Trivia: Bus Routes With Most Repeated Sections Of Route / Longest Double-run

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Hi all.

I appreciate this may be a bit of a trivial, niche topic - what are some bus routes with the most repeated sections of route?

By that, I mean routes whereby a bus travels down a section of route on its outbound journey, and travels down that same section, in the same direction, on its inbound journey.

For clarification, a "section" could be a road with a bus stop wherein you can catch the same route to different destinations from that same bus stop.

For example, buses on Bluestar route 6 travel down the same road, in the same direction, to serve Brockenhurst station, regardless of whether they are heading towards Southampton or Lymington. This means that you can board a route 6 bus to Southampton or Lymington from the same bus stop. This would count as one section.

(Map attached below)



Sections do not need to include a bus stop, however - e.g. certain one-way sections.

As long as a section of route is repeated on both outbound and inbound journeys, it is considered one section, regardless of distance - but which route has the most sections?

Hope this makes sense.

Good luck.

 

[LUYMun]

Most of my local Stagecoach operator's routes have at least one double-run, such as the 3 (Aldershot - Yateley) to serve The Meadows Shopping Centre and the 2 (Farnborough - Camberley) to serve the Pinewood Park estate.

 

[MrTurbostar170]

Stagecoach route 10 (Ashford-Folkestone) has three:

William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, the route around Sellindge and Sandling station.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Hi all.

I appreciate this may be a bit of a trivial, niche topic - what are some bus routes with the most repeated sections of route?

By that, I mean routes whereby a bus travels down a section of route on its outbound journey, and travels down that same section, in the same direction, on its inbound journey.

For clarification, a "section" could be a road with a bus stop wherein you can catch the same route to different destinations from that same bus stop.

For example, buses on Bluestar route 6 travel down the same road, in the same direction, to serve Brockenhurst station, regardless of whether they are heading towards Southampton or Lymington. This means that you can board a route 6 bus to Southampton or Lymington from the same bus stop. This would count as one section.

(Map attached below)

View attachment 95794

Sections do not need to include a bus stop, however - e.g. certain one-way sections.

As long as a section of route is repeated on both outbound and inbound journeys, it is considered one section, regardless of distance - but which route has the most sections?

Hope this makes sense.

Good luck.

So basically we're talking of a route with a double run?

In which case, there's loads of them, and many recounted on an earlier thread about reversing buses. I can think of the 464 Berwick to Wooler that has a couple to serve villages of Lowick and Bowsdon, the 267 (also Berwick to Wooler) does it to serve Ford, the 424 from Frome to Radstock has a two mile double run to serve Faulkland, and as for Cornwall.... The A1 Penzance to Lands End goes in Porthcurno, A2 into Sennen Cove, 24 via the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and many, many more as they serve Holywell Bay, Constantine Bay, plus all manner of other coves and peninsulas.

 

[TR673]

The Nottinghamshire County Council "Econnect" 510 goes up Banks Road in Toton to a turning circle in each direction; half a mile up and and half a mile back to the conventional two-way route. I imagine there are plenty of times when it merrily winds its way up there and back without dropping anyone off or picking anyone up.

Before it was changed and ultimately withdrawn, Nottingham City Transport route 14 used to go up to this roundabout on its way to and from the city, to call at one stop despite it being very close to other stops in each direction. It wasn't a long detour, but definitely a bizarre one, with that one stop being served by the 14 in both directions and the one directly across the road not being served by it at all. The junction with traffic lights used to be a roundabout too, making it all the more surreal when the bus took the 'wrong' exit, only to be back on the same roundabout a minute later.

 

[Flange Squeal]

In terms of number in one route local to me:

Stagecoach 39A (Woking to Chobham) has up to 5 on some journeys. First is the Morrisons store, second is Robin Hood Road, third is Bingham Drive, fourth is Knaphill Sainsbury’s, and the fifth is Swallow Rise (journeys operate a one way loop, so those towards Chobham cover a stretch of Chobham Road twice. Map below crudely edited from Surrey County Council’s Woking map.

Some lengthy ones locally:

White Bus 462/3 (Guildford to Woking) have a double run of just over 3.5 miles total length east of Send Marsh to serve Ripley, turning at the M25 roundabout.

Compass Bus 32 (Guildford to Redhill) has a double run of around 2.5 miles total length south of Brockham to serve Strood Green.

Stagecoach South 2 (Farnborough to Camberley) has a double run of 2 miles total length along Sandy Lane, to serve the Pinewood Park estate.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

So basically we're talking of a route with a double run?

Ah, possibly so then. I wasn't aware there was a technical term for such a thing.

Edit: Actually, if the definition of double run is "out and back along the same stretch of road" (as per the post below), then not necessarily...

For example, buses heading towards both Guildford and Midhurst on Stagecoach South route 70 travel down Wharf Street in Godalming in the same direction as a result of the town's one-way system.

(Map attached below; red outline shows the repeated section)

 

[Snow1964]

London bus route K5 goes past Cromwell Road bus station, Kingston twice on its way to Morden, and also past in same direction towards Ham.

Not sure if this will work, but here is TfL route map

K5 bus route

Choose a stop to view live arrivals and status information or add to favourites

tfl.gov.uk

Not sure if this is called a double run (which is out and back along same stretch of road), more a partly overlapping loop where go around same one way system 1.5 times in Morden direction

The direction map also shows another loop near Morden

From a railway perspective it is also one of few London bus routes to use a rail level crossing, and in one direction (towards Ham) passes under the 3.1m (10’3”) rail bridge on Queen Elizabeth Road (which is too low for some types of buses).

 

[341o2]

The example the OP gives is where the route in both directions uses Station Approach Brockenhurst to provide direct access between trains and buses. And yes, there is only one bus stop. Does something similar exist at Winchester station?

 

[PTR 444]

Southern Vectis routes 2 and 3 have a double run at both the Asda in Newport and the Tesco in Ryde. The 3 towards Ryde also goes round a section of the one way system in Ventnor twice, overlapping the stops in the Newport direction.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Ah, possibly so then. I wasn't aware there was a technical term for such a thing.

Edit: Actually, if the definition of double run is "out and back along the same stretch of road" (as per the post below), then not necessarily...

For example, buses heading towards both Guildford and Midhurst on Stagecoach South route 70 travel down Wharf Street in Godalming in the same direction as a result of the town's one-way system.

(Map attached below; red outline shows the repeated section)

View attachment 95806

So that would be any one way system in a town/village that is on an intermediate point? Again, they'll be loads of those

Off the top of my head, X34 in Chippenham to Frome does that in Trowbridge as journeys in either direction use the same stop

 

[mlambeuk]

Number 11 in York in the Evening, Through South Bank (near the racecourse).
Number 12 also in York via Woodthorpe and also at Tesco Askham Bar.
Coastliner 840 to Kirkby Misperton (between Malton and Pickering) and Goathland.

 

[Dai Corner]

A couple of local examples, both operated by Stagecoach South Wales.

The X15 Newport-Brynmawr diverts about half a mile off the A467 Rogerstone bypass to serve the Morrison's supermarket.

A few miles further north it passes through Swffryd, where the 21 Blackwood-Cwmbran diverts from the A472 and turns round at the end of the village.

 

[aliceh]

Yellow Buses 6 (outside of the current lockdown period) has a rather long one. Upon arrival in Wimborne, it takes a left past the Waitrose and to Wimborne Square, comes back along the same road, turns left onto Leigh Road for almost a mile and a half, does a loop of Canford bottom, then returns along the same stretch of Leigh Road to Wimborne Square.

 

[Ken H]

36 in Harrogate. It has to loop the loop to get to the bus station.

 

[steamybrian]

In Lewes on the No. 29 Tunbridge Wells to Brighton route the bus stop outside the old bus station serves passengers for both going to Tunbridge Wells direction or Brighton direction. In the Brighton to Tunbridge Wells direction the bus does a circle around the one way system to serve that bus stop.

 

[Alex 2901]

Midland Classic's peak only 402A (Burton - Uttoxeter) has the longest one I can think of - about 10 miles all in all, iirc to serve the village of Abbots Bromley, in lieu of the 403 (which runs off peak only), alongside a considerably shorter one to serve Draycott in the Clay. Both villages are served in both directions, on both Burton and Uttoxeter bound departures.

Attached is how Google Maps shows it.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

280/281 Llandovery to Carmarthen has a 1.5m double run to Llangadog from the A40, and then has another of about a mile at Cwrt Henri.

10 Bodmin to Launceston has a double run into Port Isaac (or Port Wenn for Martin Clunes devotees)

 

[AB93]

Southern Vectis routes 2 and 3 have a double run at both the Asda in Newport and the Tesco in Ryde. The 3 towards Ryde also goes round a section of the one way system in Ventnor twice, overlapping the stops in the Newport direction.

Add Shanklin Rail Station and Ryde Tesco for the 3, and it’s up there with four.

Albeit currently not serving the station due to the engineering works.

So that would be any one way system in a town/village that is on an intermediate point? Again, they'll be loads of those.

I think the OP was hoping for examples of routes that do the most double runs or serve same section of route, e.g. the Stagecoach 39A mentioned above that has five double runs.

 

[WM Bus]

The 28 used to do this at Heartlands Hospital, it went down to the Aldi at the bottom and then came back up on itself to the Hospital to go right onto Belchers Lane towards Small Heath. So the Old Oscott and Small Heath journeys served the same stops.

They've changed it now so Small Heath journeys go right onto Little Bromwich Road at the Aldi.
Small Heath journeys only run evenings and Sundays as well.

Daytime journeys are ran by Evergreen as 28A Ward End to Small Heath. Aslo of note the 28A stops at the stop outside the Hospital towards Ward End and Small Heath.

Also the 66 at Star City and 96 at The Fort probably counts as well.

Havens Holiday Park in Hayle & Perranporth as well.

 

[DunsBus]

Pre-Covid, Borders Buses service 51 between Jedburgh and Edinburgh had four double-runs: Ancrum, St Boswells, Earlston and Oxton.

 

[AB93]

Metrobus route 22 (Crawley - Holmbury St. Mary) has seven if you include the school workings.

1. At Horley, one journey each way does a school variation to serve Oakfield School, by way of a double run from the main route and back on again.
2. Hookwood Tesco - double run into store car park in either direction.
3. Chart Downs - double run to serve this small housing estate in either direction.
4. Dorking - double run via Deepdene Avenue to serve Dorking railway station forecourt in either direction.
5. Dorking - one inbound journey serves South Street to reach Priory School via the one way system - this section of the one way system usually being served only by outbound journeys.
6. Dorking - one non-schoolday inbound journey starts at Townfield Court and runs via Vincents Lane (usually served outbound) then turns onto the usual line of route.
7. Shere - the structure of the service means that it is a double run in the morning, which is then 'overlapped' by the afternoon journey.

 

[90sWereBetter]

The 224 in London has a routing that is pure evil. A double run loop around IKEA Brent Park, a never-ending loop around Park Royal ASDA, a double run to serve a small housing estate next to the North Circular (Iveagh Avenue), and when the route used to run through to Wembley Stadium, there was ANOTHER double run past Alperton tube station to serve the Sainsburys. TFL have now seen sense and ditched the Wembley-Alperton section, one of the few route cutbacks I fully agree with! You could also argue that the St. Raphaels terminus constitutes a double run, as buses have to run to a turning circle and return where they came to finally reach the stand.

Not only is the route incredibly slow, the traffic around the Park Royal industrial areas causes severe reliability problems, and if there was a problem on the North Circular, that was it for the timetable. Took me five attempts to complete the route both ways in 2018/19 as part of my project to tick off the entre London transport system, I wish never to use the 224 again in my lifetime!

 

[Eyersey468]

A couple of East Yorkshire ones are the 129 between Withernsea and Hornsea at Aldborough and one of the holiday camps and the 13 from Scarborough to Bridlington at a couple of holiday camps

 

[Zamracene749]

Due to the layout of the junctions on the A19, the southbound X10 Newcastle Middlesbrough service has to do a 2.2KM round trip to serve Dalton Park. Northbound it's only about 700metres.
The coastal X18 Newcastle Berwick has a couple of sidetracks, notably the 3.3KM return trip to serve Alnmouth and the similar length out and back (with reverse) to Craster, as well as shorter ones in Amble and to the prison at Acklington.
Also in the North East, Services between Stokesley and Northallerton do a quite pretty 3km return trip up to Osmotherley nestling on the west of the moors.

 

[jay38a]

The 34 in Cornwall, has a double run on a double run, not sure how many routes can meet that accolade. First double run to serve Ruan Minor then another while doing that, another double run to serve Kuggar. Also has a double run school days only to Gunwalloe however those journeys do not do the Ruan Minor and Kuggar double run.

 

[dazzler]

Number 11 in York in the Evening, Through South Bank (near the racecourse).
Number 12 also in York via Woodthorpe and also at Tesco Askham Bar.
Coastliner 840 to Kirkby Misperton (between Malton and Pickering) and Goathland.

Further on along the 840, Whitby and Malton bound buses both use the same stop in Thornton Dale, doing a u-turn in the road in both directions.

 

[Megafuss]

Morebus Route One navigates The George roundabout THREE times in each round trip

Once departing Poole Bus Station. Then on the way to Poole Rail Station and then again after departing the Rail Station. It may not be the longest example, but it's three times over the same strech of road/infrastructure

 

[Crisps]

A couple of examples in the North East:

Darlington: Arriva’s crosstown service 2 has the same route through the town centre in both directions - in via Northgate, out via Tubwell Row and Stonebridge. Most buses in Darlington use this route due to the layout of the town centre and the lack of a bus station.

Teesside Park (a retail park) is looped by Arriva’s X12 in the same direction both northbound and southbound - due to the only access to the park being via the A66.

 

[mb88]

Transport for London services R7, R9 and 358 double run via Orpington High Street, Homefield Rise, Orpington High Street in both directions. R7 has another short double run at Barfield Road and Golf Road to serve the Aquila Estate.