tbtc
Veteran Member
Simple version: What’s the smallest difference between two services?
Rules are:
A few examples:
In Dundee, some journeys on the cross-city 22 corridor were extended beyond Downfield to serve a new housing development (half hourly, compared to the main ten minute service) and numbered 22c to distinguish them as serving Craigowl – again, only a handful of stops.
In Edinburgh, some eastbound journeys on the long established LRT/Lothian Buses Wallyford – Balerno service used to run anti-clockwise around Balerno rather than along the east side in both directions. These journeys (roughly hourly) were numbered 43 and later 44a to distinguish them from the main 44. The difference was only a couple of stops (compared to the 44). Everything now runs anti-clockwise around Balerno now, so only one number required. There were also only fairly minor differences between cross-city journeys on routes like the 9/10 corridor or the 5/51 corridor
In Sheffield there’s only three stops difference beteween the 72 and 72a (the difference being the “business park” at Tankersley)
But I'm sure you can do better than me...
Rules are:
- Compare the full route of one service to the full route of another service
- We can talk about the difference in number of stops served, the number of unique stops, the difference in stops served compared to the length of an overall route… different areas of the country will have different levels of difference! Any local suggestions welcome though (so we can see the “smallest” in each region of the UK)
- The two services can both be current or both be historic but must have been operated by the same operator in the same era (a simple renumbering wouldn’t qualify – e.g. many operators removed the “hundred” from route numbers in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, so a 473 would become a 73, but as these were service numbers used at different times they wouldn’t qualify for this thread)
- By “operator” I’d include all operations under the same ultimate company (e.g. for the purposes of this thread, Magicbus is the same as Stagecoach, First Leeds is the same as First Bradford, Yorkshire Tiger is the same as Arriva, everything under one group is considered part of that same group)
- By “difference” I mean *anything* with a different number or letter. So, for example, the 73 is a different service to the 72 or the 73a or the X73 or the 73X or the 74… any distinction in the route number/ prefix/ suffix etc is a different service for the purposes of this thread.
- Let’s say that routes must each have at least half a dozen stops (e.g. you can’t compare two services that are non-stop between termini)
- I’m fine with “Express” services (e.g. comparing a peak “express” service to the regular stopping version of that service) but we are talking “buses” rather than “coaches” (no National Express, no Scottish Citylink)
- I’m fine with a different number for “premium” journeys (e.g. a night bus, where the N73 is numbered that to show that regular fares charged on the daytime 73 aren’t permitted), as long as there is at least some difference in stops
- I’m fine with “part route” numbers (like a “73E” to denote “exceptional” journeys on the 73 corridor) – as long as we are comparing the full length of each separate service
- I’m *not* counting examples where the council have a separate number to distinguish subsidised journeys on otherwise identical routes – I know that this is the case (or has been the case) in the Central Belt and Merseyside – as that isn’t necessarily any different to the commercial route – but would accept examples where the council subsidised service differs slightly from the commercial journeys (e.g. the tendered 135a from Rotherham to Sheffield sticks to the main road at the Rotherham end, compared to the regular commercial 135 journeys)
A few examples:
In Dundee, some journeys on the cross-city 22 corridor were extended beyond Downfield to serve a new housing development (half hourly, compared to the main ten minute service) and numbered 22c to distinguish them as serving Craigowl – again, only a handful of stops.
In Edinburgh, some eastbound journeys on the long established LRT/Lothian Buses Wallyford – Balerno service used to run anti-clockwise around Balerno rather than along the east side in both directions. These journeys (roughly hourly) were numbered 43 and later 44a to distinguish them from the main 44. The difference was only a couple of stops (compared to the 44). Everything now runs anti-clockwise around Balerno now, so only one number required. There were also only fairly minor differences between cross-city journeys on routes like the 9/10 corridor or the 5/51 corridor
In Sheffield there’s only three stops difference beteween the 72 and 72a (the difference being the “business park” at Tankersley)
But I'm sure you can do better than me...