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Trivia: Long or unusual route numbers

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Between 2000 and 2011 (when they went Bust) Geoff Amos Coaches used to run the Rugby-Daventry-Banbury Service (branded as the GREAT CENTRAL CONEXXION (Their Spelling!)) That was officially Numbered GA01 in one Direction and GA02 in the other..on the same route!
Have not come across this before.
 
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TheGrandWazoo

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This happened across West Yorkshire
800s into North Yorkshire and beyond
700s Wharfedale
600 Bradford
500 Halifax
400 Pontefract
300 Huddersfield
200 Dewsbury
100 Wakefield
0-99 Leeds (every other area had its 0-99 prefixed and still exists)

An interesting one is the Kingfisher Hanley to Uttoxeter route - previously 32, some blinds still show 32 (and D&G Hanley to Cheadle is 32x)
We’ve covered this in previous threads in that services operated by the huge monolithic bus companies were often renumbered into massive series to accommodate new fangled computer systems in the 1960s. Hence why United Auto had services in the 800s, Ribble had services in the 600s and 700s, Bristol OC in the 800s - all with subdivided regional bands
 

Ken H

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We’ve covered this in previous threads in that services operated by the huge monolithic bus companies were often renumbered into massive series to accommodate new fangled computer systems in the 1960s. Hence why United Auto had services in the 800s, Ribble had services in the 600s and 700s, Bristol OC in the 800s - all with subdivided regional bands
But West Yorkshire wasnt a monolithic bus company. OK they ran the old municipals but many of the services were run by National Bus Company subsidiaries. West Yorkshire Road Car, Yorkshire Woollen, West Riding and a few independents. So they not only changed their own services' route numbers but also other operators. West Yorkshire managed to hang onto 36 though. still running.
 

tbtc

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Between 2000 and 2011 (when they went Bust) Geoff Amos Coaches used to run the Rugby-Daventry-Banbury Service (branded as the GREAT CENTRAL CONEXXION (Their Spelling!)) That was officially Numbered GA01 in one Direction and GA02 in the other..on the same route!
Have not come across this before.

Ember ("the UK's first all-electric, intercity bus service" - https://www.ember.to/) run the E1 from Dundee to Edinburgh and the E2 from Edinburgh to Dundee

Back in my day, Dundee's Douglas - Lochee corridor saw westbound services numbered 28 or 29 depending on which bit of Lochee they were heading to but every eastbound service was the 26 (regardless of where it had started from) - this was later changed to have every eastbound service numbered 28 or 29 depending on the origin point and the 26 number dropped
 

SSmith2009

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Paul S Winson coaches used to run X27E Leicester to Loughborough Express (two AM Leicester bound and two PM Loughborough bound journeys) but they finished around 2017ish
 

Romsey

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To further that, Stagecoach's local routes in Exeter are also numbered as letters - namely A, B, E(1/2), F(1/2), H(1/2), I, J, K, L, P, R, S, T, X, Y and Z.

Then you've also got G operated by Greenslades, as well as M and U operated by Country Bus.
Letters for Exeter City routes date back to Exeter City Transport which was taken over by Devon General in the early 1970's It was partly to avoid duplicated route numbers.
 

GusB

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Back in my day, Dundee's Douglas - Lochee corridor saw westbound services numbered 28 or 29 depending on which bit of Lochee they were heading to but every eastbound service was the 26 (regardless of where it had started from) - this was later changed to have every eastbound service numbered 28 or
There was a similar situation in Aberdeen for a while. Grampian routes 1 - 4 ran northbound along the Holburn Street / Union Street / King Street corridor, but they only used 1 and 2 running southbound.

Northbound:
1 Denmore
2 Scotstoun
3 can't remember the destination on this one
4 Danestone

Southbound, the destinations were Auchinyell and Garthdee, although I forget the which number was which.
 

Ken H

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Leeds trams showed a different number in different directions. So a tram would start at Lawnswood (NW of the city) showing 2. It would run into the city then run out to Moortown (N or the city). It would change to a 4, then run back to the city via Harehills, then out to Kirkstall (W of the city). Reverse. Change to a 3 and run back to the centre then back to Moortown via Harehills. Change to a 1, then back to Lawnswood and it all starts again.
 

SCH117X

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Harrogate & District tried bi-directional numbering in the mid 1990s when the Knaresborough servuices were linked to the service to the north-west suburb (Jennyfield) Snag was that meant two buses an hour outside the morning peak from/to Knaresborough had no corresponding working due to lower frequency to Jennyfield so instead ran to the north-eastern suburb (Bilton). This meant whilst the majority of services ran as 1 or a 2 (depending on the route in Knaresborough) those running to Bilton ran from Knaresborough as a B1 or B1A. This apparently caused confusion so three digit numbering was adapted - a 101, 102 being a Knaresborough-Harrogate & Jennyfield service and a 201 and 202 being one going to Bilton; the bi-diectional operation of the loop at Bilton having been axed. All other local routes were renumberd to accord with the initial 1 or 2. Unreliability due to traffic congestion utimately resulted in the through workings being axed.
 

Mal

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Harrogate & District tried bi-directional numbering in the mid 1990s when the Knaresborough servuices were linked to the service to the north-west suburb (Jennyfield)
Portsmouth Corporation routes were all numbered bi-directionally, eg Dockyard - Cosham 3, but Cosham - Dockyard numbered 4 though the routes were identical apart from one-way systems. The only exceptions were the joint (with Southdown) routes to Leigh Park
 
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Roger1973

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Back in my day, Dundee's Douglas - Lochee corridor saw westbound services numbered 28 or 29 depending on which bit of Lochee they were heading to but every eastbound service was the 26 (regardless of where it had started from) - this was later changed to have every eastbound service numbered 28 or 29 depending on the origin point and the 26 number dropped

I understand that Leeds trams did similar, only more so, in that most tram journeys ran across the city centre, and each route number always went with a particular terminus, so (for example) a tram to Lawnswood would always show '1 Lawnswood' irrespective of what south Leeds terminus it had started from. On arrival at Lawnswood, it would show the number for whatever south Leeds terminus it was going to next.

I don't know enough about the system to know if specific pairs of termini were always linked, or if this varied by time of day / week.

Trams terminating in the city centre tended either not to show a route number, or the route number blind was deliberately set between two numbers to make it stand out. (I remember seeing one tram crew at Crich do this on their last journey of the day with a Leeds tram.)

Sheffield Supertram used colours instead of numbers/ letters

I'd forgotten about that. Thinking about it, the Docklands Light Railway also had colour codes for the original two routes (Island Gardens to Tower Gateway or Stratford) photo (not mine) here.
 
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Ken H

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I understand that Leeds trams did similar, only more so, in that most tram journeys ran across the city centre, and each route number always went with a particular terminus, so (for example) a tram to Lawnswood would always show '1 Lawnswood' irrespective of what south Leeds terminus it had started from. On arrival at Lawnswood, it would show the number for whatever south Leeds terminus it was going to next.

I don't know enough about the system to know if specific pairs of termini were always linked, or if this varied by time of day / week.

Trams terminating in the city centre tended either not to show a route number, or the route number blind was deliberately set between two numbers to make it stand out. (I remember seeing one tram crew at Crich do this on their last journey of the day with a Leeds tram.)



I'd forgotten about that. Thinking about it, the Docklands Light Railway also had colour codes for the original two routes (Island Gardens to Tower Gateway or Stratford) photo (not mine) here.
Lawnswood (1) was linked to Moortown via Chapeltown Road (2). Moortown Harehills & Roundhay (3) was linked to Kirkstall (4). But that fell apart as trams were gradually abandoned in the 50's. JIm Soper's books detail the linking, and how it changed over the years.
The linking I describe above seems silly now. Who would go from Lawnswood to Moortown via the city on a tram?
Lawnswood is NW of the city. Moortown is North. Roundhay Harehills is a bit east of North. Kirkstall is west. But it meant that both linked routes had stops in City Sq (financial quarter) and Briggate or Vicar Ln (shopping quarter)
Oh. And there was a tram route between Moortown and Roundhay. So trams would leave the city one way and come back the other, same as the 2 & 12 buses do today.
 
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py_megapixel

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Thinking about it, the Docklands Light Railway also had colour codes for the original two routes (Island Gardens to Tower Gateway or Stratford) photo (not mine) here.
Hmm... is there anywhere other than the DLR in its early years where a driverless train has had a manual destination blind?? It's a bit of an odd combination if you ask me!
 

Deerfold

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Back in my day, Dundee's Douglas - Lochee corridor saw westbound services numbered 28 or 29 depending on which bit of Lochee they were heading to but every eastbound service was the 26 (regardless of where it had started from) - this was later changed to have every eastbound service numbered 28 or 29 depending on the origin point and the 26 number dropped
Around 10 years ago the Burnley "Mainline" services did that. They now use numbers M1 to M5, but then they used 20 to 29, with the number including the destination. The 25 to Keighley returned as a 20, 21 or 22 depending whether it was going to 2 different parts of Padiham or Accrington.
 

Roger1973

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Lawnswood (1) was linked to Moortown via Chapeltown Road (2). Moortown Harehills & Roundhay (3) was linked to Kirkstall (4). But that fell apart as trams were gradually abandoned in the 50's. JIm Soper's books detail the linking, and how it changed over the years.

Thanks.

The linking I describe above seems silly now. Who would go from Lawnswood to Moortown via the city on a tram?

I suspect the linking was more a combination of scheduling efficiency (as in linking two routes with the same sort of frequency) and it having stand time / reversing at outer terminus points rather than in the city centre.

Most city bus (or in this case tram) routes are not expected to carry passengers end to end, but cross city routes also offer direct journeys from (say) suburbs on one side of the city to workplaces etc on the far side of the city centre. I'm going off topic here, but Nottingham's bus network was (some years ago when I lived there for a while) quite annoying as many routes from the north of the city terminated on the northern edge of the city centre, which made getting to the southern edge of the city centre (including the railway station) relatively difficult. Of course now, there's north-south trams...

Hmm... is there anywhere other than the DLR in its early years where a driverless train has had a manual destination blind?? It's a bit of an odd combination if you ask me!

Not sure. And for a while, some didn't even had destination blinds, but had a square section block that could be turned to show one of four destinations, photo (not mine) here - more like technology from the horse tram era!
 
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In the 80’s to early 00’s In Leeds there was clockwise and anti clockwise circular routes 8/9, 58/60 and 61/62 , part of route 8 and 61 still exists
Similar 601/602 in bradford
Again I’m Leeds 80-00’s There was also differing frequencies/combinations of CB1-7 which were very convoluted thrice round the Wrekin sunday routes operated by Sherpa’s CB i believe stood for Central Bus station as they all originated from there
 

SCH117X

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I'm going off topic here, but Nottingham's bus network was (some years ago when I lived there for a while) quite annoying as many routes from the north of the city terminated on the northern edge of the city centre, which made getting to the southern edge of the city centre (including the railway station) relatively difficult. Of course now, there's north-south trams...
Nottingham did in the 1980s join a number of services together using the terminal route number systemn even with service beginning in differing locations. Today many run a loop around the city centre.
 

Ken H

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In the 80’s to early 00’s In Leeds there was clockwise and anti clockwise circular routes 8/9, 58/60 and 61/62 , part of route 8 and 61 still exists
Similar 601/602 in bradford
Again I’m Leeds 80-00’s There was also differing frequencies/combinations of CB1-7 which were very convoluted thrice round the Wrekin sunday routes operated by Sherpa’s CB i believe stood for Central Bus station as they all originated from there
From long ago thete were 4 pairs of inner circulars. 57/59, 58/60, 61/62 and 62/63. To be fair the first 2 pairs were variants. Most of them were abandoned tram routes.
But they faded away as the thousands of terraced houses were demolished and the small factories in inner Leeds went.

Far far more complicated were the tram replacements to Middleton and Moortown in bus days. A bus would start ar Dewsbury Road (South of the city) and go to Moortown via the city and Chapletown Rd showing 2 circular. There it would go down Street Lane to Roundhay then via city to Middleton showing 3 Circular.. Changes to a 12 and back another way to the city where it reversed and retraced its route back to Dewsbury Rd, except it changed to 2 circular at roundhay. So the buses on Street Lane showed different numbers.
All changed in 1967 when the 2circ became 20, the 3 circ was diverted to Belle Isle in the south and became 21 together with a general rearrangement around Middleton.

There was the 34/35. 35 started at the bus stn. Went up Scott Hall Rd then up King Lane, across Alwoodley Lane then down Harrogate Rd to Moortown (yes the same place the 2 circ changed to a 3 circ). Street Lane then Scott Hall Rd to King Lane where it retraced its route to the bus stn. 34 was the reverse. So a large lloop where the buses in different directions showed different route numbers.

Lots of Leeds City Transport maps and timetables on Timetable World. Find the route maps which make the placenames i have used make more sense.
 

GusB

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Please remember that the topic of the thread is long or unusual route numbers. We're heading into a general discussion about route numbers.
 
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