A bit of a round-up post of changes taking place over this coming weekend and next month, as well as a few other bits and bobs.
First, the service changes…
Some of these service changes are amendments to services that were only recently amended.
Tomorrow (27th October) is the final day of operation of Stagecoach’s route 9 between the University of Surrey, Rydes Hill and Stoughton. You can read my full blog post on the route’s withdrawal by clicking here, but in summary… The 9 is withdrawn with no direct replacement from the end of operation tomorrow following “a significant financial loss, approaching £90,000 this year”. It had only been introduced on Monday 3rd April this year to replace the withdrawn section of amended circular routes 1/2 through Rydes Hill, which saw those routes become separate circular services. Passengers in the Rydes Hill area travelling into Guildford will generally have to make their way to their nearest Stagecoach 2 or Falcon 28 stop on the Worplesdon Road, or the Stagecoach 20 on the A323. The West Guildford ‘Surrey Connect’ DDRT (Digital Demand Responsive Transport) coverage area has been expanded slightly to take in some of Rydes Hill (Rydes Hill Road and Shepherds Lane highlighted in green within the blue zone in the map below). Journeys must be pre-booked though, up to seven days in advance and a minimum of half an hour before intended travel to be given a pick up time. Students travelling between the Hazel Farm Halls of Residence and University of Surrey Stag Hill Campus have the choice of a 45 minute walk, to use route 2 to the Weston Road stop on Woodbridge Hill then a 20 minute walk, or route 2 to Guildford Bus Station then route 1 to the university (typically around 30-40 minutes including connections). Route 9 currently links the two sites in 19 minutes.
From Monday (30th October), several other service changes will be taking place as follows:
10: Farnborough – Fleet – Church Crookham
Operated by: Stagecoach
Following the amendments made to this route’s timetable last month (effective 3rd September as detailed in this blog post), Pondtail lost its morning link to Calthorpe Park School although the 610 continued to provide a return bus in the afternoon though. From Monday (30th October), on school days the 0725 Farnborough to Calthorpe Park School journey will now depart ten minutes earlier and after the Avondale Road bus stop will turn left into Kings Road instead of continuing through Fleet town centre. After serving Kings Road and Aldershot Road in Pondtail (arr 0748), the bus will change number from 10 to 410 – with through passengers able to stay on the bus – and operate as an extension of the current 0817 Fleet (Oatsheaf) to Farnborough route 410 short duplicate journey. Departing Pondtail at 0749, the bus will perform a loop around Church Crookham via The Verne and through Crookham Village to Calthorpe Park School, from where it will continue on to Farnborough to serve the Sixth Form and Technology colleges.
410: Farnborough Colleges – Fleet – Crondall
Operated by: Stagecoach
The current 0740 Crondall to Farnborough Colleges (arr 0843) and return 1625 Farnborough Sixth Form to Crondall (arr 1707) journeys continue unchanged. The current morning short duplicate journey (0817 Fleet Oatsheaf to Farnborough Colleges) journey will be extended to start from Pondtail at 0749 then run through Church Crookham and Crookham Village to serve Calthorpe Park School, before continuing to Fleet and onwards as now. This journey had been cut back from Church Crookham (The Wyvern) to Fleet (The Oatsheaf) as part of changes routes 10 and 410 last month, with this extension back into Church Crookham offering increased capacity but also restoring a morning link between Pondtail and Calthorpe Park School (the 610 has maintained an afternoon return journey throughout).
500: Frimley Park Hospital – Staines
Operated by: White Bus
The three weekday daytime journeys in each direction that have served the Lightwater residential areas of Briar Avenue since September 2018 and Ambleside Road since September 2019, both due to changes made to the Arriva 35 (Guildford – Woking – Camberley) service, will now serve another part of Lightwater from this date. From 3rd September this year, Stagecoach further reworked the 34/35 corridor (which they took over from Arriva in December 2021) which saw the 35 withdrawn north of Woking and therefore the Clearsprings area of Lightwater left unserved. From Monday 30th October, White Bus’ Surrey County Council-contracted 500 will see the existing journeys that delve deeper into Lightwater than the main Guildford Road now also serve Macdonald Road, Clearsprings, Aplin Way, Badger Drive and The Avenue all instead of Ambleside Road. As a result, Lightwater War Memorial will be served at the Windlesham end of the Lightwater loop, instead of at the Bagshot end, and passengers will need to be on the correct side of the road depending on whether they are on a journey via the residential areas or that runs direct along Guildford Road. Additionally, between Sunningdale (railway station) and Virginia Water (The Wheatsheaf), buses will now remain on the main A30 London Road instead of diverting off to serve Broomhall Lane, Station Road, Church Road and Bedford Lane. This area will retain some bus connectivity with White Bus’ existing 01 (Heatherwood Hospital – Ascot – Sunninghill – Sunningdale – Windsor) route. Other than at Lightwater War Memorial, timings at timing points across the route are unchanged.
667: Matthew Arnold School to Stanwell Moor
Operated by: Cardinal Buses
Morning journey retimed to improve reliability as follows (current/new times): Stanwell Moor Post Office (0755/0748), Stanwell Village The Swan (0800/0755), Stanwell Happy Landing (0810/0800), Ashford Bulldog (0815/0806), arriving at Matthew Arnold School (0830/0815).
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…and next month…
555: Heathrow Central – Ashford – Shepperton – Whiteley Village
556: Heathow Terminal 4 – Ashford – Shepperton – Chertsey
Operated by: Diamond South East
Monday 6th November. Both routes currently operate the same timetable seven days a week, with the 555 operating a broadly hourly service 0500-2000, and the 556 a broadly hourly service 0300-1100 and 1500-2300, together offering a roughly half-hourly frequency over the Heathrow Terminal 4 – Stanwell – Ashford – Sunbury Cross (not Sunbury Village) – Shepperton section during the 556’s hours of operation. There is a revised timetable from the above date “to improve punctuality and reliability”.
Route 555 will remain hourly over much the same period of the day, but some peak hour journeys will have differing timetables between weekdays and weekends, and most journeys have minor retimings along their length. The current 0641 Walton to Heathrow journey will now start from Sunbury Cross, while the current 0655 Hersham to Heathrow journey is extended to start at Whiteley Village at 0648 weekdays / 0719 weekends.
Route 556 receives some minor retimings in the Chertsey to Heathrow direction. In the Heathrow to Chertsey direction the number of journeys is reduced from 14 to 12, with the removal of the 0900 and 1000 Heathrow to Chertsey journeys, and minor retimings to the remaining trips.
15: North Town – Aldershot – Tices Meadow – Heron Wood
Operated by: Stagecoach
Sunday 12th November. In the direction North Town > Aldershot > Tices Meadow > Heron Wood, buses will divert between the Football Stadium (Stop T) and Library (Stop G) to perform a U-shape diversion along Windsor Way, Arthur Street and Station Road “to improve bus/rail connectivity at Aldershot”. There are no existing stops on the current route between the stadium and library so no stops will lose a service as a result of this, but there are also no existing stops on the diversionary route. With the bus station having closed earlier this year and the Rail Replacement bus stop on the railway station turning circle not being suited for all day serving by buses across the week, a new bus stop – lettered ‘J’ – will be installed on Station Road opposite the Station Cafe. This will be a big advantage for passengers interchanging with trains, as the nearest stops for buses in this direction are around ten minutes walk away. Buses travelling in the opposite direction towards North Town currently serve the Arthur Street (Stop H) bus stop around five minutes walk from the railway station, and therefore the route of journeys towards North Town will not change.
As a result of the diversion, journeys from North Town towards Tices Meadow and Heron Wood will arrive at Princes Gardens Stop D two minutes later than now (typical off-peak journeys have six minutes layover there at present). Additionally, the weekday 0635 Aldershot > Tices Meadow (0643) > Heron Wood (0650) > Aldershot (0700-0705) > North Town (0715) > Aldershot (0729) round trip will run five minutes earlier throughout, presumably due to this journey currently only having a one minute 0729-0730 layover in Aldershot at present but the diversion adding two minutes extra running time between North Town and Aldershot. Stagecoach have produced a poster advertising the westbound re-route through Aldershot past the station, and the connections that can be made in town onto other routes by boarding a 15 bus there (sort of acknowledging the inconvenience that passengers making intermodal journeys have faced since May). This poster is reproduced below…
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FlixBus
FlixBus previously operated an extremely short-lived London to Portsmouth route via Guildford, with BM Coaches / YPIJ (Your Partner In Journey) as the contractor. You can read about that by clicking here. FlixBus have not returned to serving our area since, however their coaches can now be seen locally. Our social media followers will have previously read that Rowgate Group subsidiary Fernhill Travel have become a contractor, operating four new Yutong GT12 coaches out of sister operator White Bus’ premises in Horsell, Woking. Three spotted in service so far are YD73 FPE/F/G. Some local bus rear(s) have also featured a recruitment advert for drivers. I understand that these are their workings, which commenced Saturday 30th September, for which I assume their requirement is for three vehicles per day, each requiring two driver duties each (break at destination and driver changeover in London):
ROUTE 004
0700 London to Nottingham (1015)
1145 Nottingham to London (1500)
1600 London to Nottingham (1915)
2030 Nottingham to London (2330)
ROUTE 005
0830 London to Leicester (1115)
1240 Leicester to London (1540)
1630 London to Leicester (1925)
2045 Leicester to London (2325)
ROUTE 020
0630 London to Birmingham (0930)
1045 Birmingham to London (1345)
1430 London to Birmingham (1730
1915 Birmingham to London (2205)
On the topic of White Bus, it is understood that the delayed plans to extend some journeys beyond Staines to Hatton Cross via Ashford Hospital and Heathrow Terminal 4 are to go ahead from Monday 4th December. The original plan was to extend the weekday Woking to Chertsey ‘shorts’ to achieve this, doubling the end-to-end Woking to Staines frequency to half-hourly as a consequence. More information will follow if/when this is confirmed, as this speculation is based on a variation having been submitted for the current route 446 registration. Having recently taken over the 458 (Staines – Walton – Kingston) and the 446’s planned expansion, White Bus have increased Euro VI emission requirements into the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). We have previously reported on an order for eight MCV eVoRa-bodied Volvo B8RLE buses, of which LF23 DVW is already in service. It has been reported on social media that the second and third have also now arrived and being prepared for service, registered BV73 MKK/L, with further Enviro 200s also expected in the not too distant future.
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Fleet News
In other news, Cresta Coaches have expanded their small fleet of Optares with something bigger than their Solos and previous Alero, in the form of Optare Excel L1180 XIL 8944 (FD02 SFK). New to Nottingham City Transport, it has since spent time operating for Go Goodwins of Eccles and latterly Andrew’s in Tideswell. It retains Andrew’s cream with red stripe which handily fits Cresta’s ‘look’, but with additional red applied around and between the headlights. A photo by Paul Green can be found on Flickr by clicking here.
Safeguard Coaches sold their pair of Van Hool Alizée bodied Volvo B10M coaches registered DSK 558/9 (originally registered R410 EOS / P46 GPG respectively) within the last year or so. While the former was new to Parks of Hamilton, the latter was new to Safeguard in 1997 so had had a lengthy one owner life. Bernard Dale has kindly allowed me to share these photos he took of DSK 558, still wearing the Excelsior inspired livery applied by Safeguard but with Bailey’s of Fangfoss fleet names and York Pullman Group subsidiary Ingleby’s Luxury Coaches telephone number. This is still in active service operating school/college routes in Yorkshire. Sister DSK 559 is also still in existence and now with H&S Coach Hire of East Kilbride, albeit back on its P46 GPG registration and I’m told expected to get a repaint in time.
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Hants & Surrey Bus Blog 