Most changes to services in our coverage area tend to occur in line with the academic year, so late August/early September. This year looks set to be no different, with a couple of tendered school services already known to be changing hands. We’ve also had word of some Carlone-operated 5xx routes whose fate seems to be sealed by the expansion of the ‘Surrey Connect’ demand responsive transport (DRT) operation, leading me to question if we’ll be hearing this year of a similar fate hitting Stagecoach’s 5xx services as mooted in documents previously mentioned as well (keep an eye on our Facebook and Service Changes pages for these). Often there will also be additional changes, usually on a more minor scale, dotted throughout the year. The months of April and May gave us a few, most of them as a result of additional funding schemes from councils.
On 9th March I posted on the Facebook page that at the North West Surrey Bus Users Group (NWSBUG) meeting that day, the guest speaker from Surrey County Council announced that additional funding would see several enhancements to Falcon Buses’ routes 436 (enhanced evening and new Sunday service), 456 (half-hourly Woking to West Byfleet), 461 (increase to every 20 mins) and 479 (enhanced evening and Sunday service). These improvements would receive funding for the first two years with Falcon committing to operate them for a third year, by which time it is hoped the changes would have become financially viable to continue going forward. No firm dates were given for these changes to come into effect, however the first was launched on 29th April and saw the 461 (St. Peter’s Hospital to Kingston) increased from half-hourly to every 20 minutes on Monday to Saturday daytimes through until the early evening.
Talking of the NWSBUG, their next public meeting is this coming Saturday (1st June) in the Skylight Room at Woking’s Christ Church from 1030. All are welcome to attend their public meetings and discuss bus services in the area.
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Getting to the point… first, the Falcon 456…
I’ve previously reported this next bit of news on the Facebook page, but have been saving posting it here to see if any other changes or minor news items were announced for June to be included alongside it first. I try not to overload the main blog with too many articles, so I recommend following the Facebook page for the most up-to-date news as it happens, plus odd bits and bobs that may be of interest but probably don’t warrant a full blog post.
The big news is that the second of the four Falcon Buses route enhancements to be launched is for the route 456 effective from Monday 10th June, and it’s even better than just an extra bus being inserted to offer a half-hourly service over the Woking > Sheerwater > West Byfleet section (quarter-hourly when combined with the half-hourly 436) as previously reported. The news article posted on Falcon’s website on 22nd May announces something above and beyond this level of service, increasing the peak vehicle requirement from the current three to at least five in order to offer a half-hourly service over the full length of route from Woking up to Staines (via Sheerwater, West Byfleet, Addlestone and Chertsey).
There are retimings to most journeys but the general operating day remains broadly similar. Towards Staines, an earlier weekday arrival into Staines is provided by an 0632 Addlestone to Staines (0704) short journey, while Saturdays get later journeys from Woking arriving into Staines at 1903 and 1933. Towards Woking, weekdays gain new much earlier departures from Staines by extending the current Chertsey starts to Staines at 0620 and 0710, with Saturdays getting a later departure from Staines at 1940 running as far as Addlestone. The new timings also mean there is no longer a differential of around half an hour in departures from Woking depending if it’s a weekday (xx50) or Saturday (xx25).
As mentioned above, journeys are timed to be quarter of an hour away from the 436 in order to offer an even four buses per hour over the Woking > Sheerwater > West Byfleet section in both directions. Departures from Woking will mostly be xx20/50 (436 at xx05/35 weekdays or xx00/30 Saturday), and from West Byfleet railway station at xx00/xx30 (436 at xx14/44 weekdays or xx09/39 Saturday). The 456 also shares its northern section of route between Chertsey and Staines with White Bus route 446 and, as what I suspect is just a happy coincidence given the southern section’s combined frequency is clearly the priority, the 446 and 456 on this section won’t be too far off being a quarter hourly frequency on weekdays either. The 456 departs Chertsey Heriot Road towards Staines at xx16/46 (446 at 00/30), and in the other direction departs Staines towards Woking at xx10/40 (446 at xx00/30). The 446 only runs hourly on Saturdays and at different mins past the hour to weekdays (in particular heading away from Staines), however the two routes are timed to be nearly half-hour apart at present. The new 456 timetable will cause southbound trips to depart Staines just five minutes ahead of the 446, however the 456 itself will now offer a clean half-hourly frequency to passengers travelling over the Chertsey to Staines section on Saturdays.
Falcon’s website also says that they’ll be introducing “improved buses over the coming weeks” to the route, with the artwork featuring ADL Enviro 200s with the same revised fleet livery style to the six recently delivered new for the enhanced 461. This new variation replaces the usual black panel under the windscreen with white and the Falcon logo, which combined with a thicker red skirt on the sides allows for the blue stripe above the red to be continued around the front of the vehicle. The artwork also features the same style of route branding as the 461 with coloured band above the destination board and side windows, with key locations and frequency written above the side windows, and ‘more often’ branding on the bodyside to highlight the enhanced frequency. The colour appears to be a similar blue to the route maps and previous route 456 branding applied to the ex-White Bus classic Enviros YX67 VGJ/K, which were running around advertising a frequency of “up to every 30 minutes” a couple of years prematurely back in 2022. Both have since left the fleet, now being 502/503 in the Centrebus and D&G Bus fleets respectively.
You can view the new half-hourly route 456 timetable, effective 10th June, by clicking here.
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Rail Link Retimings
From Monday 3rd June, there will be minor retimings to the Surrey County Council contracted rail link route 47 between Brookwood railway station and West End via Bisley. In order to improve reliability, in part due to what sounds like some long term roadworks that have taken place, the morning journeys will be retimed to depart West End ten minutes earlier at 0612, 0642 and 0712 and have revised timings en route. You can view the new timetable by clicking here.
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Hants & Surrey Bus Blog 
Interestingly, the new 456 pdf timetable shows it departing from stand 3 at Woking Station (currently stand 5 as the Sheerwater buses have been for a long time). An error, or a “promotion” up to a better stand closer to the shops?
The new times don’t look to have been sent to open data yet to tell for sure, albeit I notice that White Bus service 73 is now tracked to stand 5 (always traditionally stand 3). Not sure when that happened; the pdf on their website is still showing stand 3.
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Thanks for your observation. I guess it could be to reduce conflict as the 456 will now have xx50 departures which the 462/463 also currently have from Stand 5. Personally though, I think I’d’ve moved the 462/463 and kept the 456 sharing the same stand as the 436 and 446 (so Sheerwater/West Byfleet passengers use one stop, and similar for Chertsey passengers). That is obviously out of Falcon’s hands to move a White Bus service themselves though, but maybe something that can be looked at by the council longer term?
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