Long Distance Bus Routes

[ivanhoe]

I was in North Norfolk last week and whilst driving between Peterborough and Kings Lynn, I noticed service , First Eastern X1 Lowestoft to Peterborough at regular intervals. Being a bit of a saddo, I looked up the timetable for this and noticed that it runs every 30 minutes for a distance of 115 miles of nearly 4 hours duration. Lowestoft-Great Yarmouth-Norwich-Kings Lynn-Wisbech-Peterborough.

Anybody know of any simular routes to this in other parts of the Country. Good Stock of Double Deck Buses used as well. Fair play to First for making this work!

 

[WatcherZero]

Dont know if its still going but while I was at Keele Uni was a bus that ran through campus, on a route between Crewe and Sheffield via Stoke!
X18 I think it was. 3+ hour journey

 

[deltic]

X5 Oxford to Cambridge runs every 30mins and takes 3hrs 20mins

 

[transportphoto]

Re to the X1 -> you would be surprised how many drivers each direction takes.

I think it is something like:

1 PBO - King Lynn
1 Kings Lynn - Norwich
1 Norwich - Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft

Some services change at Gt Yar for a local driver to take to Lowestoft.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Good Stock of Double Deck Buses used as well. Fair play to First for making this work!

Eastern Counties have "made it work" for donkies years. It's only during the reign of First Group that it's been downgraded from Plaxton bodied coaches to the Wright double deckers. The logic is few people travel end to end or for more than any major town to town stretch (usually for shopping or commuting) and with all those pensioners now traveling free they needed more capacity.

Sadly some folk like myself do make regular 2 hour journeys on the X1 and the Wright buses are bloody uncomfortable!

Handy to note that you can buy through train tickets via Peterborough to major X1 stops as far east as (IIRC) Dereham for much less than the equivalent single fare bought on the bus.

 

[Ivo]

There is a service run by Stagecoach from Cardiff, numbered X3, that runs up to every 30 minutes. On a basic level it is far from long; in fact, it runs only to Cwmbran. But alternate services run to Abergavenny, giving an hourly frequency to there, and alternate journeys to Abergavenny provide a two-hourly service to Hereford.

There is also a service between Exeter and Poole, whose number I can not remember (X2 possibly?), again run by Stagecoach. There are a few longer-distances services around Exeter; other distances include Plymouth, Barnstaple and/or Bude and (obviously) Torquay. There was a route to Taunton, but it either has been withdrawn, or is about to be (to one side of Tiverton anyway; I forget which).

 

[ivanhoe]

Eastern Counties have "made it work" for donkies years. It's only during the reign of First Group that it's been downgraded from Plaxton bodied coaches to the Wright double deckers. The logic is few people travel end to end or for more than any major town to town stretch (usually for shopping or commuting) and with all those pensioners now traveling free they needed more capacity.

Sadly some folk like myself do make regular 2 hour journeys on the X1 and the Wright buses are bloody uncomfortable!

Handy to note that you can buy through train tickets via Peterborough to major X1 stops as far east as (IIRC) Dereham for much less than the equivalent single fare bought on the bus.

Thanks for that. The Wright Buses are fine for City and Town routes but any journey more than 45 minutes would be uncomfortable especially when it's bombing along the A47. Nice to hear that it was NBC Eastern Counties was resonsible for this route initially. How long have the double deckers been used now?

 

[Stonesourscotty]

There All 58 Reg so that explains just over a Year and Half.


Longest i've done is a Manchester-Nottingham Coach Service which is Run as a Bus Service by Trent and semi Competes with the Norwich-Liverpool Train

 

[jamesontheroad]

The double deckers were indeed delivered new, so it would have been some time in the 58 plate cycle. I've seen at least one or two of the Plaxton bodied coaches they replaced (same old vicery and Anglia region plates) right here in Glasgow serving much shorter X routes.

 

[bluebottle]

There is a service run by Stagecoach from Cardiff, numbered X3, that runs up to every 30 minutes. On a basic level it is far from long; in fact, it runs only to Cwmbran. But alternate services run to Abergavenny, giving an hourly frequency to there, and alternate journeys to Abergavenny provide a two-hourly service to Hereford.

There is also a service between Exeter and Poole, whose number I can not remember (X2 possibly?), again run by Stagecoach. There are a few longer-distances services around Exeter; other distances include Plymouth, Barnstaple and/or Bude and (obviously) Torquay. There was a route to Taunton, but it either has been withdrawn, or is about to be (to one side of Tiverton anyway; I forget which).

First Group again, X53. Four and a half hour trip, four buses go the whole distance each way. The first two westward start at Weymouth, the third one at Osmington. Eastward the first and third start at Weymouth, the second starts at Lyme Regis. Last bus each way stops at Weymouth, penultimate eastbound goes to Osmington. Considered it for catching 60019 at Exeter last saturday but you can't get to Exeter from Poole before 1222 unless you go to Weymouth and catch it from there. So I stayed here and filmed the 47s at Branksome instead.

 

[starrymarkb]

It used to have a daily trip through to Bournemouth too - that was 5 hours in total. That too is now run by Geminis (and Previously Omnidekkas, Solars and Coaches)

Also out of Exeter is the 510 by Western Greyhound - Exeter to Newquay via Okehampton, Launceston, Camelford and Wadebridge - that's about 85 miles and uses E400s/Solos.

There are also the Coastliners from Leeds to Whitby, Scarborough and Filey. I've done York to Whitby and back and it wasn't the most comfortable of rides going (they get very busy around Goth weekends) but coming back was OK - preferred the Eclipses over the Geminis though
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Dont know if its still going but while I was at Keele Uni was a bus that ran through campus, on a route between Crewe and Sheffield via Stoke!
X18 I think it was. 3+ hour journey

That one is now split at Buxton with IIRC guaranteed connections. D&G 118 Hanley to Buxton & First 218 Buxton to Sheffield

Also there is the Stagecoach South 700 - that's a 4 hour Portsmouth to Brighton running up to every 10 mins!

 

[madannie77]

First also operate the X95 (Edinburgh to Carlisle) which is marketed as a Rail-link service and is 3 hours 20 end to end. Usual vehicles these days are Wright bodied Scanias L94UBs. Before that it was Optare Prisma bodied Mercedes-Benz 0405s. Double deckers are not unknown on this route.

Bit of a short one compared to some on here is Arriva and Stagecoach 685 (Newcastle to Carlisle - 60 miles or so), which has an hourly frequency and is approx 2 hours 10 minutes end to end (except for some journeys which divert via Gilsland which take approx 15 minutes more. Usual fare is DAF SB3000s from Arriva and Volvo B10M-62s from Stagecoach whicha re decidely not low floor and not entirely suitable for some parts of the route. Probably better for the end to end journey than some of the buses turned out on the route occasionally, including a 55 plate Alexander Dennis Dart form Stagecoach!

 

[anthony263]

Stagecoach also run a servie X4 Cardiff - Merthyr Tydfil- Ebbw Vale - Brynmawr - Abergavenny - Hereford

Frequency is every 15 minutes between Cardiff & Merthyr every 30 minutes to Brynmawr & every hour/2 hours to Abergavenny & Hereford.

another long distance bus route in wales is the X43 Cardiff - Merthyr Tydfil - Brecon - Abergavenny which takes about 2.5 hours to do the full trip and is operated by 60-60 coaches using Optare metroriders and Dennis darts

 

[westcoaster]

another long route would be the greenline 724 service from harlow to heathrow airport which goes harlow-ware-hertford-welyn garden city-hatfield-st albans-watford-rickmansworth-heathrow journey time of 3hrs 5mins to 3hrs 40 mins depending on the time of day, this service uses 06 reg citaros, i even once saw a short bodied dart on this route , now that must have been torture.

 

[Heinz57]

Trent Barton run a service called 'Trans PeaK' from Nottingham to Manchester via Derby, Belpter, Matlock, Bakewell, Buxton etc.

The service to Manchester runs every 3 hours and takes about 3 hours 35 mins.

There is also a service on the same bus which only goes as far as Buxton. This runs every hour and takes about 2 hours 20 mins.

The service uses Optare Excels (Only on the Buxton run) and Plaxton Premiers

 

[Oracle]

The nearest I can think of around here is the 700 Coastliner, from Southsea to Brighton, basically taking the A27 via Worthing, which takes around 4 hours. There used to be a Southampton-Guildford service by Alder Valley. There was once the Goldline service from Reading-Southend operated by Reading and Southend.

I have no idea what the longest LT bus service is now but a neighbour used to drive the 65 from Ealing Broadway to Leatherhead. I think he said that the crew only did two return trips? He used to place a brick on the accelerator and put his feet up on the long run down from Chessington!

 

[Ivo]

The nearest I can think of around here is the 700 Coastliner, from Southsea to Brighton, basically taking the A27 via Worthing, which takes around 4 hours. There was once the Goldline service from Reading-Southend operated by Reading and Southend.

The 700 is a good one. Seriously though, who would want to sit on a Dart for hours on end...? Considering how good buses are in Brighton, you can trust the likes of Stagecoach (the 700's operator) to ruin the trend of double-deck vehicles. And as for the X1... Oh dear. Lasted briefly as a joint run, then they argued about revenue so the run was split: Reading to Aldgate; Southend to Victoria (sometimes Earl's Court and Heathrow). Reading didn't last long; Southend went well into the Noughties. Then Arriva, being Arriva, decided to withdraw it. It transferred to the major local independent, but they couldn't sustain it either. There was a last ditch effort to save it by a company in Rainham, but it was too late. Thus, service X1 is dead.

 

[starrymarkb]

Ruin the trend? they have just bunged a mass of brand new Scania E400s on the 700

 

[mbonwick]

Stagecoach NW's 555 - Keswick to Lancaster takes just shy of 3 hours, running every hour.

 

[MCR247]

The TransPeak bus from Nottingham to Manchester by Trent Barton is 3:35 minutes long

 

[Ivo]

Ruin the trend? they have just bunged a mass of brand new Scania E400s on the 700

How was I supposed to know if they're '10'-reg?! It was using Darts in December, so it was natural to assume that it was still the case. Good on them though. And that livery looks superb. By the way, do some journeys still go to Arundel?

 

[anthony263]

Another Long bus route is the Arriva Cymru operated X40 Cardiff - Carmarthen - Aberystwyth Trawscambira service which is every hour between Carmarthen & Aberystwyth and 4 times per day to Swansea & Cardiff. Journey time end to end is about 4 hours

 

[ChrisCooper]

The X1 is actually advertised on the departure boards at Peterborough station as going to Dereham. An interesting thing about the use of double deckers on it is that is that I'm fairly sure it used to use Bristol VRs when it first started. Eastern Counties ran it as the X71, with it becoming the X1 a few years ago, about the time it recieved the Volvo B12s. Whilst I don't think a "bus" has ever got west of Kings Lynn, Scanias have been used to Kings Lynn, and I've known Darts used as far as Norwich.

 

[Ivo]

It's not as long as many of the above, but there is a route X2 running between Liverpool and Preston via Southport. It also uses very new double-deck buses (I forget which, but they are '09'-reg). It is generally hourly I believe; may be half-hourly (has been over a year since I was in Southport).

 

[Oracle]

I had forgotten that the Salisbury-Bath (and Bristol?) X4/5 which takes two hours.

 

[Mojo]

I wish I understood some of this bus talk

First and Stagecoach operate the X14 from Newport to Bristol which takes 1 Hr 45 Min with a few extensions to Cwmbran bringing the journey time up to 2 Hr.

http://www.southglos.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/C71E556D-99BD-445E-8AD3-3DC7E9537A25/0/PTE060095.pdf

 

[90019]

The double deckers were indeed delivered new, so it would have been some time in the 58 plate cycle. I've seen at least one or two of the Plaxton bodied coaches they replaced (same old vicery and Anglia region plates) right here in Glasgow serving much shorter X routes.

And every single B9 on the X1 has had to go back to Volvo at least once for all sorts of problems, mostly electrical ones and things to do with all the various ECUs, IIRC.
They've also had to have the limiter altered because they were holding up the traffic.

 

[Ivo]

I wish I understood some of this bus talk

First and Stagecoach operate the X14 from Newport to Bristol which takes 1 Hr 45 Min with a few extensions to Cwmbran bringing the journey time up to 2 Hr.

http://www.southglos.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/C71E556D-99BD-445E-8AD3-3DC7E9537A25/0/PTE060095.pdf

Waste. Of. Time. Who would want to sit on a Volvo - nice they may be, for the most part - for nearly two hours, especially considering they are older (late-90s) examples with hard seats? I've done the whole route to Newport (not Cwmbran though) and those seats leave a niggling ache. The timetable is awful - 23 minutes to Cribbs Causeway I believe? - and the route runs through several areas that most 'X' routes would skip. These include Chepstow town centre (could simply serve Bulwark), a turn around area in Magor (which I'm guessing is the local terminus, sometimes used on this route) and also Westbury-on-Trym. The view on the Severn Crossing is nice, but the road is bumpy and there is a 40 speed limit, even though it is a motorway (the M48). You don't even know when you enter Wales because there is no sign to suggest as much on the X14 route (though one can be seen just beyond the bridge)! Also, the route can become quite busy in the Caldicot area.

Further to this point is the X25 route from Weston-super-Mud to Cribbs Causeway. This uses the Avonmouth bridge, which also gives a nice view, but honestly, what is the point? Similar to the X14, it goes all over the place (including an almost circular run around Clevedon), and it uses the same kinds of buses. For all I care they could make the X14 a coach route (still allowing bus passes? ) between WsM and Newport, but divert through Bristol using the A370 and the M32...

I can only name two nice 'X' routes that I have used in my life. One is the relatively short X39, my second local bus (Bath to Bristol via the A4 from city centre to city centre, thus avoiding Keynsham), which runs every 12 minutes and uses some very comfortable '54'-reg Volvos (unlike those above!). The other one is the X30 back home; a true express coach route (using '08'-reg Scania coaches I believe). Southend to Chelmsford in 55 minutes; Chelmsford to Stansted in 32 minutes. And it accepts the bus pass!

 

[Oracle]

The Wilts & Dorset X7 (not the Sunday X71) from Southampton to Salisbury via the A36 can throw up any manner of buses including Salisbury Park & Ride-liveried! W&D also provide two buses to/from Totton College, one from Porton via Salisbury I think and one from Amesbury! Something like X74 and X75 routes?

 

[transportphoto]

Just out of curiosity - why is Nearly every operator's long distance services begin / end with a 'X'?