2024 – the year of the inconsistent timetable?

There are a number of revised timetables being introduced in the New Year that will require passengers to pay particular attention to their new times, be it due to uneven headways on consecutive journeys, or Saturday timetables having different clockface departures to the weekday timetable. Hopefully this sort of thing won’t catch on…

Fleet wise, I have been adding things to the Facebook page as and when I hear of them. Newbury & District‘s fleet of brand new Plaxton Panther-bodied Volvo coaches have entered service on the Heathrow Terminal 5 – Bagshot – Camberley – Frimley – Basingstoke route 730/731. Reptons Coaches have put their new Enviro 200MMC SL73 REP into service on the 478 (Guildford – East Horsley – Leatherhead). Safeguard have acquired former airport shuttle bus 8.9m Enviro 200 YX18 KOD for the Woking to Barnsbury 81, which is currently in the hands of their ageing 2002 Mini Pointer Dart. Falcon‘s latest deliveries of Enviros for their recent expansion are, I believe, all now added to the fleet list.

A summary of what’s taking place service change wise is outlined below and, in the meantime, I hope you all had a good Christmas and I wish you all the best for the New Year.

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Tuesday 2nd January

315: Redhill – Smallfield – Dormansland
Operated by: Cruisers
The 1533 St. Bede’s School to Smallfield (arrive 1602) school day short journey is retimed to run 28 minutes earlier throughout.

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Wednesday 3rd January

503: Guildford – Milford – Hambledon
Operated by: Stagecoach
The main timing point in Godalming town centre is moved from Bridge Street (Stop D) to Borough Hall (Stop E), with the time now being one minute later than at present as a result. The 1138 Godalming to Hambledon Common journey will now be request only beyond Milford (Amberley Road), with the 1215 Hambledon Common to Guildford return journey now starting at Milford (Crossroads). There is also a re-route in Milford, with Chapel Lane no longer being served “due to access concerns”.

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Monday 8th January

28: Woking – Brookwood – Guildford
Operated by: Falcon Buses
Revised timetable to improve reliability, in connection with interworked route 456 (see below). Departures from Woking will now generally be at xx55 rather than xx13, with departures from Guildford being xx10 rather than xx40. Journeys in the peak hours at either end of the day are several minutes either side of these times. In the Guildford to Woking direction, this results in a later first end-to-end journey of 0810 (arriving 0905) compared to 0735/0740 M-F/Sat (arriving 0835/0840) as now. All journeys will now serve Woking Morrisons bar the 0650 Woking to Guildford, where as at present a couple of others also skip it.

436: Woking – West Byfleet – Weybridge
Operated by: Falcon Buses
Revised timetable to improve reliability. Weekday departure times from each end generally shifted 5 mins later to xx05/35 from Woking and xx12/42 from Weybridge, along with other minor timing adjustments. Saturday departure times remain xx00/30 from Woking and xx07/37 from Weybridge.

456: Woking – Addlestone – Staines
Operated by: Falcon Buses
Revised timetable to improve reliability. Journeys still generally depart Staines at xx10 but are given additional running time arriving Woking xx14/15 (M-F/Sat) instead of xx08. From Woking, buses on weekdays will generally depart xx50 instead of xx45, again with additional running time arriving Staines xx02 instead of xx51. Saturdays vary in this direction though, generally departing Woking xx25 and arriving at Staines xx38. These layovers in Woking will therefore affect those passengers who made previous cross-Woking links to/from the Morrisons supermarket from points east of town on the 456, and latterly 456/28 interworking. Assuming buses on the 28 and 456 will still interwork though, this mid-route layover will at least hopefully help stop delays caused by roadworks/congestion spreading across both routes as easily, compared to today’s 5 mins recovery time between routes in each direction (which also has to factor in unloading and boarding time). While actions to improve reliability are obviously welcome, I do feel it is a shame that the 456 will now have substantially different departure times depending if weekday or Saturday in the northbound direction.

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Sunday 28th January

8: Heathrow – Staines – Windsor – Slough
Operated by: First Beeline
Revised timetable, with the current combined Saturday and Sunday/Public Holiday timetable separated. New journeys include a weekday 45 minute later departure from Heathrow (2005), with Saturdays gaining a 40ish minute earlier round trip (0637 from Slough and 0747 return from Heathrow). The big thing to note with the new timetable is that the off-peak frequency is no longer a neat half-hourly one, with consecutive journeys varying by a few minutes at start, end and/or intermediate timing points. For example on weekdays, off-peak daytime departures from Slough are at 1006, 1034, 1105, 1133, 1203, 1234, 1304, 1332 and 1403, but generally only a minute or two away from an even headway by Staines, and then all arriving at Heathrow xx20/50. With the frequency remaining two buses per hour and the variation only being a few minutes, this seems rather unnecessary from a customer-friendly point of view. Given the closeness to an even headway, a retention of easy-to-remember clockface times surely wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility?

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