Radioing through to ask for a bus to be held, does this happen anywhere in the UK?

[175mph]

I can't seem to find what thread I read it from on here, but I seem to recall reading something about with some buses in the Netherlands, apparently if your bus is running slightly late and you need to get another connecting bus to finish your journey, but are likely to miss that connection because of running late, you can ask the driver to radio through and ask for the connecting bus to be held.

Is there this sort of system for any of the buses anywhere here in the UK? It would certainly help in those situations where you are on the way to a bus station but you need to get another bus from there, and it pulls away once you get off the other bus you were just on, and then you'll be waiting a while for the next one.

Or is this another example of something we don't have and could learn from to have?

 

[Jordan Adam]

I can't seem to find what thread I read it from on here, but I seem to recall reading something about with some buses in the Netherlands, apparently if your bus is running slightly late and you need to get another connecting bus to finish your journey, but are likely to miss that connection because of running late, you can ask the driver to radio through and ask for the connecting bus to be held.

Is there this sort of system for any of the buses anywhere here in the UK? It would certainly help in those situations where you are on the way to a bus station but you need to get another bus from there, and it pulls away once you get off the other bus you were just on, and then you'll be waiting a while for the next one.

Or is this another example of something we don't have and could learn from to have?

There's some services up here, most notably with the ferry services where a bus will wait up to a set amount of time if the ferry is late to avoid missing the connection, I believe the same happens on some bus services that are meant to connect here. As you'd expect there's a limit to how long it can wait.

Edit: Thanks to the admin who removed the double post, not sure why it did that!

 

[Volvodart]

It is less likely to happen now with the phasing out of bus radios in favour of Ticketer messaging and the time it would take to stop and write the message and you have no way of knowing when the other driver would read the message. It used to happen in Aberdeen on some early morning and evening services.

 

[175mph]

It is less likely to happen now with the phasing out of bus radios in favour of Ticketer messaging and the time it would take to stop and write the message and you have no way of knowing when the other driver would read the message. It used to happen in Aberdeen on some early morning and evening services.

I've noticed many of the Stagecoach buses in Hull, including the buses used for the 350 route to Scunthorpe have radios, but only for the depot to give traffic updates to tell the drivers when they need to take a diversion.

 

[Busaholic]

I think I read somewhere that Western Greyhound may have had such a system in place (unofficially, at least) to enable their 'connecting hub' in the centre of Cornwall, whose name temporarily escapes me, to function.

 

[MedwayValiant]

There's some services up here, most notably with the ferry services where a bus will wait up to a set amount of time if the ferry is late to avoid missing the connection, I believe the same happens on some bus services that are meant to connect here. As you'd expect there's a limit to how long it can wait.

In practices, buses at Ullapool wait for the ferry from Stornoway for as long as they have to. But then in practice, those buses usually run non-stop to Inverness and there aren't often people waiting at intermediate points. I have seen a couple of passengers get off the bus in Inverness and get straight on to a Glasgow bus which had waited for them and then left at once, although I'm not sure if that is usual practice.


In a less remote area, I have half a memory of a bus service which had to be reorganised for a few months because of a closed bridge. The bridge was still open to people on foot, and so buses terminated at one end of the bridge and started again at the other end. Passengers were told that they had precisely 9 minutes (or something similar) to walk over the bridge, and drivers would urge them not to dawdle. I don't recall just where this was, but it was in England and was covered in Buses magazine at the time. Whether that was co-ordinated by radio or just by sight across the bridge, I don't know.

 

[Jordan Adam]

It is less likely to happen now with the phasing out of bus radios in favour of Ticketer messaging and the time it would take to stop and write the message and you have no way of knowing when the other driver would read the message. It used to happen in Aberdeen on some early morning and evening services.

As far as i'm aware First Aberdeen have not had any system implemented for quite a long while now! Stagecoach NScotland drivers still communicate back to the controllers with company phones of some sort that look like a 1990's Nokia!

In practices, buses at Ullapool wait for the ferry from Stornoway for as long as they have to. But then in practice, those buses usually run non-stop to Inverness and there aren't often people waiting at intermediate points. I have seen a couple of passengers get off the bus in Inverness and get straight on to a Glasgow bus which had waited for them and then left at once, although I'm not sure if that is usual practice.


In a less remote area, I have half a memory of a bus service which had to be reorganised for a few months because of a closed bridge. The bridge was still open to people on foot, and so buses terminated at one end of the bridge and started again at the other end. Passengers were told that they had precisely 9 minutes (or something similar) to walk over the bridge, and drivers would urge them not to dawdle. I don't recall just where this was, but it was in England and was covered in Buses magazine at the time. Whether that was co-ordinated by radio or just by sight across the bridge, I don't know.

Very interesting account that! I was having a look at Stagecoach timetables here and it would appear that the 219: Alford to Strathdon no longer connects with the Aberdeen to Alford services.

 

[richw]

I think I read somewhere that Western Greyhound may have had such a system in place (unofficially, at least) to enable their 'connecting hub' in the centre of Cornwall, whose name temporarily escapes me, to function.

It was the st column interchange, 4 or 5 buses met there with the connection guaranteed. There were also guaranteed connections at other places.

Plymouth citybus/Go Cornwall have guaranteed connections. It says on the the driver duty cards not to depart until another service has arrived.
One is the 76(or is it 77) meeting the 72 near Trerulefoot now the 72 has ceased serving St Germans.
Another is the 75 meeting the Cremyll or portwinkle bus at torpoint for Plymouth passengers.
I think there’s also a guarantee from the 73 to the 11 at Liskeard.

 

[Volvo142]

I could be wrong, but I think Western Greyhound's system was fairly unusual, in that drivers could speak directly to other drivers rather than having to go through control....

I seem to recall on approach to Newquay and being stuck in heavy traffic, our driver getting in touch with a Truro bound driver and asking him to wait on a common section of the route so he could transfer an elder passenger to her outbound journey.

On another occasion, I remember once waiting at Newquay bus station for a bus back to St Austell and it didn't appear, so as the enquiry office was shut, we asked a driver on another route to check what had happened.

He radioed through and was told that it had broken down but that a replacement was on the way. When it eventually arrived, instead of a newish Solo, it was an ex NCT Volvo Olympian, which due to a road closure, proceeded to tank it back down the A30, overtaking virtually everything in sight!

They were a class company in their day!

 

[Busaholic]

I could be wrong, but I think Western Greyhound's system was fairly unusual, in that drivers could speak directly to other drivers rather than having to go through control....

I seem to recall on approach to Newquay and being stuck in heavy traffic, our driver getting in touch with a Truro bound driver and asking him to wait on a common section of the route so he could transfer an elder passenger to her outbound journey.

On another occasion, I remember once waiting at Newquay bus station for a bus back to St Austell and it didn't appear, so as the enquiry office was shut, we asked a driver on another route to check what had happened.

He radioed through and was told that it had broken down but that a replacement was on the way. When it eventually arrived, instead of a newish Solo, it was an ex NCT Volvo Olympian, which due to a road closure, proceeded to tank it back down the A30, overtaking virtually everything in sight!

They were a class company in their day!

I agree, they shook things up, mostly in a good way, right up to that disastrous fire, and First Kernow today is a much better company than it was then because of W.G.
Speaking of shaking up, although his name rarely gets mentioned in dispatches, ex-M.D. of WG Mark Howarth is now Chief Executive of the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company, who recently announced they were starting a helicopter service next month from Land's End to Scilly. This rather pulled the carpet from under the feet of another group who were planning to introduce a similar service next Spring: it remains to be seen what transpires.

 

[Rapidash]

I've certainly heard drivers in Torbay calling ahead for another service to wait if the inbound is delayed and passengers know the connection is tight as is. Used to hear it on the early morning 12 headed to Paignton for the (former) X46 and evenings when services become more infrequent such as the 22/fox

Don't hear it so much in Exeter, but that's due to the suburban routes departing from the high street, as opposed to the intertown ones leaving from the station.

 

[co-tr-paul]

Back in the day when certain Bristol services were 1 an hour we would do this regularly.

 

[Volvodart]

As far as i'm aware First Aberdeen have not had any system implemented for quite a long while now! Stagecoach NScotland drivers still communicate back to the controllers with company phones of some sort that look like a 1990's Nokia!

The radios went a few weeks after the Ticketer system went in, which is a year ago this month. The service that they had a problem with because it had been split into 2 parts had a service change last year which got rid of the problem.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

When Centrebus ran the 951 between Huddersfield and Glossop, they use to phone the driver of the 61 to wait until they got to Glossop so that passengers for Buxton could connect with the 61. It did happen a few times with Centrebus but when Tates took over the chances of holding a connection went right out of the window (along with any sort of vehicle maintenance judging by the state of the buses being shoved into service).

With LOT they did get things organised to something similar to when Centrebus were running the service, along with a phone number for High Peak so that the driver could ring ahead in the event of any late running.

 

[embers25]

Buses wait for each other in Hartland on the Bude to Hartland and Hartland to Barnstaple buses.

 

[route101]

Had it on Scottish Citylink services at Perth Broxden , i was on a Aberdeen to Glasgow service and we waited for a Inverness to Edinburgh that was delayed to due to snow . Quite a few on got on .

In terms of local buses not really , seen driver flash there lights at a bus in front or beep there horn which does not always work and the passenger has missed the bus .

 

[Mojo]

Not quite the same but I did see in Birmingham it was common for the driver to pip the horn three times and flash the lights when pulling up behind a bus that a customer wanted to connect to. Never seen this anywhere else, it’s a shame as it’s exceptionally infuriating to miss a bus that you want to connect with.

 

[matt_world2004]

Not quite the same but I did see in Birmingham it was common for the driver to pip the horn three times and flash the lights when pulling up behind a bus that a customer wanted to connect to. Never seen this anywhere else, it’s a shame as it’s exceptionally infuriating to miss a bus that you want to connect with.

It happens in London sometimes. I was told a few years ago that tfl were going to trial a system on low frequency routes. Where Ibus would automatically hold a bus if a feeder train service was delayed. As this was seen as a customer pain point.

 

[Be3G]

I wish TfL* could simply sort out holding buses when others are turned short. A few years ago I was on a night bus which pulled up behind another of the same route number. We were then told we'd be terminating there – just as the one in front pulled away! That was probably the most infuriating example of this problem, but a similar kind of thing has happened to me a lot over the years.

* Or the bus operating companies, or whoever's responsible. Still, it'd probably come down to TfL to mandate a more passenger-friendly system.

 

[PermitToTravel]

Not quite the same but I did see in Birmingham it was common for the driver to pip the horn three times and flash the lights when pulling up behind a bus that a customer wanted to connect to. Never seen this anywhere else, it’s a shame as it’s exceptionally infuriating to miss a bus that you want to connect with.

I've wished for something like this many a time, in the absence of direct bus to bus radio. In Manchester, if a passenger requests a connection, the only option is to go like a bat out of hell, overtake the other bus, and stop diagonally across the front of it - very fun, but doesn't actually succeed amazingly often...

 

[175mph]

I've wished for something like this many a time, in the absence of direct bus to bus radio. In Manchester, if a passenger requests a connection, the only option is to go like a bat out of hell, overtake the other bus, and stop diagonally across the front of it - very fun, but doesn't actually succeed amazingly often...

Here in Scunthorpe, most of the drivers laugh at you if you request a connection.

 

[Busaholic]

One exceedingly long-lasting connection arrangement on London Transport Country Buses was that between the 403 and 410 bus routes in Westerham, Kent. The East Surrey company had originated the arrangement, so it predated LT's creation in 1933, and was still in operation into London Country days in the early 1970s. The East Surrey company had apparently briefly operated a through route between Reigate and Sevenoaks via Westerham before deciding there was too much duplication. The arrangement was to make possible the east-west connection at Westerham, in both directions, so didn't involve Sevenoaks passengers wanting Biggin Hill, for instance, which in any case was directly provided for by Green Line.

 

[DunsBus]

In practices, buses at Ullapool wait for the ferry from Stornoway for as long as they have to. But then in practice, those buses usually run non-stop to Inverness and there aren't often people waiting at intermediate points. I have seen a couple of passengers get off the bus in Inverness and get straight on to a Glasgow bus which had waited for them and then left at once, although I'm not sure if that is usual practice.


In a less remote area, I have half a memory of a bus service which had to be reorganised for a few months because of a closed bridge. The bridge was still open to people on foot, and so buses terminated at one end of the bridge and started again at the other end. Passengers were told that they had precisely 9 minutes (or something similar) to walk over the bridge, and drivers would urge them not to dawdle. I don't recall just where this was, but it was in England and was covered in Buses magazine at the time. Whether that was co-ordinated by radio or just by sight across the bridge, I don't know.

Your half a memory is right. The bridge you mention was at Cawood, and its closure resulted in Jaronda Travel's York-Selby service being split in two at each end of it. The connection was maintained by radio to ensure that there would be a bus waiting at the other side to pick up the passengers. The article which covered it was called "Two-way radio, synchronised clocks and passenger patience", and appeared in the October 1989 issue of Buses magazine.

 

[robk23oxf]

Stagecoach Oxfordshire's 18 (Oxford-Bampton) and 19 (Witney-Bampton-Carterton) services used to officially connect. Passengers on either service would need to tell the driver when boarding that they wanted the connection at Bampton, through tickets to destinations on the 18 routes could be bought on the 19 and vice versa. The driver would then radio through to the driver on the other service and request that they wait for the passengers (or otherwise give the all clear to go).

The 18 was axed in 2016 with passengers now changing at Witney onto the Gold S1 or S2 which run frequently enough that connections don't need to be held although through tickets are still available.