100 British Bus Routes: Route 92
Chippenham to Malmesbury
24 March 2022
ABOVE: Coachstyle Optare Solo YJ14 BWC at Chippenham Bus Station. A bit of the “y” from “Coachstyle” has rubbed off, turning the operator into “Coachstile”! All photos in this article were taken on Monday 7 March 2022.
NOTE: The service described below no longer operates as route 92.
It is now a part of route 99 (Chippenham - Malmesbury - Royal Wootton Bassett - Swindon).
It is now a part of route 99 (Chippenham - Malmesbury - Royal Wootton Bassett - Swindon).
Operator: Coachstyle Ltd of Chippenham
Runs: Mondays to Saturdays; no evening service
Weekday frequency: Hourly
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: 2 buses
Off-peak journey time: 44-48 minutes
Estimated route length: 12-15 miles
Runs: Mondays to Saturdays; no evening service
Weekday frequency: Hourly
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: 2 buses
Off-peak journey time: 44-48 minutes
Estimated route length: 12-15 miles
Coachstyle and Faresaver are both companies that run bus services in Wiltshire, and I see a lot of similarities between their liveries when vehicles of both operators are parked up together in Chippenham’s basic bus station. Both use white and purple as their colours, and both operators’ vehicles look smart. As far as I can tell, they are not connected to one another though.
ABOVE: Spot the livery difference: Faresaver on the left and Coachstyle on the right. Both at Chippenham Bus Station.
I’m in the bus station at Chippenham, where four laminated notices prominently advise that the timetable for the 92 is temporarily (for five weeks) affected by roadworks. The full timetable for the revised service is shown on the poster. Alternate departures on this hourly service are serving different villages along the route, to try and keep some semblance of a service, albeit at a reduced level. My 1305 departure looks to be covering most of the route, but will take four minutes longer than normal.
ABOVE: These notices were everywhere, both on buses and on bus stops (even on rural parts of the route) – commendable. This is one of four copies I found on display in Chippenham Bus Station.
In fact, Coachstyle has gone to considerable effort to publicise this temporary timetable. There’s another copy of the poster in the bus itself, and a series of photocopied A4 versions in the leaflet rack at the front of the bus so that people can take one away with them if they need to. I see further laminated versions at bus stops along the route, even in quite remote areas (and, as we shall see, this bus certainly does remote areas) …
ABOVE: Another version of the poster is displayed on the bus itself, whilst there are a handful of printed copies that passengers can take away with them.
The one thing letting the side down is that the company website – one assumes the easiest bit to maintain, as you can do it from a desk – has not been updated, and relies on a PDF of what seems to be a Wiltshire County Council leaflet. It contains the normal timetable, and there is nothing even on the home page to advise of the disruption to the route.
The 1305 service has been in the Bus Station parking area at Chippenham for 10 minutes or so, and pulls across into the stop at the scheduled departure time. There are only five of us boarding the 27-seater Optare Solo, so departure time is only minimally behind schedule. I have to pay cash on this bus (£3.10) as Coachstyle doesn’t take card payments. Fortunately the driver has plenty of change, and I have a handy 10p coin to go with my five pound note. We gain another three passengers at the Railway station.
Although I am expecting quiet country lanes, the first part of the journey is actually on a four-lane dual carriageway. Then, at Lower Stanton St Quentin, we turn off the main road and into a country lane, to start our exploration of the Wiltshire countryside properly.
ABOVE: Somewhere near Stanton St Quentin (I think – all the roads round here look the same)! This is early in the journey from Chippenham, and the roads get narrower as we continue!
At a place called Valetta Gardens, there’s a bus stop / shelter away from the road we are travelling down. Surely there isn’t another bus route here? (Subsequent research suggests that the bus stop is for route 92 – there just isn’t room for it on the road itself. I wonder if the buses going the other way pull off the ‘main’ road to serve the stop? There’s a suitable place to turn around.)
We pass through the village of Hullavington, where we meet the opposite service and pick up a passenger. Even the main stops here have the laminated roadworks posters on display.
ABOVE: YJ14 BWB in Hullavington
In one of those wonderful moments one sees when using a bus service like this, we come to a T-junction, where the two route termini, Malmesbury and Chippenham, are both signposted in the same direction. And of course, we go the other way!
Further down, there’s a pedestrian, going the same way as us. She’s following the Highway Code for when there isn’t a pavement, by walking facing the oncoming traffic. But the road is so narrow here that the bus driver still has to slow down to avoid the risk of hitting her from behind – the road is basically not much more than the width of this (narrow) bus. Fortunately, there is little other traffic about – even motorists don’t venture this far into the countryside if they don’t have to!
Further on, at Foxley Turn in Corston, we find two men and a dog walking with their backs to the oncoming traffic – not following the Highway Code.
Just before our arrival into Malmesbury, I get a chance photograph of two historic sites in the town. The Old Bell Hotel was established in 1220, whilst Malmesbury Abbey was built in 1180 and stands on a site that has had a continuous history as a religious house since the Seventh Century.
ABOVE: A chance photo taken through the bus window: The Old Bell Hotel, Malmesbury, on the left, and Malmesbury Abbey, on the right.
Far from being late, we come into Malmesbury at 1350, 10 minutes early (the last advertised timing point being back at Hullavington at 1334). Almost everyone has travelled the full route – we have only picked up one passenger along the way, whilst no-one has got off anywhere.
I don’t know how typical my journey has been, given the diversions and the differing route variations being operated. All I do know is that this has been a lovely drive through some really remote areas of one of the most rural counties of southern England. I alight in the knowledge that I have visited places that I would never ever have stumbled across if I hadn’t taken the 92.