To get near my target of doing around 20 trips a year
and only doing them on days when the weather is good involves constantly watching the weather and acting quickly when conditions look favourable. So it was that late Wednesday afternoon I booked myself a room near Doncaster, went home, packed, ate, and headed off up the motorway, arriving somewhat after dark.
Thursday morning dawned with blue sky but as I headed towards my intended start point of Boroughbridge we entered a large patch of mist which remained although there were glimpses of blue sky. Worse, when I parked up and checked BusTimes for my first journey, which should have left York at 6.50, it wasn’t tracking. Nothing on Transdev York’s website or tweets so I waited at the bus stop at the due time. It didn’t appear, then when I checked the tweets again there it was, cancelled. So the day was not starting well! I should add that I had originally considered doing a long a complex day in West Yorkshire, particularly around Halifax, but (1) the weather was supposed to be better further east and (2) in view of the current trend of cutting some rural routes due to lack of passengers and that North Yorkshire appeared to be getting nowt from the recent Bus Back Better round I thought I should go somewhere in more danger of not being there one day in the future.
Annoyed but undaunted I drove to where my first bus was supposed to take me, Ripon, wondering what else Transdev (or anyone else) could throw at me. Arriving about the same time as the bus was supposed to, I grabbed a bite in Ripon and stocked up for later, at which point the sun broke through and Ripon was bathed in glory. The cathedral and side streets down that way are lovely, the Market Place was bustling with the Thursday market ongoing and I had nearly an hour before my new first bus of the day.
So my first actual journey, starting at 9.00 - having been up since 5.30 – was Dales and District 70 to Thirsk (which continues to Northallerton). This journey does not appear on BusTimes but does appear on their website and I had actually taken the same journey, between Thirsk and Northallerton, last year, having on that occasion rung the bus company for verification. And indeed yesterday it ran, on time, with a small E200 and a fair number of passengers, more joining as I left in Thirsk. Quite an attractive route round some villages but the sort of service which, if it cannot cover its costs, might vanish. After my first, easy, journey had let me down I was slightly concerned at relatively tight connections between the next four journeys, but I had 24 minutes in Thirsk where I had a brief look round, although I had been there last year. Thirsk, of course, is the 'real' Darrowby, where the 'real' James Herriott was based (ref Grassington on a trip from last month).
From Thirsk I took the Reliance 30X south to Easingwold. I had actually done this section, the other way, last year. Going south it has the most horrendous right turn onto the A19 and, after about 3 minutes, the driver took what I would consider in football parlance to be barely a half-chance to turn but nothing hit us! A relatively flat route through the Vale of York, this runs hourly throughout most of the day and had several passengers, so hopefully relatively secure. My steed was a modern but boring E200. Easingwold is a glorious small town, again one I had visited last year, and I only had 20 minutes here, time for a short stroll around the very attractive area near the bus stop, buzzing with people eating at local cafes.
In terms of scenery the next section was definitely the highlight. This was the 31X to Helmsley, run by a Volvo B7RLE. The route runs four times a day and clearly serves a school between Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside justifying two round trips but I expected it to be fairly short of passengers in the current climate. In fact we had 10 leaving Easingwold, some of whom had clearly shopped, presumably in the 45 minutes since the arrival of a southbound journey. Some left in the villages but three more joined at Husthwaite and we still had a fair number arriving at Helmsley, where most got off. The scenery here is outstanding, once through Husthwaite there are great distant views northwards towards Sutton Bank and still good all the way to Helmsley. After Ampleforth the road the bus normally takes, past Ampleforth Abbey and Oswaldkirk, was closed and we simply missed these out, presumably there was no feasible alternative, so we arrived slightly early at Helmsley despite having been late earlier. Hopefully this route is profitable for Reliance and will survive, and I hope Reliance carry on as they are a very well presented outfit with buses clean and smart, including some pretty old ones used on school and other services, perhaps including the last couple of Volvo B7L single deckers still around.
The prompt arrival was good because in theory I only had 13 minutes at Helmsley, not ideal but the only feasible connection. This was enough time for a hurried wander around this gorgeous small town, lots of people but also lots of parked cars and a very attractive stretch with a stream running alongside the road.
From Helmsley I took the East Yorkshire X28 to Scarborough. As the 128 this used to be an hourly service through to Helmsley via every village nearby talking about 3½ hours round trip, being somewhat inefficient to run. Now the 128 only runs to Kirkbymoorside, still via every village, with a 3 hour round trip while the X28 misses out all villages off the main road, including Seamer, and makes it to Helmsley and back within 3 hours, these alternating with hourly arrival and departure times in Scarborough. This seems a good compromise to reduce the PVR even though some villages, and Helmsley, now only have a bus every two hours. This was a route I had always associated with double deckers and mine was indeed an 09-reg Volvo B9TL - so I was surprised to meet a Volvo B8RLE in Pickering and discover that usually only one or two of the three boards are double deckers, and not always the same ones. I hope this does not become a trend under Go Ahead control! This is quite a scenic route, especially at through Kirkbymoorside, Pickering and Thornton-le-Dale. Having previously stopped in Pickering I did not do so this time.
While heading into Scarborough I revisited the Transdev Coastliner & York web pages and tweets to discover that the Coastliner 840 from Malton to Leeds at 15.36 was cancelled due to driver shortages. Very annoying as that was the one I wished to take between Malton and York. Useful to know now though as not something BusTimes would tell me, indeed this journey appeared as normal bound for Leeds, until it got to Malton, where it stopped. At Scarborough, annoyingly, there was sea mist over the town, something I had been warned as a possible by the weather forecast. It wasn’t everywhere and only went inland a mile or so, and obviously had not been like that for long, as the town and beach were full of people substantially underdressed for the suddenly cold weather, bravely continuing with their Easter holiday seaside plans. There were a few customers for the two competing open top seafront services, Shoreline Suncruisers notably operating a couple of personalised registered Dennis Tridents, mostly originally V-registered ones. I have been to Scarborough before – indeed it is the only place I have actually spent a night away from my car on a two-day trip in 2017 – so I could live with it not being sunny, although the sun did break through a bit. I could have headed off after 1 minute but didn’t want to come to Scarborough and not see the seaside, so I had an hour.
So my next leg was on the Coastliner 843 to Malton, a standard 66-reg Volvo B5TL. On my two-day 2017 trip I had done York to Whitby with a stop at Pickering but not Malton and therefore I really wanted to stop off this time. This was made harder by the next bus, after 30 minutes in Malton, being cancelled, given that I could not miss the last bus from York to Ripon (there being a later one to Boroughbridge but my car was not there as originally planned). The following 843, even if on time, would miss the bus at York (and it was far from on time). But I did stop at Malton and it is necessary to do this to explore the proper town centre, slightly off the main bus routes, very pleasant it is too. I was able to do this because Transdev are not the only public transport providers in Malton – there is another Trans, TransPennine Express. Having checked it wasn’t cancelled as late as I could afford I took the 15.59 train from Malton to York, in fact helpfully giving me another 10 minutes or so to explore Malton. The train was on time, for anyone reading from the rail bits of the forum this was a class 68 leading five coaches, with at least two other drivers travelling on board which seems very inefficient, with it taking a couple of minutes at each stop to open the doors, which I don’t understand. The railway line follows the sweeping curves of the River Derwent for a bit with a good view of Kirkham Priory before speeding up for the last bit to York. I didn’t have that long at York now, in fact I never intended to, having been here three times previously and seen all the city centre.
The final leg, back to Ripon, was on York Country 22, the whole route operated by Versas, picking this up at the Station Road stop. It took some time to get out of York, as you would expect in the evening rush hour, but caught up time and went through several quietly attractive villages in the countryside between York and Boroughbridge. Boroughbridge itself looked even prettier in the bright sunshine than it had on my aborted visit in the morning and the adjacent village of Aldborough was also very attractive. We had 6 on board leaving York, some left in the villages and surprisingly two joined as well, but whether this is enough on a peak hour journey to sustain a two hourly service I don’t know. Arriving back at Ripon there were two Harrogate and District 36s on the stand with a long queue about to board the first one. How this happens on a half hourly service I don’t know but the record shows that the 17.45 to Leeds left Ripon at 18.13 while the 18.15 left at 18.14. On their previous journeys from Leeds the first one left Leeds 19 minutes late at 16.04 and lost more time on route, including 10 minutes at Harrogate Bus Station, while the second one left Leeds 10 minutes late at 16.25 and caught it all up!
So, after drawing breath in Ripon by revisiting the Market Square, I headed home, arriving at 22.30. A very enjoyable day out – trip number 250 since I restarted in 2004 after marriage and family taking me out for a while.
Some pictures of course....
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Ripon - a quiet street leading between the Market Square and the cathedral
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Thirsk
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Easingwold
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View looking north from near Husthwaite on the 31X
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Helmsley
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Helmsley - best view from the top of a bus!
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Thornton-le-Dale, from passing on the X28
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Scarborough - not my best picture of the day but it has a bus in it!
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Malton Market Square, its attractive but not perhaps the most photogenic - cars everywhere!
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Boroughbridge - what I missed out on!
I definitely agree I should have stopped off at Cullercoats. It’s a long drive home from Durham but say 30 minutes later would have been worthwhile. And very much so on the underrated coast around Shields and Tynemouth, glorious.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on Seaham. I thought the coastal part of the town was really attractive especially the harbour. Built on coal and the harbour I am sure the town was very run down in the 80s and 90s but a lot of money was spent in the 00s and now it’s dramatically improved. No it’s not Whitby or Tynemouth or Berwick and it’s not a resort but I think it’s OK! May add a couple more pictures tomorrow to back up my case.
