Hurrah for the Homeward-Bound!
30 January 2022
ABOVE: Harrogate Bus Company route 36 in the company of two First Leeds vehicles in the Chapeltown suburb of Leeds, on Monday 10th January 2022
I’ve enjoyed three lovely bus-riding days (the previous day was recorded here), and three lovely concerts in Harrogate, and now I’m homeward-bound.
My homeward journeys can be the least predictable of the lot… Sometimes it’s as simple as “ride on buses until evening, and then find a train home”. Where might the buses take me today?
My plan is to catch the Connexions Service X52 to Ilkley, followed by First’s X84 to Leeds, which I know is a delightful ride. After that, who knows…?
So I’m at Harrogate Bus Station once again. There are quite a few people around, as one would expect at 8.15am on a school-day. I would go so far as to say that it’s bustling. A lovely site in these Covid times, especially as the ‘Work at Home’ directive is still in force.
Whilst the bus station is bustling, stand 6, where the X52 is scheduled to depart from, is not. The 0830 service is shown on the electronic departure board, but it doesn’t show up. I have a look on the Connexions website for any live travel updates, but can’t find any.
I decide to get the Harrogate Bus Company 36 straight down to Leeds. It pulls in at 0835, but we have to wait for a driver change before we can board. London seems to be the only place where passengers are allowed to board a bus before the driver change takes place – perhaps it’s a practice that could be extended elsewhere?
Even though the 0840 departure is becoming a busy service, I secure a front seat and, on the dot of 0840, the bus starts to reverse off the stand.
After three seconds of reversing, the driver stops and pulls forward again. He then leaves the cab to look at something that is clearly concerning him. From the front upstairs I can’t see what it is, but it requires a second pair of hands to fix it. We’re there for another five minutes; this gives me time to (a) wonder whether we’re all going to have to decamp onto the next service, and (b) confirm that the missing X52 has not turned up. Then suddenly, we’re off.
It looks like every road out of town has heavy traffic on it, and I wonder why so many people are trying to get out of town in the morning rush hour – one would expect the outward rush to be in the evening. The 36 carries a healthy load as far as Oatlands Corner, a couple of miles from Harrogate Town Centre, where most people get off. Turns out Harrogate College is just down the road at nearby Hornbeam Park. The rest of the run to Leeds is much quieter, and those lost five minutes are made up before we get to Leeds.
So it’s 0935; the day is young. I’ve decided to try and reach Nottingham by bus before sunset. The first part of the journey is to retrace my outward steps back to Sheffield. The 110 to Wakefield is uneventful, save for the fact that the air con on this StreetDeck is blowing right onto the top of my head!
Stagecoach Yorkshire buses are still on strike, so Wakefield Bus Station is a sea of Arriva blue. Fortunately there is one white-liveried bus in the outside parking area that turns out to be my Globe 96 back to Barnsley.
In the absence of the Stagecoach service linking these two points I expect this bus to be very busy, but only two of us board at the Bus Station, followed by three more in town.
ABOVE: Look very closely and there are no fewer than 11 Arriva buses lined up at Wakefield Bus Station on Monday 10th January 2022.
The driver of this service has a radio playing in his cab for the entire journey. It’s middle of the road music, but fortunately he sticks to the left of the road for the actual drive. I do find music played out loud somewhat distracting on a bus ride, especially when it’s not really to my taste. But it’s usually the passengers, not the driver, who are being inconsiderate. It all feels rather unprofessional.
We have around 20 people on board for the last lap into Barnsley, where a Stagecoach single-decker is loading on the X17 towards Sheffield and Chesterfield. The X17 is normally a double-decker, but it’s an hourly service and I can’t really afford to let this one go. The driver sells me a Silver DayRider, which is cheaper than the single to Chesterfield!
Unsurprisingly, given the missing deck, it’s a very busy start to the journey, with most seats taken as we leave Barnsley. It empties drastically, though, and only four remain by Meadowhall. Only two of us, plus the driver, stay on through Sheffield. The section to Chesterfield, down fast roads with the windows open, is a cold and unpleasant ride. We don’t pick up many new passengers on this stretch and we’re soon into Chesterfield.
If I had known where I was going to end up today before I had started, I would have planned ahead and bought a Gold DayRider from the X17 driver instead of a Silver one – that would have been suitable for my last run of the day – the 'pronto' service from Chesterfield to Nottingham via Mansfield.
But when I get to the starting point in Chesterfield, there’s another single-decker sitting there. I’ve just had a very uncomfortable hour-and-three quarter’s ride on one substitute single-decker – I’m not going to have another one! I find a cafe in the Town Centre for a cuppa and return half an hour later.
The trick works – the 1435 departure is the intended 'pronto'-branded Enviro400 MMC, and I manage to secure my front seat for the long run south. There are about 20 intending passengers and the driver turns up, to enable loading to begin, precisely one minute before the scheduled departure time.
ABOVE: Stagecoach’s 10973, an Enviro400 MMC on the outskirts of Chesterfield, Monday 10th January 2022
As we leave Chesterfield, I spot an X17-branded vehicle working route 80 from Sheffield, and wistfully wonder whether that is the direct cause of my earlier single-decker working!
Just outside the town centre is a bus stop filling rapidly with schoolchildren, and I fear that this ride is going to be a noisy one! But they’re not after the 'pronto' service, and I escape!
It’s a lovely drive through the Derbyshire countryside to Mansfield, where a 'pronto'-branded vehicle is working on route 23. Again I wonder whether that substitution is directly related to the single-decker that I had let go in Chesterfield! But I’m less fussed this time as I am on a double-decker; if half an hour later than I might have been!
ABOVE: Mansfield Bus Station, Monday 10th January 2022, with pronto-branded Enviro400 MMC 11276 working a local service, and other Stagecoach and Trent Barton buses in evidence. Taken from the top deck of my Pronto ride.
The light is starting to fade as we enter Nottingham at 1615, and it’s turned drizzly as well. It’s taken me seven-and-a-half-hours to get here from Harrogate, and, like the previous three days, I’ve loved every minute of it. But my eyes are fully open to my awful situation now … it’s time to go back to work!
The indefinite strike by Stagecoach Yorkshire drivers was resolved and buses returned later that week.
And congratulations if you spotted that all of the titles of my articles about this trip were Gilbert & Sullivan references, as were a couple of the slightly odd phrases in the text!