Trivia: Rail services duplicated entirely by bus routes

[sk688]

The 39/X39 deliberately run down the Upper Bristol Road rather than the Lower Bristol Road so as not to duplicate the train!

I'd always thought they used the Upper Bristol Road as it is more populated through Newbridge ,as opposed to Lower Bristol Road which goes through very thinly populated bits.

Even so , the Windsor Bridge stop is 5/10 mins away from Oldfield Park , although quite why anyone would use the train to Oldfield when the 1/U1/8/12 exist is beyond me

 

[TXMISTA]

The 207, 427, 607 and N207 roughly follow the general GWML route between Acton and Hayes going through Ealing, Hanwell and Southall.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I'd always thought they used the Upper Bristol Road as it is more populated through Newbridge ,as opposed to Lower Bristol Road which goes through very thinly populated bits.

Even so , the Windsor Bridge stop is 5/10 mins away from Oldfield Park , although quite why anyone would use the train to Oldfield when the 1/U1/8/12 exist is beyond me

You are right that Newbridge is also more populated. You’re also right that people will use the high frequency local routes from Oldfield Park to Bath. However, the service to Bristol....well it’s best to let the train deal with the Oldfield area traffic and leave the X39 to go via the Upper Bristol Road.

 

[Devon Sunset]

124 Edinburgh-North Berwick calls at all stops as the train apart from Drem. Granted some stops are a bit away from the stations and it takes about an hour longer.

 

[MedwayValiant]

The Stagecoach 10 from Aberdeen to Inverness must be worth a mention here. This route is about 100 miles along, and both terminus bus stations are within 5 minutes walk of the railway stations.

The bus doesn't serve Dyce, only a few journeys serve Kintore (as 10B), and only one a day serves Insch (as 10C). On the other hand, Keith railway station is a mile out of town and the bus serves the town centre. There are some long stretches where the railway line runs alongside the A96 which carries the bus, and the bus route crosses the railway line seven times during the four hour journey.

The bus is twice as frequent as the train and takes twice as long, while a single fare on the bus is £11.00 and on the train £31.90.

 

[Journeyman]

Borders Buses' X95 from Edinburgh to Carlisle was set up in 1969 as the rail replacement for the closed Waverley Line. It now runs in 2 sections, Edinburgh to Hawick and Galashiels to Carlisle, with a bit of overlap in the middle, but obviously it more or less completely parallels the reopened Borders Railway. It deviates slightly to serve Selkirk, but otherwise duplicates the railway almost exactly.

The X95 in its original form was, apparently, the longest local bus route in the UK.

First threw in the towel in the Borders after the railway reopened, but the new owners seem to have made a success of things.

 

[NLC1072]

Rosslare - Waterford!

So much so, that the train stopped operating!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Borders Buses' X95 from Edinburgh to Carlisle was set up in 1969 as the rail replacement for the closed Waverley Line. It now runs in 2 sections, Edinburgh to Hawick and Galashiels to Carlisle, with a bit of overlap in the middle, but obviously it more or less completely parallels the reopened Borders Railway. It deviates slightly to serve Selkirk, but otherwise duplicates the railway almost exactly.

The X95 in its original form was, apparently, the longest local bus route in the UK.

First threw in the towel in the Borders after the railway reopened, but the new owners seem to have made a success of things.

First had two major routes in the X62 and X95 which really underpinned their operations. With the railway opening, it really did affect the main part of the X95 although arguably, was there really room for two firms in the Borders?

Border Buses have done a good job though the X95 that was half-hourly before the train reopening was reduced to hourly and that was still the case pre-Covid.

 

[busmanaams]

A thought the other day about the implications of integrated bus and rail travel got me thinking: How many rail services are there in the UK which also have a bus route running alongside it for its entire length? To qualify, the bus route must run in the same general direction as the rail route, although it does not exactly have to serve every single settlement that the train serves.

The best example in my area is the Island Line, as not only do Southern Vectis routes 2 and 3 serve all the settlements that the railway does, but the buses even stop right next door to the majority of the stations and the rest (except Smallbrook Junction) are within walking distance.

Currently the bus and train compete against each other, although there has been a lot of talk on the forum suggesting that the Island Line should be integrated with the Southern Vectis bus network. While this is good in theory, I do wonder whether such a move would make the bus service unviable between Ryde and Shanklin, as it would not be serving anywhere different to the train.

To add a few more routes:

LT 86 Stratford to Romford
Stagecoach North Scotland X99 Inverness to Wick
Stagecoach West Scotland services 10 (Troon to Kilmarnock), 14 (Ayr to Irvine), 585 (Largs to Kilwinning & Kilwinning to Ayr)

 

[nw1]

Southampton to Winchester has the 1, but it runs via a significantly different route to the railway, along The Avenue and through Chandlers Ford, so cannot be considered a duplicate. For some areas of Southampton it is the quickest way to reach Winchester.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Southampton to Winchester has the 1, but it runs via a significantly different route to the railway, along The Avenue and through Chandlers Ford, so cannot be considered a duplicate. For some areas of Southampton it is the quickest way to reach Winchester.

This is the point.

People seem to look at start and end points and then assume that there's duplication (and so some rationalisation is achievable) when the reality is that buses and trains tend to serve different markets and requirements.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

The 207, 427, 607 and N207 roughly follow the general GWML route between Acton and Hayes going through Ealing, Hanwell and Southall.

Only Ealing Broadway station is close to the bus route.

 

[DunsBus]

First had two major routes in the X62 and X95 which really underpinned their operations. With the railway opening, it really did affect the main part of the X95 although arguably, was there really room for two firms in the Borders?

Border Buses have done a good job though the X95 that was half-hourly before the train reopening was reduced to hourly and that was still the case pre-Covid.

And so numbered as that was its length in miles.

 

[TXMISTA]

Only Ealing Broadway station is close to the bus route.

Not really. West Ealing, Hanwell and Southall are all walking distance from those routes

 

[dazzler]

Transdev's Yorkshire Coastliner route 843 from Leeds to Scarborough parallels the Transpennine Express service from Leeds to Scarborough, even calling at the railway stations in York, Malton and Scarborough (and passing fairly close to Seamer station as well). At the moment, the 843 is running every half hour through the day, compared to the train every hour. The train has the edge on journey time, but the bus is cheaper and the new buses on the Coastliner routes all have USB charger sockets and Wi-Fi.

The Transdev CityZap route between Leeds and York also parallels the rail service between Leeds and York. Probably more so, as the CityZap is (very) limited stop, there are only 2 stops between the edge of the City of York and Leeds City Bus Station, and these very rarely have any custom!