highest frequency bus route in UK

[deltic]

When the 29 and N29 in London convert back to standard double deckers on 26 November the maximum headway between services is 10 minutes - nothing special about that except when you realise that headway is in the middle of the night! During the day its every 4 minutes.

Cant be many routes outside London that operate as frequency as every 10 mins during the peaks

 

[Ivo]

Sorry to disappoint you but there are loads. There are plenty that operate more than 6bph outside of the peak, even outside London, never mind in it.

Although it doesn't consist of only one route, Wilmslow Road and the like in Manchester have services every 30 seconds or so!

 

[causton]

A regular bus route with a consistent frequency I suppose you're after, but here's a route with a 1 minute frequency

http://www.intalink.org.uk/Timetables/tt/626_B_ATG.PDF

Never understand how that works in the morning, surely everyone gets to the bus stop for the first one and piles on that... why not just have one bus calling at each section of the route?

 

[ChrisCooper]

There are plenty of 10min services in other parts of the country, infact any significant population centre likely has 10min frequencies on key corridors, often with double deckers. Higher frequencies are common in cities, especially during peak times. In Nottingham for example NCTs go2 routes operate up to every 7mins, and Trent Bartons Indigo also runs every 7 mins during the day on the main part of the route.

 

[Ivo]

Also, although not true now, here the 18 route used bendies every six minutes (before 2010!) This is a city with an 85,000 population

 

[causton]

Even Hatfield gets its own 10 minute bus service, the 603 between the University and Rail Station (the 603 is a longer route, but this part is doubled up... now numbered 604). And the free uni shuttle is every 7/8 minutes I believe (used to be every 5 minutes, 4 in the peaks!)

And once again, not the same route number, but 14 ish buses per hour off-peak run from Hatfield to St Albans along the Hatfield Road :P
(Arriva 300 x 2
Arriva 301 x 2
Sullivan's 330 during term x2, school holidays x1
Uno 601 x 2
Uno 602 x 2
Uno 620 x 1
Uno 621 x 1
Uno 655 x 1 (some of the road)
Arriva "Green Line" 724 x 1)

 

[nicobobinus]

During the day it may be every 4 minutes, but on Friday and Saturday nights it will run every *three* minutes between Trafalgar Square and Wood Green. There is almost certainly a case for the N29 being the most heavily trafficked night bus route in existence. There is a substantial common stretch (nearly 5 miles) with the N253 & N279 which will get a combined 28 buses an hour at weekends. And it needs every single one, buses heading out up the Camden Road can have loadings crushed up against the front doors until gone 4am.

Most frequent daytime service in London now is the 38 - every 2 and a bit minutes at peak hours. Does anywhere else in the country come near that?

 

[Nym]

You should look at routes like these in Manchester in the peaks
142 E Dids get flighted with 2 or 3 buses leaving at once
143 W Dids same as 142
42/43 Stockport / Airport via Didsbury sees some flighting
1 and 3 are 5mins all day

I've seen once upto 8 buses per minute, yes PER MINUTE! going from Oxford Road to Oxford St or Witworth St to Oxford Road, less in the latter direction thanks to some services using Upper Brook St.

 

[Mojo]

The 97 and the 97a in Birmingham proudly proclaim that they run every 4 Min from Birmingham City Centre to Chelmsley Wood, if you are looking for a single route number with a frequent service.

I thought 'every 10 Min' was pretty much the standard acceptable service for urban bus routes although as others have stated you're bound to find major corridors in most (every?) major town or city with multiple routes providing a more frequent service.

 

[Tomonthetrain]

The 97 and the 97a in Birmingham proudly proclaim that they run every 4 Min from Birmingham City Centre to Chelmsley Wood, if you are looking for a single route number with a frequent service.

plus add Blue Diamonds contribution and you get at least 20ishBPH.

Another Brummie example is the 50/50A/X50 - combined it is every 2-5 minutes with 4 different operators (NXWM/Diamond/Green Transport Company/Johnsons)

For the Black country it must be the 404 with a average of a bus every 3-5 minutes between West Bromwich and Walsall.

 

[Eagle]

The Wilts and Dorset m1/m2 service between Poole and Bournemouth has a combined headway of 3 minutes during the day (and it runs 24 hours, with the dog-hours headway being 30 minutes). I always thought that was a very short headway for such a long route—typical journey time from Poole bus station to Comm Road in Bournemouth is 40ish minutes.

 

[Old Timer]

The 50 bus route in Birmingham is quoted regularly as being the most intense and busiest bus route in Europe.

 

[Ivo]

The 50 bus route in Birmingham is quoted regularly as being the most intense and busiest bus route in Europe.

But it only appears to run every 5 minutes! There are far more intense examples than that around.

EDIT: Apologies to Old Timer; the time I have quoted is off-peak frequency. At peaks it runs every 3 minutes, which is very frequent but surely not the most frequent...!

 

[90019]

Lothian's 22 runs with a 2 minute frequency during the peaks.

 

[SS4]

But it only appears to run every 5 minutes! There are far more intense examples than that around.

Perhaps it depends on the averaging period (if any).

 

[HSTEd]

So many routes suitable for trolleybusses... so little interest in them.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The 192 route from Manchester city centre through Stockport is supposed to be one of the busiest bus routes in "TfGM-land" and has just been awarded the distinction of being the first TfGM Quality Partnership Scheme.

 

[tripleseis]

I think the No 1 (Stagecoach) & 5 (Go-Ahead) bus routes between Blackbird Leys to Oxford City Centre run every 4-5 mins during the daytimes. I think it's the busiest bus route in Oxford.

 

[anthony263]

There are 1 or 2 routes in Cardiff which run every 7-8 minutes during the day time.

 

[radamfi]

I think the 192 is the most frequent route in GM with the same route number (I think 3 buses every 10 minutes) but the Stockport Road corridor is probably less frequent than Wilmslow Road and Rochdale Road.

 

[Deerfold]

The 521 is London's most frequent day route in the peak. In its busiest hour there are 30 departures.

 

[tbtc]

Without trying to get in to a "London" argument, in most of the rest of the UK there's not the luxury of having significant numbers of spare buses just for peak periods, so the frequency in the rush hour on many urban services is generally the same as during the daytime "off peak".

Here in Sheffield the most frequent are the 52 (every four minutes west of Ballifield) and 120 (every four minutes for most of the route), though there are other corridors with higher combined frequencies over more than one route (just like any city, I appreciate).

The 52 was once every three minutes with just one operator, in SYT days, but now is shared between two.

 

[Statto]

In London i'd say the 38 which is every 2 minutes Peak 3 to 4 minutes Off Peak, outside London, n Manchester the 42 East Didsbury-Piccadilly which even Off Peak is every couple of minutes, also the 192 Hazel Grove-Piccadilly is every couple of minutes. The 86/86A in Liverpool is every 3 minutes although that's under QBP scheme.
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I think the 192 is the most frequent route in GM with the same route number (I think 3 buses every 10 minutes) but the Stockport Road corridor is probably less frequent than Wilmslow Road and Rochdale Road.

Yep, there's only one maine route down the Stockport Road corridor even though it is frequent, & heavily used, were as the Wilmslow Road corridor has many routes going down there.

 

[Nym]

Yep, like I said before, some time of day, going up Oxford St from Oxford Rd you have 8 - 10bpm (Buses per MINUTE!)

 

[Statto]

Yep, like I said before, some time of day, going up Oxford St from Oxford Rd you have 8 - 10bpm (Buses per MINUTE!)

Yep, there's no other corridor service like it anywhere else, the main aim of most of the routes that operate down Wilmslow Road corridor, is to serve the University & Owens Park Halls Of Residence, however GMPTE bar any routes from terminating there so they serve a longer stretch of Wilmslow Road than they would otherwise have done

 

[Nym]

Personally I think it would be ideal for a Metrolink extension from St Peter's Sq down to Fallowfeild, using Oxford St and Oxford Road.

Maybe at the far end looping up with the Fallowfeild Loop and back to Deansgate G-Mex.

Would also put Manc Oxford Road Station on the Metrolink Map for the 1st time, although a rebuild plan of that I came up with a fair while ago would do that too, but it would be terminating platforms at High Level.

 

[Deerfold]

Personally I think it would be ideal for a Metrolink extension from St Peter's Sq down to Fallowfeild, using Oxford St and Oxford Road.

If the fares were like other metrolink fares it wouldn't pick up most of the traffic.

 

[sprite]

Yep, there's no other corridor service like it anywhere else, the main aim of most of the routes that operate down Wilmslow Road corridor, is to serve the University & Owens Park Halls Of Residence, however GMPTE bar any routes from terminating there so they serve a longer stretch of Wilmslow Road than they would otherwise have done

142 and 143 run part routes during uni hours - they start just opposite the union (on oxford road) and end in withington. They run empty via upper brook street to start again. They reverse direction at some point in the day - morning its Withington -> UofM and afternoon its UofM -> Withington.

This is only the Magicbus operated 142 and 143 - the 42 and 43 (Stagecoach and Finglands)

I should add that during the peaks, the 142 and 143 do still run their full route as well, there are just some supplimentary part routes.

 

[Badger]

I could be wrong, but I think the 59 Wolverhampton to Ashmore Park is every 5 minutes with two different operators (so every 2.5 technically) (NX:WM and Diamond).

 

[bb21]

A regular bus route with a consistent frequency I suppose you're after, but here's a route with a 1 minute frequency

http://www.intalink.org.uk/Timetables/tt/626_B_ATG.PDF

Never understand how that works in the morning, surely everyone gets to the bus stop for the first one and piles on that... why not just have one bus calling at each section of the route?

I guess this is just TfL's way of saying that there is a quadruple-headed departure without explicitly saying it.