[TRIVIA] Routes that have been turned around

[Flange Squeal]

For obvious reasons we will probably have to think back to pre-2020 for this one, but I was thinking about examples of routes that have bucked the trend over the last decade or so. By this, I mean routes that were either:

a) previously tendered, but were taken on by an operator on a commercial basis and have either remained stable or even seen an improved offering

or

b) commercial routes given up by one operator on the basis that they were not financially viable, but the route registered commercially by another and who has been able to continue to provide a stable offering since

One example for scenario 'A' could be the 446 between Woking and Staines. Until 2017 it was operated under contract to Surrey County Council by Abellio Surrey, but since September 2017 it has been operated commercially by White Bus. Abellio had latterly been using the likes of Mini Pointer Darts and 8.9m Enviro 200s. White Bus's first proper allocation for the route from 2017 were brand new 33-seat (9.7m) Enviro 200s, but within a year it was deemed additional capacity was needed so a pair of two year old 37-seat (10.8m) versions were acquired in 2018. 2019 saw capacity increased further, with a pair of brand new 41-seat MMCs arriving just in time for Christmas. The only 'negative' change it has seen was the removal of the very latest round trip (think it was 21xx off Woking and 22xx off Staines). In fact the only other real change the timetable has seen other than odd minor timing tweaks was the introduction in late 2019 of a third vehicle to the allocation to run Woking to St Peter's Hospital shorts to offer a half-hourly service over the southern section, however I believe that might have been done with some funding from the hospital rather than a purely commercial decision.

 

[Alex 2901]

Pushing a bit further back than the last decade, but National Express West Midlands (NXWM) X51 is one of the nost prominent examples, in my eyes.

Formerly the 951/951A, one of the many iterations of the Birmingham - Walsall - Cannock "Timesaver" routes, the 951 had been drastically reduced over the early part of the 2000's.

At the launch of the service in 1987, there was a 951/952 every 15 minutes between Birmingham, Walsall, Cannock and Hednesford. This would chop and change throughout the 1990's, becoming the 950 & 951 all day, with additional peak journeys on the 952 & 953, alongside certain trips extending beyond Hednesford (the 953, a one way journey, served Handsacre & Rugeley, whilst some 950's would serve Rugeley & Brereton at some point. Both of these would be axed in 1997, but bought back at some point prior to 2003, when the 950, 952 and 953 were axed, and the daytime service to Cannock was abandoned on the 951.)
By 2005, this had become a peak only service (not sure how many trips, but 5 or 6 sounds about right), between Birmingham, Walsall & Bloxwich, with only 3 of those (951A's) continuing to Cannock.

The 951 (though not the 951A) was renumbered to X51, and revised to be a true express service between Walsall and Birmingham, every 20 minutes at peaks only, on launch in 2007.

By 2010, the X51 had become an all day service, every 20 minutes, whilst the peak service now incorporated the former 951A, and had been increased to every 15 minutes. This growth would continue throughout the 2010's, the X51 growing to every 5 minutes at peaks, and every 10 minutes off peaks, by 2019, as well as being extended to Cannock all day, every 20 minutes (weekdays, Saturdays were every 30 minutes, though this has since become every 30 throughout the week). From the 21st March, the X51 will increase again, with the Sunday service extending to Cannock every 30 minutes, and being revised to serve the new Designer Outlet.

In terms of vehicles, the X51 went from being allocated anything low floor (ranging from B6LEs to B7RLEs or B10Ls) to Platinum Enviro400MMC's.

How well the X51 will do in the future, especially since the demolition of the Perry Barr Flyover (the main reason the route was an actual express) and the upcoming Sprint, remains to be seen.

 

[LancasterRed]

The stripping of the 75, 77, and 77A from Preston Bus and Coastal Coaches and subsequent redistribution into the 46, 74, and 75 by Preston Bus and Blackpool Transport respectively has paid dividends. Links to Lancaster from the West as well as connections to all previously served areas are now more frequent and producing more money through reliability. The only worry is if Preston Bus can keep up their currently strong services.

 

[tbtc]

(obviously all of this is written about the pre-Covid world)

There are a couple of examples around Sheffield, both were routes run by SYT/ Mainline/ First that were taken over by TM Travel (part of the Trent Barton/ Wellglade empire)

Firstly, the 30. The route(s) from Sheffield City Centre to Handsworth and Woodhouse has been one of the most frequent corridors in the city, but the 30 has been the long running "poor relation" - faster than the main corridor, because it runs fast along the A57 (Sheffield Parkway), but never seemed as busy as the main (slow) services out that way. It also extends beyond Woodhouse to Beighton and Crystal Peaks (Sheffield's version of a "new town" - lots of modern housing estates - Yorkshire's answer to Milton Keynes, if you can imagine such a thing...) - but not as fast as the main services from central Sheffield to Crystal Peaks (and there's been the tram out that way for the past twenty five plus years).

First, being First, focussed attention on the routes that would qualify for "Overground" status (the main City - Handsworth - Woodhouse service was one of the first to receive B10BLEs) and trimmed back parallel routes. The 30 was merged with another service (50) to become cross-city - a horribly long route guaranteed to be unreliable but at least it made a marginal saving on paper because only one service was running on the previously duplicated loop of the city centre. Yay, efficiencies! I think that there was a period where it was operated by the Midland Road depot in Rotherham (despite none of the route crossing into Rotherham) - there were certainly a number of "secondary" routes that were run from Rotherham due to staff shortages etc. And, First being First, the 30 was a dumping ground for ex-London double deckers, depreciating for the final few years of their life in provincial England (as was typical of other parts of the First "Empire"). Why would you rely on a half hourly service desert with reliability problems so you could get a high floor bus knocking on twenty years of age when you could just jump on the frequent low floor service (even if it took a few minutes longer since it didn't go along the Parkway)?

Around ten years ago*, services around Sheffield were "simplified" - corridors shared out between First/ Stagecoach, with operators like TM picking up some scraps from the table - and the 30 was one route that they took on (i.e. First were happy to give up). You wouldn't recognise the 30 today. Branded Solos later replaced by branded Versas in a rather "eye catching" orange with yellow" livery, with branded B7RLEs added to accommodate the frequency increase - then extended back to the Hallamshire Hospital, it seems a lot busier, the drivers seem fairly reliable too (based on a colleague's experience, she seems to get the same couple pretty regularly, rather than being taken from the huge pool of staff that First employ) - it's been a real success story (with TM moving away from running tendered rural routes with Optare Solos to focussing on urban routes like the 30)

The other route is the 218. Sheffield to Baslow/ Bakewell used to be run by two different corridors - the (SYT/ Mainline/ First) 240/241 via Fox House/ Grindleford and the (PMT/ First) X23 (later X18) via Owler Bar - the X18/X23 ran on to Buxton and the Stoke area (I think they ran through to the University at Keele at once stage but I can't be certain of when the terminus was "just" Hanley - it was certainly just operated from the Staffordshire end for many years, which meant that timings into Sheffield weren't a priority) - but all infrequent - the 240/241 seemed to be one of those rural routes more focussed around school times (at the Peak District end of the route) than for everyday passengers - the commuting opportunities into Sheffield weren't well timed. The Sheffield - Bakewell services seemed a poor relation to the Sheffield - Castleton services (a similar distance out of the city, but more frequent and better co-ordinated between the two ways of getting from Sheffield to Castleton - the SYT/ Mainline/ First 272 and the Chesterfield Transport/ Stagecoach etc 273/274 via Ladybower)

After the X18/X23/240/241 suffed the "Death of a thousand cuts", the 218 filled the gap - increased up to half hourly - branded vehicles too - extolling the virtues of nearby Chatsworth (the service running in a loop so that the morning journeys focussed on getting Sheffield people to Chatsworth and Bakewell people into the city, with the opposite true in the afternoon). A victim of its own success in fact, so that the branded single deckers had to be moved onto other services so that TM's smaller fleet of double deckers could be put on the 218 - especially at weekends and school holidays - often seen packed with east Asian passengers eager to see Chatsworth. Now, Bakewell gets a better service than the Castleton corridor, although it comes at the "cost" that the regular service with branded buses gets used a lot more for journeys in the city than the X18/X23/240/241 ever did - can't blame the locals for trusting the 218 - especially given reliability problems on First's cross city services that run along Abbeydale Road towards Totley (97/98).


(* - I can remember the difference between individual years in the nineties but when it comes to "recent history" I struggle to remember which year things happened in - partly due to the lack of printed timetables - yes, I'll blame that rather than accept I'm going old!)

 

[cnjb8]

(obviously all of this is written about the pre-Covid world)

There are a couple of examples around Sheffield, both were routes run by SYT/ Mainline/ First that were taken over by TM Travel (part of the Trent Barton/ Wellglade empire)

Firstly, the 30. The route(s) from Sheffield City Centre to Handsworth and Woodhouse has been one of the most frequent corridors in the city, but the 30 has been the long running "poor relation" - faster than the main corridor, because it runs fast along the A57 (Sheffield Parkway), but never seemed as busy as the main (slow) services out that way. It also extends beyond Woodhouse to Beighton and Crystal Peaks (Sheffield's version of a "new town" - lots of modern housing estates - Yorkshire's answer to Milton Keynes, if you can imagine such a thing...) - but not as fast as the main services from central Sheffield to Crystal Peaks (and there's been the tram out that way for the past twenty five plus years).

First, being First, focussed attention on the routes that would qualify for "Overground" status (the main City - Handsworth - Woodhouse service was one of the first to receive B10BLEs) and trimmed back parallel routes. The 30 was merged with another service (50) to become cross-city - a horribly long route guaranteed to be unreliable but at least it made a marginal saving on paper because only one service was running on the previously duplicated loop of the city centre. Yay, efficiencies! I think that there was a period where it was operated by the Midland Road depot in Rotherham (despite none of the route crossing into Rotherham) - there were certainly a number of "secondary" routes that were run from Rotherham due to staff shortages etc. And, First being First, the 30 was a dumping ground for ex-London double deckers, depreciating for the final few years of their life in provincial England (as was typical of other parts of the First "Empire"). Why would you rely on a half hourly service desert with reliability problems so you could get a high floor bus knocking on twenty years of age when you could just jump on the frequent low floor service (even if it took a few minutes longer since it didn't go along the Parkway)?

Around ten years ago*, services around Sheffield were "simplified" - corridors shared out between First/ Stagecoach, with operators like TM picking up some scraps from the table - and the 30 was one route that they took on (i.e. First were happy to give up). You wouldn't recognise the 30 today. Branded Solos later replaced by branded Versas in a rather "eye catching" orange with yellow" livery, with branded B7RLEs added to accommodate the frequency increase - then extended back to the Hallamshire Hospital, it seems a lot busier, the drivers seem fairly reliable too (based on a colleague's experience, she seems to get the same couple pretty regularly, rather than being taken from the huge pool of staff that First employ) - it's been a real success story (with TM moving away from running tendered rural routes with Optare Solos to focussing on urban routes like the 30)

The other route is the 218. Sheffield to Baslow/ Bakewell used to be run by two different corridors - the (SYT/ Mainline/ First) 240/241 via Fox House/ Grindleford and the (PMT/ First) X23 (later X18) via Owler Bar - the X18/X23 ran on to Buxton and the Stoke area (I think they ran through to the University at Keele at once stage but I can't be certain of when the terminus was "just" Hanley - it was certainly just operated from the Staffordshire end for many years, which meant that timings into Sheffield weren't a priority) - but all infrequent - the 240/241 seemed to be one of those rural routes more focussed around school times (at the Peak District end of the route) than for everyday passengers - the commuting opportunities into Sheffield weren't well timed. The Sheffield - Bakewell services seemed a poor relation to the Sheffield - Castleton services (a similar distance out of the city, but more frequent and better co-ordinated between the two ways of getting from Sheffield to Castleton - the SYT/ Mainline/ First 272 and the Chesterfield Transport/ Stagecoach etc 273/274 via Ladybower)

After the X18/X23/240/241 suffed the "Death of a thousand cuts", the 218 filled the gap - increased up to half hourly - branded vehicles too - extolling the virtues of nearby Chatsworth (the service running in a loop so that the morning journeys focussed on getting Sheffield people to Chatsworth and Bakewell people into the city, with the opposite true in the afternoon). A victim of its own success in fact, so that the branded single deckers had to be moved onto other services so that TM's smaller fleet of double deckers could be put on the 218 - especially at weekends and school holidays - often seen packed with east Asian passengers eager to see Chatsworth. Now, Bakewell gets a better service than the Castleton corridor, although it comes at the "cost" that the regular service with branded buses gets used a lot more for journeys in the city than the X18/X23/240/241 ever did - can't blame the locals for trusting the 218 - especially given reliability problems on First's cross city services that run along Abbeydale Road towards Totley (97/98).


(* - I can remember the difference between individual years in the nineties but when it comes to "recent history" I struggle to remember which year things happened in - partly due to the lack of printed timetables - yes, I'll blame that rather than accept I'm going old!)

TM have debranded their Line 30 Versas and Scanias in around 2019, while the 218 Scanias have left the fleet. You are right in saying these routes have picked up since TM took them on, but now they seem to be dropping off a bit unfortunately

 

[WM Bus]

Pushing a bit further back than the last decade, but National Express West Midlands (NXWM) X51 is one of the nost prominent examples, in my eyes.

Formerly the 951/951A, one of the many iterations of the Birmingham - Walsall - Cannock "Timesaver" routes, the 951 had been drastically reduced over the early part of the 2000's.

At the launch of the service in 1987, there was a 951/952 every 15 minutes between Birmingham, Walsall, Cannock and Hednesford. This would chop and change throughout the 1990's, becoming the 950 & 951 all day, with additional peak journeys on the 952 & 953, alongside certain trips extending beyond Hednesford (the 953, a one way journey, served Handsacre & Rugeley, whilst some 950's would serve Rugeley & Brereton at some point. Both of these would be axed in 1997, but bought back at some point prior to 2003, when the 950, 952 and 953 were axed, and the daytime service to Cannock was abandoned on the 951.)
By 2005, this had become a peak only service (not sure how many trips, but 5 or 6 sounds about right), between Birmingham, Walsall & Bloxwich, with only 3 of those (951A's) continuing to Cannock.

The 951 (though not the 951A) was renumbered to X51, and revised to be a true express service between Walsall and Birmingham, every 20 minutes at peaks only, on launch in 2007.

By 2010, the X51 had become an all day service, every 20 minutes, whilst the peak service now incorporated the former 951A, and had been increased to every 15 minutes. This growth would continue throughout the 2010's, the X51 growing to every 5 minutes at peaks, and every 10 minutes off peaks, by 2019, as well as being extended to Cannock all day, every 20 minutes (weekdays, Saturdays were every 30 minutes, though this has since become every 30 throughout the week). From the 21st March, the X51 will increase again, with the Sunday service extending to Cannock every 30 minutes, and being revised to serve the new Designer Outlet.

In terms of vehicles, the X51 went from being allocated anything low floor (ranging from B6LEs to B7RLEs or B10Ls) to Platinum Enviro400MMC's.

How well the X51 will do in the future, especially since the demolition of the Perry Barr Flyover (the main reason the route was an actual express) and the upcoming Sprint, remains to be seen.

Also NXWM ran, the University corridor X20/X21/X22 in Birmingham have been turned around I think as its gone from every 20 minutes B6LE 636 service to regular every 6 minute platinum double decker service. Plus it was recently said that corridor could become one of the new cross city routes in Birmingham as well.

Other routes to see improvements I think are:
X3 to Lichfield replacing Midland Classic withdrawn X12 route at double the frequency as well I think.
80A now runs frequently every 10 minutes today, previously the 80 used to be every 20, so a 100% increase.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Not sure about all of the little details, but as I understand it, the bus 505 between Chingford and Harlow used to be run by Arriva until 2015 when they deemed it unsustainable as it was running at a loss (or something along those lines). Not very long after this, Trustybus stepped in and saved the service - albeit by providing a reduced one - and they appear to be doing fine.

I've used the service a good few times in the past (during Trustybus' operation) to get to Redwings, and from my experience, the buses have all been decently loaded - even during COVID-19.

 

[Statto]

Liverpool-Souhtport, summer 1999 there was 3 routes.

MTL Southport & District 284 Crossens-Liverpool via Formby
Arriva 300 Southport-Liverpool via Maghull
Arriva X8 Banks-Liverpool via Southport & Formby

All routes operating hourly

Arriva brought MTL in winter 2000, CMT then started there own 284 diverting via Birkdale Station instead of the main road via Hillside Station

Arriva soon increased the 300 frequency to every 30 minutes & diverted it via Bootle & Orrell Park Station

CMT was brought by GTL who in turn got brought by Stagecoach in 2005, & CMT/GTL 284 was withdrawn but replaced by a new hourly X2 Liverpool-Preston via Formby & Southport which was formed from the the X59 Southport-Blackburn, which the X59 was cut Preston-Blackburn, operated by coaches, the X2 coaches were soon replaced by new Scania double deckers & frequency increased to 30 minutes

Arriva meanwhile revised the 284, & renumbered it to 48/48A Crossens/Southport-Liverpool/Liverpool Airport & extended the 17 which was Banks-Formby to Liverpool & renumbered 47. Between Bootle & Airport 48/48A served the docks, & Riverside Drive, 47 was the direct route to Liverpool via Stanley Road & Scotland Road, 47 was every 30 minutes 48A was every 30 minutes too 48 was Sunday service, the 48/48A didn't last long, main issue was reliability, so they got withdrawn leaving the 47 which was cut to Crossens-Liverpool & had a frequency increase to 20 minutes, so now Liverpool-Southport routes are

Stagecoach X2 Liverpool-Preston every 30 minutes
Arriva 47 Crossens-Liverpool, every 20 minutes, 30 minutes Sundays
Arriva 300 Southport-Liverpool, every 30 minutes, 60 minutes Sundays

 

[jacksmithyton]

Not sure about all of the little details, but as I understand it, the bus 505 between Chingford and Harlow used to be run by Arriva until 2015 when they deemed it unsustainable as it was running at a loss (or something along those lines). Not very long after this, Trustybus stepped in and saved the service - albeit by providing a reduced one - and they appear to be doing fine.

I've used the service a good few times in the past (during Trustybus' operation) to get to Redwings, and from my experience, the buses have all been decently loaded - even during COVID-19.

I wouldn't say the 505 has been turned around, the route has gone from an hourly service six days a week to a bus every two hours on Saturday only...

 

[route101]

Cant think of any route in Glasgow, the lessor routes have been chopped up and now in tenders. Perhaps the one series of express routes to Clydebank and the 3 route that used to be 23.

 

[bobslack1982]

Similar routes if not identical - Northern operated an X95 from Sunderland to Newcastle via Hastings Hill and Heworth in the 90s and 00s. They then cancelled the service and replaced it with the X2 which ran until around 2010 (I think?) operating via Washington. They cancelled that too citing poor passenger numbers.

Stagecoach now operates a 30 minute frequency between Sunderland and Newcastle on the X24 via Hastings Hill and has done for a few years now.

 

[Ken H]

Skipton-Settle was subsidised. now commercial

 

[Bristol LHS]

Similar routes if not identical - Northern operated an X95 from Sunderland to Newcastle via Hastings Hill and Heworth in the 90s and 00s. They then cancelled the service and replaced it with the X2 which ran until around 2010 (I think?) operating via Washington. They cancelled that too citing poor passenger numbers.

Stagecoach now operates a 30 minute frequency between Sunderland and Newcastle on the X24 via Hastings Hill and has done for a few years now.

Really good example, GNE completely lost that market, and a rare example of Busways innovation too. Aside from the Newcastle route, GNE have really screwed up on the Chester Road corridor. Half the Stanley/Consett buses now run north of the river; and the simple Peter Huntley era Silver Arrow woth Citaros has been replaced with a bland Black Cats brand (also used for other Sunderland services) that runs across to Silksworth Via Ryhope. Not a route that makes sense from anything other than an operational perspective. 126, which had been a really busy city route in the 80s, has declined as the Pennywell estate has been partially demolished.

For a positive GNE example, I’d offer the X9/X10 Newcastle to Middlesbrough A19 express. Really developed since they stopped sharing the route with United/Tees/Arriva. X9 variation, 30min frequency, much higher profile, regular fleet renewal and now the Interdecks in X-lines livery.

 

[beermaddavep]

Similar routes if not identical - Northern operated an X95 from Sunderland to Newcastle via Hastings Hill and Heworth in the 90s and 00s. They then cancelled the service and replaced it with the X2 which ran until around 2010 (I think?) operating via Washington. They cancelled that too citing poor passenger numbers.

Stagecoach now operates a 30 minute frequency between Sunderland and Newcastle on the X24 via Hastings Hill and has done for a few years now.

Those services were never intended as city centre to city centre. The X95 ran via Concord, IIRC that and the X96 via Boldon both faded away with the Sunderland Metro extension. The closest thing to the current X24 would have been the similarly fated VFM X23. Service X2, ran via Washington with a city to city journey time of around 65 minutes, compared to rail or metro at around 25 minutes. The Stagecoach X24 was trialled after the success of the Stagecoach X34 from Horsley Hill via Boldon. in particular it was intended to scoop up those dissatisfied with poor Metro reliability and of course ENCTS passengers, that found they had to pay extra to use Metro or Northern Rail between the cities! Edited to correct failing memories!

 

[Bristol LHS]

Those services were never intended as city centre to city centre. The X95 didn't serve Sunderland centre, running via Doxford and Concord, IIRC that and the X96 via Boldon both faded away with the Sunderland Metro extension.

The X95 ran from Seaham Parkside to Sunderland City Centre. The route from there was up Chester Road to the A19 exactly as the X24 does. As you point out, the X95 diverted via Concord rather than going via Testos roundabout, but aside from that the Sunderland to Newcastle routing was identical to the X24.

 

[tbtc]

TM have debranded their Line 30 Versas and Scanias in around 2019, while the 218 Scanias have left the fleet. You are right in saying these routes have picked up since TM took them on, but now they seem to be dropping off a bit unfortunately

Ah, apologies - I've not been out and about so much in the past twelve months but have obviously got it wrong if the changes happened in 2019 - frustrating that TM seem to be going backwards after making such positive steps forward - they do feel like a bit of a dumping ground for other operators

 

[bobslack1982]

Those services were never intended as city centre to city centre. The X95 didn't serve Sunderland centre, running via Doxford and Concord, IIRC that and the X96 via Boldon both faded away with the Sunderland Metro extension. The closest thing to the current X24 would have been the similarly fated VFM X23. Service X2, which basically took over most of the long established X4 route? ran via Washington with a city to city journey time of around 65 minutes, compared to rail or metro at around 25 minutes. The Stagecoach X24 was trialled after the success of the Stagecoach X23 from Horsley Hill via Boldon. in particular it was intended to scoop up those dissatisfied with poor Metro reliability and of course ENCTS passengers, that found they had to pay extra to use Metro or Northern Rail between the cities!

Stagecoach has never operated a service X23. It operates the X34 via Boldon to Newcastle. Another service given up by Go North East in both the X96 and later X36.

The X4 ran along the route that the current 56 does. The X2 went nowhere near that because it ran along Chester Road and the south side of the Wear while the X4 ran along the north side.

The X95 never ran via Doxford Park either.

 

[beermaddavep]

Stagecoach has never operated a service X23. It operates the X34 via Boldon to Newcastle. Another service given up by Go North East in both the X96 and la

The X4 ran along the route that the current 56 does. The X2 went nowhere near that because it ran along Chester Road and the south side of the Wear while the X4 ran along the north side.

The X95 never ran via Doxford Park either.

Blimey, I stand very much corrected! My mind really has been playing tricks. I mixed up the X34 and X23. I'm certain there was a Newcastle to Seaham express that ran via the A19 and Doxford park missing out the city centre though. You are correct about the original X95, I've dug out some timetables, including a competing Redby service from 1995 for interest.

Stagecoach has never operated a service X23. It operates the X34 via Boldon to Newcastle. Another service given up by Go North East in both the X96 and later X36.

The X4 ran along the route that the current 56 does. The X2 went nowhere near that because it ran along Chester Road and the south side of the Wear while the X4 ran along the north side.

The X95 never ran via Doxford Park either.

 

[cnjb8]

Ah, apologies - I've not been out and about so much in the past twelve months but have obviously got it wrong if the changes happened in 2019 - frustrating that TM seem to be going backwards after making such positive steps forward - they do feel like a bit of a dumping ground for other operators

Oh no don't apologise, you were right
It is frustrating that TM are going backwards

 

[MotCO]

On a very large scale, Arrriva could not make their Crawley services pay, and withdrew from the town. Enter Metrobus, taking over the Crawley Tinsley Green depot, transferring buses from Orpington and bring in buses from fellow Go Ahead companies such as Oxford, buying new buses, setting up new routes, and you have a very successful network.