Unnecessarily long bus routes in the UK

[PaulMc7]

Took the 8 a few times . I thought of it as a outer circle to the 90

That's one way of looking at it tbh. Was on the 8 from Robroyston to Hillhead on Monday. Felt like I was never getting off it and the bus was on time the whole way

 

[Darklord8899]

That's one way of looking at it tbh. Was on the 8 from Robroyston to Hillhead on Monday. Felt like I was never getting off it and the bus was on time the whole way

.....I used to feel like taking the 35 from Gogarburn to Leith
I Nik named it the suicide service....
(My preference was 35 Gogarburn to Gyle, then switch to the 22 to Leith, there were a few occasions when this wasn't possible and had to 35 it the whole way)

 

[scotrail158713]

.....I used to feel like taking the 35 from Gogarburn to Leith
I Nik named it the suicide service....
(My preference was 35 Gogarburn to Gyle, then switch to the 22 to Leith, there were a few occasions when this wasn't possible and had to 35 it the whole way)

Jeepers that’s quite a journey you get on the old 35/300 now. I forgot about that. It’s a bit like taking the 49 from Dalkeith to the Fort. In fact, the 49 seems like an unnecessarily long route come to think of it.

 

[NorthClyde320]

Stagecoach East Scotland's X24 St Andrews to Glasgow Airport, all 3 hours 30 mins of it . I got this bus once from St Andrews to Buchanan Bus Stn and it was diverted through Kilsyth, Croy and Craiglinn due to the motorway being closed at Castlecary, thank god it was well after the evening peak as it only added an extra 30 mins to the journey, and not during the evening rush hour.

 

[PaulMc7]

Stagecoach East Scotland's X24 St Andrews to Glasgow Airport, all 3 hours 30 mins of it . I got this bus once from St Andrews to Buchanan Bus Stn and it was diverted through Kilsyth, Croy and Craiglinn due to the motorway being closed at Castlecary, thank god it was well after the evening peak as it only added an extra 30 mins to the journey, and not during the evening rush hour.

Yeah a lot of the Stagecoach buses to Fife from Edinburgh and Glasgow are massive routes in terms of mileage and time

 

[F262YTJ]

In the Highlands there are the X99 Inverness to Thurso and Scabster and also the 10 Inverness to Aberdeen both routes in excess of 4 hours and 100 miles end to end.

 

[Buggleskelly]

First Essex routes 70 (Chelmsford - Colchester) and 100 (Chelmsford - Lakeside) both around 2 hours each.

 

[charley_17/7]

Apologies for the fact that I can't actually remember the route number (I'd greatly appreciate it if somebody more knowledgeable than myself could fill me in on this), but quite some time ago, I had to travel from Brighton Marina to the city centre, and I caught the first bus that turned up heading towards Brighton, which happened to be a Scania double decker thing (sorry, I don't know my bus names too well).

I was surprised at how long it actually took to get back, as to my ignorance, I had no clue that this bus would in fact take a ridiculously long, though I must admit it was very enjoyable and the views were spectacular, detour through almost every residential street we passed, to the top of a hill which practically bordered the countryside, before travelling along the top of this ridge and returning back down the hill not very far from the street the bus came up on, heading down into Brighton via every lamp post known to man.

The journey must've taken at least 40 minutes, which is quite long compared to the shorter, more direct journey on the route 7. Though, I suppose this bus route wasn't designed for people like myself, with the intention of travelling all the way from Brighton Marina to the city centre!

Sounds like the 21A to me.

You might have been quicker walking, or even taking the Volks Electric Railway from Black Rock Beach Station!

TransPeak in its original Manchester to Nottingham guise was always a long run, now truncated between Derby and Buxton.

The X17/X18 between Matlock - Chesterfield - Sheffield - Barnsley is a fair distance and time too I imagine.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

You might have been quicker walking, or even taking the Volks Electric Railway from Black Rock Beach Station!

Indeed I would've probably been quicker walking or taking the Volks Electric Railway, but I don't necessarily regret taking the long bus journey, as it did, as aforementioned, reward me with some fabulous views looking down on Brighton and the sea, and I wasn't really in a rush to get to the city centre either. I just didn't anticipate the bus journey to take quite as long as it did, as I'm not from the area, and thus I'm not too familiar with the bus network. In addition, I've always taken the route 7 preliminary to that experience.

 

[6Gman]

Glasgow and the outskirts are full of long bus routes that are just a bit too long and I would love to know if there are any stupidly long routes in your area. Can be any company.

Glasgow has the 2,3,6,8,21,46,57,60,65,90 and Lanarkshire has the 201 which is also extremely long.

Personally I feel like the full route for a bus should be 90mins max. What do you guys think?

Why?

.

 

[PaulMc7]

Why?

.

Would improve reliability more than anything tbh and benefit people who were making longer journeys

 

[Eyersey468]

Thank you for this. I guess its just hanging on now - any further need for cuts to council spending or sizeable reduction in passenger numbers could bin it completely. There will be those passengers who look back on the days when you drove it with fond memory.

At the last review in 2016 the council were going to withdraw the funding altogether but backtracked a bit after a campaign by the residents of the villages it served. There used to be a commuter journey on a morning and return run on a night that were run commercially by EYMS as they were run off the back of school runs, however when Pocklington lost nearly all of the school runs they had in 2011, very nearly causing the depots closure, the commuter journeys on the 195 were axed as they couldn't be run viably. I drove the last one out of York.

 

[Darklord8899]

Jeepers that’s quite a journey you get on the old 35/300 now. I forgot about that. It’s a bit like taking the 49 from Dalkeith to the Fort. In fact, the 49 seems like an unnecessarily long route come to think of it.

The old 35/300 was a City tour in itself....
Airport, Ingliston, Gogarburn, Gyle, Sighthill, Chesser, Slateford, Shandon, Fountainpark, Fountainbridge, Tollcross, Old Town, Abbyhill, Leith to Ocean Terminal

And aye, the 49 is bonkers....

 

[Dr_Paul]

Living in London, I find it rather amusing to read complaints about bus routes being too long. Here, the trend has long been to truncate routes, and recently a bunch of routes have been trimmed at the Central London end, and one that had bucked the trend and had been fairly recently extended -- the 59, extended from Euston to Kings Cross -- has been cut back to Euston again, thus ending the only direct route between Waterloo and Kings Cross/St Pancras.

A look at a London bus map from the early 1950s is fascinating, as cross-Central London routes were common (I don't think there are any today), and many routes were roughly double the length they are today. It would be interesting to learn the rationale for this trend towards shorter routes in London.

 

[Darklord8899]

Living in London, I find it rather amusing to read complaints about bus routes being too long. Here, the trend has long been to truncate routes, and recently a bunch of routes have been trimmed at the Central London end, and one that had bucked the trend and had been fairly recently extended -- the 59, extended from Euston to Kings Cross -- has been cut back to Euston again, thus ending the only direct route between Waterloo and Kings Cross/St Pancras.

A look at a London bus map from the early 1950s is fascinating, as cross-Central London routes were common (I don't think there are any today), and many routes were roughly double the length they are today. It would be interesting to learn the rationale for this trend towards shorter routes in London.

I would imagine that the difference in the amount of traffic between today and 1950's London is phenomenal
running a route across 1950's London would encounter little congestion compared with today. Not only that, but I think it would be relatively quick and reliable.
I think it would be complete madness to try and run a bus route across London today. It would be unreliable in today's traffic conditions and so slow, who would be mad enough to use it?

 

[Dr_Paul]

I would imagine that the difference in the amount of traffic between today and 1950's London is phenomenal. running a route across 1950's London would encounter little congestion compared with today. Not only that, but I think it would be relatively quick and reliable. I think it would be complete madness to try and run a bus route across London today. It would be unreliable in today's traffic conditions and so slow, who would be mad enough to use it?

I agree; I was more making a comparison between the differing trends in London and elsewhere. I wasn't advocating a return to the 1950s routes, although some of the truncations are a pain.

It would be interesting to compare 1950s London timetables with today's, to see what differences there are in timings. I might do some routes when I have an idle moment.

One thing that is making bus travel slower in London is the construction of bike lanes. These in many places have reduced the road to a single lane, with the bike lane being built on what had been a bus lane, and the buses therefore can't avoid the jammed traffic as they previously did. For example, Blackfriars Bridge still has a bus lane, but the southern approach is down to a single lane for a couple of hundred yards to accommodate the bike lane, and buses get jammed up in the clog of other vehicles. Bike lanes are a good idea, but not when they make bus travel slower.

 

[Darklord8899]

I live in Edinburgh, we have various issues around the city not helping bus transport.
Bike lanes don't help things in some places
Lack of any bus priority (there are bus gates at various places, but no dedicated bus lanes on certain key routes in/out of the city (some have sections of bus lane, but nothing continuous))
There are no priority lights (where an approaching bus could hold lights on green, or force a change to Green to allow the bus to carry on without having to stop at red lights)
20mph limits on many main bus route roads
And a council that seem scared to/not interest in making car journies in the city centre difficult or undesirable... even just now there was a scheme for "summer streets" banning cars from various streets during the festival, but motorists have been ignoring the temporary signs and carrying on, needless to say council or police don't have time or resources to enforce these restrictions.

Apologies for veering off topic here.

 

[Struner]

In the Highlands there are the X99 Inverness to Thurso and Scabster and also the 10 Inverness to Aberdeen both routes in excess of 4 hours and 100 miles end to end.

But does the X99 take unnecessarily long? It simply follows the A9 doesn't it?

 

[Roavin]

The X46 is the quickest public transport link into East Yorkshire from York, but my God it takes forever. Imo, they should bring back the rail line from York to Beverley and put 158s on it to replace this ridiculous bus route.

 

[mlambeuk]

The 843 From Leeds to Scarborough is daft why does it have to go via Seacroft green and Seamer?.

 

[Jordan Adam]

The Stagecoach East Scotland X7 between Perth and Aberdeen has a standard journey time of 3h45 each way.

The X7 works at that length because most of the demand is on "shorter hop" journeys. For example Perth to Arbroath, Dundee to Montrose, Arbroath to Aberdeen etc. Cutting the X7 could work, however you'd need sufficient direct replacements, which would probably increase PVR quite significantly. Hence why it's not been done.

Likewise the Stagecoach North Scotland 35 Aberdeen to Elgin is about the same length (time wise) and although the 10 offers the Aberdeen to Elgin link, the 35 again is need due to short hop journeys. Elgin to Buckie, Cullen to Turriff, Banff to Aberdeen etc. Splitting the service would be a huge no despite the operational issues it can present in it's current form.

*Not read the full thread so unsure if anyone has already replied

 

[Dhassell]

The 77 between Thornbury and Bristol Centre takes 2 hours end to end compared to just under a hour on the T1 and a hour and 10 minutes on the T2.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

First’s D1 takes up to 2 hours 40 to get from Bath to Salisbury.

In London the X26 can take 2 hours to link Croydon to Heathrow

 

[Flying Snail]

But does the X99 take unnecessarily long? It simply follows the A9 doesn't it?

It diverts through a few towns but is reasonably direct, or at least it is for Wick passengers as it now runs to Thurso via Wick. Some of the services have a connection with a direct service at Dunbeath which cuts the end to end journey time to around 3 hours. It used to be the other way around, direct to Wick with connections for Thurso which seemed like a better arrangement to me.

 

[Jordan Adam]

In the Highlands there are the X99 Inverness to Thurso and Scabster and also the 10 Inverness to Aberdeen both routes in excess of 4 hours and 100 miles end to end.

Neither are unnecessarily long however. The only reason they're 'slower' is because there isn't the demand for both a direct and slow bus along the entire route. Especially not in the case of the X99. The 10 is direct between Aberdeen and Inverurie anyway. Cutting the 10 up wouldn't work either as you have lots of short journey passengers.

 

[Deerfold]

Living in London, I find it rather amusing to read complaints about bus routes being too long. Here, the trend has long been to truncate routes, and recently a bunch of routes have been trimmed at the Central London end, and one that had bucked the trend and had been fairly recently extended -- the 59, extended from Euston to Kings Cross -- has been cut back to Euston again, thus ending the only direct route between Waterloo and Kings Cross/St Pancras.

Shortening of routes has been common throughout the UK. Many cities in particular have lost cross-city routes.

A look at a London bus map from the early 1950s is fascinating, as cross-Central London routes were common (I don't think there are any today), and many routes were roughly double the length they are today. It would be interesting to learn the rationale for this trend towards shorter routes in London.

The 148 I'd describe as cross-Central London - Shepherds Bush to Camberwell via Victoria.
And the 36 New Cross Gate to Queens Park.

The 843 From Leeds to Scarborough is daft why does it have to go via Seacroft green and Seamer?.

This is an example of a shortened route - it used to start in Manchester to the West!

 

[Flying Snail]

Neither are unnecessarily long however. The only reason they're 'slower' is because there isn't the demand for both a direct and slow bus along the entire route. Especially not in the case of the X99. The 10 is direct between Aberdeen and Inverurie anyway. Cutting the 10 up wouldn't work either as you have lots of short journey passengers.

I wouldn't have an issue with the X99 apart from the Wick/Thurso issue above and the cuts they have made to the timetable in the last two years, the 10 on the other hand is just unacceptably slow for a through journey. Over 4 hours when the train (which is not exactly high speed) is around 2h20 and driving is 2h30-3h.

Is there no demand or is there little custom because the service is too slow? It is attractive to operators to try to combine both interurban and short traffic but with journey times that slow there is no way they are getting much in the way of paying custom for Aberdeen - Inverness journeys, free pass use maybe.

 

[Jordan Adam]

I wouldn't have an issue with the X99 apart from the Wick/Thurso issue above and the cuts they have made to the timetable in the last two years, the 10 on the other hand is just unacceptably slow for a through journey. Over 4 hours when the train (which is not exactly high speed) is around 2h20 and driving is 2h30-3h.

Is there no demand or is there little custom because the service is too slow? It is attractive to operators to try to combine both interurban and short traffic but with journey times that slow there is no way they are getting much in the way of paying custom for Aberdeen - Inverness journeys, free pass use maybe.

I don't think you quite understand the service. The 10 isn't aimed for Aberdeen - Inverness passengers. It's aimed at intermediate passengers. This is the reason why it can't be split and works as it is. It's much like the First Scotland East 38 where there's very few end to end passengers but it's the intermediate points that count.

Some popular journeys on the 10 for example...

• Aberdeen - Huntly
• Aberdeen Royal Infirmary - Inverurie
• Aberdeen Royal Infirmary - Huntly
• Inverurie - Elgin
• Huntly - Nairn
• Keith - Inverness
• Fochabers - Inverness
• Elgin - Nairn
• Elgin - Inverness

The only place you could really split the 10 (for operational reason) is in Elgin, that would still be a total disaster. You would loose the Huntly/Keith/Fochabers - Forress/Nairn/Inverness passenger base. Yes the train may cover these links, but in many cases the train would also require walking significantly further and/or require a connection on to a infrequent local bus. It is for this reason that the 10 is often the preferred option and works as it is. The 10 is much like the 35 in that regard. There's very few end to end passengers, but the intermediate points and links provided are what justify such a long service.

 

[transplanted]

Used to be Trent Barton Transpeak Manchester Chortlon Street Bus Station to Nottingham Broadmarsh Bus Station via Stockport, Hazel Grove, Buxton, Bakewell, Belper and Derby. Think it took nearly 4 hours but a bargain for £7.

 

[Deerfold]

Used to be Trent Barton Transpeak Manchester Chortlon Street Bus Station to Nottingham Broadmarsh Bus Station via Stockport, Hazel Grove, Buxton, Bakewell, Belper and Derby. Think it took nearly 4 hours but a bargain for £7.

It didn't go a particularly roundabout route. A scenic journey. Keeps getting shortened, though.