Peak District bus questions

[yorkie]

1) Does anyone know what the chances of getting a double decker on the 0930 Sheffield - Buxton route 65 bus on weekdays?

2) Looking at this photo gave me the idea to get the 1800 Castleton - Sheffield route 272 after we get the 173. It looks like they connect at Hope (it's a 0 minute connection at Castleton, but 9 minute connection at Hope). What are the chances of this also being a double decker on weekdays? (or potentially we could hang around in Castleton - presumably a pub would be open - for the 1900 to Sheffield)

Many thanks in advance

 

[oddiesjack]

I am fairly sure that the Buxton bus will be a single decker, although the Castleton ones are normally double-deckers.

Changing at Hope also gives you the option of trains back towards Sheffield, or towards Manchester.

I will see if I can get a definitive answer on the 65 service for you.

 

[yorkie]

Thanks. If it's only a single I may not bother with it, and take the train and cycle instead. If it's a double then I'd quite like to appreciate views of the area I've not seen before, so I'll take the bus.

Is anyone ever around Sheffield Interchange around 0930 or 1900ish to take a look, or have contacts?

 

[oddiesjack]

This website has photos taken from a 65 bus, and they do look like they are taken from the top deck of a double-decker..

http://lunatictravel.com/lbsheffbux1.html

 

[yorkie]

For sure the 65 is double-deck operated on many occasions but it's unclear to me if that's what's booked for the 0930 on weekdays.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I hope that you enjoy your bus journey from Sheffield to Buxton. It was one of those that I made in a day's omnibus travelogue quite some time ago, incorporating visits to Matlock, Bakewell, Ashbourne and Derby

 

[trentside]

I think the problem with TM Travel is that anything can turn up anywhere. They have had a bit of a cull of older double deckers in the last year or so. A few of their Peak District routes have converted to single deck operation - not sure about the 65 specifically though, will no doubt depend on inter-working with school routes.

 

[yorkie]

If it helps, it'll be on a non-school day

 

[Robertj21a]

As has been mentioned, it's TM Travel. They allocate rather at random and while the 65 has certainly had double deckers on it quite often in the past a single decker seems to be more common nowadays.

 

[oddiesjack]

For the benefit of anyone else who might be interested, I travelled on the 11.00 Buxton to Sheffield service 65 today, and this was a double decker. The driver told me that this service is usually a double decker. (And is the return working of the 09.25 departure from Sheffield)

However when we passed the 11.25 ex-Sheffield near the Longshaw estate heading towards Buxton, this was a single-decker.

 

[Philip Brown]

Hi yorkie, sorry for taking a few days to reply after you sent your PM to me.

I'd agree with many posts above and say that TM Travel tend to send whatever they wish most of the time! I've seen both double deckers and Optare Midibuses on this route to a fairly 50/50 split - the two times I've had need to use it (both over a year ago now) were on an Optare midibus, and indeed on one occasion the driver forgot to go round the village green at Litton and needed to do a three point turn at the end of a side road in order to follow the route!