Trivia: Small villages with a very frequent bus service

[PTR 444]

As there are several towns around the country which do not get a bus service as frequent as it deserves, I wonder if we could go the opposite way and find some villages which have much better bus provision than is needed. To qualify, a village must have a population of fewer than 1000 residents and be served by at least four buses per hour in each direction, although these do not necessarily have to be on the same route. Also, the village must NOT be a suburb of a larger town or city.

 

[Eyersey468]

Dunswell just outside of Hull has 4 buses an hour, I'm unsure of population size though

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Dunkerton near Bath has a population of 502 and did have 4bph before Covid but this has risen to 6 bph to satisfy social distancing.

Coatham Mundeville near Darlington gets probably 7 bph in normal times with a population of 150

 

[NorthOxonian]

Besselsleigh in Oxfordshire has 5 bph (and a sixth in the peaks), despite a population of 87.

 

[cnjb8]

Trowell near Nottingham pre-Covid had quite a few TrentBarton routes. They had the two, my15, 20 (Sunday only to be fair) and 21. If I've added right, then that makes 11 buses per hour each way for a small village between Nottingham and Ilkeston!

 

[Man of Kent]

East Dean, population 206, has 6 buses per hour on Brighton & Hove Coaster services between Brighton and Eastbourne.

 

[mlambeuk]

Crockey hill and Deighton (Outside York). has 4 buses per hour in each direction

 

[Stan Drews]

Villages with ‘over provision’ will almost certainly get the benefit simply due to geography and the local road network placing them on the main route between two (or more) much larger population centres.
I tried to explain this to a resident of a small village when they complained about their poor bus service compared to a similar sized village not far away that had 4 buses an hour for much of the day. However that was simply down to the fact that the main road between the two largest towns in the area ran right through it. The complainants village was a bit off the beaten track, so I think they got a council tender every couple of hours if I remember correctly.

 

[43055]

In the 2017 edition of the Conwy public transport guide shows the village of Abergwyngregyn (population 240) served by the 5 and X5 which is every 15 min combined. All the buses have to come off the A55 serve the village before rejoining again at the same junction. Not sure if the same level of service remains.

 

[Eyersey468]

Villages with ‘over provision’ will almost certainly get the benefit simply due to geography and the local road network placing them on the main route between two (or more) much larger population centres.
I tried to explain this to a resident of a small village when they complained about their poor bus service compared to a similar sized village not far away that had 4 buses an hour for much of the day. However that was simply down to the fact that the main road between the two largest towns in the area ran right through it. The complainants village was a bit off the beaten track, so I think they got a council tender every couple of hours if I remember correctly.

Dunswell and Woodmansey are like that, they get 4 buses an hour because they are on the main road between Beverley and Hull

 

[Megafuss]

Pre covid, Springwell Village (situated between Washington and Gateshead) had 10 buses an hour to Newcastle, with 5 to Sunderland and Easington Lane.

 

[py_megapixel]

Grasmere had always struck me as having a rather large bus service for its size though it doesn't quite fit with these criteria.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Fen Drayton in Cambridgeshire has a population of just 856, and the bus stop just up the road at Fen Drayton Lakes (on the busway) gets four buses per hour in each direction, if I'm correct.

I imagine that there are probably a handful of other villages along the busway which qualify.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Deleted - duplicated post.

 

[richw]

There are hundreds and thousands that satisfy this question. Any village or hamlet on a main service route for starters has a frequent service passing through

 

[Jordan Adam]

Villages with ‘over provision’ will almost certainly get the benefit simply due to geography and the local road network placing them on the main route between two (or more) much larger population centres.
I tried to explain this to a resident of a small village when they complained about their poor bus service compared to a similar sized village not far away that had 4 buses an hour for much of the day. However that was simply down to the fact that the main road between the two largest towns in the area ran right through it. The complainants village was a bit off the beaten track, so I think they got a council tender every couple of hours if I remember correctly.

Sadly the general public don't tend to look at things that way!

 

[Jordan Adam]

Prior to AWPR (Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route) opening at the start of 2019 Foveran in Aberdeenshire (Population at the time was around 100-150) was served by 4 buses per hour on a roughly 15 minute frequency, increasing to every 10 minutes or better at peaks, they also had a weekend night service!

 

[aliceh]

Compton in Hampshire has a population of under 2000 (I can only find a figure for the parish of Compton & Shawford, a neighbouring village), and gets 4 buses per hour on Bluestar 1 in each direction

 

[martyjon]

Mayshill, between Coalpit Heath and Yate, pop less than 100, has 1 pub and 1 cemetery, has at least 6 buses per hour at present in both directions in main 0700 - 1900 hours window as follows, Y1 x 3, Y2, Y4 and Y6 all First Bus plus 2 hourly Stagecoach 86 and College 680 also Stagecoach.

 

[Busaholic]

Goldsithney, situated a few miles from Penzance but not on a main road, had a 4bph service into Penzance when I lived there in the 1990s, and 5 bph on alternate hours, because of competition between an established operator and an 'upstart' but now has only 1 bph. Mind you, Sunday service was only a bus every two hours then!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Roberttown, West Yorkshire. Served by Arriva 229 Huddersfield to Leeds which runs half-hourly. This service was diverted away from the much larger (but sprawling) settlement of Batley due to congestion, but still serves this affluent village where it's rumoured that babies are born with not only silver spoons, but the keys to a VW Polo in their mouths!

 

[Shimbleshanks]

When I lived in Amlwch on Anglesey, I could never understand why about half our hourly Bangor buses diverted through the insignificant village of Llansadwrn. I think it was the N61 that did that, while the N62 followed a more direct route. Nowadays, the place gets only an infrequent service on the 63 though.

 

[richw]

Goldsithney, situated a few miles from Penzance but not on a main road, had a 4bph service into Penzance when I lived there in the 1990s, and 5 bph on alternate hours, because of competition between an established operator and an 'upstart' but now has only 1 bph. Mind you, Sunday service was only a bus every two hours then!

TfC are due to commence a praa sands to Penzance service soon to up to 2bph each direction

 

[LancasterRed]

Great Eccleston has 3/4 buses per hour but serves as a critical interchange between the country villages of Wyre and Lancaster.

 

[Busaholic]

TfC are due to commence a praa sands to Penzance service soon to up to 2bph each direction

Unless they've changed their plans, these will deliberately avoid Goldsithney, which is crass imo. Lots of young people in Goldsithney wanting to get to Pz: decided lack of young people in Rosudgeon and Praa Sands!

 

[richw]

Unless they've changed their plans, these will deliberately avoid Goldsithney, which is crass imo. Lots of young people in Goldsithney wanting to get to Pz: decided lack of young people in Rosudgeon and Praa Sands!

Ahh yes forgot it’s going a random route to avoid over duplication of the U4, hasn’t realised the skipping of Goldsithney

 

[SouthEastBuses]

In West Sussex, where I currently live, there is Apuldram, which is a village with a population of only 174 people, but has a bus service running every 15 minutes (4bph). These are the 52 and 53 operated by Stagecoach in the South Downs which go from Chichester to Witterings.

There's also Newtimber, a village with a population of only 97 people, which used to have a bus service running every 30 minutes (it's currently every hour due to Coronavirus) Monday to Saturdays and with 3 daily journeys on Sundays and Public Holidays. Newtimber is served by Stagecoach in the South Downs (Mondays to Saturdays) / Sussex Coaches (Sundays and Public Holidays) route 17 from Horsham to Brighton, which, in normal times pre-COVID, used to run 2bph Mondays to Saturdays.

 

[NorthOxonian]

There's also Newtimber, a village with a population of only 97 people, which used to have a bus service running every 30 minutes (it's currently every hour due to Coronavirus) Monday to Saturdays and with 3 daily journeys on Sundays and Public Holidays. Newtimber is served by Stagecoach in the South Downs (Mondays to Saturdays) / Sussex Coaches (Sundays and Public Holidays) route 17 from Horsham to Brighton, which, in normal times pre-COVID, used to run 2bph Mondays to Saturdays.

One of the smallest places to get a night bus service too (in more normal times) - since Sussex Coaches run a night bus from Brighton to Horsham. Though I think there's usually an NS9 from Oxford which serves the very slightly smaller Besselseigh on its way to Wantage.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

One of the smallest places to get a night bus service too (in more normal times) - since Sussex Coaches run a night bus from Brighton to Horsham. Though I think there's usually an NS9 from Oxford which serves the very slightly smaller Besselseigh on its way to Wantage.

Ah yes, forgot about the N8 lol. Only used to run on Friday and Saturday nights before COVID, and used the same buses as the ones on the Sunday 17 and Horsham town route 68. In this case, a Mercedes Citaro C2 K (BN17JVC ex demo) and a Mercedes Citaro Facelift 12m (F10BUS / BK10MVM ex Bennetts Coaches of Gloucester).

The N8 was the same as the 17 anyway, with the only difference being that instead of going via Mannings Heath, it went via Southwater (in the daytime it is served by Metrobus routes 23 and 98, as well as Thursdays only Southern Transit route 3).

 

[PaulMc7]

Not sure of the population but Bowling in West Dunbartonshire has a bus every 10 mins and a train every 30 mins too on top of that. Population stat I could find for 2015 was 740 but not sure what it is now.

Also worth noting though it's because of the route into Dumbarton the 1/1A/1B take. There's also 3 1E journeys at peaks too for First