England and Wales interurban bus map

[Ken H]

2 more buses to add

24 Harrogate - Pateley Bridge. You could branch it off the 36 between Harrogate and Ripon - they both do Harrogate - Killinghall.

Don't know if this is allowed. but there is a Saturdays only 59 Skipton - Harrogate direct. not via Ilkley and Otley but running further north. Runs all year - double deckers.

There is a B3 between Keighley and Hebden Bridge. Runs every day.

All Transdev

 

[Snex]

It's probably not going to help your map but the interurban routes from Newcastle are considered to be:

Arriva:
X7, Blyth to Newcastle via Seaton Delaval
X8/X9/X10/X11, Blyth to Newcastle via Cramlington
X12, Middlesbrough to Newcastle via Durham
X14, Thropton to Newcastle
X15/X18, Berwick / Alnwick to Newcastle via Morpeth
X20, Alnwick to Newcastle via Ashington
X21/X22, Ashington/Newbiggin to Newcastle via Bedlington
306, Whitley Bay to Newcastle via North Shields
308, Blyth to Newcastle via Whitley Bay

GNE:
X1, Peterlee to Newcastle via Washington
10, Hexham to Newcastle via Prudhoe
X10, Middlesbrough to Newcastle via Peterlee
X21, West Auckland to Newcastle via Durham
X30/X31, Stanley to Newcastle
X45/X70, Consett to Newcastle
307, North Shields to Newcastle (New Service replacing 310/311)
309, Blyth to Newcastle via Cobalt

SNE
X24, Sunderland to Newcastle
X34, Marden to Newcastle
X47/X77/X78, Ponteland or Kingston Park to Newcastle
X63, Killingworth to Newcastle
685, Carlisle to Newcastle

https://twitter.com/NEMartijn/status/1216454498492854273/photo/1 - There's a map here showing them all.

Outside of Newcastle, it's basically just all the ex. Sapphire (excluding 43/44/45) and MAX Routes plus the GNE X6 and 20 and Stagecoach 36

 

[Parebunks]

It's probably not going to help your map but the interurban routes from Newcastle are considered to be:

Arriva:
X7, Blyth to Newcastle via Seaton Delaval
X8/X9/X10/X11, Blyth to Newcastle via Cramlington
X12, Middlesbrough to Newcastle via Durham
X14, Thropton to Newcastle
X15/X18, Berwick / Alnwick to Newcastle via Morpeth
X20, Alnwick to Newcastle via Ashington
X21/X22, Ashington/Newbiggin to Newcastle via Bedlington
306, Whitley Bay to Newcastle via North Shields
308, Blyth to Newcastle via Whitley Bay

GNE:
X1, Peterlee to Newcastle via Washington
10, Hexham to Newcastle via Prudhoe
X10, Middlesbrough to Newcastle via Peterlee
X21, West Auckland to Newcastle via Durham
X30/X31, Stanley to Newcastle
X45/X70, Consett to Newcastle
307, North Shields to Newcastle (New Service replacing 310/311)
309, Blyth to Newcastle via Cobalt

SNE
X24, Sunderland to Newcastle
X34, Marden to Newcastle
X47/X77/X78, Ponteland or Kingston Park to Newcastle
X63, Killingworth to Newcastle
685, Carlisle to Newcastle

https://twitter.com/NEMartijn/status/1216454498492854273/photo/1 - There's a map here showing them all.

Outside of Newcastle, it's basically just all the ex. Sapphire (excluding 43/44/45) and MAX Routes plus the GNE X6 and 20 and Stagecoach 36

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for! Just finishing that area off now, I definitely struggled with it originally.

 

[Hassocks5489]

Excellent - this will be very useful!

Couple of typos I've spotted: Malksham should be Melksham, and Tidsworth should be Tidworth.

Local to me, route 100 (Burgess Hill–Horsham) could be included, as could route 2 ([Rottingdean–]Brighton–Steyning), if Steyning is considered big enough. Both are hourly.

 

[Snex]

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for! Just finishing that area off now, I definitely struggled with it originally.

No worries,

There's a map of the X Lines routes that might help aswell (note the X84/X85 are scrapped, the X30 terminates at Stanley and the X20 is temporarily withdrawn with extra runs on the 20/20A currently).

The Arriva MAX / Sapphire Network was, not mentioned above

X1 - Durham to Stanhope / Tow Law
X3/X3A - Middlesbrough to Lingdale via Redcar
X4/X4A - Middlesbrough to Whitby via Redcar
5/5A - Middlesbrough to Guisborough / Easington
6 - Durham to West Auckland
7 - Durham to Darlington
22/23/24 - Durham / Hartlepool / Sunderland triangle via Peterlee
X25/X26 - Darlington to Catterick Garrison
X46 - Durham to Crook
X66 - Darlington to Middlesbrough
X75/X76 - Darlington to Barnard Castle
X93/X94 - Middlesbrough to Scarborough

 

[Parebunks]

Right, implemented corrections and most suggestions, though couldn't fit some on. Thanks in particular to @RELL6L , very good eye for detail! See the first post in the thread for latest version.

 

[tbtc]

The map highlights some fairly major gaps in modern day bus coverage, nothing from Scunthorpe to Grimsby for example

It also makes depressing reading for someone who’s enjoyed rural bus journeys pre-Covid, given that checking up on some bits of the map is how I’m realising that those routes no longer exist! A 2019 version would have been a lot more complicated to draw. I worry that a 2024 version will probably see more gaps, as funding is cut further

Some big gaps appear at local authority boundaries, for example whilst inter-urban routes in South Yorkshire are relatively unchanged, long established routes like Doncaster to Selby/ Pontefract or Sheffield/ Barnsley to Huddersfield have dwindled away over the decades, often cut into routes that terminate by the county boundary

Maybe this map will be useful for debunking crayonista plans for reopening some lines or increasing low frequency routes (e.g. if Castleford/ Pontefract to Goole can’t sustain a minibus every couple of hours then heavy rail is going to struggle to wash its face)

From memory, Gosport ought to be frequent enough to warrant a place on the map. Maybe Wooler too, since the combined frequency of the two routes to Berwick are essentially hourly

 

[Parebunks]

From memory, Gosport ought to be frequent enough to warrant a place on the map. Maybe Wooler too, since the combined frequency of the two routes to Berwick are essentially hourly

Wooler doesn't make the cut by sole virtue of being too inconvenient to put on, and I decided Gosport was too close to Portsmouth, even if there is water in between!

 

[ChrisC]

The map highlights some fairly major gaps in modern day bus coverage, nothing from Scunthorpe to Grimsby for example

It also makes depressing reading for someone who’s enjoyed rural bus journeys pre-Covid, given that checking up on some bits of the map is how I’m realising that those routes no longer exist! A 2019 version would have been a lot more complicated to draw. I worry that a 2024 version will probably see more gaps, as funding is cut further

Some big gaps appear at local authority boundaries, for example whilst inter-urban routes in South Yorkshire are relatively unchanged, long established routes like Doncaster to Selby/ Pontefract or Sheffield/ Barnsley to Huddersfield have dwindled away over the decades, often cut into routes that terminate by the county boundary

Maybe this map will be useful for debunking crayonista plans for reopening some lines or increasing low frequency routes (e.g. if Castleford/ Pontefract to Goole can’t sustain a minibus every couple of hours then heavy rail is going to struggle to wash its face)

From memory, Gosport ought to be frequent enough to warrant a place on the map. Maybe Wooler too, since the combined frequency of the two routes to Berwick are essentially hourly

Also shows up the gaps and sparse routes east of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire into Lincolnshire. It’s very difficult to travel by bus anywhere east out of Newark and Grantham. Cutting the service from Nottingham to Melton Mowbray and Oakham makes journeys towards Peterborough difficult too.

 

[Deerfold]

Decent start, but missing:

The more frequent route between Bradford and Halifax (576).
The X70 Harrogate to Wetherby (as well as the 7).
The less frequent routes between Halifax and Huddersfield (343, 537/8/9, 549 all hourly)

The M4 Burnley - Keighley and 502 Keighley to Halifax don't share any route from Keighley and only a few dozen yards in the other direction.
Pendle Wizz doesn't have an "h" in it.
The 255 and 508 between Halifax and Leeds share almost none of their route.
The routes from Halifax to Todmorden and beyond are 590/1/2, not 190/1/2.
Nottingham to Alfreton is named the "one", not the "1".
Between Derby and Belper besides the 6.1 there's the 6.0,6.2, 6.3 and 6.4.
Carousel's 101 doesn't run between Uxbridge and Heathrow.
Between Heathrow and Slough there's the 7 as well as the 4.

What criteria did you use to decide which places to include? There seem to be some quite big towns missing, but some much smaller places on the map.

 

[Parebunks]

Decent start, but missing:

The more frequent route between Bradford and Halifax (576).
The X70 Harrogate to Wetherby (as well as the 7).
The less frequent routes between Halifax and Huddersfield (343, 537/8/9, 549 all hourly)

The M4 Burnley - Keighley and 502 Keighley to Halifax don't share any route from Keighley and only a few dozen yards in the other direction.
Pendle Wizz doesn't have an "h" in it.
The 255 and 508 between Halifax and Leeds share almost none of their route.
The routes from Halifax to Todmorden and beyond are 590/1/2, not 190/1/2.
Nottingham to Alfreton is named the "one", not the "1".
Between Derby and Belper besides the 6.1 there's the 6.0,6.2, 6.3 and 6.4.

What criteria did you use to decide which places to include? There seem to be some quite big towns missing, but some much smaller places on the map.

Thanks, fixed most of those! A couple are deliberate - I haven't included less frequent/slower routes a lot of the time, and I've let routes run together where they don't in reality to keep to 45- and 90-degree angles. There wasn't any stringent selection criteria - I was more generous in more rural areas, but left bigger places off in areas that got cramped.

 

[daodao]

Interesting overview, but there appear to be too many missing towns and routes for this map to be of practical use.

In my local area (Cheshire), the following key interurban routes and towns appear to be missing, in no particular order:

• Wilmslow - served by routes 88 and 130
• Routes 391/392 Stockport-Poynton-Macclesfield
• Poynton, served by routes 391/392
• Route 358 Stockport-New Mills-Hayfield
• Route 60 Macclesfield-Whaley Bridge-New Mills-Hayfield
• Hayfield, served by routes 60, 61 and 358
• New Mills, served by routes 60, 61, 199 and 358
• Whaley Bridge, served by routes 60, 61 and 199
• Route CAT5 as well as route X5 runs Warrington-Lymm-Altrincham
• Route 47 Warrington-Lymm-Knutsford (infrequent Mon-Fri only)
• Lymm, served by routes CAT5, X5 and 47
• Route 42 Congleton-Middlewich-Crewe
• Winsford, served by routes 31 and 37
• Sandbach, served by routes 37 and 38
• Middlewich, served by routes 37 and 42

Further information is available at:

Bus and Rail Maps

Bus and rail maps in Cheshire East

www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

In South Wales, many key towns are omitted, including Abertillery, Bargoed, Barry, Blackwood, Brynmawr, Caerphilly, Cwmbran, Ebbw Vale, Llantwit Major, Maesteg, Newbridge, Penarth, Risca, Talbot Green/Llantrisant, Tonypandy and Tredegar. A larger scale insert would probably be needed to cover Glamorgan and Gwent in any useful way.

 

[PTR 444]

This is super impressive!

A couple of points, the Bluestar 4 (Southampton to Romsey, every 30 mins) is shown as a thicker line than the Bluestar 1 (Southampton to Winchester, every 20 minutes), whereas they should be the other way round. I would also include Eastleigh and Hedge End on the map along with Bluestar routes 2 & 3, and Xelabus route X4

 

[Parebunks]

Interesting overview, but there appear to be too many missing towns and routes for this map to be of practical use.

In my local area (Cheshire), the following key interurban routes and towns appear to be missing, in no particular order:

• Wilmslow - served by routes 88 and 130
• Routes 391/392 Stockport-Poynton-Macclesfield
• Route 358 Stockport-New Mills-Hayfield
• Route 60 Macclesfield-Whaley Bridge-New Mills-Hayfield
• Hayfield, served by routes 60, 61 and 358
• New Mills, served by routes 60, 61, 199 and 358
• Whaley Bridge, served by routes 60, 61 and 199
• Route CAT5 as well as route X5 runs Warrington-Lymm-Altrincham
• Route 47 Warrington-Lymm-Knutsford (infrequent Mon-Fri only)
• Lymm, served by routes CAT5 and X5
• Route 42 Congleton-Middlewich-Crewe
• Winsford, served by routes 31 and 37
• Sandbach, served by routes 37 and 38
• Middlewich, served by routes 37 and 42

Further information is available at:

Bus and Rail Maps

Bus and rail maps in Cheshire East

www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

In South Wales, many key towns are omitted, including Abertillery, Bargoed, Barry, Blackwood, Brynmawr, Caerphilly, Cwmbran, Ebbw Vale, Llantwit Major, Maesteg, Newbridge, Penarth, Risca, Talbot Green/Llantrisant, Tonypandy and Tredegar. A larger scale insert would probably be needed to cover Glamorgan and Gwent in any useful way.

Added the CAT5, 391 and 392! The rest aren't on there as the towns they go to don't meet my (extremely arbitrary) size criteria - it's only meant to provide a very broad overview, not cover every single route and settlement, and the area south of Manchester was looking very crowded already. I did basically give up on the Welsh Valleys - didn't think it would be much use there as Stagecoach has such a large market share, though I might add a note to that effect.

 

[duncombec]

Very impressive!

A few corrections and suggestions for Kent:

- The route between Gravesend and Sevenoaks is numbered 308, not 380
- Add 490 between Gravesend and Bluewater
- Faversham is given a dot, but isn't labelled
- Add Arriva 334 between Maidstone, Sittingbourne and on to Sheerness
- Tonbridge would be a good town to add. It's between Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks on the 402, and shares a common route over that part with 7 (bit not 6, which would be correctly shown as now to the south of the 7).
- Add 297 (Hams Travel) between Tunbridge Wells and Tenterden (if you labelled Pembury on the 6, this would have common routing 6/297).
- Add Deal as a marker between Sandwich and Dover, then add 12 between Deal and Canterbury
- Add Broadstairs between Margate and Ramsgate
- Finally... a local bugbear. Despite the best efforts of the local council to invent it, there is no such place as "Medway". As all of the routes listed serve Chatham, either label it as Chatham, or as the Medway Towns.

 

[Parebunks]

This is super impressive!

A couple of points, the Bluestar 4 (Southampton to Romsey, every 30 mins) is shown as a thicker line than the Bluestar 1 (Southampton to Winchester, every 20 minutes), whereas they should be the other way round. I would also include Eastleigh and Hedge End on the map along with Bluestar routes 2 & 3, and Xelabus route X4

Thanks, fixed!

Very impressive!

A few corrections and suggestions for Kent:

- The route between Gravesend and Sevenoaks is numbered 308, not 380
- Add 490 between Gravesend and Bluewater
- Faversham is given a dot, but isn't labelled
- Add Arriva 334 between Maidstone, Sittingbourne and on to Sheerness
- Tonbridge would be a good town to add. It's between Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks on the 402, and shares a common route over that part with 7 (bit not 6, which would be correctly shown as now to the south of the 7).
- Add 297 (Hams Travel) between Tunbridge Wells and Tenterden (if you labelled Pembury on the 6, this would have common routing 6/297).
- Add Deal as a marker between Sandwich and Dover, then add 12 between Deal and Canterbury
- Add Broadstairs between Margate and Ramsgate
- Finally... a local bugbear. Despite the best efforts of the local council to invent it, there is no such place as "Medway". As all of the routes listed serve Chatham, either label it as Chatham, or as the Medway Towns.

Will add some of those tomorrow - originally didn't include Tonbridge as I was being very strict with only having one town per 50 pixel square, but I gave up on that further north, but forgot to go back and add it.

 

[gc4946]

I'd include inserts for particularly geographically dense regions (eg North West, North East, West and South Yorkshire)
Otherwise it's an encouraging start.

 

[gnolife]

I've got a couple of pointers around Manchester
1) the 135 is the main route between Bury and Manchester, not the 97/98
2) You may want to add a dot for New Mills. This would be a neat little focus point for the 199 and 61, and you could add 60 from Macclesfield.
2a) The map currently makes it look like the 61 and 65 run together out of Buxton - they actually run in almost opposite directions.
3) You may want to add Castleton (Derbyshire) - there's a couple of useful routes around there (173 and around there, and it'll fill in a bit of a gap between Glossop and Sheffield.
4) Speaking of Macclesfield, you could add the 391/392 Stockport and Macclesfield
5) Route 245 doesn't go to Manchester - it runs Altrincham to Trafford Centre

Elsewhere
You may want a dot for Wigton, then have the 300 and 554 go together out of Carlisle
I forget what number it goes by now, but there's a route from Chorley to Blackburn that you might want to put in.
You might want to add a dot for Colne, and if you do, you could consider redoing the M4 to reflect the fact that it runs into Keighley the same way as the 66, rather than the 502.

Some spelling errors (I'll your incorrect spellings in brackets)
Windermere (Windemere)
Halesowen (Halsowen)
Sutton Coldfield (Sutton Codfield)
Betws-y-Coed (Betwys-y-Coed)
Blaenau Ffestiniog (Bleanau Ffestiniog)
Dolgellau (Donellau)
Pendle Wizz (Pendle Whizz)

 

[Vexed]

It looks great so far! Nice to see inclusion of dark mode.

I see there are no Uno routes yet. You definitely don't want all of them but maybe 635 (Hitchin - Stevenage - Hatfield - Watford), 610 (Luton -Hatfield - The abyss of Greater London), 602 (Hatfield - St Albans - Watford).

I think the 601 (Hatfield - St Albans-Borehamwood) and 614/644 (Hatfield - Greater London abyss) are a bit too tight to fit on.

653 (Hatfield - St Albans) and 341/641 (Hatfield - Hertford - Broxbourne) might work as I see you have Hertford but both only connect two pretty close together places and 653 is not at all direct so realistically not used for getting between the centres of Hatfield and St Albans.

A couple also serve Welwyn Garden City but fair enough for not including that on the map and I doubt Broxbourne would fit.

Oh, and Uno's Cranfield Connect between Milton Keynes and Bedford run C1, C10 and C11. Will probably look like quite an over provision.

 

[WAB]

Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog should be the 3B.

 

[daodao]

The rest aren't on there as the towns they go to don't meet my (extremely arbitrary) size criteria

I am surprised that you are not willing to add:

• Sandbach (served by bus routes 37 and 38), whose population was 21,916 at the 2021 Census
• Wilmslow (served just by bus routes 88 and 130), whose population was 26,213 at the 2021 Census, and is worthy of a stop on the Manchester-London express train service
• Winsford (estimated population 35,000 in 2023), served by bus routes 31 and 37

In South Wales, exclusion of Caerphilly (population 41,402 at the 2011 census) and Cwmbrân (population 48,535) is similarly surprising.

All the above are not "little towns" and are clearly distinct from neighbouring settlements. By contrast, the village of Bourton-on-the-Water (population 3,296 at the 2011 census) has been included. Is this because it is a tourist "honeypot" or because it is the base of a substantial bus company (Pulhams Coaches)?

 

[eastwestdivide]

Might be worth removing the old versions from the web so people don’t repeat the corrections or end up using the uncorrected maps?

 

[telstarbox]

That's very impressive.

In Kent there is the Triangle between Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay, all fairly big towns.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

This is excellent.

Cwmbran missing a label?

 

[Parebunks]

Thanks all for the feedback! Next update will include tweaks round Manchester/Cheshire (@gnolife , @daodao ), Kent (@telstarbox , @duncombec ), and Uno routes in Hertfordshire (@Vexed ), should come either late this evening or tomorrow.

 

[SCH117X]

Geographically there looks to be room to move Harrogate and Ripon northwards so that Otley is correctly south west of Harrogate.
There is an Transdev A3 between Bradford and Otley - takes a less direct route between Bradford and the Airport to the west of that taken by the A2 and then joins the X52 route into Otley while at the same location (if the map was altered) the A2 and X52 routes are the same to Harrogate.
There is a Saturdays only Transdev 59 between Harrogate and Skipton while Transdevs 7 is the secondary route compared to the X98/X99 between Weteheby and Leeds and could be shown as a thinner line looping to the south of them joining onto the Coastliner route into Leeds.
Transdevs 64 does not run between Otley and Ilkley.
There is also TrentBartons Skylink Express between East Midlands Airport and Nottingham which takes a more direct rote than Skylink Nottingham.

 

[Deerfold]

Thanks, fixed most of those! A couple are deliberate - I haven't included less frequent/slower routes a lot of the time, and I've let routes run together where they don't in reality to keep to 45- and 90-degree angles. There wasn't any stringent selection criteria - I was more generous in more rural areas, but left bigger places off in areas that got cramped.

Without wanting to appear rude, if your latest version is the one at https://preview.redd.it/9aqvsyqkhek...ed&s=d12645be82528981d9f3e31dab44c880761f7949
then these are not yet correct:

The more frequent route between Bradford and Halifax (576, every 15 minutes).
The X70 Harrogate to Wetherby (same frequency as the 7).
Pendle Wizz doesn't have an "h" in it.
Nottingham to Alfreton is named the "one", not the "1".
Between Derby and Belper besides the 6.1 there's the 6.0,6.2, 6.3 and 6.4 - all on the same route, quadrupling the service over just the 6.1
Carousel's 101 doesn't run between Uxbridge and Heathrow.
Between Heathrow and Slough there's the 7 as well as the 4 (both every half hour).

 

[Andyh82]

I agree that I think it’s best to just include the main links between the main towns

If there is a direct service running every 15 minutes and one that runs once an hour taking twice as long that isn’t really designed for end to end journeys, I wouldn’t include the latter

Unless of course it’s a rural area that has two services both infrequent both taking ages in which case is include both

 

[RT4038]

Thanks all for the feedback! Next update will include tweaks round Manchester/Cheshire (@gnolife , @daodao ), Kent (@telstarbox , @duncombec ), and Uno routes in Hertfordshire (@Vexed ), should come either late this evening or tomorrow.

A really good effort! Thank you. Any work of this complexity will have some snags; excuse me for telling you a few in the Midlands:

(a) Sutton Coldfield is mis-spelt
(b) Service 51 Moreton-in-Marsh to Shipston also operates through to Stratford upon Avon
(c) Where Service 76 & 77 come together is the village of Kineton (not suggesting that this is named), but then the 77 goes to Wellesbourne and then to Stratford (the 76 travels a different route between Kineton and Stratford, via Ettington)

 

[JonathanH]

I note that some of the Surrey area routes have been changed. However, I think 465 between Kingston and Dorking, 460 between Epsom and Redhill and 420 between Sutton and Redhill are all worth showing.

The trunk Crawley to Brighton services are 271 and 273 rather than the 272. The 272 is much less frequent than the combined 271/273 timetable.