Trivia: Bus services which are run by more than one company

[150249]

The 55B Exeter - Tiverton is operated by Dartline and Stagecoach South West.

Does this happen elsewhere in the UK?

 

[markymark2000]

The 55B Exeter - Tiverton is operated by Dartline and Stagecoach South West.

Does this happen elsewhere in the UK?

This will be an extremely long thread and will go on almost forever.

 

[sonic2009]

Some local to me are :

38 Crewe - Macclesfield run by Arriva North West & D&G
Northwich Town Services 1&4 run by Arriva North West Monday-Saturday and then D&G on Sundays albeit the 4 doesn't serve the Leftwich and Kingsmead estates.

 

[Stan_Butler]

230 in Hamilton operated by First Glasgow and JMB travel.

 

[DunsBus]

A pre-deregulation one from Edinburgh - the 61 between St Andrew Square bus station and Balerno, run jointly by Eastern Scottish and Lothian Region Transport.

 

[carlberry]

The 55B Exeter - Tiverton is operated by Dartline and Stagecoach South West.

Does this happen elsewhere in the UK?

Just about the only place it doesnt happen (I suspect) is London and Northern Ireland. There will still be some joint services that are left over from pre-dereg days, some where county councils have arranged joint running (Oxford being an example), some competitive services using the same numbers and, as @markymark2000 hinted at, examples too numerous to menthion of subsidised journeys being run by a different operator from the main one.

 

[duncanp]

A pre-deregulation one from Edinburgh - the 61 between St Andrew Square bus station and Balerno, run jointly by Eastern Scottish and Lothian Region Transport.

I remember that route and used it often when I was at Heriot-Watt University and lived in Balerno, back in the stone age 1980s.

The 61 actually used to terminate at Riccarton Campus, and was only extended to Balerno in 1984 following a review of services in the area, with the aim of improving services to the university.

In the West Midlands, the 42/43 from West Bromwich to Dudley used to be operated jointly by National Express West Midlands and Diamond Bus.

However this arrangement came to an end, and now both companies operate on the route in direct competition with each other.

 

[175mph]

350 Scunthorpe to Hull - Stagecoach/East Yorkshire.

 

[150249]

This will be an extremely long thread and will go on almost forever.

I see what you mean now. I didn't realise how much it happened

 

[urbophile]

The 82 in Liverpool is run by both Arriva and Stagecoach. However, they serve slightly different routes and destinations. Non-locals could get very confused.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The 82 in Liverpool is run by both Arriva and Stagecoach. However, they serve slightly different routes and destinations. Non-locals could get very confused.

Traffic Commissioners really ought to be able to forbid operators from doing this. Surely the operators don't want to confuse people, but they'd seemingly rather have the imagined prestige of a certain route number, which leads to towns having multiple '1's to different places. This essentially gives the operators free advertising, as instead of being told "catch the number 1 bus", people will be told to specifically catch the Dave's Dodgy Drives number 1.

 

[py_megapixel]

Oxford routes 3 and 3A alternate between Stagecoach and Go-Ahead; 1 and 5 are the same route under different numbers, again alternating between Stagecoach and Go-Ahead.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

As @markymark2000 says, it will be a long list, made up of....

• Jointly operated services - now a rarity but you have the Activ8 from Andover to Salisbury, and the 685 Carlisle to Newcastle as notable survivors
• Co-ordinated services - now fewer with recent changes in Oxford but still prevalent in places like Merseyside
• Services where tendered journeys are operated by a firm different to the commercial operator, and even some routes have different tendered journeys operated by different firms - a practice prevalent in Wiltshire such as the 33 (Devizes to Chippenham) which is operated by Faresaver except one Stagecoach journey at tea time on a Saturday!

 

[TXMISTA]

The 349 in Bristol used to be jointly operated by Abus and First WoE, since September it's been entirely operated by First.

In North Surrey, the 400 is operated by London United and Bear Buses for school journeys if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Whistler40145]

Number 4 Scunthorpe and Brigg is operated by Hornsby's Travel Monday to Saturday, but on Sundays is operated by Stagecoach East Midlands

 

[station_road]

A proper jointly operated service, the X38 between Derby and Burton operated by Arriva and Trentbarton

 

[Eyersey468]

350 Scunthorpe to Hull - Stagecoach/East Yorkshire.

This goes back to Roadcar days. I believe EY and Roadcar shared management at one time during National Bus Company days

 

[SSmith2009]

First Leicester operate service 21 (City to Thurmaston) Mon - Sat but on Sundays an hourly tendered service 21 operated by Robert's Coaches only operates between City Centre and St Matthews Estate with a round trip timetabled to be only 11 minutes although can often be done in less!

timetable: https://www.robertstravelgroup.co.uk/images/pdf/local/service_21__1_.pdf

 

[woolos]

30 Newport to cardiff run by Cardiff bus and Newport bus

 

[mlambeuk]

Number 19 York to Skelton run By Reliance (mon to Fri.) and Transdev (Sat).
412 York to Wetherby run by Connexions and North Yorkshire County Council.

 

[fgwrich]

As @markymark2000 says, it will be a long list, made up of....

• Jointly operated services - now a rarity but you have the Activ8 from Andover to Salisbury, and the 685 Carlisle to Newcastle as notable survivors

They certainly are a rarity round here - another one from this part of Hampshire which ceased a few years ago was the joint operation of Basingstoke - Kingsclere - Newbury. From memory, it ran as Newbury buses operating the 32 and Stagecoach operating the 32a, it then became the jointly operated “The Link” before Reading Buses sale of the Newbury operation to Weaverway led to it becoming a full operated Stagecoach route.

 

[WY Bus Spotter]

The 232 (Wakefield to Huddersfield) used to be run by 3 different companies and by 4 different depots.

First (Hunslet Park) ran one early morning return journey a day.
Yorkshire Tiger (Waterloo) ran daytime services
First (Huddersfield) ran evening journeys
Arriva (Wakefield) ran Sunday journeys

 

[johnnychips]

In Sheffield both Stagecoach and First run the 120 Fulwood - City Centre -Crystal Peaks - Halfway service. It is not a joint service, but the buses are evenly spaced so they are not running at the same time - though sometimes this happens because of congestion.

 

[jamieintercity]

The number 30 service between Arbroath and Stracathro Hospital had as many as 4 operators working the service at one point (Stagecoach, MW Nicoll, Wisharts and Teejay travel) on one section between Montrose and Brechin back in 2017.

 

[DunsBus]

I remember that route and used it often when I was at Heriot-Watt University and lived in Balerno, back in the stone age 1980s.

The 61 actually used to terminate at Riccarton Campus, and was only extended to Balerno in 1984 following a review of services in the area, with the aim of improving services to the university.

In the West Midlands, the 42/43 from West Bromwich to Dudley used to be operated jointly by National Express West Midlands and Diamond Bus.

However this arrangement came to an end, and now both companies operate on the route in direct competition with each other.

Currie was the original terminus of the 61 IIRC, as you say the extension to Balerno came later. I think the 61 was originally introduced to appease the locals in Currie as up until then LRT buses only ran as far as Juniper Green, with Currie lying outside the historic city boundary and, therefore, in Eastern Scottish territory.

 

[duncanp]

Currie was the original terminus of the 61 IIRC, as you say the extension to Balerno came later. I think the 61 was originally introduced to appease the locals in Currie as up until then LRT buses only ran as far as Juniper Green, with Currie lying outside the historic city boundary and, therefore, in Eastern Scottish territory.

Yes you are right, the 61 terminated in Currie.

I also remember the 53A, from Riccarton Campus to St Andrew Square along the same route as the 45 today.

As a student, it annoyed me to see LRT buses turning round in Juniper Green and Sighthill, and it is interesting to note that the 34 and 35 now go all the way to Riccarton Campus.

For the future, I think there is a case for building a branch of the Edinburgh tram out to the university.

 

[bussnapperwm]

The Birmingham Outer Circle has has tons of competition between independents and NX West Midlands. Surprisingly the only Birmingham based operators that haven't tried competing on there is Diamond and Claribels

 

[33021]

In Liverpool Stagecoach and Arriva run combined timetable services 82 86 routes both examples

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

In Sheffield both Stagecoach and First run the 120 Fulwood - City Centre -Crystal Peaks - Halfway service. It is not a joint service, but the buses are evenly spaced so they are not running at the same time - though sometimes this happens because of congestion.

In Liverpool Stagecoach and Arriva run combined timetable services 82 86 routes both examples

As mentioned in my #13, these are examples where services are coordinated between two operators and they are commonplace in Merseyside and Sheffield in deals brokered by the respective PTEs

The 349 in Bristol used to be jointly operated by Abus and First WoE, since September it's been entirely operated by First.

Not quite. It was an Abus service previously but in a deal struck (as with the X8), Abus was operating as a contractor to First. What Abus couldn't do, First would then operate.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

As @markymark2000 says, it will be a long list, made up of....

• Jointly operated services - now a rarity but you have the Activ8 from Andover to Salisbury, and the 685 Carlisle to Newcastle as notable survivors
• Co-ordinated services - now fewer with recent changes in Oxford but still prevalent in places like Merseyside
• Services where tendered journeys are operated by a firm different to the commercial operator, and even some routes have different tendered journeys operated by different firms - a practice prevalent in Wiltshire such as the 33 (Devizes to Chippenham) which is operated by Faresaver except one Stagecoach journey at tea time on a Saturday!

That Stagecoach journey on the 33 comes off the 42 from Marlborough, since Stagecoach took over the route the journey only rus as far as Bromham with Calne and Chippenham being on request which makes me think that if someone only wanted Chippenham would the route run direct through Sandy Lane omitting Calne?

Back in Yorkshire and at one time the 571 (Halifax to Bradford via Brighouse) was operated by both First Halifax and Yorkshire Tiger - the whole service is now worked by First Halifax, going back qiute a few years and the 61A (Huddersfield to Buxton) was jointly ran by both Stagecoach Yorkshire and Speedwellbus before the service was lost from the 16th March 2008. The 59 (Wakefield to Barnsley) was operated by both Stagecoach and Arriva during 2009 with Arriva running the West Yorkshire section and Stagecoach doing South Yorkshire - again the entire service is now operated by Stagecoach. There the 256 (Brighouse to Bradford) and the 259 (Brighouse to East Bierley) the two services share a common route between Brighouse and Hartshead Moor Top but the 256 is operated jointly by First Bradford and Arriva with the 259 being ran by TLC Travel.

In Sussex, the 17 (Horsham to Brighton) is ran by Stagecoach Monday to Saturday and until around 2016 by Compass on a Sunday. Service 23 (Crawley to Worthing) is operated by Metrobus Monday to Saturday and was operated by Compass on a Sunday before Metrobus took over the Sunday tender.