Trowbridge to Cribbs Causeway
(the long way round)
27 March 2022
ABOVE: Faresaver E200 YX12 TAT in Market Street, Trowbridge on route X34 towards Chippenham.
All photos in this article were taken on Monday 7 March 2022.
All photos in this article were taken on Monday 7 March 2022.
I’m in Trowbridge, the County Town of Wiltshire, and am heading for Bristol. Obviously I’m not going to do this the quick, straight-forward way, which is either the train (as little as 32 minutes to Temple Meads), or the D1 and X39 buses (which would take a couple of hours).
In fact, I’m going to spend nearly seven hours, on five buses, doing almost anything other than heading for Bristol (well not until the very end, anyway)!
With that in mind, I’m awaiting the 1100 departure on Faresaver route X34 to Chippenham. There are an encouraging number of people waiting at the stop in Market Street, and we leave, on time, with about a dozen passengers on board.
The windows of the E200 are filthy – so filthy that someone has drawn a skeleton face in the grime.
ABOVE: Oh dear… Needs a clean.
This contrasts noticeably with the hand sanitiser dispenser that has been attached to the inside of the front door of the bus. This feels like a really good innovation, although I don’t see anyone using it on this trip.
ABOVE: Although the windows are filthy (see above), the inclusion of a hand sanitiser dispenser is a good initiative that I have not seen on buses anywhere else. May not be apparent from this picture, but the dispenser is actually fixed to the inside leaf of the front door.
We leave Trowbridge and pass through Hilperton, one of its suburbs. We’re initially following trunk route 49 (Trowbridge to Swindon), and it is the details for this that dominate the bus stop flags. I do also note a reference to route 234, which I’ve found no evidence of the existence of (I think it may have been a First route some years ago, for which the X34 was competition).
A double-decker passes the other way on the X34; always frustrating to see what I could have won if I had timed things differently!
Melksham is the midway town on the X34 and Faresaver seems to be dominant here – three of their vehicles are visible.
There are two youngsters at the back of the bus playing loud music on their phones, and occasionally singing along to it. (I’m on reasonably safe ground if I say that they’re not likely to make it into Tenebrae.) There’s also a mother with a young child in a pushchair. When the child squeals, one of the youngsters says “oh, for goodness sake” (or something like that). Yes, it’s annoying, isn’t it, when other passengers make a nuisance of themselves!
There’s been a mass exodus at Melksham, and just five of us head away from the town, for a detour from the main road into the village of Laycock. We gain one final passenger at Sainsbury’s on the outskirts of Chippenham, and reach the town’s basic bus station at the scheduled time of 1151.
Before I even get onto my next bus, the 92 to Malmesbury, I know that my connection at the far end is going to be tighter than expected (and it was already tight). There are several notices at Chippenham Bus Station advising that roadworks mean disruption to the route. 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 1354 arrival is now 1400 – my next bus will be due at 1405.
I have already described the 92 journey as part of my 100 British Bus Routes series. If you haven’t read it yet, why not do so now? I’ll wait for you.
The 92 drops me in Malmesbury’s Market Square (which would look better if it wasn’t also the main town car park) at 1350, a few minutes ahead of schedule and in good time for my 1405 departure.
ABOVE: Malmesbury Town Centre just before 2pm. Optare Solo YJ14 BWA is working Town Service 30. This stop is about to get busy, with route 31A due to join in, and route 41 needing to shelter out of sight (to the left) until there space to pull in.
Bus Stop C, where my bus is due to depart from, is suddenly rather busy. Three services are due to depart from the stop within five minutes of each other; the route 30 Town Service at 1400, the 31A to Swindon at 1402, and my next bus, the 41 to Yate at 1405. The 30 and the 31A have both arrived.
My bus is also near and, as there is no room at stop C, has parked out of the way on stop B for the time-being. The 30 moves off sharp at 1400, but the 31A does not seem to be in any hurry to follow. 1402 has come and gone, and soon, so has 1405. My bus has still not pulled forward – is the driver waiting for the 31A to pull out?
The 41 eventually pulls forward five minutes behind schedule. The bus only takes cash, and the fare is a very inconvenient (in cash-handling terms) £3.45. Fortunately the driver has a good stash of change, as all I have is a fiver. As we leave, the 31A is still there, showing no sign of moving off.
Mine is another Optare Solo, ideally suited to the very narrow Wiltshire roads. It carries posters for the temporary timetable on route 92 which, as I have commented in my article on the latter, has been communicated very effectively.
We start with three passengers and pick up two more on the outskirts of Malmesbury. We are soon back in open country.
The 41 only runs a handful of trips each day – if I had missed the 1405, the next would have been 1630. It’s hard to imagine that a more frequent service could generate new business; there just isn’t anywhere round here to generate new business from.
This hits home when the bus empties out at Sherston, leaving just me. I’m only on my own for one stop, though, before we pick up one more passenger at an unmarked stop outside The Bridge, an Indian restaurant. Sherston looks like a lovely spot.
We meander from one village to another; the other passenger gets off in Luckington.
It’s just me and the driver for the next few miles as we run down another single track road towards Badminton. The imposing Badminton House stands here. It’s been the principal seat of the family of the Duke of Beaufort for over 300 years.
Badminton House also gives its name to a racket sport, though I forget which one, and the annual Badminton Horse Trials are held here each May. But on this sunny early March afternoon, the “no admittance” signs all round the grounds stand out to me.
We’re in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and it shows! We’ve also crossed from Wiltshire into South Gloucestershire.
On through Acton Turvill (just me on board) and past a lovely country church at Tormarton. You’re probably realising by now that I love church architecture.
ABOVE: St Mary Magdelene’s Church at Tormarton
In the latter part of this journey the villages come and go rather more frequently than they had on the 92, and we’re starting to pick up a few passengers again as we join an A road (the A432 if you’re interested) for, I think, the first time since we set off from Malmesbury.
We’re heading towards Old Sodbury, and the area is more built up than hitherto. By the time we reach Chipping Sodbury we’re into double figures in terms of passenger numbers, although that changes in the town centre when everybody other than me leaves!
I’m not sure where Chipping Sodbury ends and Yate begins, but I know that there is a bus station where my service will terminate, and my next bus, the 622 to Cribbs Causeway Shopping Centre, picks up there.
I’m due into Yate at 1455, but the bus started from Malmesbury five minutes late and has (imperceptibly) lost another five minutes along the way. This is bad news as the 622 is/was due at 1503, and only runs every 90 minutes! To make matters worse, I can see it in front of me at the bus stop in Chipping Sodbury. Should I jump off the 41 early and try to catch it before it pulls out?
Several things stop me. I have a suitcase, and a pain in my heel, so jumping quickly off and trying to run the length of a bus is not necessarily do-able or wise. And all the other passengers are already on their feet to leave!
Also, I don’t know the route – is the bus in front the one I want, or is going the wrong way? Or is it about to follow the common practice of buses in many areas and morph into a different route entirely?
Then my bus overtakes the 622 and I can see that there’s no-one in the cab. A moment of hope, maybe?
I leave the 41 at Yate Bus Station, 10 minutes late, having been the first one on and the last one off. The bus is already five minutes late for its next journey back to Malmesbury.
I’ve never been to Yate before and am not familiar with exactly where it is, so it’s both a surprise and a relief to discover that there are several direct services from here to Bristol. If my 1503 service has already gone, I have other options.
But it hasn’t gone, and it turns up a moment behind the 41. It is the one I saw in Chipping Sodbury and I’m the only person to board here.
After three consecutive single-deck runs, it’s time to rediscover the top deck, on this Stagecoach Gold-branded E400.
The driver doesn’t wait for me to get up the stairs with my suitcase before he starts reversing out of the stop; (oh no, I’m not letting the encumbrance of a suitcase prevent me from reaching the top deck)! I am on my own upstairs, but it’s school time so I don’t expect that to last. The bus has started at Chipping Sodbury so is only a couple of stops into its journey.
We pass a lovely church in Tytherington. We pull off the ‘main’ road to serve a stop that requires a reverse manoeuvre into a side road to turn around and get out again. I’m still traversing down very narrow roads, and there still isn’t much traffic about, but at least I am now on a double-decker.
ABOVE: St James Parish Church, Tytherington
We soon come to a school (I think we’re in Thornbury), at emptying out time. Badly-parked cars have made it very difficult for the bus to pass. At one particularly tight spot, a man, who is carrying his daughter on his shoulders, guides our driver through at a snail’s pace, as there’s barely any room to manoeuvre.
ABOVE: A very tight space in the Thornbury area for a double-decker to squeeze through at the end of the school day. It’s the second car on the left and the third one on the right that will be the particular challenge.
As this is a primary school, the little angels are travelling with their parents by car, rather than livening up this bus!
I think there are only two buses on this route. The other one, which passes in this area, is a single-decker. I wonder which is the official allocation?
Certainly the capacity of this double-decker is needed once we reach the Aldi store at Thornbury, where the school run starts in earnest! To be fair, these children are well-behaved compared to some that I have experienced. It’s Monday, so perhaps their energy levels are low after the excesses of the weekend?
After Aldi we run into Tesco, and get a quick glimpse of the River Severn, which is now only a few miles away.
In Alveston, we make a strange three-point turn using a small cul-de-sac, from which the driver reverses across the main road. It turns out that he has missed his turning into Greenhill Road, and has used the next road to turn around and get back on route. There’s a glimpse of one of the Severn Crossings (I suspect the northern one) in the distance.
This route takes the back streets as it skirts the northern side of the city of Bristol – Olveston and Almondsbury both look inviting – our approach to the church in Almondsbury – yes, another church picture coming – is a real picture postcard scene. Several of the bus stops in this area are unmarked.
We are due at Cribbs Causeway at 1618, and we’re still in open country five minutes before. But Cribbs has a habit of creeping up suddenly, and that’s exactly what it does. We’re just a couple of minutes late in. Only two of us get off; the rest – mostly schoolchildren – are continuing on the once-daily extension of route 622 towards Severn Beach.
ABOVE: Stagecoach West’s 15768 (VX61 FKA), an Enviro 400 branded for Stagecoach Gold. With only two buses on the route, and the other being a single-decker, I never did find out whether the route is officially rostered for single- or double-deckers. My camera has not captured the electronic display showing that the bus is heading for Severn Beach.
I left Trowbridge at 1100 and am now, a mere five-and-a-half hours later, pointing towards Bristol itself. It’s been a lovely drive, on a lovely sunny day, and I’m feeling invigorated by some of the places I have seen. I’ve probably done more than 60 miles on these four buses alone.
Before I push on, I take a break for food at this huge shopping centre. I will head out again on the m1 metrobus service into the City Centre (my review of that trip can be read here) and I will reach Bristol City Centre just six hours later than I could have done, if I had caught the 1118 train from Trowbridge)!