X bus route numbers

[Statto]

I enjoyed the X30 just a few weeks ago. It's not exactly quick at any point even round Runcorn.

Of course, we've not yet at the next logical extension of.... if it's an Express, then surely it must be operated by a) something with high back seating or b) a coach (rolls grenade)...

I'm not sure when or how it became X30, but was around the mid 90s, could have been the North Western/Warrington Borough Transport(WBT) bus war, as WBT started there own 30 Warrington-Chester(i actually have the timetable for it) covering the C30, North Westerns response could have been to renumber there C30 to X30

Traditionally the C30 never served Runcorn it went direct via the A56 as Chester-Frodsham-Runcorn was served by H21/H22/H23/H24, & Runcorn-Warrington via Preston Brook by H31.

 

[trainmania100]

With Brighton and Hove buses the 12X is limited stop, although in my opinion the time it gains by missing out stops, the driver tends to have a break of about 5-10 minutes half way! It could just be that he/she is running early due to no stops though.

I think X is intentionally used as eXpress. There are plenty of other letters in the alphabet not frequently used, like Z, P and Q, and so it makes logical sense that X is for Xpress.

 

[4cryingoutloud]

Arriva North West X30 Chester-Warrington is a weird one it serves all stops, & stems from the old Crosville C30, the X30 does go down the Runcorn expressway for a short bit of the route, but there's a bus stop on the expressway were the X30 serves

Number change dates from 1995 - Warrington Borough Transport (WBT) had introduced a retaliatory service 30X going to Chester Interchange, North Western renumbered theirs X30 at the next timetable change, extending to the Interchange from the Bus Station, with WBT later dropping the X suffix before withdrawing in 1996.

 

[Furryanimal]

The Stagecoach X24 from Blaenavon to Newport is only really an X bus in the last four miles to Newport.Which is non stop down the bypass.
Otherwise it stops just about everywhere along the route.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

In Grimsby there was an express Grimsby to Hull called the X1, but over time more stops were added, and it replaced / supplemented local bus routes on both ends, to the point it was very slow. It's now been renumbered as 250, but the X remained long after the Express service stopped. Maybe most other X routes are a historical legacy?

Also there was a 3F ages ago, that didn't refer to it being fast, but that it served Freeman Street.

 

[kez19]

The only thing off top my head with Xplore Dundee was with the X5 (5 Barnhill-Ninewells Hospital)

The X5 was normal stops to city centre then to the Olympia Swimming at Blackscroft then ran along the A92 to Greendykes Road then normal stops towards Barnhill.

The other service they had was the 9X/10X but memory on that service I can’t remember (sure it only went as far as Barnhill but don’t think it was a quicker bus either!)

 

[nw1]

Bus Éireann prefer to put the X at the end for PSO (public service obligation) routes in the Greater Dublin region, to denote faster versions of the route without the X. For example the 100, 100X, 101 and 101X are the routes on the Dublin - Drogheda - Dundalk corridor, with the X versions using the M1 motorway. Similarly 109 and 109X for routes between Dublin and Kells/Cavan, with the 109X using the M3. However, for Expressway (commercial) routes, they put the X at the beginning, for example X2 Dublin - Wexford and X8 Dublin - Cork.

Was this always the case? I have a fairly clear memory of seeing buses in Dublin in 2008 and noted that the inter-city bus services seemed to have low 'regular numbers', such as 2, 4 and so on - which struck me at the time as unusual.

 

[johncrossley]

Was this always the case? I have a fairly clear memory of seeing buses in Dublin in 2008 and noted that the inter-city bus services seemed to have low 'regular numbers', such as 2, 4 and so on - which struck me at the time as unusual.

They've still got the low numbers for the slower routes. The X prefix is for the motorway version of the route which probably didn't exist in 2008. Although looking at the current timetable on the website, there exists only the slower version of the 2, even though the timetable is branded 2/X2, so there is basically no X2 any more. There is still the X4, which is the faster version of the 4. They no longer operate a slow coach between Dublin and Cork, which used to be the 8, and now only have the X8 which bypasses most of the towns that the 8 used to stop at.