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TRIVIA: Services worked by a mixture of bus and coach type vehicles

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AY1975

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Does anyone know of any services that use a mixture of conventional buses and coach type vehicles?

Obviously if a coach type vehicle is used on such a service, it has to have some form of disabled access facility such as a wheelchair lift.

But in the days before disabled access was an issue, services that used a mixture of bus and coach type vehicles were quite common. For example, before bus deregulation Trent's service 240 Alfreton-Matlock mainly used Leyland Nationals and Bristol REs but occasionally a coach type vehicle such as a Duple Dominant or Alexander T type bodied Leyland Leopard used to turn up on it. After deregulation that route became the 140 and was run by Maun using a mixture of REs and Duple Dominants.
 
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Volvodart

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Stagecoach Bluebird in Aberdeen use coaches as well as low floor buses on a lot of routes apart from the Aberdeen city routes 14, 15A, 44, 59, 94, 727 not every day, and maybe just one or 2 on. Similarly Stonehaven and Insch depot workings often have coaches or low floor buses on some routes. Bluebird has too many coaches and Solos, so they are put on unsuitable routes when they are short of low floored buses.
 
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NorthOxonian

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I believe the X95 between the Scottish Borders and Edinburgh has a mixed allocation, and in general I've noticed more of these sorts of routes in Scotland. In England there are a handful of examples like the service from Wantage to Oxford, which has one early morning service ran by a coach, as route X9. This supplements the usual half hourly service on the route, and thus is probably fine for accessibility since there is still the same regular service as usual for those who need to use a bus.

Occasionally, routes which are usually operated by one type of vehicle will have the other used. A few times in the last few months Go North East have used a Panther coach on their X9/X10 service from Newcastle to Middlesbrough, but this seems to be just a trial run rather than an actual shift - apparently there would be capacity issues if coaches were used at peak times. I also saw a Gold double decker bus running on Stagecoach's X10 from Leeds to Barnsley a couple of weeks back - I don't know how usual that is as I believe that route is generally operated by coaches.
 

roadierway77

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I know of a school route that operates near me that often switches between Plaxton Elites and ALX400s.

The X52 peak time service between Dunfermline and Edinburgh seems to use whatever bus is available - I've seen single deckers, double deckers and coaches.

It's common to see deckers working peak time X26/X27 services in Fife between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy alongside coaches. It's even fairly common to see deckers working the full express routes from Glasgow to Fife, which are usually operated by Plaxton Elites. I once spotted an ALX400 operating the full 80-mile X26 route between Glasgow and Dundee - made me do a double take.
 

Eyersey468

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Many years ago Safeway of South Petherton used to use a mix of single deck buses and coaches on their routes. They are now part of South West Coaches.
 

alangla

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I know of a school route that operates near me that often switches between Plaxton Elites and ALX400s.

The X52 peak time service between Dunfermline and Edinburgh seems to use whatever bus is available - I've seen single deckers, double deckers and coaches.

It's common to see deckers working peak time X26/X27 services in Fife between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy alongside coaches. It's even fairly common to see deckers working the full express routes from Glasgow to Fife, which are usually operated by Plaxton Elites. I once spotted an ALX400 operating the full 80-mile X26 route between Glasgow and Dundee - made me do a double take.

Same with Stagecoach West’s peak express routes. Literally anything can turn up on them from an E300/400 to a Megabus or Citylink Gold Astromega and this morning there was a new 900 branded Panorama? DD coach. The ones from Ayrshire can produce anything from the relevant depot as well
 

Pat1105

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Stagecoach Bluebird in Aberdeen use coaches as well as low floor buses on a lot of routes apart from the Aberdeen city routes 14, 15A, 44, 59, 94, 727 not every day, and maybe just one or 2 on. Similarly Stonehaven and Insch depot workings often have coaches or low floor buses on some routes. Bluebird has too many coaches and Solos, so they are put on unsuitable routes when they are short of low floored buses.
This is exactly what happens at Elgin. Coaches can often be allocated to the town service 33A/C. I remember when the 30 (Edgar Road - Larch Court) used to run, it was frequently operated by one of the panthers. It was quite stupid really as the 30 used to serve the Larch Court sheltered housing where there were many elderly residents, so they’d have found it difficult to get up and down the steps. Not to mention the difficulties that drivers must have had reversing in the Larch Court car park.
 

Ianno87

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The X5 (Oxford-Cambridge) is predominantly coaches but usually has one or two standard double deck buses out on duty.
 

SteveHFC

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Stagecoach East's 99 service between Luton Airport and Milton Keynes is supposed to be operated by coaches, but is regularly operated by buses, and has been now for a couple of years. Largely due to the failure of coaches on the aforementioned X5, and the X5 being prioritised for coaches over and above the 99. There have been occasions where airport passengers have been left behind because the bus hasn't had enough luggage space, whereas that isn't an issue with the coaches.
 

Jordan Adam

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This is exactly what happens at Elgin. Coaches can often be allocated to the town service 33A/C. I remember when the 30 (Edgar Road - Larch Court) used to run, it was frequently operated by one of the panthers. It was quite stupid really as the 30 used to serve the Larch Court sheltered housing where there were many elderly residents, so they’d have found it difficult to get up and down the steps. Not to mention the difficulties that drivers must have had reversing in the Larch Court car park.

If in doubt chuck it on the 34!....

Jokes aside coaches are used much less on Elgin services these days as the PVR of the 10 has increased and Elgin have less coaches now.

Stagecoach Bluebird in Aberdeen use coaches as well as low floor buses on a lot of routes apart from the Aberdeen city routes 14, 15A, 44, 59, 94, 727 not every day, and maybe just one or 2 on. Similarly Stonehaven and Insch depot workings often have coaches or low floor buses on some routes. Bluebird has too many coaches and Solos, so they are put on unsuitable routes when they are short of low floored buses.

With changes to the network over the last 6 or so months the issue with there being too many coaches has somewhat gone away. Especially now that Stonehaven needs coaches for the 26, 29, 104 and 747. Likewise at Insch in the increase in workings on the 10 means that it's less of an issue now. Although there are still plenty of cases where coaches end up on "bus routes", the 37 and 220 being the prime examples.

With the Solos the issue is not that there's too many of them but rather that there's not enough single deckers, there's only 18 E300s in the fleet now and a few of them have been off the road of late, hence even the Ex-Elgin Enviro200s frequently make it on to duties they shouldn't be on.
 

Volvodart

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A MAN has broken down on a peak time Stagecoach Bluebird X17 into Aberdeen today, so of course the next bus is a Solo.
 

ViscountFan

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Stagecoach 81 Bedford to Luton is frequently operated by coaches. In the main this is, I think, as a result of positioning moves for vehicles used on the Luton Airport to Milton Keynes service. There is also a good mix of single and double deck buses on the 81 route.
 

Martin2012

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Stagecoach North Bristol still sometimes use a levante on the 462 service between Lyde Green and Clifton Triangle/Temple Meads although the service mainly seems to get a mixture of double deck and single deck buses.
 

goldisgood

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In England there are a handful of examples like the service from Wantage to Oxford, which has one early morning service ran by a coach, as route X9. This supplements the usual half hourly service on the route, and thus is probably fine for accessibility since there is still the same regular service as usual for those who need to use a bus.
The Astromegas are (as far as I can tell) fine accessibility-wise, as the floor seems to be as low as normal buses (although I can't remember where the wheelchair area has been the few times that I've used it, but the coach itself has seemed to be accessible).
 

Martin2012

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Back on wednesday I did a return journey on the Red Arrow Nottingham to Derby service. Had a coach as normal on the way to Derby but ended up riding a bus on the journey back.

Does anyone know if its normal for a bus to deputise for a coach on this service or does it only happen if enough coaches are off the road?
 

cnjb8

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Back on wednesday I did a return journey on the Red Arrow Nottingham to Derby service. Had a coach as normal on the way to Derby but ended up riding a bus on the journey back.

Does anyone know if its normal for a bus to deputise for a coach on this service or does it only happen if enough coaches are off the road?
Buses often substitute for the coaches as they have reliability issues on Red Arrow
 

TechDan2002

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First Kernows 2** Truro College services are run by a mixture of deckers (mostly Dennis Trident/Plaxton Presidents) and coaches. Many different routes though so not sure if it technically counts.
 

SouthEastBuses

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Looking on bustimes, Stagecoach Wick/Thurso local routes 73, 77, 78, 80, 81 and 82 are routes where both coaches and single decker low floor buses are used.

In my local area, there aren't any routes allocated with both buses and coaches. Maybe the M2 from London to Canterbury, but that's meant to be 100% coach with low-floor buses out only if required.
And even then, the M2 is still quite far from me...
 
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Scotrail314209

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Stagecoach Route X76 from Kilmarnock to Glasgow. Normally a coach but can throw up an E400 or anything else.
 

61653 HTAFC

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This is going back a couple of decades, but the old X36 Huddersfield to Halifax express was often run with coaches. The 268 back when it ran from Sheffield (rather than Wakefield) to Bradford also got coaches some of the time.
 

ATW Alex 101

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Back in my high school days, I used to notice one of the routes, can’t remember which, but I know it ran from Eastham Library to Wirral Grammar School, used to run a mix of normal buses and a coach.
 

CBlue

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Stagecoach Cambridge's service 11/X11 to Bury St Edmunds used to operate with a mixture of Plaxton Interurban bodied B10M's and DP seated Olympians.

The X5 used to have a regular duplicate formed of a Dart from Bedford to Cambridge most weekday mornings, with traffic so bad it would normally keep up with the coach!
 

ANDREW_D_WEBB

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Arriva’s Green Line 758 between Hemel Hempstead and Victoria is currently operated by MMC 200s and a couple of Temsa coaches. The Temsa coaches are being delivered late and the previous coaches didn’t meet new accessibility rules from 1/1/20, hence the MMCs filling in.
 

Bungle965

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Arriva’s Green Line 758 between Hemel Hempstead and Victoria is currently operated by MMC 200s and a couple of Temsa coaches. The Temsa coaches are being delivered late and the previous coaches didn’t meet new accessibility rules from 1/1/20, hence the MMCs filling in.
Indeed and the previous coaches (VanHool's from my recollection) weren't actually that old either.
Sam
 

paul1609

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Stagecoach in Hastings service 313 Northiam to Rye Harbour, the school days morning to Rye and Afternoon to Northiam is operated by Rambler Coaches and uses a coach vice the normal bus.
 

Man of Kent

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Stagecoach in Hastings service 313 Northiam to Rye Harbour, the school days morning to Rye and Afternoon to Northiam is operated by Rambler Coaches and uses a coach vice the normal bus.
These journeys have been won by Stagecoach on retender. It was due to start on 26 April...
 

route101

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I believe the X95 between the Scottish Borders and Edinburgh has a mixed allocation, and in general I've noticed more of these sorts of routes in Scotland. In England there are a handful of examples like the service from Wantage to Oxford, which has one early morning service ran by a coach, as route X9. This supplements the usual half hourly service on the route, and thus is probably fine for accessibility since there is still the same regular service as usual for those who need to use a bus.

Occasionally, routes which are usually operated by one type of vehicle will have the other used. A few times in the last few months Go North East have used a Panther coach on their X9/X10 service from Newcastle to Middlesbrough, but this seems to be just a trial run rather than an actual shift - apparently there would be capacity issues if coaches were used at peak times. I also saw a Gold double decker bus running on Stagecoach's X10 from Leeds to Barnsley a couple of weeks back - I don't know how usual that is as I believe that route is generally operated by coaches.

I thought the coaches on the x95 were a trial on the southern bit of the route?
 
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