|
| | Useful links
to Bus Timetables
plus news, pics & information for bus enthusiasts and passengers alike..
- for London & Major Bus operators across the Southern Counties of England,
from Kent to Cornwall.
To the Main
Index Page

|
Go Ahead Wilts and Dorset have spent
£2.4m on 12 new Scania DLFs for routes 40 and 50 from Swanage depot which
started service from June 2009. The 40 was previously 142/143/144 before
the recent renumbering exercise, and 50 was 150. 3 of the 12 are normal
DLFs for the 40 (Poole - Wareham - Swanage), while the others are for the
50 (Swanage - Sandbanks Ferry - Bournemouth, but via a slightly different
routing to the old 150) - 3 are permanently semi open top (Front half
closed, back half open top) for summer use only (when a 30 min frequency
now operates), while the other 6 are convertibles - full open top for the
summer and fully closed for the winter, when the frequency is only hourly,
though for some reason on the day of my visit in August several old style
orange and black closed tops were still in operation on the 50. One of the
new fully closed top examples is found at the new 40 Swanage terminal
stop, 20 yards further back than that for the 50, which covered all the
services in the old days. The new "clock face" timetables may be
easy to understand, but since the same overall time is allowed for
journeys running at, for example, 6.30am and 2.30pm, during the busy
daytime period when all the grockles and twirlies are out and about, much
late running of services is evident (and annoying!!) |

|
New vehicles (and enough of them to cover
the actual services this time around, ha! ha!) for the X53 mean the old
DLFs have been cascaded to the 31 bringing double decks back to the
Axminster - Weymouth corridor, due mostly to a number of busy school time
journeys apparently... anyway, following a repaint here is the curious new
livery they carry, though be warned, the odd SLF still makes it out on to
the route. |

|
First relaunch their Cornish services on
3rd May 2009, mostly reducing services yet again and taking the
opportunity to incorporate all of Truronian's services (a company they
bought in 2008) into their own network, whilst removing all the T
prefixed route numbers, putting them into First's 1 onwards number series.
This involves renumbering, in several cases, Truronian services back to
the old First number (or even in some cases the old Western National
number minus 500) the service used to have before First lost the
contract to run it or surrendered it as a commerical service some years
ago! Here's a few examples of the many number changes - T18 becomes 95, T20 goes back to 39, T50 &
T51 go back to 50 and 51, T2 splits into 32 & 82 and T4 (pictured) becomes/goes
back to 35. Many
locals have been grumbling about having to change buses on the new
services as some routes have been split &/or shortened, and I wonder whether we'll
finally now see the Double Decks for the 88 which were promised as part of
a "massive investment" (a-hem) last September which have until
now failed to materialise... |

|
2 new DLFs have arrived with Western
Greyhound as part allocation for the Lengthy supported service 510 between
Newquay and Exeter. Here we see the lone return journey on Good Friday,
which on a usual "sunday" would generally be minibus operated,
but i am pleased to see saw one of the new DLFs branded for the route at
Wadebridge Bus Station. Despite taking about 25 pictures, not a single one
showed the full green dot matrix display correctly, so you'll just have to
trust me that it says Exeter 510 via Okehampton! The 510 was originally a
replacement for First's X10 commercial service, but this now also covers
various previous local services also, between Tregadillet and Launceston,
between Launceston and Okehampton, and the X30 (and historically 51 before
that, though not the 51 that does via Bow and North Tawton!) between
Okehampton & Exeter. |

|
Since the 32 took over the Teignmouth
journeys of the 12A, the mostly separate Willows/Teignmouth 3 vehicles are
supposed to be DLF operated due to heavy loadings on the now only hourly
service over the Shaldon Bridge, with the other 7 buses variously on the
32 & 33 circuit (not in the main, including trips to Teignmouth) being
SLFs. During the winter there is obviously no strict need for the Double
Decks to Teignmouth since the passenger numbers only build up for the
summer months, but in my recent experience only 1 or 2 of the 3 Teignmouth
buses is usually double decked, whilst one of the other 7 SLF duties on
the loop workings is usually upgraded to DLF, bringing double decks
unofficially to the '33' section from between St Marychurch & the
Willows via Barton. It appears to always be the same working, which turns
into a school journey from Torquay Grammar schools at going home time. At
other times it works various terminating and right round the loop
journeys, see the Devon page for more details! Here it is at the Willows
on the usually SLF 33, just before going off to do the school run on 23rd
March 2009 |

|
New Route 228 started 17th January 2009,
between Park Royal, Central Middlesex Hospital and Maida Vale with First
SLFs on a pretty high frequency for a brand new service, x12 mins Mon-Sat
daytimes, and x20 mins evenings and Sundays, taking between about 45mins
and an hour for the journey. Here is one in the also comparatively new
White City Bus Station built to serve the new Westfield Shopping Centre,
which in turn was partly built on the old Shepherd's Bush bus turning area
off the back of the north side of Shepherd's Bush Green. The shopping
centre consists of mostly fashion retailers both familiar and unfamiliar
to London shoppers, and the new Bus Station next door is bright and airy
with toilets and an enquiry desk. |

|
Stagecoach Devon have chosen to Double
Deck most journeys on the 66, a supported service mostly for South Devon
College students and those using Torbay Hospital plying variously between
Newton Abbot and Brixham via the back roads from Kerswell Gardens across
to Windy Corner. Through journeys only operate though until mid afternoon
at the latest. This working at least is supposed to be Double Decked (but
in my experience isn't always, whilst others are!), it forms the 1103 and 1403 from Newton
Abbot, and this short journey from South Devon College to the Willows at
about 1515. Seen here at the beginning of March 2009 at the South Devon
College turnback, with a SD 12A to Castle Circus (Torquay) behind. |

|
Selkent retained the 96 on contract
renewal 24th January 2009, with new DLFs and an increased evening
frequency between Woolwich and Bluewater, where this all red example of
the old order of Tridents basks in the early evening sun, April 2008 |

|
Western Greyhound boss Mark Howarth's
ex-London RM1062 gets out and about on one of Western Greyhound's annual
running days in 2008, seen at the Eden Project, with the biomes as a
backdrop. Performing a full service return journey on the 527 from Newquay
to the Eden Project complete with full blinds, though one minor road
between Boscoppa and Eden had to be omitted due to it being a narrow road
with overhanging trees, though there are no stops on this section, so
no-one was inconvenienced! A brief detour via the A390 allowed the usual
Mercedes Minibus to be subbed for this special journey! See Cornwall page
for other routes that saw the RM! |

|
Ryde to Alum Bay's Island Coaster, which
carries the number X40, two return trips daily during the Spring to
September period, with a lengthy layover at the Alum Bay end, during which
time the drivers take their vehicles to Yarmouth Bus Station and then
perform early afternoon round trips on the Needles Breezer while the
Needles Breezer drivers take their lunch breaks! For some reason this
vehicle's automated display chooses to show 40X as the route number in
July 2008. |

|
New to DLF Double Decks is the Devon CC
supported X64 between Exeter and Kingsbridge which has been an
increase in passenger numbers, mostly, it would seem, day tripping
pensioners.. Also of interest will be Single to Double deck conversions of the
following routes, due in part I suspect, to the new "travel free
anywhere in England" arrangements for over 60's due to start from
1st April 2008. This will allow already hard pressed locals in the South
West, who have already paid for the rest of the country to enjoy the
cleaner bathing waters here, to also pay for holidaying pensioners to ride around on our buses for
free at our expense too..
nice. Anyway, Stagecoach 85/85A, First 31 and even First's X9 will at least benefit
from Double Deckers off the back of this too, with X64 (pictured) and 155
enjoying many workings now with Double Decks! |

|
New DLF Double Decks are due Summer 2008
following the renewal of contract for X53 with First Hants and Dorset. The
existing Scania Double Decks (pictured) are due to be cascaded to the 31
(Weymouth - Axminster) as a result, bringing Double Decks to this route
for the first time since it was renumbered 31.. |

|
2007 sees brand new Citaro SLFs for
Southern Vectis on the Isle of Wight courtesy of Go-Ahead.. They perform
on the high frequency Newport-Ryde shuttle service 9, which operates
alternately via Fairlee or Staplers. It would appear, though, that
increased patronage on the island means that for 2008 more DOUBLE deckers
are due to replace some older step entrance darts, with an appropriate
cascading of vehicles, so some routes are likely to be upgraded to double
deck... excellent news! |

|
Exeter's Stagecoach depot has had an
influx of new and old DDs in recent months, both standard floor DD
hand-me-downs from up-country along with new and older DLFs for routes 50,
54 (DLFs), 55 and PR2 (DLFs), which has resulted not only in Double Deck
types appearing regularly on routes which have always seen some 'upstairs
action' like the 57 and X46, but also now on routes which hither-to only
very rarely have seen Double Deck types, like the 60, illustrated here, plus
85A, 39 and on at least these Exeter City local services: A, K, R & S |

|
The popular Bristol VR, liked by drivers
and enthusiasts alike, will saw out it's last operations in the Essex and
Greater London areas this in March 2004 with special last journeys on
First/Eastern National/Essex routes 351 (Chelmsford - Romford) and 72
(Chelmsford - Braintree). Our 20 odd year old X-reg
example, waits at the stand behind Romford Station. |
Previous News Stories... are
here........
At this site you'll find information and bus travel
details intended to be of help to passengers and enthusiasts alike,
initially covering the London area, and South Coastal Counties of England.

Our Mission
The original rationale behind this site was to provide details
of double deck workings and to give others the
opportunity to share their knowledge of what vehicles tend to show up on which
routes etc etc.
Because I am not keen on riding around in converted dry cleaning vans when I go
on a bus journey, and because the 'expected vehicle type' information is not usually available to the
public, the web seemed the natural way to propagate this type of information.
However, since most passengers would not know where to start looking for useful
information from operators, there seemed an opportunity to provide some further details of
services which may be of interest also to the more conventional of bus user, and
hence the site idea has developed rather.... enjoy!
Bear in mind that we do not have the facilities to answer
individual travel enquiries, and do not represent any of the companies listed,
so we are unable to deal with complaints about rude bus drivers etc, nor can we
send you paper timetables or hire you a bus, but your
comments and/or info WOULD be appreciated.
For Individual Travel enquiries you may like to take your
chances with Traveline... 0870 608 2 608 from within the UK. The service is not
24 hours and they are not contactable by e-mail.
Running Number for this journey:

DISCLAIMER:
This guide is not meant to be an exhaustive or
definitive guide, and I cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies
contained within, however I would appreciate notification of any mistakes you
find, and would also appreciate any additional information where there are gaps
in my knowledge as hinted at in the text. This is not the official site of any of
the companies listed. Opinions expressed are just that, opinions, to which we
are all entitled, but they are not necessarily those of the publisher of this
site.
|