TRIVIA: bus routes operated by the most amount of depots

[SeveerYeliab]

Can you think of a bus route operated by 2 or more depots?

The one with the most that I can think of is the Canterbury 953 (ashford Folkestone and Thanet I think)

 

[Mwanesh]

The X4 in South Wales is operated by Brynmawr , Methyr and Porth. Most of the journeys are operated by Brynmawr then a few by the other depots.

 

[Typhoon]

Can you think of a bus route operated by 2 or more depots?

The one with the most that I can think of is the Canterbury 953 (ashford Folkestone and Thanet I think)

What is impressive is that there are only three timetabled journeys.

I would have thought there would be quite a few operated by just two depots, particularly long distance rural routes. I assume it is still true from the timetable but in Birmingham most 11As were operated from Acocks Green but positioning journeys from Perry Barr, 11C mainly Perry Barr with the occasional Acocks Green.

 

[EnviroExplorer]

On the summer timetable, Stagecoach Cumbria’s famous 555 operates from Kendal and Morecambe depots. Kendal operating the hourly service offered all year round, with Morecambe operating the hourly extras that run direct between Kendal and Lancaster ( these journeys being summer only)

 

[Tetchytyke]

Newcastle-Carlisle 685 is run by Arriva and Stagecoach and so has two operators, never mind two depots. It used to have 3 depots- Stagecoach Carlisle, Arriva Hexham and Arriva Jesmond, but Arriva sold the rest of the Hexham operation to Go.

 

[Statto]

Stagecoach used to have joint depot working on the 1 & 2 Liverpool-Chester, Birkenhead & Chester depots [the 1 certainly was joint depots], now it's just operated by Birkenhead depot, the Chester depot was the old Crosville depot on Liverpool Road, i think Chester ceased operating the 1 & 2 when Stagecoach moved the depot to Waverton.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Newcastle-Carlisle 685 is run by Arriva and Stagecoach and so has two operators, never mind two depots. It used to have 3 depots- Stagecoach Carlisle, Arriva Hexham and Arriva Jesmond, but Arriva sold the rest of the Hexham operation to Go.

I wasn't aware Jesmond depot did the 685 before the sale to Go Ahead (unless it was Sundays). However, before deregulation, the 601/602 Hexham to Newcastle was operated by three depots... Hexham, Newcastle (Gallowgate) and Blyth! I think pre 1985 that the 213 Sunderland to Darlington had one each from Darlington, Sedgefield, Peterlee and Sunderland depots.

Famously, the L1 Cymru Coastliner had vehicles drawn from a number of depots - possibly Chester, Flint, Rhyl, Llandudno Junction, Bangor and Caernarfon, with the vehicles working diagrams so that the drivers got home ok but the vehicles would end up at another depot overnight.

There's fewer examples these days as routes tend to be shorter (because of congestion), fewer depots anyway, and operators tend not to share routes between depots for accountability reasons.

 

[Busaholic]

London Transport had some cases of 4 garages operating routes into the early 1970s, and even 5 garages pre WW2: that is to say on a given day all 4 or 5 operated them simultaneously. With some of these routes you could find as many as 6 garages altogether operating a route, given that some only worked them on a Saturday or Sunday, and I believe pre-war this might have been 7, even 8, in odd cases! I'm talking red (Central) here, not Green (Country) but there were certainly examples of 3 simultaneously on the latter, including at least one Green Line route.

 

[Ianno87]

Newcastle-Carlisle 685 is run by Arriva and Stagecoach and so has two operators, never mind two depots. It used to have 3 depots- Stagecoach Carlisle, Arriva Hexham and Arriva Jesmond, but Arriva sold the rest of the Hexham operation to Go.

The 22 between Bolton and Stockport, until it was withdrawn a couple of years ago, was jointly run by First (From Bolton) and Stagecoach (from Stockport).

 

[Dai Corner]

A couple which come to mind are the X9 Bristol-Nailsea (First and ABus) and the 30 Newport-Cardiff (Newport Transport and Cardiff Bus).

 

[Springs Branch]

If we're talking historical situations, Manchester's well-known "circular" service 53 (Cheetham Hill to Old Trafford) used to run very frequently in MCT/Selnec/GMT days and was worked by buses from 4 garages - Queen's Rd, Hyde Rd, Birchfields Rd and Princess Road.

Prior to deregulation, and especially before the PTEs, there were quite a few "joint" services in the north-west worked all-day and every day by not just multiple garages, but multiple operators.
Triple-operator examples were:
- Bolton/Manchester service 8 - operated by Lancashire United, Bolton Corporation and Salford Corporation vehicles.
- Liverpool/Wigan service 320 - operated by Lancashire United, Ribble and Wigan Corporation buses.
- Bury/Manchester service 35 - operated by Salford, Manchester and Bury Corporation vehicles.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Another interesting one was the 69 (!) from Bishop Auckland to Stockton. For some years, it had three operators each contributing a vehicle each. That was United at Bishop Auckland, Wilkinsons of Sedgefield, and Trimdon Motor Services. United bought Wilkinsons in 1967 (and retained the depot until 1984), before finally buying TMS in 1991. The route finally disappeared a few years ago with Arriva's disinterest in central Durham.

 

[DelphDonkey]

320 was operated by St Helens as well, making four. Also four was the 6 Manchester - Glossop: Manchester, Ashton, SHMD and North Western.

 

[cnjb8]

Indigo and i4 have some buses at Nottingham and some at Derby.

 

[Mwanesh]

Active 8 between Andover and Salisbury is operated by Stagecoach Andover and Go Ahead owned Salisbury Reds. Pronto is operated by Stagecoach Mansfield and Trent Barton. The 77 between Chesterfield and Worksop is operated by both Chesterfield and Worksop Depots. The 301 Centraline is done by both Hemel Hempstead and Stevenage .

 

[Andyh82]

Various Go North East services such as the 90, 91, 92, X1 & X21 have many extra peak time services that are resourced from different depots, which change from year to year depending on what school contracts they hold and can attach these trips to.

The X21 is run from Crook with peak time journeys run from Riverside and Chester, and in the past Stanley.

The 91 is run by Percy Main and Washington in a morning, and by Washington, Chester and Riverside on an afternoon.

 

[Typhoon]

Not the case anymore.
All are operated by Acocks Green with 61XX E400 MMC now and the occasional Gemini.
All journeys have been operated by AG for a decade now.

Must have been just after I left the city. As journeys started and ended at Perry Barr I assumed they were garaged there. Must be a lot of dead mileage. I can remember when the 11 was operated by lots of garages - Harborne certainly, possibly Washwood Heath, not so certain about Selly Oak or Cotteridge.

Thank you for that, although it has made me feel very old!

 

[wazztie16]

Indigo and i4 have some buses at Nottingham and some at Derby.

Indigo is operated out of Loughborough as well

 

[43055]

trentbarton sixes is now run out of Matlock, Belper and Derby depots since May

Indigo is operated out of Loughborough as well

A Nottingham Skylink also goes to Loughborough as well instead of going back to Nottingham from Coalville.

 

[Samuel88]

Indigo is operated out of Loughborough as well

Why is Indigo operated out of Loughborough when it no longer goes anywhere near there!

 

[Tetchytyke]

I wasn't aware Jesmond depot did the 685 before the sale to Go Ahead (unless it was Sundays)

I thought they did the (6)85 on Sundays, but might be wrong.

 

[bussnapperwm]

At one stage Diamond bus had the #142 service in Stourbridge run during the daytimes M-Sa by Kidderminster (ex Central Buses journeys) and the evening run by Tividale (interworking with the 257)

NXWM have the Birmingham #9 run by their PN Pensnett Depot, with a couple of early morning Halesowen - City journeys operated by BC Birmingham Central.
Their PN 12 is also run by West Bromwich WB depot IIRC.

 

[wazztie16]

Why is Indigo operated out of Loughborough when it no longer goes anywhere near there!

Goes light out of there.

 

[43055]

Why is Indigo operated out of Loughborough when it no longer goes anywhere near there!

As the previous post states they go empty from Long Eaton. Looking at google maps it is a good 10 mins faster to go to Loughborough from Briar Gate than it is back to Nottingham.

 

[Lothian_Bus]

Lothian Buses service 44 is operated full time by 2 depots - Longstone and Central.

There are various other services that mainly run from one depot with occasional peak journeys from another.

Marine based 25 is one example with Mon-Fri peak time extra services operated from Longstone.

 

[PhilStockley]

Why is Indigo operated out of Loughborough when it no longer goes anywhere near there!

I was Development Director at Wellglade a few years back so I can help with that! The simple answer is that Nottingham depot is full!

I agree it seems perverse to run a route from a location no longer served - and obviously it goes back to the days when Indigo did go there. But various options were looked at including moving routes around or looking for more local outstations but nothing could be found that was better than the status quo - it’s not such a long dead journey after all (I think I’m right in saying that some of the Indigos are outstationed at Derby depot too)

 

[175mph]

The Scunthorpe to Hull 350 route, run from Scunthorpe and Hull depots but then there are the odd few runs by East Yorkshire, from their depot on Anlaby Road in Hull, near Hull Royal Infirmary.

 

[carlberry]

As we've expanded to historic and multiple operators I'll have to chuck in the classic example of Expresswest during the mid 1980s when Bristol Omnibus, National Welsh, South Wales Transport and Crosville each contributed vehicles, from multiple depots in the case of South Wales Transport. Plus the possibility of even more depots covering breakdowns/duplicates.

 

[Tom B]

I believe that London services N20 and N134 are jointly run between Holloway and Potters Bar. Although many London buses have garage codes wildly incorrect, presumably nobody having bothered to change them when a vehicle is transferred.

In Mainline days, the X78 was shared between Doncaster and Rotherham garages for a while.

 

[Jordan Adam]

The Service 10 Aberdeen - Inverness currently has journeys operated by Aberdeen, Elgin, Inverness, Insch & Macduff.