TAKING A STAND
19 November 2022
ABOVE: Go North East Optare Solo SR 659 (NK15 GFE) is at Sunderland’s Park Lane Interchange, between runs on route X6 (Sunderland to Peterlee), on Thursday 5th May 2022. The bus will stand here for another 20 minutes or so, blocking the intended arrival / departure stand for Go North East route 62, which will have to find somewhere else to pick up in 10 minutes’ time.
I spend a lot of time in bus stations around the country. There’s lots that can be said about them – location, facilities, information, for example. But what happens when a bus parks in the ‘wrong’ stand?
There's a ripple effect whenever a bus does this. We've all seen it. I missed a 444 in Wakefield once because it was two stands adrift of where it was supposed to be. I saw it just as it was pulling out.
Buses on the wrong stands, or in the wrong order, are a problem that has probably existed for as long as bus stations have. I recall Hounslow Bus Station, way back in the 1970s, struggling daily with buses parked in the wrong bays. That was a ‘drive-through’ bus station; one where buses drive into a narrow, dedicated lane, pick up and then pull forward to leave.
Sometimes using the wrong stand is unavoidable. If a bus comes in later than scheduled, it may have missed its slot in the bus station, in much the same way as a train can lose its path.
But I do wonder of some of the incidents we see could be avoided with a bit of care and thought. Remember that the passengers are the ones who potentially lose out if a bus leaves from a different place to the one that is booked.
Something bizarre happened just this week at Victoria Bus Station in Central London. This is one of the bus stations where buses have a drive-through road, rather than reversing off the stand. There’s no room for buses to pass if they arrive in the wrong order, though.
And that’s exactly what had happened on the 507 (Victoria to Waterloo). There were four buses queued up on the stand (well, technically three on the stand and one on the approach road behind it, as the stand only holds three buses). The first one due out, somehow, was the one on the approach road at the back!
To enable it to leave, all of the other three buses had to drive off and go round the block. Thankfully, the driver of the first vehicle explained to the queue what was going to happen, otherwise there might have been some ‘anxiety’ as three buses all pulled away!
We were all able to board our bus and were quickly on our way. How on earth that vehicle ended up behind all the others, though, I have no idea. I just hope they came back in the correct order, and that the next one due after them didn’t turn up in the meantime!
Incidentally the 507 only runs every seven minutes in the peaks nowadays (used to be 18 buses per hour), with nine buses on the route in total, so four at once is rather significant by any standard.
And I saw a crazy situation unfold in 10 seconds flat in Bath Bus Station a few weeks ago. I was waiting for an X31 to Chippenham, at its designated stand 6, which was vacant. A service 272 to Devizes was due to depart from stand 7 (also vacant). There was a bus in stand 8.
The 272 came into view, with the X31 directly behind it. But coming in ahead of both of them was another bus (I don’t recall what it was) that drove directly onto the 272 stand. The 272 then drove onto the X31 stand, so the X31 had to drive onto the next stand along, which fortunately was also empty!
On a visit to Sunderland, routes 62 and X6 to Peterlee were both booked to use the same stand. The X6 was due in first but out second. I presume that the bus was supposed to pull in to drop off, then pull out again to park on a stand (there is one nearby) while the 62 called in.
But, on the day I was there, the X6 pulled onto the stand and the driver left it there. So the 62, when it arrived, had to use the adjacent stand. This caused more problems when the bus that was supposed to use that stand arrived.
There is also a question as to how the situation is handled when a bus has to use a different stand to the scheduled one.
Some drivers go the extra mile – and not just to get to another stand! I was in Lancaster Bus Station, awaiting a bus on route 40 to Preston. The nearest available stand was FIVE adrift from the scheduled one. I spotted the bus coming in and was able to board. After I had done so, the driver left the bus and wandered across to the official stop, coming back with a number of customers. Excellent customer care, and everyone was a winner.
I spend a lot of time in bus stations around the country. There’s lots that can be said about them – location, facilities, information, for example. But what happens when a bus parks in the ‘wrong’ stand?
There's a ripple effect whenever a bus does this. We've all seen it. I missed a 444 in Wakefield once because it was two stands adrift of where it was supposed to be. I saw it just as it was pulling out.
Buses on the wrong stands, or in the wrong order, are a problem that has probably existed for as long as bus stations have. I recall Hounslow Bus Station, way back in the 1970s, struggling daily with buses parked in the wrong bays. That was a ‘drive-through’ bus station; one where buses drive into a narrow, dedicated lane, pick up and then pull forward to leave.
Sometimes using the wrong stand is unavoidable. If a bus comes in later than scheduled, it may have missed its slot in the bus station, in much the same way as a train can lose its path.
But I do wonder of some of the incidents we see could be avoided with a bit of care and thought. Remember that the passengers are the ones who potentially lose out if a bus leaves from a different place to the one that is booked.
Something bizarre happened just this week at Victoria Bus Station in Central London. This is one of the bus stations where buses have a drive-through road, rather than reversing off the stand. There’s no room for buses to pass if they arrive in the wrong order, though.
And that’s exactly what had happened on the 507 (Victoria to Waterloo). There were four buses queued up on the stand (well, technically three on the stand and one on the approach road behind it, as the stand only holds three buses). The first one due out, somehow, was the one on the approach road at the back!
To enable it to leave, all of the other three buses had to drive off and go round the block. Thankfully, the driver of the first vehicle explained to the queue what was going to happen, otherwise there might have been some ‘anxiety’ as three buses all pulled away!
We were all able to board our bus and were quickly on our way. How on earth that vehicle ended up behind all the others, though, I have no idea. I just hope they came back in the correct order, and that the next one due after them didn’t turn up in the meantime!
Incidentally the 507 only runs every seven minutes in the peaks nowadays (used to be 18 buses per hour), with nine buses on the route in total, so four at once is rather significant by any standard.
And I saw a crazy situation unfold in 10 seconds flat in Bath Bus Station a few weeks ago. I was waiting for an X31 to Chippenham, at its designated stand 6, which was vacant. A service 272 to Devizes was due to depart from stand 7 (also vacant). There was a bus in stand 8.
The 272 came into view, with the X31 directly behind it. But coming in ahead of both of them was another bus (I don’t recall what it was) that drove directly onto the 272 stand. The 272 then drove onto the X31 stand, so the X31 had to drive onto the next stand along, which fortunately was also empty!
On a visit to Sunderland, routes 62 and X6 to Peterlee were both booked to use the same stand. The X6 was due in first but out second. I presume that the bus was supposed to pull in to drop off, then pull out again to park on a stand (there is one nearby) while the 62 called in.
But, on the day I was there, the X6 pulled onto the stand and the driver left it there. So the 62, when it arrived, had to use the adjacent stand. This caused more problems when the bus that was supposed to use that stand arrived.
There is also a question as to how the situation is handled when a bus has to use a different stand to the scheduled one.
Some drivers go the extra mile – and not just to get to another stand! I was in Lancaster Bus Station, awaiting a bus on route 40 to Preston. The nearest available stand was FIVE adrift from the scheduled one. I spotted the bus coming in and was able to board. After I had done so, the driver left the bus and wandered across to the official stop, coming back with a number of customers. Excellent customer care, and everyone was a winner.
A quartet of Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire double-deckers at Lancaster Bus Station on Wednesday 2nd June 2021, taken from the top of a route 100 bus from Morecambe (and presumably all parked correctly)! From L-R: 12208 (MX13 FLR), an ADL Enviro400H; 18362 (I think! – MX55 KPP), a Dennis Trident Alexander ALX400, since withdrawn; 11206 (SK19 EVX), an ADL Enviro400 MMC; and 10553 (SN16 ONV), another ADL Enviro400 MMC.
But I have seen buses elsewhere just pull off the stand they are on, without checking if there is anyone waiting at the official one. It happened in Swansea, when there was a stray bus parked in the route 34 bus stop. My bus ended up two bays adrift, but there were people waiting at that other stop…
Swansea Bus Station, on Thursday 11th August 2022, taken from the window of a route 34 bus towards Neath. The Dennis Dart has parked on the 34’s official stand, causing the 34 to be parked two stands away (the bus in the intermediate stand left shortly before my bus did). The Dennis Dart in the official stand is First South Wales 42683 (CU53 APY). Labelled “Private”, it nonetheless started picking up passengers just before my bus departed. Bustimes.org suggests that this vehicle has been withdrawn from front-line service, so what it is up to is an even bigger mystery!
One way to avoid a problem is to avoid scheduling buses too close to one another – easier said than done, I appreciate, when space is limited. But the scheduled departures, from the same stop at Consett Bus Station, of a route 47A to Newcastle-upon-Tyne at 0859 and a 689 service to Hexham at 0900 was clearly never going to work. On the day I was there the 689 was several stands adrift! Both routes have been retimed since my visit.
Timetable from Consett Bus Station, in May 2022, showing route 47A due at 0859 and route 689, in the same bay, at 0900 on Mondays to Fridays. The same problem will have arisen on Saturdays, when the 689 is again at 0900, and the 47A this time is at 0901. There would also have been a problem on Saturdays around 1500, as examination of the two timetables shows!
And nor was the departure of the Trans Peak service from Derby Bus Station to Buxton at 1045, from the same stop served by the quarter-hourly Trent Barton ‘Mickleover’ service, also due at 1045, ever going to work. On that occasion, it was clear quite early on that there was going to be a problem, and it turned out that the indicators in the Bus Station had been showing the wrong stand for my service (stand 21 instead of 23), which is why I ended up at the back of the queue instead of the front!
One solution might be the approach taken in Burnley Bus Station. There are more than 14 stands available there, but the bus ‘Gates’ are numbered 1 to 7. Each Gate opens out to two stands, meaning that two buses can effectively be on the same Gate at the same time. In four visits there, I’ve not seen a route on the ‘wrong’ stand.
Burnley Bus Station on Friday 23rd September 2022. Not the best picture, but you can see the entrances to Gates 6 & 5, both of which have two parking bays serving them, as do all the Gates here.
Another view of Burnley Bus Station, taken moment after the previous one. You can clearly see two bays serving each ‘Gate’.
It’s a few years since I’ve been to Chatham, but I recall that there was an attempt to manage the bus stopping arrangements at the Waterfront Bus Station ‘dynamically’. This meant that buses were only allocated to stands shortly before they were due. It’s a small enough place for that to probably be manageable (it wouldn’t work at 40-stand Preston), but I don’t think it still happens.
The Medway Council website says that there are “4 platforms labelled A, B, C and D, each with a number of individual stops on them”. It also lists which route stops where, on a separate downloadable document, suggesting that dynamic measures no longer apply.
I don’t have a photo of Chatham Bus Station, but here's Preston Bus Station, which I also mention above, on Wednesday 2nd June 2021.
And here’s what prompted this idea for an article in the first place… A few months ago, the London Bus Museum organised a Running Day along TfL route 81. This route runs from Hounslow to Slough nowadays, but it used to run on to Windsor, so the Running Day buses did the same.
Part of the plan was the provision of two different bus stands in Slough Bus Station (recently damaged by a fire and temporarily closed) for the different directions of travel.
The Hounslow direction was served by Stand 1; sensible given that the 'normal' 81s stop there, and because, uniquely for Slough, there are two parking bays serving that stand.
The Windsor direction was intended to be served from Stand 7, which wasn't normally used on a Sunday. But that wasn't possible on the day, because a Thames Valley vehicle had been parked there, presumably since Saturday night as no-one saw it arrive; it stayed put all day.
Buses to Windsor ended up using any stand that was empty at the time it was needed. "Best laid schemes of mice and men", as Robert Burns once said...
I’m not suggesting that the Thames Valley vehicle was in the wrong in being parked up there, as the operator does (did) park vehicles in the Bus Station overnight. But clearly the organisers of the Route 81 event had been expecting the stand to be empty all day – perhaps there was a breakdown in communications?
Thames Valley Optare Solo SR 192 (YJ66 AEX) is parked in stand 7 at Slough Bus Station on Sunday 12th June 2022.
Preserved London Transport RT 1705 (KYY 532) in Stand 9 at Slough Bus Station (Stand 7 not being available – see above) during the Route 81 Running Day on Sunday 12th June 2022. A 1980s Leyland Titan, T961 (A961 SYE) can be seen in the background. Of course, a rear-entrance bus does not fit very well into a modern-style bus station.
Still, at least the places I have talked about here still have bus stations (Hounslow's is a shadow of what it was, though). But many other towns and even cities have to manage without, and it's surprising how many councils have decided to close their bus stations and leave the buses to fend for themselves on the streets. But that’s something for another day.