Trivia: Largest towns/cities not to have regular double decker operations

[carlberry]

Portsmouth meanwhile seems, from what I can make out, to have been without double-deckers on its city operations for many many years. Last time I saw a Portsmouth city bus as a double decker was January 1990, when the operator was known as Portsmouth Citybus. I can't be completely sure but ever since First took over I don't remember seeing any. Plus, there was a relatively short-lived dominant operator in the 90s (between Portsmouth Citybus and First), Red Admiral, and they seemed to operate purely with minibuses!

The Park and Ride was operated with double deckers bought in 2014. It's apparently restarting later this month.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Portsmouth meanwhile seems, from what I can make out, to have been without double-deckers on its city operations for many many years. Last time I saw a Portsmouth city bus as a double decker was January 1990, when the operator was known as Portsmouth Citybus. I can't be completely sure but ever since First took over I don't remember seeing any. Plus, there was a relatively short-lived dominant operator in the 90s (between Portsmouth Citybus and First), Red Admiral, and they seemed to operate purely with minibuses!

First also use deckers from their Hoeford allocation and whilst they are mainly used on schools, they are certainly not uncommon on the X4 Portsmouth to Southampton.

Stagecoach also operate deckers on the 700 into Portsmouth

 

[cnjb8]

First also use deckers from their Hoeford allocation and whilst they are mainly used on schools, they are certainly not uncommon on the X4 Portsmouth to Southampton.

Stagecoach also operate deckers on the 700 into Portsmouth

Stagecoach also have a number of Tridents allocated to their Portsmouth depot too

 

[RELL6L]

Swansea worth a mention too, there are a number of First deckers there now but around 5 years ago I don’t think there were any, with First Cymru’s few deckers all on schools and college runs.

 

[DanNCL]

Washington (population 67,000 in 2011) was without double deck buses until Go North East bought some for the X1 in 2011. To date the X1 remains the only double deck worked route into the centre of Washington, though the 56 which serves Concord on the outskirts is now also double deck operated.

Stockton? Occasional deckers on the X12 but not much else, none allocated locally. Middlesbrough only on the X9/X10 and X93 I think.

The X9/X10 now use coaches, so just the X93 for Middlesbrough now!

 

[route101]

Paisley for a while had no double-deckers, however recently the main local operator has I believe obtained a small number.

McGills have one E400 I believe. #
First sometimes have deckers out on the 9.

What about Falkirk? Can't think of any 'deckers there. Population 160k.

First have 05 plate Scania deckers, last time I was in Falkirk I seen them.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Washington (population 67,000 in 2011) was without double deck buses until Go North East bought some for the X1 in 2011. To date the X1 remains the only double deck worked route into the centre of Washington, though the 56 which serves Concord on the outskirts is now also double deck operated.


The X9/X10 now use coaches, so just the X93 for Middlesbrough now!

You still get deckers on the X9/X10 - had one just the other week

 

[nw1]

Woking in Surrey, population 101k. Mainly restricted by Victoria Arch under the railway "shrinking" over the years. Most recent change was around 2010 when it changed from 4.2m/13'9" to 4.1m/13'6". This severely limits what routes can take deckers. Arriva were briefly using a couple imported from Kent for a short period last year to aid social distancing on two routes during frequency reductions which don't touch the arch, but those couple of months aside the only deckers you'll see in Woking these days are rail replacements south towards Guildford (they can't even really do east or west rail work due to other bridges on those routes too!).

That's definitely caused a change since the 80s, when perhaps about half, or slightly more than half, of vehicles on the 34/284 (Guildford-Camberley) were double deckers, and perhaps just under half of the 54/285 (Guildford-Chobham) were also. The other routes seemed to be largely single deck though, including all the London Country routes, 48/286 (Guidford-Staines), and the 28/280 (Guildford-Woking via Pirbright).

In previous eras, at least one company used to take a strategy of diverting busy journeys to avoid low bridges on certain routes, allowing the use of double-deckers for busy journeys. Alder Valley certainly did this with the 219/229 in Haslemere (Midhurst routes, over the years) and 213 in Alton (towards Whitehill and Liphook). Not sure if this practice is still adopted by anyone?

First also use deckers from their Hoeford allocation and whilst they are mainly used on schools, they are certainly not uncommon on the X4 Portsmouth to Southampton.

Stagecoach also operate deckers on the 700 into Portsmouth

Ah, ok. Yes, I was aware of the Stagecoach routes (the 23(?) to Leigh Park has quite a few too I believe) but was more referring to the First operations within the city. Interesting that a few do in fact exist.

 

[martinsh]

Stafford:
Arriva - Single Decks on the 5
First - Branded Omnicity's on the 101
Chaserider - Only has Single Decks
Select - Has 1 decker which seems to run one AM journey near Wolverhampton on the 878.

Most double deckers in Stafford are run by local fruit farms for their workers !
First sometimes uses deckers on the 101
I've seen the Select Bus decker in Stafford, but not sure if it was in service
Stantons of Stoke sometimes runs one on a college contract as well

 

[Ridercross]

Kidderminster.
I don't think the Rotala depot in the town has ever had any double deckers allocated there.

There was a small allocation there 15 years ago in First days for use on school services. In 2006 I was regularly having to travelling to Stourport on the 3 service and there would be a couple of morning trips on there run by double deckers after they had run schools. Likewise in 2008 I was going to Kidderminster Hospital and doubles could be seen occasionally passing on service 1.

The depot which opened in 2001 can't actually accommodate doubles, so they would have to go to Worcester regularly for servicing.

 

[cnjb8]

Most double deckers in Stafford are run by local fruit farms for their workers !
First sometimes uses deckers on the 101
I've seen the Select Bus decker in Stafford, but not sure if it was in service
Stantons of Stoke sometimes runs one on a college contract as well

Select run one former Stagecoach London Trident and two former Metroline Volvo B7TL Presidents

 

[nw1]

Matlock has Stagecoach Gold X17 and Loughborough has NCTX Navy 1 and Arriva 127 which are all decker routes normally.

Stafford:
Arriva - Single Decks on the 5
First - Branded Omnicity's on the 101
Chaserider - Only has Single Decks
Select - Has 1 decker which seems to run one AM journey near Wolverhampton on the 878.

Chaserider presumably no relation to the branding which NBC Midland Red used in the 1980s? Looks, from the website, like it's a small local independent company which has re-used the name.

Incidentally the 1980s Chaserider appeared to be entirely single-deck too... though PMT used a mix of single-and double-deckers on the 260. Knowing that First run what used to be PMT, I would imagine the 101 is the successor to the 260 - so the pattern at Stafford re. double-deckers seems much the same as the 1980s!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Chaserider presumably no relation to the branding which NBC Midland Red used in the 1980s? Looks, from the website, like it's a small local independent company which has re-used the name.

Incidentally the 1980s Chaserider appeared to be entirely single-deck too... though PMT used a mix of single-and double-deckers on the 260. Knowing that First run what used to be PMT, I would imagine the 101 is the successor to the 260 - so the pattern at Stafford re. double-deckers seems much the same as the 1980s!

Chaserider is indeed a resurrection of the old NBC identity (as used by Midland Red North) following the purchase of the former Cannock operations from Arriva by Julian Peddle, owner of D&G Bus and renowned bus industry entrepreneur (who also owns Centrebus and has financial interests in Select Bus and Midland Classic).

The 1980s Chaserider was a name used for the Midland Red North operations at both Cannock and Stafford. Stafford was single deck in the main and guess that does continue now.

However, Cannock definitely had some deckers. They started by having some original Midland Red Fleetlines, with more coming from the purchase of Harper Bros of Heath Hayes. In the mid 1980s, as well as some former London DMSs, Midland Red North bought some brand new ECW Olympians (including some coach seated examples) and these were allocated to Tamworth and Cannock; the Cannock ones were used on the Rugeley to Birmingham expresses and the former Harper Bros 156 Cannock to Birmingham via Brownhills. Those routes no longer exist though in those forms.

IIRC, in the early 2000s, they still had deckers on the 156 (early Arriva route branded) and I certainly experienced deckers (ex London & Country Citybuses) on the 860 Lichfield to Cannock at that time.