We’ll start with the good news… Stagecoach’s frequent YoYo spent a lot of is time during the pandemic re-routed between the town centre and Gifford Drive via Victoria Road, Cove Road and the western end of West Heath Road – away from its usual route along Elm Grove Road, Union Street, Prospect Road and the eastern end of West Heath Road. This was initially to aid social distancing during its period of reduced frequency by using double deckers, which can’t fit under the 10 foot / 3 metre arched Prospect Bridge under the railway line. During this extended diversion, Hampshire County Council (HCC) removed the bus stops that the YoYo route served along Union Street – the ‘Station Road’ pair opposite Victoria Road cemetery which were the most handy for those travelling to/from Farnborough railway station (lettered ‘K’ towards Prospect Estate and ‘J’ towards Farnborough), and the pair that existed just prior to Prospect Bridge near Green’s School Lane.
Those closest to the railway station have now been replaced, which will hopefully prove handy not just for those living along the road but also users of the station during the day (the YoYo only serves the main bus/rail interchange stops during the morning and evening when running time around Prospect Estate can be reduced to accommodate it). The ‘new’ flags are somewhat interesting though as Station Road Stop K towards Prospect Estate is now Trinity Church Stop Y towards Gosport Ferry, and Station Road Stop J towards Farnborough is now Stop Z towards Fareham! I’ve tracked down their previous location, which was some 50+ miles away down by coast close to the aforementioned church on Haslar Road in Gosport, formerly served by First circular routes 29/30 in the late 2000s/early 2010s and which had seemingly become an 11 by the mid-2010s. From what I can make out this road is now unserved with no buses now running over the Haslar Bridge, hence one presumes they were selected for reuse here (although one wonders where the originals ended up!). One presumes these are a stop gap to give passengers some bus stops back, with a longer term plan presumably being to update the details. Farnborough already has a Stop Y (Kingsmead North northbound by the multi-story car park and also served by the YoYo), while Stop Z was the old Princes Mead bus stops for routes 2/41/42 by ASDA which are now a new entrance/exit road to the car park. The timetable case for the Farnborough-bound stop has a Stagecoach notice saying the YoYo won’t be stopping there (albeit for an apparent road closure, where as in reality YoYos were happily driving past!), but when placing this notice they opted to also keep the First route withdrawal notice from 2014 in situ too.
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But it’s perhaps not all good news for Farnborough bus passengers…
The latest Office of the Traffic Commissioner Notices & Proceedings publication for the London & South East (2692, 06/02/2023) area landed in the inbox this morning. Under the Cancellations of Existing Services section we see that Stagecoach have cancelled their registration of route 41 (Frimley Park Hospital > Farnborough > North Camp > Ash Vale > loop of Ash and return) from Sunday 2nd April 2023, which would see the potential last day of this weekday-only route being Friday 31st March. There has been no official announcement either from the operator themselves or the two county councils that fund it together (Hampshire and Surrey), however Surrey’s ‘Future Bus Network Review’ consultation – which we reported on in November last year – did specifically mention the 41 as having the potential to be replaced by Demand Responsive Transport (DRT). More recently, their spreadsheet showing proposed service changes states proposed withdrawal (see below). It is however possible that there has just been a retendering process and Stagecoach have cancelled their registration in preparation for someone else potentially taking over the route in some other form from them, but sadly the ‘evidence’ so far seems to suggest otherwise.
UPDATE 8th MARCH: Stagecoach have now formally announced the route’s withdrawal from Friday 31st March, as surmised above.
The route has spent a good chunk of its life trundling, generally hourly, between Farnborough, Farnborough Park, North Camp, Ash Vale and Ash with only fairly minor changes to it. It did start to see some more major restructuring in 2015 though, with its current much reduced timetable starting as a trial in 2019. As soon as any official announcement is made confirming its full withdrawal and/or any partial replacement(s) then an update will of course be posted, however in the meantime here’s one of my history lessons for those interested in how a route running hourly (at one point half-hourly commercially!) six days per week has become just a handful of daytime journeys sandwiched between school runs.
September 1990 – The route was Alder Valley route 506, running hourly 0630-1830 Monday to Saturday between Farnborough (Kingsmead) and Ash via Farnborough Park, North Camp and Ash Vale. A round trip took 50 minutes and funding came from Surrey County Council.
June 1992 – The route was extended to start/end at Farnborough Princes Mead (by ASDA).
January 1993 – Stagecoach had now acquired Alder Valley and renumbered the 506 as 512 running 0700-1900. It operated in conjunction with their Prospect Estate circular route 12 (which had itself been renumbered from 19), with buses running as route 12 every 15 minutes between Prospect Estate and Farnborough Kingsmead. Half of these continued to Farnborough Princes Mead and the others continued as route 512 to Ash, resulting in Farnborough to Ash being doubled from every hour to every 30 minutes.
August 1993 – The 512 was no longer operated in conjunction with the 12 and was restored to/from Princes Mead, from where it now interworked (but not as advertised through journeys) with other routes as the round trip journey time was now 1 hour and 3 minutes so could not be self-contained.
December 1993 – Reduced to hourly with a round trip now 1 hour and 2 minutes.
September 1995 – The 512 was renumbered 51 and reduced to hourly, however the most northern Farnborough to Farnborough Park section was shadowed by hourly Hants contracted Tillingbourne F51 (Stagecoach 52 by the following year) to/from Aldershot spread half-hour apart. A round trip now took 1 hour and 7 minutes. Funding wise, the bulk of the route remained commercial but with Surrey County Council funding morning/evening peak journeys.
January 1997 – Stagecoach ceased operating their commercial 51 and it was replaced by a funded Hampshire County Council ‘County Bus’ route 41, operating hourly 0700-1700 by Tillingbourne. The route was also amended to run along the main Vale Road in Ash Vale (rather than the slightly slower Hutton Road / Prospect Road / Wharf Road) and only serve Farnborough railway station in the peaks, meaning off-peak round trips could be reduced to 56 minutes and operated using one vehicle for all but one morning ‘short’ and the last weekday-only early evening trip.
April 2001 – Following Tillingbourne ceasing trading in March, JR Motors took over operation of the route with the 0903 North Camp to Farnborough ‘short’ removed so only the last weekday-only trip required use of a second vehicle.
April 2003 – The 1647 journey from Farnborough was made Saturdays only so that on weekdays the 1712 could be operated without the need of a second vehicle. The route also received a very minor re-routing in North Camp to run along Alexandra Road rather than Peabody Road, which as well as serving slightly more of North Camp also avoided a new no right turn from Lynchford Road into Peabody Road.
April 2004 – Now operating under the associated Sureline name, the peak vehicle requirement increased back up to two on weekdays with the first and last three weekday journeys diverted between Farnborough Park and Kingsmead to run via the Sixth Form College on college days, and then via Farnborough Business Park between Kingsmead and Princes Mead.
November 2005 – On Saturdays the 1247 and 1347 round trips were withdrawn, presumably to facilitate a driver’s break so only one driver was needed all day.
October 2006 – On weekdays the business park was no longer served and the Sixth Form College/railway station trips were revised to generally run at the Farnborough end as a one way loop (previously the first and last three journeys in both directions diverted, meaning half were going against the student flow anyway). This resulted in a reduced round trip time of back under an hour, which combined with the withdrawal of the 1147 round trip to facilitate an hour lunch break, meant that resources could be halved with only one bus and driver now needed on the route on weekdays instead of two of both.
July 2007 – The then still independent – and recently renamed from Countywide Travel after the sale of the coach side to Weavaway – operator Fleet Buzz took over operation of the 41. They also took on the limited 56 between Farnborough and Aldershot via Ramillies Park and Aldershot Camp, which was the last remnant of the aforementioned Tillingbourne F51/Stagecoach 52.
February 2008 – Stagecoach returned to the route after an 11 year absence which had seen the names of four independent operators run it during that time (although I believe there was some link between JR Motors and Sureline). The weekday diversions via Farnborough railway station and Sixth Form College were withdrawn, with all journeys now operating to a consistent route. Round trip journey time was now 56 minutes, departing Farnborough Princes Mead a few minutes later at xx54 and arriving back at xx50. There remained a gap for a drivers break in place of what would’ve been the 1154 round trip on weekdays, and still a longer gap in place of what could be 1254/1354 trips on Saturdays. Mercedes-Benz 709d duo N906/7 NAP – which came from a batch of nine new to Aldershot depot, registered N905-13 NAP – were both kept on later than their siblings having made themselves at home on the 41 (and tight Haslemere local route 59).
October 2011 – The route was back in independent hands (the fifth since 1990) after just over three and a half years, after Stagecoach lost the contract to Countryliner. The Saturday service was withdrawn at the same time. The following year or so was quite a complex time that saw routes moved between several licences that made up Countryliner, before the company that at the time held many of their Surrey routes entered administration in October 2012 and their Surrey County Council (SCC) contracts were assigned to other operators. The 41 soldiered on as, although partly funded by SCC, it was primarily a Hampshire County Council contract on the ‘RJB (UK) Limited’ licence (along with their West Sussex County Council routes). This began trading as ‘SwiftBus’ although I don’t recall any vehicles receiving such fleet names and all retaining their base Countryliner livery. It was a similar situation with Sunray Travel who operated the 479 (Guildford to Epsom) and, after the West Sussex contracts were lost to Emsworth & District, what was left of SwiftBus moved out of their Aldershot premises and joined Sunray Travel in Woking in early January 2013.
January 2013 – After SwiftBus ceased trading just a fortnight later on Friday 18th, Stagecoach was back on the 41 after an eventful year and a quarter. Stagecoach operated it as one of their routes from Monday 21st, before moving it to their Fleet Buzz low cost unit from Monday 28th. This made it Stagecoach’s third time operating the 41 and Fleet Buzz’s second, albeit Fleet Buzz had been acquired by Stagecoach between their first and second stints.
January 2014 – The 41 was amended to interwork with the 42 (Queensgate > Farnborough > Southwood, with peak journeys to/from the Aerospace Centre replacing the former 700), giving the 41 some additional running time in the process. Buses ran as a 41 ASDA > Kingsmead > Ash > Kingsmead, where they became a 42 Kingsmead > ASDA > Queensgate > ASDA > Kingsmead > Southwood > Kingsmead > ASDA (and repeat). With each full circuit taking two hours, the vehicle requirement was two which was equal to that used when the routes operated separately with one vehicle each. While the 42 remained hourly (possibly as a result of Section 16 developer funding from the then-new Queensgate development?), the 41 retained a gap at lunchtime between what were now 1040 and 1240 departure times from ASDA. Piecing the timetables together it appears this still possibly acted as a driver’s break, with the driver starting and finishing with the first/last two 41 journeys and then interworked 41/42s in the middle (the missing 41 providing a break between two 42s). The other bus had a much longer working day with driver change(s) required, starting and finishing with peak commuter route 42 trips between Farnborough railway station, the Aerospace Centre and Queensgate housing development. A Saturday service was not returned to the 41, with the 42 remaining as a standalone Queensgate to Southwood via Farnborough route on Saturdays.
January 2015 – Changes to bus service funding by Hampshire County Council saw major changes (cuts) to the Fleet Buzz network, ultimately resulting in the brand being dropped and the remaining operations formally absorbed into the main Stagecoach brand. Southwood was now served by a new circular route 9 to the west of Farnborough (which also served the Pyestock and Minley Estates previously served by the 30 and bypassed by the Farnborough to Reading 72). The 41 and 42 numbers remained, but in a new combined format now that Southwood no longer needed to be served by them. The overall operation returned to an hourly Farnborough > North Camp > Ash Vale > Ash route requiring just one vehicle again, but did not have a gap at lunchtime for one driver to be able to work it with with an integrated break. Between Farnborough and North Camp railway station route 41 buses ran via Highgate Lane (rather than Rectory Road, to replace route 31) and Farnborough Park, and route 42 buses ran via Queensgate, with the two routes meeting at St. Alban’s Roundabout and retaining their numbers through Ash Vale and around the Ash loop at the southern end. Buses generally swapped between routes 41 and 42 in Farnborough. This resulted in the overall end-to-end Farnborough > North Camp railway station > Ash Vale > Ash route retaining an hourly frequency, but effectively dropping to two-hourly through either Farnborough Park or Queensgate where the routes separated over the northern half.
September 2019 – Following Stagecoach diverting route 3 (Aldershot to Yateley via Ash, Frimley and Camberley) to bypass Tongham direct along Aldershot Road, residents of Tongham campaigned about their loss of bus link to/from Frimley Park Hospital. From September all journeys were renumbered 41, with the 42 number scrapped along with its Aerospace Centre peak journeys. Along the Ash loop at the southern most end of the route, buses added a further loop of Aldershot Road, Oxendon Road and Manor Road (in that direction) to replace the 3. Queensgate was served by the 41 now performing a double-run along Lynchford Road west of St. Alban’s Roundabout. It also returned to Rectory Road rather than Highgate Lane between Farnborough Park and Farnborough, like it ran pre-2015. Buses then continued north of Farnborough to/from Frimley Park Hospital, bypassing Frimley High Street along the main A325 and providing the intended Tongham to Frimley Park Hospital link. Heading southbound, buses were diverted off the A325 via Ship Lane and Highgate Lane to offer a service to residents of Farnborough Street (albeit only really of use if travelling to Farnborough, with passengers on their return having to board a bus to the hospital then stay on for the return journey). The downside of this overall change was that it required two vehicles thereby increasing costs, which may explain why operating hours were reduced from roughly 0700-1800 down to just 0930-1400. This allowed operation to fit between school services, with driver breaks built into the timetable and two drivers’ working days. By the time of this change the journeys I saw did seem pretty “airy” outside of traditional daytime shopper/concessionary pass holder hours, so it probably didn’t affect a large number of people in reality. You can read my original blog on these changes by clicking here.
Since then to the present – The above change was intended to be an 11 month trial, but the pandemic arrived during that period. For a time the 41 was reduced to one vehicle running infrequently on Mondays and Thursdays only (the weekdays when the 520/538 doesn’t run, so presumably utilising that resource), however the September 2019 ‘trial’ timetable was restored in April 2021.
Time will tell what happens next… if anything at all beyond the 41 just fading into the history books.
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