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My rant about Buses

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jonb

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Right if just about had it with my local bus services so firstly heres some info rant follows.

Where I live we have three bus routes.

71/72 operated by Clintona Minibuses (Brentwood) This runs from Stondon Massey - Kelvedon Hatch - Navestock - Pilgrims Hatch - Brentwood High Street - Brentwood Rail Station at different points during the day

268/269 operated by Imperial Bus Company (Grays) Runs at 0730 in the morning and returns at 1600. This runs Blackmore - Doddinghurst - Kelvedon Hatch - Brentwood - Ockendon - Grays (This mainly serves Thurrock and Palmers colleges both in Grays.

501 operated by Arriva (Harlow) This runs hourly from 0600 - 2000 Running from Harlow - Epping - North Weald - Ongar - Kelvedon Hatch - Brentwood - (Station during peak times)

Firstly the 71/72 is the most reliable and quite a few elderly people use the service because it is safe unlike the other two. There are 6 buses to town and 5 from Town.

268/269. I now use this bus more regualary and its usually fairly reliable. However because the bus has to come from Garys it is often late and full of teenagers who are often larking around.

501. By far the most unreliable of all the buses. This comes from Harlow and is normally at least 15 minutes late. It is also the most expensive costing £2.20 (Adult Single) to do a 4/5 mile Journey.

There is NO sunday service at all.

I think this is pretty poor for a village of this size i'm not saying we should have a bus every 10 minutes but a 30 minute frequency would certainly decrease overcrowding (Especially on the 501, this is evident on the 1535 Brentwood - Harlow)
 
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Max

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Cottingham (my home village) has never had a fantastic bus service, with stupid times that meant that several buses came at once, and then there was a 20 minute gap to the next service. However, one of the two main operators in the area, East Yorkshire Motor Services, has just instated a more regular service, with a bus roughly every 5 minutes - shared by the service 115 and 105. There is also the hourly 60, 64, and the 116 which runs around every 2 hours. All of these buses are to Hull city centre.

However, there are still large gaps in the service to the village. Sunday buses are few and far between, and there are virtually no services before 7:30 am, which is not good if you need to be somewhere early in the morning. The new regular service to the village centre has come at a price for others parts of the village. For example, Northgate, one of the busiest roads in the village, used to have an hourly service, but this has been cut to one every two hours in the day, and none at night.

The other operator in the area, Stagecoach in Hull, has never had a comprehensive service to Cottingham, operating only a mystery service 31B on Tuesdays and Thursdays that nobody knew about :? . However, the new 52/53 service is around every half hour, and this seemed like a great move by the company. However, the service takes an extremely odd route, and takes around 15-20 minutes longer to get to Hull than EYMS services. This seems like a complete waste of a service to me.
 

DLA365

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11 Jun 2005
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Two bus routes stop outside my local stop on the A406 North Circular Rd (about 1 min walk), which are the 34 (towards Barnet Church) and 444 (towards Turnpike Lane Stn). The 34 runs every 8 mins daytime and the 444 every 15 mins. They're fairly decent services, but all it takes is a little congestion on the A406 to completely mess up the services.

Towards central London, it is a 6-minute walk to the 341 stop or a 10-min walk to Northumberland Park Stn for the 341/476/W3 or Edmonton Angel Corner for the 149/259/279/349. These are fairly frequent services and I get the bus within 5 minutes.

My only moan is the utter lack of rail services at Northumberland Park Stn (my local station) - every 60 mins daytime (no Sunday service) with every 35-40 mins in the morning peak. Appalling by London standards!!
 

tramboy

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8 Jun 2005
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Trentbarton's "Xprss" (yes it is spelt like that) and "Radcliffe Lines" give a bus every 15mins into Nottingham from my house, with hourly services operated by Centrebus to Grantham, and Pathfinder to Newark every 30mins from the bypass.

My moan is also the lack of train services, with trains hourly only, and not in both directions! Central Trains! Hah!

Cheers

Dave
 

bunnahabhain

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I only get a bus every 10 mins 6am-9am and 4pm-6pm where I live on the main road my Cul-De-Sac is joined to, and I get about 10 buses an hour from the Railway station to town, though that is a good 10 mins walk away (Town is 15 mins walk).

And then I get the Number 1 every 30 mins a few mins walk away, which goes to Nottingham via East Leake.

No. 1 (2 Per Hour)
No. 4 (2 Per Hour)
No. 7 (6 Per Hour)
No. 8 (1 Per Hour)
No. 27 (1 every 90 mins)
No. 99 (1 Per Hour)

The Great Central also has a bus from 9am-6pm every hour, but it's barely used and we really need a better bus to us from the Railway station.
 

Guinness

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13 Jun 2005
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My Bus services are reliable(ish)

Arriva 10 - Runs to Macclesfield every 30 minutes Mon - Sat (Hourly Sundays)

Arriva 392 - Run Stockport - Me - Macclesfield every 2 hours. The trouble with the 392 it takes a long windy route along 25% steep narrow roads. And arrives straight behind the Number 10!

Bakers 108 - Sundays Leek - Macc - Me - Stockport operated by Bakers I haven't seen a single person use that service! No wonder why D&G are off to operate it next month. 3 services a day each direction.
 

Nick

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8 Jun 2005
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Buses around my neck of the wood arn't that bad...and arn't that cheap. Basically a 'express' route operates every 10 minutes daytime Monday-Saturday taking 25 minutes. Trent Barton have a every 30 minutes Solo 'Connection' service taking 15 minutes and being 15p cheaper than the NCT service. I then have the Number 1 which I use most often to get to Loughborough...always turns up on time and is a bargain. Also handy to get to city centre early in the morning.
 

TAS

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16 Jul 2005
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246
My bus services aren't too bad:
66 Every twenty minutes West Bergholt-Colchester-Old Heath However, we have reduced evening services that do not connect with trains. (Some 66As make it this far.) Low floor service.
753 Bury St, Edmunds-Colchester passes through onse an hour Mon-Sat. H.C.Chambers & Son Coaches.
First Overground
Also
3 school services 17,68,69.
Sunday service:
67B West Bergholt-Colchester-Blackheath-West Mersea every 2 hours First, ECC Contract.
Thomas
 
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