Night buses

[Batman]

This is connected to the thread 'Trent Barton Press Statement after Passenger Raped after being kicked off Bus'.

Without going into the details of the specific case, the Daily Mail said the incident happened on a night bus in the early hours of the morning.

I thought that night buses were now a thing of the past in most if not all areas outside of London. All of the night buses in the West Midlands have (to my knowledge) been withdrawn, so this is why I was so surprised to hear that one is still operating in Nottinghamshire.

Are many of the remaining night buses subsidised by PTE's and County Councils, and are they well used.

This is a general discussion about night buses, not the specifics of the unfortunate incident in Nottingham.

 

[WestCoast]

Trent Barton seem innovative and good quality to be honest (something which is lacking in many bus divisions), I too was surprised that night buses would be offered in Nottinghamshire!! Where I live, the main service from Preston at night has been gradually reduced and cut back to about once every hour from 6.30pm until the last service at 11.30pm, which is limited considering an every 15 minutes service (more if you consider other daytime services) before 6pm!

Blackpool Transport trialled a very limited night bus network on the Fylde Coast about 5 years ago - but it didn't really take off so to speak, if it can't work in a place full of late night revellers then I don't see it working outside any major city.

I know they exist in some form in Manchester and Edinburgh, possibly a limited network in Newcastle as well.

 

[dzug2]

Late night buses (ie up to 1 or 2am) are fairly common, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. Much more so than all night services. The ones I'm (vaguely) familiar with charge premium fares.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

There has been a thread about Night Buses previously.
Where there is demand they run but they are not a solution to an endemic crime problem where people prey on the vulnerable. There have been numerous stabbings, some fatal, on night buses in London and they provide stalkers with an objective in waiting for a potential victim to alight at a stop.
On the continent 24 hour public transport is mainly used by shift workers (or was) as it used to be here. In this country it is mainly used to ferry drunken club goers home and isn't a particualrly pleasant way to travel and only advisable if no alternatives are available.

 

[Liam]

Edinburgh has a pretty comprehensive network of night buses every night of the week, with more services at the weekend. There is an hourly service between Edinburgh and Glasgow on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Not sure if they still run, but I know there used to be buses from Waverley Station to Falkirk, Stirling, Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy at aroud 0315.

 

[Kryten2340]

Go North East run several night services on a Saturday and Sunday morning. The main ones being Newcastle to Durham and Newcastle to Sunderland.

 

[anthony263]

There is a few night bus services operating in Bristol not sure if Bath has any though.

Cardiff did trial such as service but withdrew them even though one route was proving profitable most likely due to the uproar from the local taxi firms.

There are certain routes in Swansea which could run all night such as service 31 Swansea - Llansamlet - Morriston Hospital & 43 Swansea - Singleton - Townhill - Forrestfach - Morriston Hospital which if combined would make a circular route linking all the various places around Swansea such as the university's, DVLA, Morriston town centre, Singleton & Morriston Hospitals & Tesco.

Thta said I am service X1 Swansea - Bridgend could be extended to Cardiff via Cowbridge like it used to be before service X2 Porthcawl - Cardiff was increased to half hourly and run 24 hours

 

[sonic2009]

Ivo will no doubt comment

But i think the SPA1 in Bath runs into the early hours Friday & Saturday nights.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

 

[WatcherZero]

Yes there was already a pretty extensive thread examining where in the country they still had them. For reference in Greater Manchester there are two networks, one centred on Manchester City Centre and one centered on Wigan town centre.

 

[trentside]

Here in Lincoln, the night bus services have always run until about midnight. From 2006, Stagecoach had provided services on the main routes to the south of the city and had continued to provide the 17/18 north circulars in the uphill area of the city. This changed in April 2011, when the 17/18 were cut apart from one journey at 18:50 - there are now no services to the north of the city in the evening. A trial was done for late night shopping on Thursdays, with the buses being re-introduced - but was a flop.

In the south, things are slightly rosier. The old 27A/66A south circulars were resurrected (still with unworkable timetables) and services on the 27, 44, and 66 routes were withdrawn in favour of these, with their reduced vehicle and driver requirements. These routes are well patronised early evening (from 18:30 onwards) but it apparently drops off later at night. Some areas no longer have service under these timetables, but at least a service remains.

On routes into the countryside - latest departure is the 21:00 6 from Lincoln to Skegness (used to be 23:00). The remainder usually finish at around 19:00. Overall, it's not too bad considering the cutbacks that could have been made.

 

[MK Tom]

Arriva are consulting at the moment about introducing a single night bus route in Milton Keynes, covering a range of areas. That's about as much as they've revealed so far.

 

[Ivo]

Here is a link to the thread previously mentioned: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54401

There is a few night bus services operating in Bristol not sure if Bath has any though.

i think the SPA1 in Bath runs into the early hours Friday & Saturday nights.

Try again The 18, SPA1 and U18 all run until roughly 0300 every night except Sunday night (Monday morning) during term-time, which is pretty impressive for a city of Bath's size. Bristol has hourly services to most areas of the city on Friday and Saturday nights (Saturday and Sunday mornings). A small number of other routes run past midnight, but not by much; the last departure on the 339 from Bristol for instance is at 0005.

Elsewhere, Brighton has an excellent network (thread), while Reading's 17 runs hourly overnight. There are of course others as well.

 

[fairysdad]

Wilts & Dorset in Poole/Bournemouth have recently (in the past week or so) added a new night bus to their runs (the N3) which now run on Thursdays (well, Friday mornings) as well as Fri and Sat (or Sat and Sun). The N3 is a circular route from Bournemouth square to the University - bit of a weird choice of destination given that only a handful of students actually live at the uni as all the halls are in the town centre instead.

I have also heard that Bournemouth's Yellow Buses have, or will soon, be starting an N6 route along their 6 route, which 'coincidentally' runs along a similar route to the N3 (which doesn't replicate a day route exactly, but is almost similar to the U3 in one direction and the U1 in the other).

Miles apart from the bus service at home, where the latest bus to where I live is at 2.30 in the afternoon...

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

Where I live, the main service from Preston at night has been gradually reduced and cut back to about once every hour from 6.30pm until the last service at 11.30pm,

It's traditionally been 11pm then a few Blackpool services leave a bit later (at least, the destination does change every timetable as we've had Manchester, Morecambe, and so on)

is limited considering an every 15 minutes service (more if you consider other daytime services) before 6pm!

But unless it's a 23, 35 or 44 it is guaranteed to either be delayed by like 10 minutes or not come at all, you can get PBT to bring out spares but only if either they can be bothered or you threaten to file a lawsuit.
So maybe what you said has missed out the small print there.

Strictly speaking though, a night bus would work covering the safe areas of Preston and avoiding the bus station running from the railway station to the cinema, fast to the Lane Ends, then via Ashton Park and Ainsdale, on to Westleigh, Cottam via Lea Town, via Grasshoppers to the Hospital, where the service would most likely terminate. At least it's a start...

 

[Batman]

There are a few bus routes in the West Midlands area that in my opinion should run to an hourly all night frequency. The 9, 37, 51, 63, 79, 94, 126, 529, 900 and 914 are obvious examples.

 

[dave_wm]

There are a few bus routes in the West Midlands area that in my opinion should run to an hourly all night frequency. The 9, 37, 51, 63, 79, 94, 126, 529, 900 and 914 are obvious examples.

I'd say a 6N, 9N, 22N, 37N, 45N, 51N, 60N, 61N, 75N, 87N, 97N, 104N and 126N would make sense, even if only hourly on Friday and Saturday nights. But I guess there isn't really an incentive for anyone to provide them - the buses used would likely be very dirty if not damaged by the time they come out of service.

 

[tbtc]

Sheffield used to have two sets of services between the last departure of the evening (23.15) and the first morning services on normal routes - there were "nine hundred" nightbus routes and "seven hundred" workers services for factories first thing in the morning.

These were gradually reduced and reduced (so that one service ended up having to cover several suburbs, which made it a long journey for those in the final points served. First replaced these with midnight journeys on certain key routes, but these didn't last long.

They then tried a 24hour service on the 52 service to Crookes (later with an hourly service on the Woodhouse end), which appears to have been a test bed for running 24hour services in Glasgow. This was later withdrawn (along with a lot of "non core" services).

For a long time Sheffield had no nightbuses (a decade? despite being a large city with two universities etc, whilst towns like Mansfield have night buses).

A couple of years ago TM Travel (part of Trent Barton) introduced three nightbus services which had very circuitous routes - they really didn't take off (and there were reports of missing journeys etc).

Once these were withdrawn, Stagecoach introduced weekend nightbuses on service 52 (which serves many of the Student areas) - apparently commercial - then again they can run a similar 24hour service on the 66 in Barnsley.

 

[causton]

Uno ran the shuttle between the two university campuses until 3:30am, and the 602 service between St Albans and Hatfield until around the same time - this is only during university terms now, so no service until September!

They did try a few late night services to Edgware to connect with the tube/night buses so people could get from north London to Hatfield/ from the Forum (entertainment venue, nightclub etc) to London but that didn't prove much use...

Most other Hertfordshire services are finished by 11-11:30 now, especially with funding cuts

 

[overthewater]

Edinburgh has a pretty comprehensive network of night buses every night of the week, with more services at the weekend. There is an hourly service between Edinburgh and Glasgow on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Not sure if they still run, but I know there used to be buses from Waverley Station to Falkirk, Stirling, Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy at aroud 0315.

N55/N58 To fife still operate, alas Falkirk service was cut back to Linlithgow and Bo'ness on the N43. West lothian is still missing night buses for past 10 years!

Glasgow - Ayr also still operates

 

[Mutant Lemming]

In many cities if there are a few of you a cab is often a cheaper option with the added bonus of going from where you are to where you want to go rather than make your way to a bus stop and then head home from one at the other end.
I know there are decent night services in Oxford even with a service to London but most of the provincial cities tend to be weekend only (drunks specials) services.

London is of course the exception and although long journies on night buses are no fun, the night bus network in London is better than most day networks in probably any city in Europe

 

[OMGitsDAVE]

Hartlepool is pretty much at a standstill after 6.00PM - last buses along the 1 Route (Middlesbrough - Hartlepool) leaves Middlesbrough 17.45, arriving Hartlepool no later than 18.30. The 1 runs every 10 minutes during the day on a shortened route, and 30 minutely to Boro. After 5.00, it's wind down and then nothing - as much of Hartlepool is.

 

[ilkestonian]

Trent Barton do seem to be the exception with regard to late night buses.

I live in Ilkeston, and on Friday and Saturday nights, TB run services from Nottingham to Ilkeston hourly up to 0315hrs.

I believe they run similar services from Derby to some of it's suburbs too, and doubtless from Nottingham to other destinations.

The fares are obviously higher than daytime fares, but still extremely good value compared to taxis.

 

[GodAtum]

I cant believe how lucky we Londoners are! I rely on the night bus to get home from work.

 

[Deerfold]

Trent Barton do seem to be the exception with regard to late night buses.

I live in Ilkeston, and on Friday and Saturday nights, TB run services from Nottingham to Ilkeston hourly up to 0315hrs.

I believe they run similar services from Derby to some of it's suburbs too, and doubtless from Nottingham to other destinations.

The fares are obviously higher than daytime fares, but still extremely good value compared to taxis.

Indeed - TrentBarton seem to be the only company to run commerical night services all night, every day of the week (indigo Nottingham - Long Eaton, any Skylink Nottingham).

Any route that runs into late evening during the week seems to run until 3ish on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

With NCT also providing nightbuses on 11 routes on a Friday and Saturday night, Nottingham is very well served for a city of its size. The first of the nightbuses started 3 months afer I moved away and passed near 3 of the 4 places I'd lived (my last bus was a not dreadful 0015)...

 

[Shrimper]

Stagecoach Manchester run the 43 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Additionally, during university term time, Magic Bus routes 142 and 143 run as night services throughout the week.

 

[MCW]

All of Leicester's buses have normally stopped running by 23:45. which sucks an awful lot really...

 

[Pe251lz]

This is connected to the thread 'Trent Barton Press Statement after Passenger Raped after being kicked off Bus'.

Without going into the details of the specific case, the Daily Mail said the incident happened on a night bus in the early hours of the morning.

I thought that night buses were now a thing of the past in most if not all areas outside of London. All of the night buses in the West Midlands have (to my knowledge) been withdrawn, so this is why I was so surprised to hear that one is still operating in Nottinghamshire.

Are many of the remaining night buses subsidised by PTE's and County Councils, and are they well used.

This is a general discussion about night buses, not the specifics of the unfortunate incident in Nottingham.

I'd say outside London, Nottingham must have one of the best nightbus networks.*
East Midlands Airport also acts as a hub for nightbus connections for the 3 main cities, it's easy through the night to travel between Leicester, Derby & Nottingham via EMA.*
The nearby village of Castle Donington must win "best nightbus networked village" with 24/7 services to all three cities & the Airport.*

Back in Nottingham,*NCT's South Notts "The One" or N1 is the only service operating other than just fri/sat nights only on the NCT network, however only 6 nights per week (no service last thing Sunday night/mon mornings).
Facebook also played a part in creating the N100 service to the small town of Southwell 15 miles east of the city. Passengers asked for it, promising they'd use the service & 18 months on it's still going, thanks to NCT listening to their customers & giving it a try.
On the south west side of the city, Beeston must be the best served area from town after hours with no less than three operators!*
TrentBarton run Indigo to Long Eaton every 30 minutes 7 night per week, Indigo also extends to Derby at the weekend. TB have newly acquired the 24/7 Nott'm skylink which also serves the southern part of Beeston (that's a story & a half lol & a reason behind the N1 nightbus & Premiere's *24/7 RedFlyer).*
Love 'em or loath 'em (I loath) Yourbus started competing with their Y36 service, every 30 minutes against NCT's N36, still surprisingly unchanged at only every hour.
Back in February Yourbus upped the night bus game by adding Y34 (yes another NCT route number but without a nightbus) running via University park to Beeston every 30 minutes too.*
So combined, at the weekend Beeston has turn up and go frequency of 8 buses per hour from the City weekends & 3 buses through the week. Not bad ay?*
From what I've seen & heard Night bus services in Nottingham are doing well with the exception of the Red Arrow Nottingham-Derby-Chesterfield, the Chesterfield section is or has been withdrawn
Night buses aren't a new thing in Nottingham, the first mon-sun circular services 96-99 started in the late nineties but was withdrawn due to low usage midweek & the circular routes was also proved unpopular.
If you scratch the surface, the night bus scene is quite interesting in Nottingham & with a few tweaks perhaps could improve further, one hopes...

 

[radamfi]

For me, it is more important to have buses running early in the morning than late at night, which is useful for getting early trains or flights. The Crawley/Gatwick area is lucky that there are many routes running before 0500 and one route runs 24/7. Obviously Gatwick/Three Bridges/Horley also enjoy night trains every day of the week.

 

[A0]

Uno ran the shuttle between the two university campuses until 3:30am, and the 602 service between St Albans and Hatfield until around the same time - this is only during university terms now, so no service until September!

They did try a few late night services to Edgware to connect with the tube/night buses so people could get from north London to Hatfield/ from the Forum (entertainment venue, nightclub etc) to London but that didn't prove much use...

Most other Hertfordshire services are finished by 11-11:30 now, especially with funding cuts

To be fair most Hertfordshire bus services finished around that time 10 years ago when I used to live in the area. It's not a recent phenomenon at all and to claim that it's "funding cuts" is particularly disingenuous.

The only exception tended to be the 724 where the last journey from Heathrow used to run through St Albans, Hatfield and Welwyn well after 11pm.

 

[howittpie]

I am suprised Stagecoach haven't tried a nightbus from Sheffield to Chesterfield on a weekend. I have regularly travelled on National Express 465 that departs from Sheffield at 01;35 carries a good number of people to Chesterfield who have obviously been for a night out in Sheffield.