Some interesting reports and apologies that travels have delayed my response. First @ChrisC and his travels from earlier in the year, both to areas I have covered reasonably thoroughly – although not to all the obscure but great places he used buses to access. Starting in Kent the buses have been cut back significantly in recent years. Yes the inland routes north of Dover, both to Ramsgate and the ‘village’ route to Canterbury have gone and the service via St Margarets at Cliffe is terrible. Kent County Council seems to have almost abandoned rural bus routes. The same applies with Stagecoach commercial routes around Folkestone, perhaps because the closure of the depot makes these more costly. Not long ago there were 8 buses an hour to Hythe and 4 on to New Romney etc. These are both halved. I hope the new arrangements make these more reliable but 2bph through Dymchurch etc is really inadequate for this busy corridor in summer. I agree on the improvements at Folkestone, the area by the harbour is now really attractive and the shopping has come up, the whole town seems better. And yes, the 17 village route between Canterbury and Folkestone is much more scenic than the main road 16. Then to North Yorkshire and the fabulous countryside around Pickering. Great use of the buses to actually get to places in the countryside when possible, laudable as he had a car available too. I have travelled on all the routes mentioned and they are great - the 840 to Whitby is one of the country’s most scenic routes. I agree the 128 to Scarborough ought to be hourly, at least between the Pickering school runs, it seems daft that 3 buses run empty for these journeys when they could enhance the service. I took it a couple of years ago when there were two services, the X28 to Helmsley every 2 hours missing out some of the villages and the 128 as far as Pickering which included them, this seemed to be an excellent arrangement. If it really isn’t commercial and there is some BSIP money around I would have thought this would be a worthwhile low-cost option for spending some. The X93/X94 are great services up the coast to Whitby and beyond but reliability here is not always good, there are too many potential delay spots. I would have thought that the Middlesborough end should be detached from the X93 in summer, perhaps just leaving the out-and-back X94 journeys as through ones at the start and end of the day. And I hate to say this but they are run by Arriva who just don’t care. Great photos from both trips too – thanks for posting!
Next we have the trip by @TheGrandWazoo to some highlights of the West Midlands. I don’t know all the places here quite as well although I did cover the area pretty thoroughly in the 1970s. I have been to Aldridge, Sutton Coldfield, Coventry, Maypole and Walsall but not all at the same time. Coventry is brutalist but I think it is put together in a way that makes the city centre quite attractive. There is also a canal basin within range which is decent. I think the 50 from Maypole to Birmingham is one of the country’s most frequent services and my experience of this was that it was busy. It is surprising that NXWM have as many old buses as they do but they appear to be well maintained and I guess will survive until electrification across the network. There seemed to be quite a few missing journeys on some of these services which seems surprising on a ‘quality’ operator – surely the days of ongoing staff shortages are behind us! I need to get to Solihull and I thought Oldbury was worth a visit, while the knife angel looks interesting I may have to reassess. Interesting bus-wise but the weather looked very dull!
Finally @JKP has posted of a trip in the Borders. My top priority for 2025 will be another trip in this area. I have been to Galashiels and Melrose but I’d really like to visit Kelso, Jedburgh and Hawick. My 2022 trip to the area, starting in Berwick and including Peebles, Edinburgh, North Berwick and Dunbar, is probably the best trip I have ever made, with the most fabulous scenery as well as the lovely places. Good to hear that the buses around here have reasonable loadings, isn’t the next stop announcement rule coming in only applicable to England?
I actually have another trip report to add too! I note that @TheGrandWazoo makes reference above to my being sensible in waiting for good weather and longer days. Definitely true as regards good weather, meaning sunny and dry, but I am not sure that many would think I was sensible in venturing out last Wednesday – yes the day after the snowfall – when I went to Nottinghamshire! I looked the previous day to see how the buses had coped immediately after the snow and this was pretty good so I thought I would be OK for a trip.
So, somewhat before sunrise, I was in Mansfield Market Place to grab some sustenance while the traders were setting up their stalls. A couple of diversions down side streets too but there isn’t anything fabulous to see here. My first bus was the Stagecoach 15 to Old Ollerton. The 14 and 15 provide a half hourly service from Mansfield to Ollerton and each route had two vehicles, one decker and one E200. I could see that my incoming bus was late and getting later – it left the start of its journey on time but progressively lost time, arriving at Mansfield 25 minutes late. At Mansfield it disgorged a large number of passengers, clearly justifying the use of a double decker - a 56-plate E400 - on this journey. The bus felt very much like a Trident. We remained about 20 minutes late throughout the journey through the eastern suburbs of Mansfield and past the closed Clipstone Colliery, where the headstacks – once the tallest in Europe – and the winding house have been listed, but everything else has been demolished and the site looked pretty derelict. Out of the town it was very much through snow, we diverted to serve Edwinstowe before reaching Ollerton. I had reckoned that Old Ollerton, although much smaller, had more of interest that New Ollerton. I still had a reasonable amount of time before my next journey which I had also seen was running late. A small village with nothing going on but pleasant in the snow.
My next leg was on the Retford branch of the Sherwood Arrow and my bus was a Scania single decker, based in Worksop and presumably from the batch bought for the Rotherham services before they were double decked. This had been somewhat delayed earlier heading into Nottingham but was making up time and appeared to make up more by missing out the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre loop in Edwinstowe. We were about 15 minutes late as we passed through more snowy countryside to Tuxford. Like Ollerton this was a place I had been through but not stopped at. I enjoyed had nearly half an hour walking round this former coaching town on the Great North Road (now just off the A1) which retains some grandeur but also charm. Of note on a green near the centre there remains a small village lockup from some 200 years ago.
From Tuxford I took Marshalls 37 south to Newark. Surprisingly this was an Optare Solo and was pretty busy. The route, starting from Retford, largely follows the route of the original Great North Road but diverts through villages such as Sutton on Trent and we picked up several passengers all the way, arriving in Newark on time. I love Newark, I have visited a few times and even stayed there, but given the limited daylight hours the town was not on the agenda today. Instead I headed further south on the Central Connect (formerly Vectare) 90 towards Nottingham on a fairly new E200, one of a batch of four with registrations ending in GAL which began life on Central Connect route in Hertfordshire – I think this was Galleon travel, hence the registrations. When I originally planned this trip I had hoped to take a more rural route, the 91, but it was withdrawn earlier this year to be replaced by some useless form of ‘flexible transport’ which I wasn’t bothering with. The 90 goes through Farndon, then mainly down the A46 with a diversion to a military location and then through a large new housing estate into Bingham. I could have continued to Nottingham but elected to alight at Bingham for a short wander round this attractive small town. A reasonably decent market square, not totally ruined by parked cars, where Christmas lights were being put up.
From Bingham I took the Trent Barton ‘Radcliffe Mainline’ service into Nottingham, another E200. This service runs every 10 minutes and seemed to be well regulated with consistent gaps between journeys and the patronage was pretty good, even away from what would be a peak time. Trent Barton have been criticised a great deal in this forum for poor reliability but it certainly wasn’t apparent on this service, although we did meet a broken down Solo on the more rural ‘Rushcliffe Villager’ route. This service terminates next to the large Market Square in Nottingham, which has been completely taken over by a ‘Winter Wonderland’. It seemed to be very popular on a cold sunny midweek lunchtime although to me it destroyed the attraction of the area. I walked up through the busy city centre, seeing many Nottingham City Transport buses, mainly gas powered Scanias, up to the Victoria Centre.
A significant gap in my travels from Nottingham, despite several visits, was the Stagecoach Pronto route back to Mansfield. This is another route that runs every 10 minutes but it is much longer and more susceptible to delays and therefore harder to maintain the intervals. I arrived at the bus station and there was a bus loading in the stand while a later arrival was hovering in the background. Just as we reversed off the stand the other bus set off and this bus picked up virtually all the passengers at intermediate stops while ours set down those we had picked up at the bus station. The route leaves Nottingham on a trunk route to the north in parallel with main NCT routes as far as Arnold. It was once operated jointly with Trent but the operators appeared to fall out and eventually Trent pulled out, since when the route has been operated by modern E400s, mainly in special purple colours for the route. After leaving Nottingham the route is fairly unremarkable, simply along a main road without any deviation all the way to Mansfield. One bus in three then continues to Chesterfield.
Back at Mansfield I had a short break for refreshment and then continued with a second smaller loop. The Stagecoach 11, 12, 23/A run as a single group of services interworked with 9 buses. On the day of my trip all 9 were double deckers, the majority older E400s. The services appeared to be operating pretty reliably during the day and provide a half hourly service on the three main routes. I started by taking a 12 to Market Warsop where I alighted for a few minutes in the small town, then continued on an 11 to Church Warsop. Here there was a particularly impressive remembrance display with quite a few visitors. Back on another 12 to Shirebrook, a small former colliery town now known for its Sports Direct warehouse. The bus stops in the town centre had all been closed for renovation works in the central square but it was now beginning to get dark and rather bleak here. Finally I took another E400 on the 23, taking a more westerly route back to Mansfield. It was dark by the time I got back there so I had made full use of the daylight hours. The sun had shone all day but it had varied between cold and very cold and now was getting colder still!
The day had mainly been spent on Stagecoach buses with some other operators around Newark, although Stagecoach still seemed to be the main operator here too. Not my most ambitious trip, I had allowed a decent amount of time for the important changes onto the less frequent services in the morning and all had worked well, with ample time and flexibility on the more frequent services later. A lot of older vehicles still at Mansfield, all seemingly well maintained and providing sterling service, but maybe these will be replaced when the Manchester changes release vehicles in January. Generally speaking the operators I travelled with all seemed to be doing well in the challenging conditions. I expect that is probably it for me for this year, hope some others keep going!
As usual, some photos:
Clipstone Colliery
Open country between Ollerton and Tuxford
Tuxford lockup
Tuxford centre
Bingham
Nottingham city centre
Mansfield
Poppies at Church Warsop
Miners memorial at Shirebrook
Next we have the trip by @TheGrandWazoo to some highlights of the West Midlands. I don’t know all the places here quite as well although I did cover the area pretty thoroughly in the 1970s. I have been to Aldridge, Sutton Coldfield, Coventry, Maypole and Walsall but not all at the same time. Coventry is brutalist but I think it is put together in a way that makes the city centre quite attractive. There is also a canal basin within range which is decent. I think the 50 from Maypole to Birmingham is one of the country’s most frequent services and my experience of this was that it was busy. It is surprising that NXWM have as many old buses as they do but they appear to be well maintained and I guess will survive until electrification across the network. There seemed to be quite a few missing journeys on some of these services which seems surprising on a ‘quality’ operator – surely the days of ongoing staff shortages are behind us! I need to get to Solihull and I thought Oldbury was worth a visit, while the knife angel looks interesting I may have to reassess. Interesting bus-wise but the weather looked very dull!
Finally @JKP has posted of a trip in the Borders. My top priority for 2025 will be another trip in this area. I have been to Galashiels and Melrose but I’d really like to visit Kelso, Jedburgh and Hawick. My 2022 trip to the area, starting in Berwick and including Peebles, Edinburgh, North Berwick and Dunbar, is probably the best trip I have ever made, with the most fabulous scenery as well as the lovely places. Good to hear that the buses around here have reasonable loadings, isn’t the next stop announcement rule coming in only applicable to England?
I actually have another trip report to add too! I note that @TheGrandWazoo makes reference above to my being sensible in waiting for good weather and longer days. Definitely true as regards good weather, meaning sunny and dry, but I am not sure that many would think I was sensible in venturing out last Wednesday – yes the day after the snowfall – when I went to Nottinghamshire! I looked the previous day to see how the buses had coped immediately after the snow and this was pretty good so I thought I would be OK for a trip.
So, somewhat before sunrise, I was in Mansfield Market Place to grab some sustenance while the traders were setting up their stalls. A couple of diversions down side streets too but there isn’t anything fabulous to see here. My first bus was the Stagecoach 15 to Old Ollerton. The 14 and 15 provide a half hourly service from Mansfield to Ollerton and each route had two vehicles, one decker and one E200. I could see that my incoming bus was late and getting later – it left the start of its journey on time but progressively lost time, arriving at Mansfield 25 minutes late. At Mansfield it disgorged a large number of passengers, clearly justifying the use of a double decker - a 56-plate E400 - on this journey. The bus felt very much like a Trident. We remained about 20 minutes late throughout the journey through the eastern suburbs of Mansfield and past the closed Clipstone Colliery, where the headstacks – once the tallest in Europe – and the winding house have been listed, but everything else has been demolished and the site looked pretty derelict. Out of the town it was very much through snow, we diverted to serve Edwinstowe before reaching Ollerton. I had reckoned that Old Ollerton, although much smaller, had more of interest that New Ollerton. I still had a reasonable amount of time before my next journey which I had also seen was running late. A small village with nothing going on but pleasant in the snow.
My next leg was on the Retford branch of the Sherwood Arrow and my bus was a Scania single decker, based in Worksop and presumably from the batch bought for the Rotherham services before they were double decked. This had been somewhat delayed earlier heading into Nottingham but was making up time and appeared to make up more by missing out the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre loop in Edwinstowe. We were about 15 minutes late as we passed through more snowy countryside to Tuxford. Like Ollerton this was a place I had been through but not stopped at. I enjoyed had nearly half an hour walking round this former coaching town on the Great North Road (now just off the A1) which retains some grandeur but also charm. Of note on a green near the centre there remains a small village lockup from some 200 years ago.
From Tuxford I took Marshalls 37 south to Newark. Surprisingly this was an Optare Solo and was pretty busy. The route, starting from Retford, largely follows the route of the original Great North Road but diverts through villages such as Sutton on Trent and we picked up several passengers all the way, arriving in Newark on time. I love Newark, I have visited a few times and even stayed there, but given the limited daylight hours the town was not on the agenda today. Instead I headed further south on the Central Connect (formerly Vectare) 90 towards Nottingham on a fairly new E200, one of a batch of four with registrations ending in GAL which began life on Central Connect route in Hertfordshire – I think this was Galleon travel, hence the registrations. When I originally planned this trip I had hoped to take a more rural route, the 91, but it was withdrawn earlier this year to be replaced by some useless form of ‘flexible transport’ which I wasn’t bothering with. The 90 goes through Farndon, then mainly down the A46 with a diversion to a military location and then through a large new housing estate into Bingham. I could have continued to Nottingham but elected to alight at Bingham for a short wander round this attractive small town. A reasonably decent market square, not totally ruined by parked cars, where Christmas lights were being put up.
From Bingham I took the Trent Barton ‘Radcliffe Mainline’ service into Nottingham, another E200. This service runs every 10 minutes and seemed to be well regulated with consistent gaps between journeys and the patronage was pretty good, even away from what would be a peak time. Trent Barton have been criticised a great deal in this forum for poor reliability but it certainly wasn’t apparent on this service, although we did meet a broken down Solo on the more rural ‘Rushcliffe Villager’ route. This service terminates next to the large Market Square in Nottingham, which has been completely taken over by a ‘Winter Wonderland’. It seemed to be very popular on a cold sunny midweek lunchtime although to me it destroyed the attraction of the area. I walked up through the busy city centre, seeing many Nottingham City Transport buses, mainly gas powered Scanias, up to the Victoria Centre.
A significant gap in my travels from Nottingham, despite several visits, was the Stagecoach Pronto route back to Mansfield. This is another route that runs every 10 minutes but it is much longer and more susceptible to delays and therefore harder to maintain the intervals. I arrived at the bus station and there was a bus loading in the stand while a later arrival was hovering in the background. Just as we reversed off the stand the other bus set off and this bus picked up virtually all the passengers at intermediate stops while ours set down those we had picked up at the bus station. The route leaves Nottingham on a trunk route to the north in parallel with main NCT routes as far as Arnold. It was once operated jointly with Trent but the operators appeared to fall out and eventually Trent pulled out, since when the route has been operated by modern E400s, mainly in special purple colours for the route. After leaving Nottingham the route is fairly unremarkable, simply along a main road without any deviation all the way to Mansfield. One bus in three then continues to Chesterfield.
Back at Mansfield I had a short break for refreshment and then continued with a second smaller loop. The Stagecoach 11, 12, 23/A run as a single group of services interworked with 9 buses. On the day of my trip all 9 were double deckers, the majority older E400s. The services appeared to be operating pretty reliably during the day and provide a half hourly service on the three main routes. I started by taking a 12 to Market Warsop where I alighted for a few minutes in the small town, then continued on an 11 to Church Warsop. Here there was a particularly impressive remembrance display with quite a few visitors. Back on another 12 to Shirebrook, a small former colliery town now known for its Sports Direct warehouse. The bus stops in the town centre had all been closed for renovation works in the central square but it was now beginning to get dark and rather bleak here. Finally I took another E400 on the 23, taking a more westerly route back to Mansfield. It was dark by the time I got back there so I had made full use of the daylight hours. The sun had shone all day but it had varied between cold and very cold and now was getting colder still!
The day had mainly been spent on Stagecoach buses with some other operators around Newark, although Stagecoach still seemed to be the main operator here too. Not my most ambitious trip, I had allowed a decent amount of time for the important changes onto the less frequent services in the morning and all had worked well, with ample time and flexibility on the more frequent services later. A lot of older vehicles still at Mansfield, all seemingly well maintained and providing sterling service, but maybe these will be replaced when the Manchester changes release vehicles in January. Generally speaking the operators I travelled with all seemed to be doing well in the challenging conditions. I expect that is probably it for me for this year, hope some others keep going!
As usual, some photos:
Clipstone Colliery
Open country between Ollerton and Tuxford
Tuxford lockup
Tuxford centre
Bingham
Nottingham city centre
Mansfield
Poppies at Church Warsop
Miners memorial at Shirebrook
I similarly visited both Ollerton and Market Warsop (as well as Nottingham and Mansfield. However, I would never have thought to visit Tuxford though - the number of times I've hurtled past on the A1. I just thought it some village yet it clearly has a lot more to it. 
- fab photos btw.
I said that it was an Essex Saver ticket, and he said "you're not in Essex" so I said I could show him that it's valid but he just grudgingly waved me on. So I'd had two rather challenging drivers. As the son and nephew of drivers who had about 75 years service between them, and growing up on the buses, I am always polite and understanding with staff and approach them with a smile. It's a stressful job with poor working conditions (evenings, Sundays, poor facilities etc) and I am very sympathetic as most issues are usually an issue with training and just not knowing certain obscure tickets so I was ok with the Chambers driver. The Flagfinders driver... just unnecessarily confrontational.
I must head back to Essex in the summer... I only seem to go on the short days in winter for some reason!
