Stagecoach North Scotland (Bluebird and Highland)

[Jordan Adam]

The Stagecoach Highland timetables from the 1st of February are now on Traveline...

A full summary of changes are as follows... Any service not listed has no change.

Service 1/1A: Caulduthel - Hilton - City Centre - Inverness Shopping Park - Culloden - Balloch
Frequency reduced to Every 30 Minutes

Service 2/2A/3/3A: Craig Dunain - Scorguie/Kinmylies - City Centre - Raigmore Hospital - Westhill - Culloden - Balloch
Minor timetable changes, Croy section of the 2 withdrawn and replaced by the 5, in the evening the 3 extends to Tornagrain via Croy as a 3A.

Service 4/4A: Milton Of Leys - Hilton - City Centre
Minor timetable changes.

NEW Service 5: Dalneigh - City Centre - Inverness Shopping Park - Raigmore Hospital - Hilton, Milton Crescent
NEW Service 5A: Dalneigh - City Centre - Inverness Shopping Park - Raigmore Hospital - Tornagrain
New services operating hourly each (30 minutes combined) replacing the Dalneigh section of the 8, Croy section of the 2 and Hilton section of the 6. No evening service as the 3A extends to Tornagrain. Sundays the 5 operates between the City Centre and Dalneigh roughly 3 hourly only. One 5A per day operates via Raigmore Hospital as a 5B

Service 6: South Kessock - City Centre - Crown - Raigmore Hospital
Frequency reduced to hourly, Hilton and Inverness Shopping Park extensions withdrawn and replaced by the new 5/5A.

Service 8: City Centre - Raigmore Estate
Dalneigh section withdrawn and replaced by the new 5/5.

Service 10: Inverness - Nairn
4-5 short workings of the Bluebird 10 introduced between Inverness and Nairn.

Service 11/11B: City Centre - Inverness Shopping Park - Culloden - Inverness Airport - Ardersier
Existing service 11 to Nairn withdrawn and replaced with new X12, 11A renumbered to 11. Reduced to hourly.

New Service X12: City Centre - Raigmore Hospital - Inverness Shopping Park - Culloden - Nairn
New serving operating hourly replacing the existing 11. Does not serve the Airport, operates direct between Culloden and Nairn. No evening or Sunday service.

Service 13: Inverness Shopper Service.
Reduced to operate Thursdays only.

Service 23: Inverness - North Kessock
Minor timetable changes.

Service 24X: Inverness - Alness - Invergordon - Portmahomack - Tain
Once per day service withdrawn

Service 25A: Inverness - Dingwall - Alness - Invergordon
Service renumbered from 25 to 25A, frequency heavily reduced to roughly two hourly between Dingwall and Alness only with no service to Inverness daytime, evening service mostly unchanged.

Service X25: Inverness - Alness - Invergordon - Tain - Dornoch - Brora
Service 25X/X98 renumbered, frequency halved to hourly, certain journeys extended to Dornoch and Brora replacing the X98

Service 26/26A: Inverness - Fortrose- Cromarty
Minor timetable changes.

Service 27: Inverness - Dingwall - Contin
Frequency doubled to half hourly Monday - Saturday daytime replacing the 25. 27X depot short workings renumbered X27

Service 28/28A: Inverness - Beauly - Dingwall
Timetable reduced, most journeys extended to Dingwall. 28X renumbered X28.

Service 29: Tain - Nigg Circular
Service withdrawn.

Service 30A/30B/30C: Tain - Shandwick and Balintore circular
Two journeys per day rerouted via Nigg replacing Service 29.

Aviemore Service: Minor changes to School Services.

Service 61: Inverness - Dingwall - Contin - Ullapool
Minor timetable changes.

Service 62: Tain - Lairg - Helmsdale
Minor Timetable changes.

Service 64/65: Alness - Invergordon - Tain
25/25X short workings withdrawn.

Service 75: Staxigo - Wick - Dunbeath - Berridale.
Minor Timetable Changes.

Service 80/80A/280: Thurso - John O'Groats
Minor Timetable Changes.

Service X82 Dunbeath - Halkirk - Thurso
Minor Timetable Changes.

Service X98/X99: Inverness - Tain - Dunbeath - Wick - Thurso.
X98 withdrawn (replaced by extended 25X, X99 unchanged).

 

[overthewater]

The good people of Tain has lost out it seems. Any timetables around for them from Stagecoach?

 

[Jordan Adam]

The good people of Tain has lost out it seems. Any timetables around for them from Stagecoach?

Actually the service to Tain is already hourly, although used to be half hourly with the X99 every 2 hours a few years back, it's more Alness and Invergordon who are losing out.

 

[Volvodart]

Highland's timetables from Monday only appeared on their website today (Friday).

 

[Caleb2010]

Yeah, the Bluebird ones are there too, 10s down to two hourly throughout and shorts Inverness to Elgin on the other hour.
36’s are swapping clock face and departing Dufftown at xx00 instead of xx30.
No provision in the 36 timetable for the journeys normally operated for school children (which changed the service in the afternoon and Friday lunchtime) so they aren’t expecting a return to providing school services any time soon!

 

[PG]

I note another of the Buchan interdecks has "gone agricultural" according to the BBC news website. Hopefully the driver, who went to hospital, is okay.

The driver of another bus was also taken to hospital after his bus left a slip road close to the A90 the following morning.

 

[RomeoCharlie71]

I note another of the Buchan interdecks has "gone agricultural" according to the BBC news website. Hopefully the driver, who went to hospital, is okay.

A similar incident occurred the night before on the A90 at Laurencekirk, albeit with a Megabus Panorama.

 

[PG]

A similar incident occurred the night before on the A90 at Laurencekirk, albeit with a Megabus Panorama.

Aye, that was referred to in a same article.

 

[Jordan Adam]

I note another of the Buchan interdecks has "gone agricultural" according to the BBC news website. Hopefully the driver, who went to hospital, is okay.

The vehicle was 54256. 54247 rolled over at the exact same spot almost exactly a year ago (08/02/2020). This is the 4th Buchan Express to roll over...

 

[PG]

The vehicle was 54256. 54247 rolled over at the exact same spot almost exactly a year ago (08/02/2020). This is the 4th Buchan Express to roll over...

Roughly a yearly occurrence then, weren't they new in winter 2015 IIRC?

Real problem is they've no suitable single deckers to substitute for days when the wind gets up. Back 20+ years ago once the wind picked up all deckers would be pulled off the road...

 

[Jordan Adam]

Roughly a yearly occurrence then, weren't they new in winter 2015 IIRC?

Real problem is they've no suitable single deckers to substitute for days when the wind gets up. Back 20+ years ago once the wind picked up all deckers would be pulled off the road...

Yes new November 2015, the first two incidents were in February 2018 during the "Beast from the East".

That's still meant to be protocol now but clearly they system they have in place doesn't work as it keeps failing as evidenced by these roll over incidents. I'm amazed none of the deckers on the 35 have toppled over yet as drivers often complain about them feeling unstable on the A947 in normal conditions plus north/west of Banff they run along the exposed coast, albeit the E400MMCs are just unsuited to the 35 full stop. As such the 35 was only running Aberdeen to Dyce and Fochabers to Elgin today.

The other problem is even going back 10 years there was less deckers on "normal" out of city service work and the fleet had a far higher volume of older coaches. You basically had the 6 Skyliners at Buchan, a small number of Olympians dotted at various depots and the Stonehaven E400s. Whereas now you have 17 Interdecks and 3 E400s at Buchan, 15 E400MMCs at Macduff, while deckers appear at various points on all the main Aberdeen - Aberdeenshire corridors. The main reason for the increase is because they need deckers to cover much of the work that used to be done by 70 seater B10Ms. So it was very easy back then to move the deckers in to Aberdeen in advance and put them on the 59 or X17 freeing up single deckers for rural work.

Another issue as you noted is the lack of suitable single deckers, the best Aberdeen can provide is E300s as the only alternatives are the E350Hs with their low top speed, the E350Hs are also not belt fitted so that limits their use even further. Currently Aberdeenshire's 27109, 27798 and 27800 are on loan to Peterhead and are being used on the Buchan Xpress along with Peterhead's own Enviros (E200s 36049/050/958/959 & E300s 27534/601/602/804). They've also had to pull 19541/2 off the road which are meant to be allocated to the 50/53 duties (Aberdeen - Ellon) instead they're using Solos.

 

[PG]

Time for the annual(?) fares increase, except this time its a redrawing of the zone map as well.
Ticket Changes from Sunday 7th March 2021

Adult fares from Sunday 7th March 2021

Zone	DayRider​	Flexi5​	7 day​	Monthly Xtra​	28 day​
Aberdeen City	£4​	£16​	£13.50​	£45​	£50​
Westhill – city centre	£6​	£24​	£20​	£70​	£75​
Portlethen – city centre	£6​	£24​	£20​	£70​	£75​
Aberdeen Commuter	£7​	£28​	£25​	£80​	£90​
Aberdeen Commuter NHS	N/A​	N/A​	£20​	£70​	£75​
Bluebird Explorer	£14​	£56​	£40​	£135​	£150​
Ellon Park and Ride	N/A​	N/A​	£20​	£70​	£75​
Peterhead/Fraserburgh	£3.50​	£14​	£9​	£30​	£35​
Banff & Buchan Area	£9​	£36​	£30​	£90​	£100​
Elgin	£6​	£24​	£20​	£70​	£75​
Moray Area	£9​	£36​	£30​	£90​	£100​
Elgin-Inverness	£12​	£48​	£35​	£125​	£130​
Mearns Area	£9​	£36​	£30​	£90​	£100​
Deeside Area	£9​	£36​	£30​	£90​	£100​
Donside Area	£9​	£36​	£30​	£90​	£100​

new zone map:

I'm assuming that (North of Aberdeen) with the old zones 5&6 now becoming one zone there are going to be some winners and losers e.g. Dayrider for Peterhead-Aberdeen is currently £13.90 but will (presumably) be £16 (Aberdeen Commuter +Banff & Buchan)

 

[Stan Drews]

Time for the annual(?) fares increase, except this time its a redrawing of the zone map as well.
Ticket Changes from Sunday 7th March 2021

new zone map:

I'm assuming that (North of Aberdeen) with the old zones 5&6 now becoming one zone there are going to be some winners and losers e.g. Dayrider for Peterhead-Aberdeen is currently £13.90 but will (presumably) be £16 (Aberdeen Commuter +Banff & Buchan)

Will the £14 Bluebird Explorer not cover Peterhead - Aberdeen?

 

[PG]

Will the £14 Bluebird Explorer not cover Peterhead - Aberdeen?

Yes indeed it should be valid AFAIK, I forgot about that

 

[Jordan Adam]

Time for the annual(?) fares increase, except this time its a redrawing of the zone map as well.
Ticket Changes from Sunday 7th March 2021

new zone map:

I'm assuming that (North of Aberdeen) with the old zones 5&6 now becoming one zone there are going to be some winners and losers e.g. Dayrider for Peterhead-Aberdeen is currently £13.90 but will (presumably) be £16 (Aberdeen Commuter +Banff & Buchan)

To be fair (no pun intended) the fares have stayed roughly the same for quite sometime, EScot have done similar revisions where they've axed some zones in favour of reducing the explorer ticket and on the whole the new zones are far more logical and value for money. Also keep in mind with the Bluebird Explorer it covers the entire Bluebird network including the 10 all the way up to Inverness and the X7 down to Dundee, for £14 that is insanely good value.

Aberdeen to Westhill/Portlethen for example is reduced by 30P from £6.30 to £6 (when compared with the old zone 2) while the Aberdeen Commuter Zone (current zone 3 renamed) is reduced from £8.80 to £7. The only major group that seem to loose out are those who travel from Zone 4 areas in to Aberdeen as there isn't a comparable ticket and the Explorer is more expensive, however i'd imagine many of those passengers get return tickets if traveling in to Aberdeen already anyway and for those on local journeys there's better value, for example if you travel between Insch to Inverurie a few times per day you have the new Donside ticket at £9 instead of the Zone 4 Dayrider at £11.30.

That being said i find it odd that Newmachar is included in the Donside zone as it's impossible to travel to Newmachar on a Stagecoach bus without going via Oldmeldrum or Dyce!

 

[GusB]

Dirty, thievin' *******! While the good burghers of Westhill may be happy with their 30p reduction, I'm certainly not chuffed with having to pay an additional 90p on my day ticket price, currently £5.10.

But still, the Bluebird Explorer will be dropping by a whopping £3.90 from its current price. Handy at a time when we're not supposed to be going anywhere...

 

[Jordan Adam]

Dirty, thievin' *******! While the good burghers of Westhill may be happy with their 30p reduction, I'm certainly not chuffed with having to pay an additional 90p on my day ticket price, currently £5.10.

But still, the Bluebird Explorer will be dropping by a whopping £3.90 from its current price. Handy at a time when we're not supposed to be going anywhere...

As with anything you can't please everyone, i think we need to look at the big picture as a whole rather than the few smaller instances where people may not be better off.

Commuters between Aberdeen and Fraserburgh for example will be saving almost £9 per week with the 7 Day Explorer at £40 when compared to the current Zone 6 Megarider at £48.50. And if you buy a Explorer Xtra Monthly you'll be saving £51 when compared with the current 4 week Zone 6 Megarider. On annual basis you're basically talking about a saving of £625, so very significant. I mention Fraserburgh specifically as it's probably the most popular example, however that applies to all Aberdeen - Zone 6 commuters.

 

[GusB]

As with anything you can't please everyone, i think we need to look at the big picture as a whole rather than the few smaller instances where people may not be better off.

Commuters between Aberdeen and Fraserburgh for example will be saving almost £9 per week with the 7 Day Explorer at £40 when compared to the current Zone 6 Megarider at £48.50. And if you buy a Explorer Xtra Monthly you'll be saving £51 when compared with the current 4 week Zone 6 Megarider. On annual basis you're basically talking about a saving of £625, so very significant. I mention Fraserburgh specifically as it's probably the most popular example, however that applies to all Aberdeen - Zone 6 commuters.

Well, I'll certainly be contacting them to make my views known. To be honest, I don't give a monkeys what it costs to go from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh when I'm about to have a 17.6% increase in mine!

 

[RomeoCharlie71]

Well, I'll certainly be contacting them to make my views known. To be honest, I don't give a monkeys what it costs to go from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh when I'm about to have a 17.6% increase in mine!

Just be glad you don't live in the town of Arbroath (East Scotland OpCo, who are also similarly having fare changes), who will be having a 33.3% increase in their Dayrider cost from March 7th (£2.70 to £3.60).

 

[GusB]

Just be glad you don't live in the town of Arbroath (East Scotland OpCo, who are also similarly having fare changes), who will be having a 33.3% increase in their Dayrider cost from March 7th (£2.70 to £3.60).

Ouch. I'd be getting my poison pen out too, if I were you

 

[Stan Drews]

Just be glad you don't live in the town of Arbroath (East Scotland OpCo, who are also similarly having fare changes), who will be having a 33.3% increase in their Dayrider cost from March 7th (£2.70 to £3.60).

I wonder how many Arbroath Dayrider tickets they sell?

 

[PG]

The only major group that seem to loose out are those who travel from Zone 4 areas in to Aberdeen as there isn't a comparable ticket and the Explorer is more expensive, however i'd imagine many of those passengers get return tickets if traveling in to Aberdeen already anyway

I assume we won't be able to tell what the new on-bus single and return fares are until after 7th March? i.e. by using the online find my ticket facility.

A Zone 4 example that springs to mind is Mintlaw-Aberdeen, currently £7.40 single, £13.40 period return, with a dayrider being £11.30. Whats the likelihood of the PR increasing to over £14 so current dayrider purchasers will get the Explorer, a not inconsiderable £2.70 daily increase, 24% if you will!

 

[Jordan Adam]

I assume we won't be able to tell what the new on-bus single and return fares are until after 7th March? i.e. by using the online find my ticket facility.

A Zone 4 example that springs to mind is Mintlaw-Aberdeen, currently £7.40 single, £13.40 period return, with a dayrider being £11.30. Whats the likelihood of the PR increasing to over £14 so current dayrider purchasers will get the Explorer, a not inconsiderable £2.70 daily increase, 24% if you will!

Yes likely, the new single/returns are now going to be based on individual timing points with more variety in prices (fares should be better reflective of distance).

Something i think should be pointed out is the new Felxi5 ticket which lets you buy 5 Dayriders for the price of 4 on the app and you can activate them when you want (doesn't have to be 5 consecutive days), as such 5 Bluebird Explorers is actually slightly cheaper than 5 Zone 4 Dayriders would be just now. Clearly this is an incentive to get more people using the app rather than on bus ticketing.

 

[RomeoCharlie71]

I assume we won't be able to tell what the new on-bus single and return fares are until after 7th March? i.e. by using the online find my ticket facility.

A Zone 4 example that springs to mind is Mintlaw-Aberdeen, currently £7.40 single, £13.40 period return, with a dayrider being £11.30. Whats the likelihood of the PR increasing to over £14 so current dayrider purchasers will get the Explorer, a not inconsiderable £2.70 daily increase, 24% if you will!

If they've been programmed into the system then they should be available to view now if you plan a journey on or after 7th March.

I say if because East Scotland haven't, despite them saying they had last week!

 

[PG]

If they've been programmed into the system then they should be available to view now if you plan a journey on or after 7th March.

I say if because East Scotland haven't, despite them saying they had last week!

My thanks to you, they have indeed been loaded into the system

Using my Mintlaw example the single and return both increase by only 10p, though that still means the cost of a day return to Aberdeen will go up by 19.4% , an extra £2.20

 

[Jordan Adam]

Using my Mintlaw example the single and return both increase by only 10p, though that still means the cost of a day return to Aberdeen will go up by 19.4% , an extra £2.20

As i mentioned above though if you use the Felxi5 you save slightly, while also getting a ticket that gets your further!

 

[GusB]

As i mentioned above though if you use the Felxi5 you save slightly, while also getting a ticket that gets your further!

There's no point in trying to sell Flexi5 fares if you're an infrequent traveller. Honestly, I don't know why you're trying to defend such big increases - are you on the payroll?

 

[PG]

There's no point in trying to sell Flexi5 fares if you're an infrequent traveller. Honestly, I don't know why you're trying to defend such big increases - are you on the payroll?

Yes to add to that, a lot of folk are still paid weekly (even if it does go into a bank account) so won't be able to afford paying in advance for subsequent weeks travel.

 

[Jordan Adam]

Inverness based Scania E300 28648 and Elgin based E200 36033 are both being scrapped. 28648 has been off the road since 2018 with no engine and was gradually used for parts, it was later moved to Kilmarnock and completely stripped of parts. 36033 was written off in a side on RTC with a forklift a few weeks back. Despite being repainted only in November Panther 54038 has also been withdrawn.

29008 and 47489 are currently being repainted. This now means that the entire batch of SV12 plate E350Hs are now in the local livery, only two E350Hs 29020/22 remain in the Hybrid livery.

Full list of repaints accurate as of 09/03/2021

Stagecoach Bluebird
Enviro400: 19374/541
Enviro300: 27112/538/601/602
Enviro350H: 29001/02/03/04/05/06/07/08/09/10/11/17/21
Enviro200: 36046/47/50/68/959
Optare Solo: 47161/257/489/490/601/602/605/875
B12B Panther: 53107/110/112
B9R Elite: 53715
B11R Elitei: 54241/42/43/44/46/48/49/56

Stagecoach In the Highlands
Enviro300 (Transbus Style): 27587/589
Scania Enviro300: 28601/603/604/649
B9R Panther: 53612/613/615/616/617/618
B13Rt Panther: 54130/131/132/133/134/135/136/137

Key: Local Livery, Long Distance Livery, Training Livery

 

[PG]

A Zone 4 example that springs to mind is Mintlaw-Aberdeen, currently £7.40 single, £13.40 period return, with a dayrider being £11.30.

Using my Mintlaw example the single and return both increase by only 10p, though that still means the cost of a day return to Aberdeen will go up by 19.4% , an extra £2.20

I've noticed that the Grass Hopper still uses the previous zones, which in the example above (Zone 4) makes a day return £12.50 so a slightly more palatable 10.6% increase i.e. an extra £1.20 per day.

Hopefully this may help others who hadn't realised that the grass hopper might now be their least expensive option!