundays only), X5 and X9.

Well I have only been though there in the daytime. Traveline South East shows the X5 as a coach service, I have never had a need to check an itinary including the X9.

I assume that, technically, the Oxford Tube is a bus service as well between Oxford and Lewknor.

 

[Llandudno]

Chesterfield used to have one years ago where the now closed BHS store stands.The on street bus stands work very well .

Not sure I agree that the bus stands in Chesterfield town centre work that well.
They are scattered all over the town, and unless you are a local, you don’t know which bus departs from where!
Cross-town journeys to the hospital or football ground for example, involve walking from one part of the town centre to the other, quite hilly in places.

 

[Llandudno]

Yes, Llandudno does not have a bus station. Most terminating services end at Wetherspoons.
Some cross-town services like 13/14/15 are confusing as you board on what appears to be on the opposite side of the road to the direction you want to travel!

The 5/X5 to Bangor for Caernarfon operate two different routes towards Conwy, but the ‘X’ is not limited stop or quicker than the 5, so perhaps 5A would be a more appropriate route number!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Well I have only been though there in the daytime. Traveline South East shows the X5 as a coach service, I have never had a need to check an itinary including the X9.

I assume that, technically, the Oxford Tube is a bus service as well between Oxford and Lewknor.

There are daytime services - 66 (soon to be S6) runs to Swindon and the S3 to Woodstock and Chipping Norton run from the bus station. Of course, Gloucester Green was much larger and accommodated most of the inter-urban services until they took half the site for redevelopment.

 

[martian boy]

That's the story they've been telling everybody for the last few years and, I suspect, will carry on using until they quietly announce that, as everybody has got used to how things are, they'll not bother!

That would be typical of Cardiff Council. I well remember when they closed off High Street and Saint Mary Street on a trial basis. They closed it permanently BEFORE the end of the trial period.

The way things are going in Cardiff, why do people go there?

 

[mmh]

A trip to Chesterfield (my first in 40+ years) yesterday and I discovered it has a "Coach Station" but no "Bus Station", which set me wondering how many places have such a combination.

The only place I could think of was Birmingham.

However, it does all depend on how you define coach and bus stations! The Chesterfield CS actually has more bus departures than coach departures (notably the Pronto to Nottingham), and is next to the main on-street bus stands (Beetwell Street?).

[After a bit more thought, does Llandudno have a Coach Station these days? Certainly no Bus Station.]

Blimey, I clicked on this thread just because of the title thinking "aha, Llandudno!". The coach station is still there. After 20 odd years of listening to councillors say the railway station would end up with a bus station (which wouldn't have been any real use, really) they finally got the station "redeveloped" which just meant knocking down half of it to build a car park. They did it reasonably sympathetically, but being nostalgic I miss how it was and the carriage road between the platforms being driveable. You could get real door to door service in a taxi from Llandudno station back then!

 

[mmh]

Yes, Llandudno does not have a bus station. Most terminating services end at Wetherspoons.
Some cross-town services like 13/14/15 are confusing as you board on what appears to be on the opposite side of the road to the direction you want to travel!

The 5/X5 to Bangor for Caernarfon operate two different routes towards Conwy, but the ‘X’ is not limited stop or quicker than the 5, so perhaps 5A would be a more appropriate route number!

Absolutely - even though it's been so many years since the change I can still get confused by having to to be on the wrong side of the road. I've never been completely sure why it changed but I assumed it was from when Maesdu Bridge was weight restricted before being rebuilt, but they just didn't move everything back to via the west shore once it was? (I'm assuming from your name you'll probably know if that's right or not!)

I can never remember which ones still go that way so despite family explaining it to me countless times I usually end up standing at the Marie et Cie stop staring over to Wetherspoons in case one going the "right" way comes along first

 

[Drive By Photo]

Torquay!

 

[DanTrain]

Not sure I agree that the bus stands in Chesterfield town centre work that well.
They are scattered all over the town, and unless you are a local, you don’t know which bus departs from where!
Cross-town journeys to the hospital or football ground for example, involve walking from one part of the town centre to the other, quite hilly in places.

I agree, Sheffield is even worse for that. There is an interchange, but most local buses seem not to use it, so instead they'll drop you somewhere in the centre and then pick you up from somewhere entirely different, with very little indication as to which bus goes where if you don't know (they all seem to pick a subtely differetn route through the centre as well). It works ok if you know it, but I wouldn't like to try and use it from scratch without the aid of Google!

 

[Llandudno]

Yes, Sheffield Interchange is a huge white elephant, very few buses use it and very few passengers too! The only way to improve patronage is possibly let bus operators use it without paying departure charges and close down some of the bus stops in the city centre.

May not be so convenient for passengers though - especially the elderly or infirm.