Aberdeen - Inverness Bus Services

[numtot12345]

Hello,

I am looking for information about Aberdeen - Inverness bus/coach services.

Trying to figure out if there is a direct coach service between the two cities. As far as I can tell:

• Used to be a designated Megabus/Stagecoach service between Aberdeen - Inverness
  • Link here to an example 2018 timetable with Stagecoach/Megabus branding
  • http://www.moray.gov.uk/downloads/file119365.pdf
  • I assume this operated until Covid?
• Looking at timetables now:
  • Megabus don't appear to have a direct service, with their website routing you via Broxden (approx. 5.5 hours)
  • Stagecoach (Bluebird?) have a "10" service, however on their website it's not advertsed as A-I but as seperate sections; and can't actually find a timetable which has the whole route on it.
  • When searching for directions on Google Maps, it also directs you to Stagecoach Service 10 and indicates no interchange required.

Grateful if anyone has any knowledge on this and be able to confirm this for me?
Thanks

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

There is a full timetable for the route 10 on bustimes.org - the end-to-end journey takes over four hours though!

10 - Huntly - Inverurie - Aberdeen

Stagecoach North Scotland

bustimes.org

 

[matchmaker]

There is a full timetable for the route 10 on bustimes.org - the end-to-end journey takes over four hours though!

10 - Huntly - Inverurie - Aberdeen

Stagecoach North Scotland

bustimes.org

Slowest train takes 2 hours 33 minutes. Fastest 2 hours 9 minutes!

 

[Flying Snail]

Most longer distance GB bus services are listed in this way as it is a dodge of the EU driving hour regulations.

The Stagecoach 10 has been the only direct Aberdeen - Inverness for many years, and it's journey time has always been long.

Megabus fares used to be sold on the 10, at one time it was easy enough to get very cheap £1 fares on it.

 

[GusB]

Hello,

I am looking for information about Aberdeen - Inverness bus/coach services.

Trying to figure out if there is a direct coach service between the two cities. As far as I can tell:

• Used to be a designated Megabus/Stagecoach service between Aberdeen - Inverness
  • Link here to an example 2018 timetable with Stagecoach/Megabus branding
  • http://www.moray.gov.uk/downloads/file119365.pdf
  • I assume this operated until Covid?
• Looking at timetables now:
  • Megabus don't appear to have a direct service, with their website routing you via Broxden (approx. 5.5 hours)
  • Stagecoach (Bluebird?) have a "10" service, however on their website it's not advertsed as A-I but as seperate sections; and can't actually find a timetable which has the whole route on it.
  • When searching for directions on Google Maps, it also directs you to Stagecoach Service 10 and indicates no interchange required.

Grateful if anyone has any knowledge on this and be able to confirm this for me?
Thanks

If you're travelling from Aberdeen to Inverness, you'll board one vehicle in Aberdeen and it will run the whole way. As others have mentioned above, it's shown as a split route on the timetable in order to comply with* domestic drivers' regulations. There used to be a single timetable available for the whole route which showed all these part-journeys, but with "connections" shown between them, but in practice it's a through journey. Stagecoach seems to have stopped publishing the whole route timetable, which is incredibly frustrating.

The route is normally operated by Volvo / Plaxton Elite coaches which have toilets, WiFi and USB charging points.

* Or dodge having to comply with EU regulations, depending on your viewpoint!

In addition to the (roughly) hourly Aberdeen to Inverness, there is a shorter 10 that runs from Elgin to Inverness in the gaps between, so if you're heading the other way you'd need to make sure that you catch a service that shows "for Aberdeen" on the destination board.

Fares-wise, a single is £11.50 and a period return is £21.50. If you're under 22 and have a National Entitlement Card, your journey will be free. Sadly, they appear to have withdrawn student fares.

 

[Statto]

Stagecoach still publish the full 10 timetable, you have to get the timetable from the Stagecoach website or from the link below.

https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/North%20Scotland/Bluebird/Service%2010%2018th%20April%202022.pdf

 

[numtot12345]

Thank you all for your prompt and informative responses, very helpful.

Statto - thank you for that link to the PDF timetable, this is exactly what I'm looking for in terms of timetabling.

 

[route101]

Strange that this is not a Citylink route. I believe it used to.

 

[NE_ABZ]

Strange that this is not a Citylink route. I believe it used to.

It might have been a branding exercise more than anything else. The A96 between Aberdeen and Inverness is mostly a simple A road, passing through towns such as Elgin and Keith. From personal experience, it is a road that sometimes has slow speeds due to being stuck behind, tractors, trucks, endless road works in Keith etc. Other times you get lucky. Timekeeping of buses on the A96 must be a bit "variable".

 

[GusB]

It might have been a branding exercise more than anything else. The A96 between Aberdeen and Inverness is mostly a simple A road, passing through towns such as Elgin and Keith. From personal experience, it is a road that sometimes has slow speeds due to being stuck behind, tractors, trucks, endless road works in Keith etc. Other times you get lucky. Timekeeping of buses on the A96 must be a bit "variable".

It wasn't just a branding exercise; the Inverness to Aberdeen route used to be part of the Citylink network and it ran as a limited stop service. Timings could certainly be tight due to the variety of traffic on what was largely a single carriageway road, but there were some "fearless" drivers who were dedicated to running the service.

There was the additional all-stops service 306 that Northern ran between Elgin and Aberdeen; the bus would do the whole journey, but if I recall correctly the drivers swapped over at Huntly. Westbound from Elgin there was a 310 to Forres and while I'm not 100% certain about Highland's routes at the time, I think they used to run out as far as Forres at some point. It would have theoretically possible to get from Inverness to Aberdeen without using the Citylink service at all.

 

[ian1944]

Is there still an Elgin- Aberdeen service via the coast?

 

[JonathanH]

Is there still an Elgin- Aberdeen service via the coast?

Yes - https://bustimes.org/services/35-elgin-aberdeen

35 - Elgin - Buckie - Macduff - Oldmeldrum - Aberdeen

A bus service operated by Stagecoach Bluebird

 

[route101]

Is there still an Elgin- Aberdeen service via the coast?

Yes, great run if you get the chance.

 

[NE_ABZ]

Yes, great run if you get the chance.

Having been brought up in that part of the world, I beg to differ. The 35 suffers as a local service from being a very long route with time keeping problems, and as a long distance bus with too many stops and a 20MPH average speed. Now if the old train line Cairnie Junction to Elgin via Coast had survived, imagine a Scotrail 158 on Cullen viaduct.

 

[Flying Snail]

Having been brought up in that part of the world, I beg to differ. The 35 suffers as a local service from being a very long route with time keeping problems, and as a long distance bus with too many stops and a 20MPH average speed. Now if the old train line Cairnie Junction to Elgin via Coast had survived, imagine a Scotrail 158 on Cullen viaduct.

I think the previous poster was suggesting it as a nice route for a scenic jolly.

The 10 is also brutally, unacceptably slow with an average speed not much higher than 20mph. 4h15 to do 104 road miles is awful. It's no wonder it carries next to no through passengers, even when £1 tickets were routinely available from Megabus.

 

[GusB]

I think the previous poster was suggesting it as a nice route for a scenic jolly.

The 10 is also brutally, unacceptably slow with an average speed not much higher than 20mph. 4h15 to do 104 road miles is awful. It's no wonder it carries next to no through passengers, even when £1 tickets were routinely available from Megabus.

Indeed. I used the service a fair bit when I was regularly travelling to Aberdeen. Ironically, the 10 got slower despite the additional dualling and bypasses that have been constructed in recent years. There were a couple of route changes they made over the years; the first had it going via the airport and the second, more important one, was when they switched it from running into Aberdeen along Great Northern Road and sending it via Foresterhill instead.

As soon as cost was no longer a barrier, I switch to using the train instead.

 

[computerSaysNo]

I think during rail strike days a limited-stop service would definitely be popular and would make a profit, it's just on non-rail strike days that it might struggle.

 

[GusB]

I think during rail strike days a limited-stop service would definitely be popular and would make a profit, it's just on non-rail strike days that it might struggle.

I think a limited stop service, even on certain days, may still be popular. When I first started my travels by coach in my late teens ( not exactly yesterday ) there was often a need for duplicates on some services leaving Aberdeen on Friday afternoons. Presumably this would have been mainly students coming home at weekends. I don't recall it being so busy on Sundays in the other direction, but perhaps that was because demand was spread throughout the day.

I have to admit that it has been a long time since I used the service in the Aberdeen direction so I've no idea what loadings are like these days, but I've been on a few very busy services out of Inverness.

 

[Flying Snail]

I think a limited stop service, even on certain days, may still be popular. When I first started my travels by coach in my late teens ( not exactly yesterday ) there was often a need for duplicates on some services leaving Aberdeen on Friday afternoons. Presumably this would have been mainly students coming home at weekends. I don't recall it being so busy on Sundays in the other direction, but perhaps that was because demand was spread throughout the day.

That is the way coach routes in Ireland still run, heavy peaks out of the main centres on Friday afternoons and back on Sunday evenings with lots of dupes, mainly 3rd level student traffic.

Non-stop Inverness - Elgin would appear to be the easy win to claw back some time, with the alternative hourly service already there.

 

[Statto]

I think a limited stop service, even on certain days, may still be popular. When I first started my travels by coach in my late teens ( not exactly yesterday ) there was often a need for duplicates on some services leaving Aberdeen on Friday afternoons. Presumably this would have been mainly students coming home at weekends. I don't recall it being so busy on Sundays in the other direction, but perhaps that was because demand was spread throughout the day.

I have to admit that it has been a long time since I used the service in the Aberdeen direction so I've no idea what loadings are like these days, but I've been on a few very busy services out of Inverness.

The 555 Lancaster to Keswick is like this in the summer months, when Stagecoach have extra 555s every hour to & from Lancaster which go via the M6 to Kendal, which then combine for 30 minute frequency Kendal to Keswick

 

[GusB]

That is the way coach routes in Ireland still run, heavy peaks out of the main centres on Friday afternoons and back on Sunday evenings with lots of dupes, mainly 3rd level student traffic.

Non-stop Inverness - Elgin would appear to be the easy win to claw back some time, with the alternative hourly service already there.

It wouldn't necessarily need to be non-stop; the route goes through Nairn anyway so there's no great time saving by not stopping. You're also missing out one of the main towns. It could skip Tradespark in Nairn, certainly, and I'd definitely skip Auldearn. Missing out Forres wouldn't be popular, but if a stop could be provided on the bypass it save a bit of time. The speed limit on the bypass is 40mph between the roundabout and the railway station junction, so it's not as if people are having to cross a fast road, and there is a central reservation there too.

 

[computerSaysNo]

I tried drawing up a timetable for this a while ago, based on stopping at

1. Inverness Bus Station
2. Nairn, Bus Stop/Fire Station
3. Forres, High Street/Army Surplus
4. Elgin Bus Station
5. Baxters Factory on A96
6. Keith, Reidhaven Square
7. Huntly, Square
8. Inverurie, Market Place/The Square
9. Aberdeen Bus Station

This was based on operating a low-entry high-specification bus, to try to keep dwells down to a minimum.
The best timetable I could come up with is below but there are still some issues.
Journey times are taken from Google Maps journey planner using the maximum likely driving time for that time of day.

Vehicle ->			1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
							driver swap Inv + dwell 30	driver swap Inv + dwell 30	driver swap Inv + dwell 30	driver swap Inv + dwell 40
Inverness	dep		05:30	07:30	09:30	11:30	13:30	15:30	17:30	19:50
Duration	hh:mm		03:00	03:20	03:10	03:20	03:20	03:30	03:00	02:40
Aberdeen	arr		08:30	10:50	12:40	14:50	16:50	19:00	20:30	22:30
Dwell mins			break 50 + dwell 30 = 80	break 50 + dwell 10 = 60	break 50 + dwell 20 = 70	break 50 + dwell 10 = 60	break 50 + dwell 10 = 60	break 50 = 50	break 50 + dwell 30 = 80	break 50 + dwell 30 = 80
Aberdeen	dep		09:50	11:50	13:50	15:50	17:50	19:50	21:50	23:50
Duration	hh:mm		03:10	03:10	03:10	03:20	03:00	02:40	02:40	02:30
Inverness	arr		13:00	15:00	17:00	19:10	20:50	22:30	00:30	02:20
Shift length			07:30	07:30	07:30	07:40	07:20	07:00	07:00	06:30

This is from all vehicles and staff operating out of Inverness.
As far as I'm aware this timetable complies with driving hours regulations, the longest driving time without a break is 3 hours and 30 minutes which is under the maximum allowed by law (can't remember exactly what it is offhand, is it 4 hours and 30 minutes?). All breaks are 50 minutes long which is over the minimum allowed by law of 45 minutes. The maximum shift length is 7 hours and 40 minutes.
It is possible that the 23:50 from Aberdeen could be moved to 07:50 the following morning to give Aberdeen an earlier departure but I'm not sure how this would work from a staffing perspective. It would also mean that the last bus from Aberdeen would be at 21:50 which is quite early.
Some of the recovery dwells are quite short but bear in mind the journey times here are the maximum likely under normal traffic so hopefully the dwells wouldn't be needed much anyway.

 

[philthetube]

This timetable could be operated under uk regs so no driving hours issues. min break 30 mins, max driving time 5 hours 15