Hello all,
I've not put this in my trips around the UK thread as I want to keep that for rail journeys, or ones that have rail journeys in. This report will suit the bus enthusiast, as that's all there is!
I've entitled it 'reports' as I have another trip on tomorrow (Thursday), and if this is popular enough I'll do a report after Thursdays trip too. Hopefully over time I can add my travel comparisons on here too :)
Four Counties rover - 14/01/2016
Despite it's name, the Wiltshire Day Rover does cover a fair amount outside of it's namesake, though the valid routes start/end in Wiltshire. The name derives from the 4 counties we passed through; Wiltshire, BANES, Berkshire and Borough of Swindon (Three if you only count ceremonial counties).
I wasn't alone, I would be travelling with RailUK member 'Dennis'. The plan was set up and printed out, mainly formed of routes we needed, which was the point of the bash. My target is to cover the entire services/routes valid on the Wiltshire Day Rover (excluding the dial-a-ride booking only services, which don't really have a 'route'). Easier said than done mind, as there is a lot of weekday shopper trips, one round trip per week, which is why we are doing it on a Thursday for the ThO 39 Bradford to Devizes.
It was a clear but frosty morning. I managed to get to Trowbridge Manvers Street bus stop for 0830, having to get past hoards of school brats heading the other way (hate this time of day!) and had my first sighting of a Faresaver Double Decker (ex-London Gemini), looks blooming strange but it was pretty rammed too, so it's doing well!
I met 'Dennis' at the bus stop for the Stagecoach West 49 which rolled up with the usual E400, however we weren't getting on. We call this 'The Mobile Ticket Office', as Stagecoach drivers are one of the only operators round here who can actually issue the rover hassle free!!
(Faresaver drivers don't quite know, and my experience with First, they tried selling me the First South West rover and claiming you can use it on any bus operator anywhere in the South West????)
That's the unfortunate thing with these rovers, I suspect drivers are trained on how to issue company day tickets/rovers, and that's probably as far as it goes! I wonder if there are any other county rovers that bus operators find it difficult to sell?
So £8 down, Town Hall in Trowbridge was the next port of call, only a short walk from Manvers Street. Move #1 is the 0857 265 departure on the Bath route. Faresaver's 69 rolled up on the 0855 ZigZag Corsham service, which is same route to Bradford as the 265, the thing is, it's a Solo, and I don't really rate Solo's, and Dennis absolutely hates them, so the idea was to try and avoid Solo's today, it's not that easy nowadays!
The 265 was due in at 0854, but it started at Salisbury and runs via the College, so chances are it's held up, but there's a connection to make at Bradford so if there's no sight of it, the Solo might be the only option. 0854 came, no sign of the 265, so we gave in for the Solo...great start so far! Thank god for the 69 route though, if this didn't run then we'd have no choice but to wait for the 265.
We were the only ones on board, and ended up as Right Away from Trowbridge Town Hall to Bradford-on-Avon Town Bridge.
[b]Faresaver Solo YX06 FFM at Bradford-on-Avon on the 69 'ZigZag' to Corsham
We got there at 0911. There was still no sign of the 265, but I noticed on the timetable there was a booked connection onto the 266, a temporary route through Winsley which was running due to engineering works with the 265 diverted on from here. The 266 appeared round the corner with First's ex-Truro Solo working the shuttle, but the 265 still hasn't arrived. Not that it seemed to matter, the 266 shot past the bus stop without even slowing down to see if anyone wanted to get on!!!
A couple of minutes later, the 265 showed up, and the booked connection had been and gone...Still, we only missed a Volvo Eclipse on the 265. It was tempting to get on the 96 to South Wraxal with a Step Entrance Mercedes Vario, but not knowing if we'd get stuck in South Wraxal (Middle of nowhere village) meant we didn't bother (turns out it comes straight back anyway, so we could have). It is home to the well known TrackMaps Quail books though!
The Thursday's Only 39 route, operated by Beeline showed up on time, and was rather surprised to see a '65 reg Mercedes Turas show up! It was busier than I thought though, though all passengers had a senior bus pass on them. The driver didn't seem to like our rover tickets, and said 'Nope, not valid on this'. I argued that the WDR is valid on all Beeline services, and still didn't like it. Then I said I'll just get the rover ticket leaflet out and said 'well if you think it's valid, go on then'. I don't think he still believed me, so I got the leaflet out and showed him. Thankfully this leaflet shows where the rover is valid and what operators it's valid on, without it, it would be difficult in situations like these!
I overheard comments like 'Oh this is a flash bus' and 'This is new!', so obviously we turned up on the first running of a Turas on this route. We asked a passenger if this is unusual, and the lady replied 'usually it's a boneshaker, you could make milkshake by the time you get to Devizes'. We probably missed out on a Step Entrance Beaver, which I wouldn't have minded to be fair!
A very nice interior I must admit, and the ride was pretty good as well. From an enthusiast who likes engine sounds, like the HST's nowadays, this is VERY much an MTU bus! If this was the Hellfire bashing game of buses (Jules will know what I'm on about) I'd rate this at 10 points, that's being a bit generous as well!
The route to Melksham was via a village called Holt. Here there was an opportunity to score off Station Road, a bit of a 'PSUL' road (well PSUR - Passenger Services over Unusual Roads), it basically involves going all the way to the bottom of the road to the bus stop, to find no one is getting on or off anyway and then back up the way we came then carrying on as we were.
The 39 doesn't actually serve the town of Melksham, so managed the rare opportunity of a bus round the avoider road! We didn't actually pick anyone else up en-route, though we were well loaded as it was so probably just as well.
We spent a bit of time at Devizes and walked round the corner to Station Road car park to see what was laying over.
Beeline's Turas YN65 AXH lay's over at Station Road car park having worked the 39 from Bradford-on-Avon
We had a +20 here, but despite the car park being not even a 5 minute walk, Dennis was having serious traction problems with his trainers, as there was a coating of ice and there was no grit, could have really done with a sandite trip down here!
1020 came around and we had to be at the bus stop for the 1030 route 33, hopefully a MAN Polaris, as I've yet to do one of these and APL is the only operator round here I know of that has these.
We got there just in time but no Ikarus vehicle in sight. There was a Wiltshire 2 Connect livery Solo, and I jokingly said "Now we find out it's on the 33, imagine that! :lol:!"....then there was a pause...better check that.
DAMN IT! It was on the 33 as well!! Plan B was floating around in my head but I couldn't think of one, we need to be in Bath yes, but there isn't really anything to do and bear in mind the 33 route is required. We took it anyway, we already got lumbered by a Solo on the 69 anyway. Turns out these Solo's are now operated by APL Travel, and since I've noticed a few different Solo's on the 33, the X33 seems to be the one to go for if you want a MAN Ikarus Polaris.
The seat's weren't too bad, loading's was about a quarter full, nothing too much, probably one reason why it's a Solo, and the fact it does a couple of villages that the X33 skips out.
One of these village roads was quite slippy, even I felt the bus jolt briefly which was rather uncomfortable, we survived though! It was only a 25 minute trip, from end to end, that's Devizes to Calne.
APL Travel's Solo YJ54 UCA at Calne on the 33 from Devizes
Next up was an simple trip on the 55, never anything to write home about on this route, a dud route however very handy for linking one town to another, the whole route is Swindon to Chippenham, operated by Stagecoach West using a fleet of E400's, and today most, if not all, the advertising livery ones were out, they are only on one side, but advertise certain places in Wiltshire on the route 55, like this one:
[url=https://flic.kr/p/wVLWSu][/url
Though when you see one that say's "There's plenty to see in Chippenham" you do wonder! :lol:!
Our Scania E400 rolled into Chippenham "Bus Station" at 1120...Yes, my plan actually says "Bus Station", more to do with the fact it's more of a bus park than a bus station, it's the most basic bus station I've seen!
The next move was Chippenham to Bath, not a required route but get's us there for a lunch stop and the big move of the day, hopefully with a rateable vehicle if the gen is correct!
It's either the 231 or X31, operated by First and local operater Faresaver respectively. It's a competition route, so they both basically have a rat race to Bath. The 231 rolled up with Wright's Eclipse, one of the 667xx number series (No, not a GBRf shed!) which was dud a thousand times over, but Faresaver can pretty much kick out anything.
It was tempting to go on the X34 to Trowbridge on their new decker, but getting up to Bath might be risking our plan from there. First time I've seen the Faresaver Decker, looks rather strange as it's their first one, used to seeing E200's and Mercedes Vario's!
Ex-Arriva London LG52 DDE, now with Faresaver, at Chippenham Bus Station on the X34 to Frome
A MAN eVolution rolled in from Bath, and hoped it would be our one, but that parked up in the end. The 231 left so whatever rolled up we had to take. Faresaver's Step Entrance Vario was sitting in the bay with the engine on and no driver in it, seemed a bit strange what with the doors wide open too, it was half tempting to go in and change the blind to Bath....wish I did now as Faresaver's Solo YE52 BUS rolled out the parking area to the bus stand on the X31...NOOOO NOT ANOTHER SOLO!!!
We got on anyway, but the timings are that we are supposed to get to Bath BEFORE the 231, even though we leave a couple of minutes later. As we progressed out of Chippenham doing well for time, we did indeed catch up with the 231 and overtook it as it pulled into a stop. It was half tempting to bail and get the 231 instead, it would be easy but issue is the Solo has that friggin annoying back wall so you can't bloody see what's behind! For all we knew the Eclipse could be right behind, and once we get off at a stop it could overtake.
In the end we just stuck with the Solo all the way to Bath, better doing that than get bowled at some bus stop and screw the plan up.
30 minutes was our allocated time at Bath for a lunch stop, and a trip to the Coach Park, but there wasn't much there unfortunately. After a loo stop we then went to Sainsbury's for food. For some reason time was chewing through rather fast, and already we had to get up to Bath Grand Parade stop, and only just had time for a quick walk.
This is where the once a day X76 departs returning to Marlborough operated by AD Rain's.
The gen is that it's an S Reg Low Floor proper Cummins Dart, works the school trip in the morning, does a service round trip to Bath and back in time for the evening school run.
And the gen was spot on, in the distance was a roll blind S reg SLF Dart, and now was the time to powerwalk, I ain't missing that! We got on with a couple of minutes to spare, but the thrash seat's were taken, however there was some bench seats near the back that would do. Leaving on time at 1325, and only 30 seconds in, me and Dennis were impressed! Driven like the power was an on-off switch, and I really do miss this sound!
We got out of Bath and straight onto a short sprint down a short dual carriageway, thrashing like a beast, shame the people on the back seat's counldn't shut up, however I let them get away with it after hearing one of them comment "This sound's like an old bus, it's a lovely sound though"...Spot on!
The dart was pretty full as well, which made hill climb thrash more entertaining, I do wonder how many people are doing this end to end. I wouldn't have thought many would be getting off at Melksham seeing as there's 272 and X72 (First and Faresaver again) operating on the Bath to Melksham route.
We pulled over at Shaw (just before Melksham basically) and the driver got out talking to someone on the phone, and went to the back of the bus, open the hood, closed it, and came back in, and I heard him say to someone on the phone 'yeah it's on..well I'll drop everyone off at Marlborough then I'll bring it over'....hmmm sounds like a red line to me, anyone who's played the bashing sim 'Hellfire' will know what I'm on about!
Well the lot at the back of the bus bailed at Melksham, so we dived for the thrash seat's, and was now looking forward to the thrash up Sandridge Hill just outside of Melksham, but got bowled by a bloody tractor going up the hill!! ARGH!!
I got a video of the ride going up towards the hill, and going through Bromham village for anyone who likes the sound of a Cummins Dart:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldEgUnSgJ5c
I still love the bit on the end of the video, a sprint along the A342, shame there was no drop lights to bellow out of :lol:!
We got to Avebury and noticed a white coach going round the roundabout, what I thought was a Plaxton Paramount. Then it turned into the lay-by just past the roundabout, and then we pulled in as well. That was it, end of the Dart thrash and declared a failure, we got booted off onto M88 ADR, a Plaxton Premier coach, the vehicle that used to operate the X76 some years ago.
AD Rains Dart S724 KNV at Avebury, having been declared a failure
They timed the meeting here pretty well though considering we both approach the lay-by at the same time! The PSV disc was transferred to the Premier, which has a school badge on suggesting it's relegated to school work nowadays and therefore pretty rare in passenger service, and judging by the state of the interior I'd be surprised if they used it on anything else!
It was bloody freezing inside as well, like it was some no heat vehicle. If this was a bus version of Hellfire, this would probably score you a shed load of points!
It was a pretty quiet Volvo B10M, a lot quieter than the Dart. As I said to Dennis, I'd be pretty disappointed if I was at school waiting for the regular Dart to show, only to be bowled by this!
The sun was in the wrong place, but it was a record shot if anything else! AD Rain's M88 ADR at Marlborough having replaced the Dart from Avebury
We now had about 40 minutes to kill in Marlborough, and Dennis was toying with the idea of the pub, but we double checked that our next bus would be from this stop, and it was, but we noticed that there were two town routes....really?? Never knew that! They packed up pretty soon, and it was tempting to get the two routes in the book, as they were certainly required.
The 217 rolled in formed of a Thamesdown E200 on the 1455 to Rogers Meadow. This was well loaded, and then set off for the mystery tour, as neither of us knew what the route was, but seeing as it's due back at 1505 it can't be that far, and sure enough, we went up the road and in about 3 minutes we reached Rogers Meadow, bloody hell! Could walk it really! Half the bus tipped out here too, and then we just went round a couple of roads round the estate, by then everyone was off, and then straight back to town. Probably the shortest town route I've ever done!
Just as we got back I asked the driver if this is doing the other town route, the 1510 via St Margaret's, and it was. Just one vehicle that interworks the two routes makes sense.
The driver was wondering where we were going and just told him we were covering routes on the Wilts Day Rover, and got chatting about the buses. Apparently the town route packs up before 1600 as it then works round Bedwyn, mainly for the school run.
We mentioned our plan to go on the GoRide route 90, and apparently it's being shelved soon, so just as well we are doing it now before it goes!
We set off on the second town route, also the 217, and another 10 minute jolly around a couple of residential areas and back to town, only this time it was me and Dennis on board throughout, no one else was on the service at all, which was a bit surprising considering how busy the other route was!
By now kids were everywhere, and there was a procession of Barnes coaches through the town on various school runs, hopefully relieving the traffic on the Thamesdown buses. The problem was our next move, the 1538 route 20 to Hungerford starts at a school, and I just pictured this rammed, full and standing dart turning up and it just being a nightmare. The sight of the E200 rolling up wasn't helpful, but getting a seat wasn't actually an issue, it was only half loaded with kids.
The route was round the houses, dropping kids off at various villages, some a good 20+ minute ride from Marlborough itself. Some of these kids are probably E200 top men, must have had most of not all the Thamesdown E200 for over 1k by now! :lol:
Halfway through there was a sign saying 6 miles to Hungerford, and every signpost we saw pointing to Hungerford, we went the other way. At two different places we saw a sign saying 6 miles to Hungerford, it was like we weren't actually going anywhere! :lol:!
We got to a small place called 'Ham', which isn't far from Hungerford, and everyone was off, leaving just me and Dennis on board, and we went straight to Hungerford.
Thamesdown E200 MX13 BBV 'Bullfinch' at Hungerford having worked the 20 from Marlborough
We had 20 minutes until the 90 to Lambourn, on the GoRide service. We was expecting some form of minibus, but what we wasn't expecting was a VDL Mercedes Sprinter! Basically a converted transit van!
GoRide's VDL converted Sprinter FJ09 HTP at Hungerford working the 90 to Lambourn
Inside was rather flash with tinted windows, even kitted out with an old Wayfarer machine. Seating layout was 2+1, like some first class layout. Only about 3 teens on here on their way home. I sat on the single seat at the front, but basically you were sitting on the floor, my eyeline was just at the bottom of the window, and couldn't see out the front as the dashboard was in the way. It was getting dark now, and with the tinted windows you couldn't see much.
It was a bit hard to work out the route to be honest, as basically it's only booked stop is Lambourn, and everything else was request only by advance booking. There was no stop bells fitted onboard, stopping basically involved shouting at Jerry, the driver, where you want to get off. Obviously these secondary school kids are regulars as must be the driver, but if it's book in advance request stops, surely they don't have to ring in when they get home every weekday to request the same stop they've been doing every day!
They got off halfway through, and just left with us two to the end at Lambourn. Usually it goes through to Swindon, but the last diagram involves a +2 onto another 90 from Lambourn to Swindon.
The vehicle from here was former Shropshire link SN58 BZL, another transit van with seats, only this time a VW Crafter. Only one other person was on this and made only one stop en-route. Even featured on board music from Classical FM blaring out the speakers.
I wonder if this is common loading throughout the day, I can't see this making any profit at all really, and clearly relies on the funding from Berkshire Council, which is cutting the funding for the 90 hence it's being shelved.
Not sure how the regular school goers will get home from Hungerford now though!
We left Lambourn about 5 minutes late but arrival into Swindon was pretty much on time, probably as we only made one stop.
Once at Swindon, we got the 1810 Stagecoach 49, formed of a Scania E400, taking us back home to Trowbridge.
Overall, I really enjoyed it, bagging loads of new routes, stretching the rover through 5 counties and traveling on 7 different operators, and 7 different types of vehicles, unfortunately 3 of them were Solo's :lol:!
Looking forward to tomorrow's bash now!
I hope you enjoyed it, and if you want to see the full gallery of the buses I snapped that day, you can see it in my Wiltshire Day Rover - 14th January 2016 album here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/678939...57663427975191