Post by jay38a on Mar 8, 2011 15:36:49 GMT
Hi all
As you might have seen by some of my posts i have done a few long distance bus routes like the X53 between Poole and Exeter. This week i tried Wilts and Dorset's X5 from Swindon to Sailsbury which until recently was registered Routes 95/6 from Swindon to Pewsey then 5/6 from Pewsey to Swindon, the same bus operating both routes (but no information that it was a through service), but now both sections are registered under the number X5 and are shown on the timetable and on the destination that its a through service. I do feel sorry for the drivers now with companies registering routes like that cause one driver now does the whole 2 hour 30 mins route from Swindon to Salisbury, before there used to be change of drivers at Pewsey.
I also tried the 184 from Salisbury to Weymouth which changes its number to 183 at Blandford (until 2009 it was numbered 184 the whole way). One weird part of the 184 is that it serves Blandford Camp in Dorset, where while you go round the camp a armed solider is on the bus with you and you can only disembark if you have ID on you but it does add 20 odd mins to the running time as you have to wait for the solider to come to the gate open it, check the bus, then let the bus in, close the gate then get on the bus, the same procedure happens when you come back to the same gate 15 mins later. And for all you Olympian fans the routes run with Olympians. The Picture of my bus outside Blandford Outstation: jays-bus-pix.co.cc/index.php/March-2011-photos/DSCF1722
Now onto a question why do companies use the X number when the bus is not express, all of Wilts and Dorset's X bus routes serve every stop, the X53 serves all stops between Poole and Exeter. You wonder how long before Wilts and Dorset give this non express X prefix to the 183/4.
As you might have seen by some of my posts i have done a few long distance bus routes like the X53 between Poole and Exeter. This week i tried Wilts and Dorset's X5 from Swindon to Sailsbury which until recently was registered Routes 95/6 from Swindon to Pewsey then 5/6 from Pewsey to Swindon, the same bus operating both routes (but no information that it was a through service), but now both sections are registered under the number X5 and are shown on the timetable and on the destination that its a through service. I do feel sorry for the drivers now with companies registering routes like that cause one driver now does the whole 2 hour 30 mins route from Swindon to Salisbury, before there used to be change of drivers at Pewsey.
I also tried the 184 from Salisbury to Weymouth which changes its number to 183 at Blandford (until 2009 it was numbered 184 the whole way). One weird part of the 184 is that it serves Blandford Camp in Dorset, where while you go round the camp a armed solider is on the bus with you and you can only disembark if you have ID on you but it does add 20 odd mins to the running time as you have to wait for the solider to come to the gate open it, check the bus, then let the bus in, close the gate then get on the bus, the same procedure happens when you come back to the same gate 15 mins later. And for all you Olympian fans the routes run with Olympians. The Picture of my bus outside Blandford Outstation: jays-bus-pix.co.cc/index.php/March-2011-photos/DSCF1722
Now onto a question why do companies use the X number when the bus is not express, all of Wilts and Dorset's X bus routes serve every stop, the X53 serves all stops between Poole and Exeter. You wonder how long before Wilts and Dorset give this non express X prefix to the 183/4.
