TRIVIA: Bus routes in the UK serving at least 3 or more counties

[SouthEastBuses]

Can you think of a bus route in the UK that serves at least 3 (or more) counties?

 

[Stan Drews]

Can you think of a bus route in the UK that serves at least 3 (or more) counties?

McGill’s 901/906: Largs - Glasgow
Historic ‘County’ names - Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire
Current ‘County’ names - North Ayrshire, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, City of Glasgow.

 

[class387]

Uno's 610 from Enfield to Luton serves London, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

 

[Hardcastle]

Skipton-Settle-Ingleton-Kirkby Lonsdale-Lancaster various service numbers covering North Yorks Cumbria & Lancashire. X1 Chester-Mold-Ruthin covering Cheshire Flintshire & Denbighshire. T2 Bangor-Caernarfon-Porthmadog-Dolgellau-Machynlleth-Aberystwyth covering Gwynedd Powys & Ceredigion.

 

[GusB]

Can you think of a bus route in the UK that serves at least 3 (or more) counties?

Perhaps you could clarify in your post whether you mean current local authority boundaries, or historic county borders, and let's stick with one or the other.

 

[NorthOxonian]

A lot depends on how you define county, and how you define serves.

Take the X5, for example. This route runs from Oxford to Bedford (traditionally it continued to Cambridge, but it has been curtailed).

This certainly serves Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Bedfordshire. But Milton Keynes is technically separate from the rest of Bucks, and so you could argue this is a fourth. The route also runs through Northamptonshire (on the bypass around Old Stratford) without stopping, which could be viewed as a fifth.

I'll try to give some unambiguous ones which spring to mind, using the current ceremonial counties.

Falcon: Bristol, Somerset, Devon
X18 (Evesham - Coventry): Worcestershire, Warwickshire, West Midlands
X10 (Newcastle - Middlesbrough): Tyne and Wear, County Durham, North Yorkshire
685: Tyne and Wear, Northumberland, Cumbria
The new X57 service from Manchester - Sheffield: South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester

An interesting extension might be short routes which serve three counties. I'll start the bidding with the X3 from Salisbury to Bournemouth - not a very long route really, yet squeezes in three by going via Ringwood, Hampshire. Are there any shorter?

 

[j_walker1804]

TfL 331 Uxbridge - Ruislip.
Middlesex, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and back into Middlesex.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Perhaps you could clarify in your post whether you mean current local authority boundaries, or historic county borders, and let's stick with one or the other.

Current local authorities.

 

[rcro]

An interesting extension might be short routes which serve three counties.

There must be hundreds. Just looking at Ludlow there's Arriva's 740 Knighton-Ludlow, and Yarrantons 731 Tenbury-Ludlow do combinations of Herefs/Radnor/Salop/Worcs whilst ignoring the obvious longer routes nearby. Just need to look at the corners of counties for short routes. Places like Chipping Campden, Studley and Kinver are all in corners and in different counties to the major towns they are next to so could well have a few more candidates in there.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

One I can think of in my area: the Coastliner 700 between Portsmouth and Brighton serving Hampshire, West Sussex and the City of Brighton & Hove

 

[SouthEastBuses]

A lot depends on how you define county, and how you define serves.

Take the X5, for example. This route runs from Oxford to Bedford (traditionally it continued to Cambridge, but it has been curtailed).

This certainly serves Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Bedfordshire. But Milton Keynes is technically separate from the rest of Bucks, and so you could argue this is a fourth. The route also runs through Northamptonshire (on the bypass around Old Stratford) without stopping, which could be viewed as a fifth.

I'll try to give some unambiguous ones which spring to mind, using the current ceremonial counties.

Falcon: Bristol, Somerset, Devon
X18 (Evesham - Coventry): Worcestershire, Warwickshire, West Midlands
X10 (Newcastle - Middlesbrough): Tyne and Wear, County Durham, North Yorkshire
685: Tyne and Wear, Northumberland, Cumbria
The new X57 service from Manchester - Sheffield: South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester

An interesting extension might be short routes which serve three counties. I'll start the bidding with the X3 from Salisbury to Bournemouth - not a very long route really, yet squeezes in three by going via Ringwood, Hampshire. Are there any shorter?

X5 doesn't count as it is a coach route. It would be like saying National Express or Megabus have services serving at least 3 or more counties or local authorities.

 

[olddriver]

First Glasgow

• 1B Helensburgh to Glasgow (Argyll & Bute, West Dunbartonshire, City of Glasgow)
• 6 Clydebank to East Kilbride (West Dunbartonshire, City of Glasgow, South Lanarkshire).

Services like the old 267 Newmains to Glasgow would have served three (North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, City of Glasgow) but I’m not sure if that’s still the case since they split the routes.

 

[stuart100100]

Arriva 375/385 Southport to Wigan

Merseyside, Lancashire and Greater Manchester

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

X3 Salisbury - Bournemouth. Wiltshire, Hampshire, Bournemouth.

 

[Ridercross]

Diamond 125 Stourbridge - Bridgnorth serves: West Midlands - Worcestershire - Shropshire.
It also passes through a tiny bit of a 4th county which is Staffordshire, but there are no stops listed in that county.

 

[northken]

First West of England 18, 19 and 37 pass through Somerset, Bristol and Gloucestershire.

 

[AB93]

Stagecoach Aldershot route 3 does Hampshire - Surrey - Berkshire - Surrey - Hampshire in one direction, thanks to a strategically placed roundabout and Tesco.

 

[Contains Nuts]

First Potteries 3: Cheshire East, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent.

D&G Bus 16: Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent.

High Peak Skyline 199: Derbyshire, Cheshire East, Stockport, City of Manchester.

 

[stuart100100]

Oh and at least one of Arriva's Wigan to Warrington services go via Newton-Le-Willows, so that's Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire

 

[Man of Kent]

Metrobus 291 from Tunbridge Wells to Crawley: Kent, East Sussex and West Sussex in less than half an hour, as a portion of the overall journey.

 

[freetoview33]

X7 Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Monmouth

 

[AB93]

Metrobus 291 from Tunbridge Wells to Crawley: Kent, East Sussex and West Sussex in less than half an hour, as a portion of the overall journey.

And also briefly passes through Surrey at Felbridge.

 

[Megafuss]

Metrobus 400. East Grinstead (East Sussex) Crawley (West Sussex), Redhill (Surrey), Caterham on the Hill (Surrey)

 

[peterblue]

the various routes from Burton on Trent to Ashby de la Zouch might count as one of the shortest routes to enter into 3 counties: staffordshire, derbyshire and leicestershire in under 10 miles.

 

[DunsBus]

Two examples from Borders Buses.

51 (Edinburgh - Dalkeith - Pathhead - Lauder - Earlston - St Boswells) and X62 (Edinburgh - Penicuik - Peebles - Galashiels): City of Edinburgh, Midlothian and Scottish Borders.

253 (Berwick - Eyemouth - Dunbar - Haddington - Edinburgh): Northumberland, Scottish Borders, East Lothian and City of Edinburgh.

 

[James Wake]

Metrobus 400. East Grinstead (East Sussex) Crawley (West Sussex), Redhill (Surrey), Caterham on the Hill (Surrey)

Slight correction, East Grinstead is in West Sussex

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

376 Bristol (Bristol) via Pensford (BaNES) to Street (Somerset)

185 Radstock (BaNES) via Norton St Philip (Somerset) to Trowbridge (Wiltshire)

 

[peterblue]

Surely unitary authorities e.g. such as Bath do not count and we should use official counties only.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Metrobus 291 from Tunbridge Wells to Crawley: Kent, East Sussex and West Sussex in less than half an hour, as a portion of the overall journey.

Oh yeah completely forgot that one lol. Being one of my local companies haha

 

[Ianno87]

Buxton-Stockport-Manchester Airport 199: Derbyshire, Cheshire (at Disley) and Greater Manchester.