Fastest growing bus routes in UK?

[gingerheid]

A lot of what's going on with bus and coach routes in the UK is doom and gloom, but there must be some shining example of success (I have one locally...)

What examples of greatly growing bus routes are there? I'm looking for cases where the growth has occurred over a number of years and improved services are stable, so not just services being doubled by a bus war or an operator trying out an improved service that may or may not work. Also looking for things over a decent area, not one short new route to a new estate that didn't exist before!

I'm looking for things to compare with the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway. Before the guideway opened there were 4 or 5 buses an hour from St Ives to Cambridge, which from a new timetable to be introduced soon will be 12 buses an hour for much of the day (and has been stable at at least 8 for a few years). The Sunday service will have become a lot similar to the previous weekday service.

On the southern stretch all the previous services in the area around it are really unchanged (except one rural route that has been in terminal decline that seems to have been rescued by a transfer to the guideway), and the guideway itself has 12 buses an hour at peak time (soon to increase a little, 4 of which are subsidised by the University).

There's a lot of reasons for this but, as much as the illogical nature of this offends me, the busway itself seems to be the main one. There has been building on the route, but there's been building on other routes nearby (like Cambourne and St Neots) without the same effect on bus services, and in fact where efforts to expand services such as the X4 failed.

 

[Megafuss]

I don't think Stagecoach get enough credit for how they have managed services on the Busway. Its passengers growth has been phenomenal and despite the infrastructure issues meaning they can only use singles on certain routes, recent driver shortages as well as the ongoing issues with the track thanks to the A14 works - they seem to be ploughing on with even more improvements this spring.

The 36 between Leeds Harrogate and Ripon seems like an obvious alternative for most improved route with buses now running up to every 10 minutes, night buses and high spec vehicles.

GNE number 21 and X21 between Durham, Chester-le-Street and Newcastle. Up to every 7/8 minutes now and night buses at weekends. Over time replaced a myriad of services which operated between Chester and Newcastle when GNE started to simplify the network

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

66 Swindon to Oxford was a dull interurban route that was hourly and had been for years, gaining some new fleet in 1996 in some PSs.

In 2008, Stagecoach and the councils got together. The councils improved roadside infrastructure whilst Stagecoach introduced new MAN e300s on a 30 min frequency.

It was converted to Gold with new e400s in 2011, and received a new fleet in 2018 (renumbered S6) and now runs every 20 mins (every 15 in peak) and every 30 mins on a Sunday. So quadrupled in 10 years and converted to deckers.

 

[Statto]

Vantage, otherwise known as the Leigh Guided Busway, buses are often heaving on that route now, the 34 & old 32 could often have a handful of passengers on

89 St Helens-Liverpool Airport once St Helens-Speke every 30 minutes day, 60 minutes evening & Sundays[often only running St Helens-Woolton] mostly allocated single decks, the 89 had a big revamp in 2004 extended to Liverpool Airport low floor cadets were introduced, frequency increased to 20 minutes daytime 30 minutes evening & Sunday with evening & Sunday routes operating the full length of the route only last journey's running short, a few years ago the cadets were replaced by deckers, although the odd single deck mostly pulsars still get allocated

 

[Kevpbus]

Luton Busway. Reduced the running times between Luton and Dunstable by 20 minutes. Despite some of the parallel routes being trimmed, three operators provide a very frequent service.

 

[Stan Drews]

The direct St.Andrews - Dundee bus service (currently the 99 group) has gone from being a 30 min Mon-Sat daytime frequency 20 years ago, to the current 7 day a week offering that runs every 7/8 mins during the day on Mon-Sat and 20 mins in the evenings, plus a weekend night service. On Sundays it’s every 15 mins during the day and 30 mins in the evening.
Therefore the current Sunday evening frequency is the same as the best daytime Mon-Fri frequency 20 years ago.

 

[paulmch]

I moved to Cambridge from Corby a few years ago, and it annoys me no end to hear people whinging about the Busway. It's been a blinding success, and you only have to look at the other out of city bus routes from Cambridge to see just how bad it can get!

One thing I do find quite puzzling is that Whippet struggles with the X3 to Huntingdon so much - it's a good 15 or 20 minutes quicker than the B is yet the route just seems to be in terminal decline.

 

[gingerheid]

I moved to Cambridge from Corby a few years ago, and it annoys me no end to hear people whinging about the Busway. It's been a blinding success, and you only have to look at the other out of city bus routes from Cambridge to see just how bad it can get!

Likewise, and the reason I created this thread. I was wondering what else makes a successful bus route, as I suspected that people would quickly mention the other guided busways and only a few other rare exceptions (St Andrews interests me, that's the kind of growth we've seen here...).

The illogical nature of its success offends my sensible nature, but we shouldn't ignore that it did indeed succeed. In particular, it's also beaten what a railway would (rather than could) have done in terms of responding to demand. (How long did it take them to respond to demand from Alloa that was evident from day 1? Years.)

It strikes me that Cambridgeshire should be building the busway to Cambourne as a matter of urgency (and it's less upsetting to people here as its not a railway). I can't see it not being a massive success, particularly as would go to the right place (actual Cambridge) and points the right direction. Seems so much better an idea than the CAM metro that relyies on anticipated future technology.

 

[gingerheid]

The direct St.Andrews - Dundee bus service (currently the 99 group) has gone from being a 30 min Mon-Sat daytime frequency 20 years ago, to the current 7 day a week offering that runs every 7/8 mins during the day on Mon-Sat and 20 mins in the evenings, plus a weekend night service. On Sundays it’s every 15 mins during the day and 30 mins in the evening.
Therefore the current Sunday evening frequency is the same as the best daytime Mon-Fri frequency 20 years ago.

This is the sort of long term incredible growth (and without a guided busway!) that I was interested in.

What would you say has caused / allowed it?

 

[Alex 2901]

I'd argue that NXWM's X51 between Birmingham and Walsall fits this pretty well:

From its launch in late 2007 (replacing the sporadic peak time only 951), at every 20 minutes (iirc) using whatever single deckers Walsall could chuck out, the route has grown exponentially over the past 12 or so years, into one of NXWMs flagship corridors, the peak service now running up to every 5 minutes in the week (and based off my observations, I'd say it could do with either larger capacity vehicles or being even more frequent), with a daytime service that runs every 10 minutes, using modern Enviro400MMCs that were new for the route (and the 997, 934-936) back in 2015.
The less said about the Cannock side, the better though...

I'd also say that NX's 12X between Coventry and University of Warwick has become a bit of a runaway success -
The "direct" link to Uni of Warwick via Kenilworth Road was only provided by the hourly 16/X16 until 2015. NXC introduced the 12X every 15 minutes (replacing the 12, which ran through Earlsdon and Hearsall Common, rather than Kenilworth Road). Over the past 4-5 years, the 12X has increased to running every 5 minutes at times (even when combined, the 11 & 12 were only ever every 10 minutes), along with brand new Platinums in 2019. It's gotten popular enough that Stagecoach were willing to launch the U12 (a carbon copy of the 12X) at the beginning of 2020, which really hasn't had the effect that Stagecoach probably hoped it would...

 

[NorthOxonian]

66 Swindon to Oxford was a dull interurban route that was hourly and had been for years, gaining some new fleet in 1996 in some PSs.

In 2008, Stagecoach and the councils got together. The councils improved roadside infrastructure whilst Stagecoach introduced new MAN e300s on a 30 min frequency.

It was converted to Gold with new e400s in 2011, and received a new fleet in 2018 (renumbered S6) and now runs every 20 mins (every 15 in peak) and every 30 mins on a Sunday. So quadrupled in 10 years and converted to deckers.

Of course, there is a lot of new housing going up along the route (and this will continue for a long time - especially if Swindon's plan for "New Eastern Villages" goes ahead).

Passenger usage seems really high when I use it (which is possibly more than any other route), even on runs which might not seem promising, such as early morning runs to Swindon and evening journeys. It does help that the route is cheaper than the train (even with a railcard), and isn't that much slower once you factor in connections at Didcot Parkway. Another factor which might help is that according to this report, Oxford, the Vale of White Horse, and Swindon, which are the three council areas the route serves, all have significantly higher bus usage than their demographics would suggest.

 

[njlawley]

Vantage, otherwise known as the Leigh Guided Busway, buses are often heaving on that route now, the 34 & old 32 could often have a handful of passengers on

The X34 was rarely that quiet. And I was a commuter on that for over four years (plus also regulated it at the Leigh end on at least one day a week). It was busy then, but Vantage has always had the speed advantage. If the 32 and X34 route saw on-line improvements, then I would have imagined that they would have seen the large growth and frequency improvements.

However, the xx:15 departures on the X34 were always the busier ones.

 

[tbtc]

The direct St.Andrews - Dundee bus service (currently the 99 group) has gone from being a 30 min Mon-Sat daytime frequency 20 years ago, to the current 7 day a week offering that runs every 7/8 mins during the day on Mon-Sat and 20 mins in the evenings, plus a weekend night service. On Sundays it’s every 15 mins during the day and 30 mins in the evening.
Therefore the current Sunday evening frequency is the same as the best daytime Mon-Fri frequency 20 years ago.

This is the sort of long term incredible growth (and without a guided busway!) that I was interested in.

What would you say has caused / allowed it?

It's worth pointing out that there was only one "fast" bus a day from St Andrews to Dundee thirty years ago - the only service between the two was the 95 that diverted via the turning circle in Leuchars and through the village of Tayport (so took a good fifty minutes, compared to thirty minutes today for the 99s).

The "fast" services (i.e. along the A919, not diverting into Tayport) started when Moffat & Williamson introduced an X95 in about 1992 - a fairly awkward "every forty five to fifty minutes" frequency and a service that ran a loop in suburban St Andrews but did so by running on the opposite side of the road to the Fife Scottish/ Stagecoach services (so struggled to attract local passengers).

But the time saving had quite an impact, so Fife fought back - first with the 96 (a brazen copy of the X95, often timed five minutes ahead, in good old 1990s Bus War fashion), then with the extension of the X59/X60 every half hour to Dundee (which also provided a useful fast service from Leven to Dundee). The half hourly frequency (along the A919) continued when the existing 95 was diverted along that direct route (with the X59/X60 removed, and a 96 introduced to pick up the Tayport service).

Then the 99 was introduced to replace the 95 north of St Andrews (the 95 remains as the coastal service from Leven to St Andrews and is a beautiful bus ride on a sunny day with a double decker - well recommended), running half hourly (but with hourly clockwise/anticlockwise services around suburban St Andrews).

The 99 was increased to three/ hour, then four/hour (all running different suburban routes on an hourly frequency)… then eventually eight/hour (but with half the journeys only running from St Andrews Bus Station to Dundee).

So all of this without any infrastructure improvements, no segregated sections, no *major* cuts to other services between St Andrews/ Leuchars/ Dundee (the current service from St Andrews to Dundee via Tayport is the hourly 42 - and Tayport retains the kind of frequency to Dundee it's generally had - every twenty or thirty minutes depending on the most recent service changes!).

Undeniably part of the reason is that the University in St Andrews has grown and grown - but with little in the way of new housing - so the pendulum has partly swung into a situation where people live in Dundee and work in St Andrews (i.e. it's not longer the simple service from small town to nearest big city, where the demand is all one way in the morning and back again in the afternoon). Students don't all own cars, but do travel a lot more nowadays, so a bus company that caters to that market can do well (although it has to continually attract new passengers as the older ones graduate).

I guess that part of the reason may also be that frequent closures of the Tay Road Bridge have meant that Stagecoach took the decision that they'd have to stick with single deckers, so the frequency is better than it'd be if they could rely on running larger vehicles - maybe its confirmation bias but seeing the Twitter feeds, it feels like the bridge is closed a lot more in the past few years.

An increase in trains at Leuchars may have had a bit of an increase in passenger numbers (there was only one per hour in each direction in olden days but now two services per hour in each direction, so there are more trains to connect with). But at the same time, Stagecoach have been maintaining a good coach network from St Andrews to Edinburgh/Glasgow etc, so it's not as if all of the passengers using the 99 to connect with the trains are ones who used to use coach services that Stagecoach gave up on. With eight buses per hour, you don't have to be as nervous about your connections as with a half hourly service.

But I think that the main reason for the growth is that it's a good product - Stagecoach have invested in new vehicles, and invested again to replace the fleet and increase the frequency - it's well marketed - it seems pretty reliable (despite coping with busy traffic in a tourist town like St Andrews). There's been steady growth, and an operator happy to keep the virtuous circle going.

There's no gimmicks, there's not been any unsustainable fare offers, there's not been the need for "Gold" branding - the council haven't built bus lanes or given any priorities at junctions - it's just an example of where improving a route and speeding it up attracts the kind of people who wouldn't have waited for a half hourly Citybus all those years ago.

 

[robk23oxf]

The Stagecoach 233 service (Burford-Woodstock) started out as the 233 (Witney-Milton) running every couple of hours and the 242 (Witney-Woodstock) running hourly. The 242 and the Witney-Burford section of the 233 were then joined to form a through route running hourly. A couple of years later it was extended to run via Carterton then after that with extra Section 106 funding it was upped to half-hourly with last buses around 8-9pm.

 

[gingerheid]

... Lots of fascinating information...

Interesting. Stagecoach actually tried pretty much the exact same thing on all the main routes out Cambridge at roughly the same time (including the one now served by the guided busway), and it just didn't work out for them either that way or the way the busway did.

They also tried to improve services on the corridor where a second busway was purposed by the county council but blocked by the mayor more recently, and it didn't work for them at all. The X5 Cambridge - Oxford was supplemented by an X4 St Neots Local to Cambridge, which carted fresh air for a few months before meeting the inevitable fate.

 

[chrish2]

Leigh Guided Busway / Vantage cannibalised a number of existing routes to ensure strong passenger numbers so the number of passengers for the route can't be counted as "growth" from 0.

12/25, X34, 39 Night Bus and 26 journeys operated by First Greater Manchester will be replaced by the new Vantage services
https://www.leighjournal.co.uk/news/14283102.four-bus-routes-to-change-from-april/

 

[cnjb8]

TrentBartons Two started as 15 mins to 12 mins and now at 10.
Rainbow One increased frequency of Nottingham to Ripley buses by extending the ones that terminated at Heanor while retaining a 10 min frequency from Nottingham to Eastwood. Buses to Ripley will definitely need a frequency increase when the Rapid One is withdrawn.
my15 was extended to East Mids Airport while the frequency was increased.
H1 started at 20 mins and its frequency went from 20 to 15 and then 12 mins within the year. The first move, to kill of Yourbus' Y1 and then the second, to provide extra capacity when they went under.

 

[Stan Drews]

This is the sort of long term incredible growth (and without a guided busway!) that I was interested in.

What would you say has caused / allowed it?

tbtc has provided an excellent summary of the St.Andrews - Dundee route, although one significant factor he didn’t mention was the staff. It is operated by the St.Andrews depot, which is combined with the bus station, located fairly centrally in St.Andrews. It is one of the smaller depots within the Group and, like many of the others, has a great bunch of staff. In recent years they have deservedly won a number of awards at both Scottish and UK award ceremonies.

 

[43055]

TrentBartons Two started as 15 mins to 12 mins and now at 10.
Rainbow One increased frequency of Nottingham to Ripley buses by extending the ones that terminated at Heanor while retaining a 10 min frequency from Nottingham to Eastwood. Buses to Ripley will definitely need a frequency increase when the Rapid One is withdrawn.
my15 was extended to East Mids Airport while the frequency was increased.
H1 started at 20 mins and its frequency went from 20 to 15 and then 12 mins within the year. The first move, to kill of Yourbus' Y1 and then the second, to provide extra capacity when they went under.

H1 is now every 10 mins to Heanor. The same can be said for the ilkeston flyer which increased from 20 to 15 and then 12 min in the last few years.

 

[MotCO]

The route that springs to mind is Metrobus's 358 (Orpington to Crystal Palace). This started from 2 trips a day to larger and larger single deckers (currently 12m Citaros - a low bridge prohibits double deckers) running every 12 minutes. The route has changed a bit, but the termini are the same.

 

[Busaholic]

The route that springs to mind is Metrobus's 358 (Orpington to Crystal Palace). This started from 2 trips a day to larger and larger single deckers (currently 12m Citaros - a low bridge prohibits double deckers) running every 12 minutes. The route has changed a bit, but the termini are the same.

A very good example of somebody (or a group of people) familiar with a local area knowing, or suspecting, that the 'big' operator i.e. London Transport was missing a trick or two. Having grown up, worked and had marital homes in more than one bit of what is basically a cross-Bromley Borough route, I always expected the route to be a success, much like the Orpington to Croydon one. It wasn't just a case of someone in an office in central London looking at a map and, without knowing the area, saying what if we join A to B to C?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

A slight variation but one that has certainly grown is Darlington to Stockton and perhaps not from a standing start. The abridged history...

Pre deregulation, Darlington to Stockton was every 30 mins with every other one (service 268) continuing to Middlesbrough. It ran via villages bypassed by the A66, with long journey times of 40 and 55 mins to Stockton and Boro respectively. In October 1986, United retained this pattern with the hourly Sunday service run for a couple of years by Darlington Transport under tender. By 1988, United eventually upped the old daytime stopping as service 268/269 to half hourly to Middlesbrough.

However, 1986 had seen Darlington Transport planning a fast version so United got in first and registered an express numbered X14 from Bishop Auckland every hour and taking 25 mins direct from Darlington to Middlesbrough using old ex National Express Leopard coaches and dedicated drivers. The X14 did well though gaining some additional peak hour runs during the early 1990s.

That was the way until Arriva days. It gained new Plaxton Primas (not Primos!!!) in 1999. Some changes occurred, axing the Bishop Auckland leg but Darlington to Middlesbrough became half hourly and combined with the X73 to Saltburn.

Big changes occurred in 2008 when Arriva decided to stop serving the villages and chunks of Stockton's suburbia and chopped the stopping service entirely. They severed the route in Middlesbrough again, renumbered the X14 to X66 and diverted it to run express from Darlington via Stockton to Middlesbrough taking 40 mins end to end. The frequency increased to every 20 mins and it now runs every 15 mins (though only hourly commericially on a Sunday) with two variant routes (X66/X67) depending on the routes in Darlington and Stockton. The rolling stock is Scania Omnicities (getting on a bit) and Daf Pulsars with Ecocity gas buses also deputising.

However, it's still gone from a slow bus every 30 mins (Stockton) or 60 mins (Middlesbrough) to one every 15 mins throughout. It did help that the competing rail route goes between two peripherally located train stations and was operated by Pacers.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Of course, there is a lot of new housing going up along the route (and this will continue for a long time - especially if Swindon's plan for "New Eastern Villages" goes ahead).

That's true enough. The amount of new housing in places like Faringdon and Southmoor (aided by the car unfriendly streets of Oxford) have certainly helped but Stagecoach and the LAs have done a good job nonetheless.

The Stagecoach 233 service (Burford-Woodstock) started out as the 233 (Witney-Milton) running every couple of hours and the 242 (Witney-Woodstock) running hourly. The 242 and the Witney-Burford section of the 233 were then joined to form a through route running hourly. A couple of years later it was extended to run via Carterton then after that with extra Section 106 funding it was upped to half-hourly with last buses around 8-9pm.

Didn't know that. Quite a transformation

 

[Deerfold]

I'm looking for things to compare with the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway. Before the guideway opened there were 4 or 5 buses an hour from St Ives to Cambridge, which from a new timetable to be introduced soon will be 12 buses an hour for much of the day (and has been stable at at least 8 for a few years). The Sunday service will have become a lot similar to the previous weekday service.

I caught the Cambridge to Huntingdon service a couple of evenings in a row just before the busway opened. The service that far ran every 20 minutes. The Tuesday trip took almost exactly twice as long as the Monday service had due to weight of traffic.

It's taken an age for the Sunday service to see much of an improvement despite massive improvements during the week - I'm surprised the Sunday service still finishes well over 5 hours earlier than the weekday service.

 

[Aictos]

Luton Busway. Reduced the running times between Luton and Dunstable by 20 minutes. Despite some of the parallel routes being trimmed, three operators provide a very frequent service.

And of course since last October, ALL Arriva A services were extended to the airport which was a improvement on every other one going there.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

It's taken an age for the Sunday service to see much of an improvement despite massive improvements during the week - I'm surprised the Sunday service still finishes well over 5 hours earlier than the weekday service.

It finishes so early - it really is a surprise

 

[gingerheid]

I caught the Cambridge to Huntingdon service a couple of evenings in a row just before the busway opened. The service that far ran every 20 minutes. The Tuesday trip took almost exactly twice as long as the Monday service had due to weight of traffic.

It's taken an age for the Sunday service to see much of an improvement despite massive improvements during the week - I'm surprised the Sunday service still finishes well over 5 hours earlier than the weekday service.

It finishes so early - it really is a surprise

It has taken a long time to improve, and this has been annoying as the last Sunday bus has been one of the busiest of the week.

Currently the guideway is disrupted by work on an A14 overbridge, but once this is finished Stagecoach are introducing improved services that will include Sunday journeys from 0700 to 2200 (about time, etc etc...) The proposed timetable was visible on Traveline for a week before being put back as the A14 work was delayed.

I still feel this is unambitious though; a 24/7 service would send a message about alternatives to cars!

 

[Deerfold]

The 36 Ripon - Harrogate - Leeds. In the early 90s there was 1 bus an hour, with a second Leeds-Harrogate each hour. Sundays saw one bus an hour
It's had plenty of publicity and investment in vehicles.
By the late 90s there were 3 buses an hour (with 1 taking a different route through Harrogate) with a handful of extra peak journeys.
Then the service became every 15 minutes.
Now it's every 10 minutes Leeds - Harrogate with every other bus continuing to Ripon (so this bit of the route has seen a small recent drop in frequency). The last bus Sunday to Friday night has remained at 2315 for as long as I can remember, but now there's an hourly later service on Saturdays until 0315 from Leeds to Harrogate.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

The 36 Ripon - Harrogate - Leeds. In the early 90s there was 1 bus an hour, with a second Leeds-Harrogate each hour. Sundays saw one bus an hour
It's had plenty of publicity and investment in vehicles.
By the late 90s there were 3 buses an hour (with 1 taking a different route through Harrogate) with a handful of extra peak journeys.
Then the service became every 15 minutes.
Now it's every 10 minutes Leeds - Harrogate with every other bus continuing to Ripon (so this bit of the route has seen a small recent drop in frequency). The last bus Sunday to Friday night has remained at 2315 for as long as I can remember, but now there's an hourly later service on Saturdays until 0315 from Leeds to Harrogate.

Mentioned this before. The half hourly Leeds to Harrogate frequency with hourly extensions to Ripon was the service pattern following the big North Yorkshire cuts in 1981 through deregulation until 1988.

Challenger then introduced an hourly Harrogate to Ripon service, so United responded with a fast X36 so it was three bph on that section.

Through various changes, and H&D introducing better fleet (Lynxes, B10Bs) and then buying United's Ripon depot, they eventually ended up removing the X36, and increasing the 36 to achieve the 20 min frequency throughout as you mentioned, and then all the other developments since then.

It really has been a transformation.

 

[LancasterRed]

Coastal Coaches of Warton have emerged as a quality bus company recently. Since taking the 77 and 77A from Preston Bus they have improved its reliability to the point where it is not only usable, but the preferred option for journeys across its route.

However, they are likely to suffer from their own success due to their buses being unsuitable for the routes they take and the overly strict policies. That said, they are hiring for new 76/77/77A/78 drivers constantly and I expect them to expand in the future. They represent a quality yet affordable option and there are a number of unloved routes in and around Lancashire they could take on and improve. I understand it isn't exactly "coastal" but I was surprised to hear they hadn't taken on the 15 after Lancashire County Council were looking for an operator.