ChrisC
Established Member
I have just been reading the thread 'Furthest day return trip by bus from your home town'. I quite like having days out by bus, but I don't think I would want to travel such huge distances as I prefer to base my days out around getting off and exploring interesting locations along my planned route. I often have days out by bus when I'm on holiday and can visit a number of locations in one day. I would like to be able to leave my car at home and do the same from home but unfortunately I live in one of those locations where there are no buses after 6pm. I do sometimes drive about 3 miles and park in another village, which has an evening bus service, but it's often easier to do the whole journey by car.
Something that I am noticing more and more, mainly outside of the large urban areas, is that on many bus services, which may have a regular hourly or two hourly service right through the morning, there are increasingly large gaps in the afternoon timetables with very few, or even no buses between 2pm and 5pm. This is especially so on school days where buses can be missing from the timetable or start/finish short at some inconvenient location with no onward connections. This can really restrict days out by bus when you arrive somewhere around lunchtime but have to get a return bus well before 3pm, otherwise there is no bus until around 5pm and then no chance of getting onward connections later in the journey for the last buses home.
Through the village where I live in Nottinghamshire, there is a bus every hour from 6.30am until 6.30pm but on schooldays the 3.30pm bus does not run, resulting in a gap of 2 hours, at just the time people want to return home. This is especially so in winter when it is nice to get home before dark. I just end up using my car more for days out because these gaps in afternoon timetables make the return journey so difficult. I know that in many cases the bus company gets a good financial return from the local authority for school services, but they must also be losing some income earlier in the day from people like myself who don't use the bus because of the inconvenient or non existent afternoon service for the return journey.
Something that I am noticing more and more, mainly outside of the large urban areas, is that on many bus services, which may have a regular hourly or two hourly service right through the morning, there are increasingly large gaps in the afternoon timetables with very few, or even no buses between 2pm and 5pm. This is especially so on school days where buses can be missing from the timetable or start/finish short at some inconvenient location with no onward connections. This can really restrict days out by bus when you arrive somewhere around lunchtime but have to get a return bus well before 3pm, otherwise there is no bus until around 5pm and then no chance of getting onward connections later in the journey for the last buses home.
Through the village where I live in Nottinghamshire, there is a bus every hour from 6.30am until 6.30pm but on schooldays the 3.30pm bus does not run, resulting in a gap of 2 hours, at just the time people want to return home. This is especially so in winter when it is nice to get home before dark. I just end up using my car more for days out because these gaps in afternoon timetables make the return journey so difficult. I know that in many cases the bus company gets a good financial return from the local authority for school services, but they must also be losing some income earlier in the day from people like myself who don't use the bus because of the inconvenient or non existent afternoon service for the return journey.