In these days of bus services having to be commercially viable and local authority subsidies decreasing, the bus companies must find local authority school contracts extremely valuable to them.
However, is anyone else finding it increasingly difficult to travel by bus during a large period of the afternoon, when buses are diverted away from their regular routes and timetables to provide these services. In large urban areas it is not really noticeable, but on services between smaller towns and in rural areas regular bus services can be disrupted for a large period of the afternoon.
You quite often find that bus routes which run to a regular hourly service throughout the day are disrupted sometimes from as early as 2.30pm until as late as 5pm. This happens through buses not running the full route, either starting or finishing short, or being taken off the route altogether.
My local route out of Nottingham runs hourly all day, but on school days the 3.30pm bus from Nottingham does not run, leaving a gap of 2 hours just at the time when those who have been on shopping or leisure trips want to return before the busy buses used by commuters.
Each week I like to do a reasonable 6-7 mile walk, but I have to be really careful where and at what time in the afternoon I finish my walk so that I do not require a bus back at that very time when buses are missing from the timetable. When on holiday in various more rural parts of the country where there are no evening services you have to be really careful that you don't get stranded somewhere by missing the last bus when doing a journey involving more than one bus. It is often very difficult to travel anywhere for about 2 hours just at the time in the afternoon when you need to begin your return journey to get back to your destination before the buses stop running for the evening.
On the subject of subsidies being cut and evening services being withdrawn, in recent months I have been quite surprised how few buses now run in many of the more rural shire counties after 6pm. Even buses between quite important, and sizable for the area, market towns cease at 6pm.
However, is anyone else finding it increasingly difficult to travel by bus during a large period of the afternoon, when buses are diverted away from their regular routes and timetables to provide these services. In large urban areas it is not really noticeable, but on services between smaller towns and in rural areas regular bus services can be disrupted for a large period of the afternoon.
You quite often find that bus routes which run to a regular hourly service throughout the day are disrupted sometimes from as early as 2.30pm until as late as 5pm. This happens through buses not running the full route, either starting or finishing short, or being taken off the route altogether.
My local route out of Nottingham runs hourly all day, but on school days the 3.30pm bus from Nottingham does not run, leaving a gap of 2 hours just at the time when those who have been on shopping or leisure trips want to return before the busy buses used by commuters.
Each week I like to do a reasonable 6-7 mile walk, but I have to be really careful where and at what time in the afternoon I finish my walk so that I do not require a bus back at that very time when buses are missing from the timetable. When on holiday in various more rural parts of the country where there are no evening services you have to be really careful that you don't get stranded somewhere by missing the last bus when doing a journey involving more than one bus. It is often very difficult to travel anywhere for about 2 hours just at the time in the afternoon when you need to begin your return journey to get back to your destination before the buses stop running for the evening.
On the subject of subsidies being cut and evening services being withdrawn, in recent months I have been quite surprised how few buses now run in many of the more rural shire counties after 6pm. Even buses between quite important, and sizable for the area, market towns cease at 6pm.
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