The Back of '24
29 December 2024
ABOVE: Here's the back of a 24 to mark the 'back' of (20)24! First Leeds 35525 (SK68 TTJ), a Wright Streetdeck, passes through City Square in Leeds, working route 24 (Beeston to Holt Park), on Thursday 14 November 2024.
I’ve never been to the United States. It’s kinda (US-style wording there) on my bucket list, but I can’t see it happening, to be honest. If I were to visit, I would now have to call in on Floral Park station in Nassau County, Long Island, in New York state.
It’s on the Long Island Rail Road Main Line, just west of where the Hempstead Branch splits off. A Local Guide, Kelly Garcia, has posted on Google Maps that “the labels [at the station] are a little confusing if it's your first time here”.
Floral Park itself is a village of 16,172 people (at the 2020 Census), and is part of the town of Hempstead (the centre of Hempstead being about five miles to the south-east of Floral Park). It’s 15 miles south-south-east of the heart of New York City.
Why all the interest in a suburb of New York City? Well Floral Park is about 3,439 miles, as the crow flies, from my home in West London. And 3,439 miles is also my estimate of the number of miles I have covered by bus around Britain in 2024. So, as we reach the back of '24, I’m following the tradition of the last two years with a retrospective view of my year, and some statistics and 'fun' facts about my travels.
As always, this is a personal look back over my travels. There are much better summaries of the wider developments in the industry to be found elsewhere, and I recommend Bus and Train User's Review of 2024.
Exclusions Apply...
ABOVE: 2024 saw the completion of the London Superloop. I was, unusually, around (by coincidence) to record the First Day of the SL5 (Bromley North to Croydon). So here, on Saturday 3 February 2024, is Arriva London ENX 8 (LJ61 CHZ), an ADL Enviro200, turning into George Street, East Croydon. The route has since been cleared for double-deckers - coming in 2025 - to enable the top deck experience to be enjoyed right around the loop.
When I record my statistics, I deliberately exclude journeys on the Transport for London (TfL) network. So the 10 days or thereabouts that I have spent on the buses of London aren't included in the figures. Days that have been part-London and part-elsewhere are counted as days, but only the journeys outside the TfL network make it into the main figures.
The reason for this is simply that I regularly jump onto London buses - short shopping trips and sometimes for parts of the commute, especially when the Elizabeth Line has gone down again. I don't think I would be able to keep an accurate tally of them all.
Day 1 of my 2024 travels started with a London bus ride (from Romford to Brentwood - A Bus Ride Through Essex: Romford to Clacton-on-Sea), but my 'clock' didn't start until Brentwood. And my out-of-town travels for 2024 officially came to an end in Sutton, but two more (TfL) buses were necessary to finish that day. And I have been on at least half a dozen TfL buses since then.
I also don't include Classic Bus Running Days, of which I have attended five this year (see Picture Galleries here and here), as these aren't 'turn-up-and-go services, except on the days that they actually run... I also haven’t included the Imberbus Day for the same reason (and one could argue that it's a London service anyway, maybe...?)
3,439 Miles Covered
ABOVE: I don't believe that I have travelled with Falcon Buses yet, although I did ride on route 479 (Guildford to Epsom) many years ago when it was operated by Countryliner. Falcon 311 (YX72 OJZ), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, stands between trips near the Epsom Clock Tower on Saturday 25 May 2024.
The mileage I have covered in 2024 would also have been enough to get me to the Campo Ma'an National Park in Cameroon, a “biodiversity hotspot” with a wide range of plant and animal species.
Alternatively, I could have got to the edge of the village of Pachia Ammos, in the municipality of Ierapetra on the island of Crete - and back home again! But the buses there don't interest me like the ones in Britain do!
42 days or part-days spent on my travels
ABOVE: Beeline Coaches of Warminster runs local services in Wiltshire, of which route 24 (Salisbury to Frome) is its main bus route. Beeline 2 (BV22 HCH), a Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora, passes through Warminster High Street on Saturday 17 August 2024.
The 42 days range from a single (unplanned) journey of six minutes to a day’s bus riding that ran for more than 13-and-a-half hours.
The single trip of six minutes was from Baffins, Portsmouth, to the city centre. I had been to my niece's wedding and underestimated the length of the walk back to the train / got lazy / got tired (delete as applicable). It still counts, of course. And the wedding was lovely - the bride looked amazing!
219 Individual Bus Rides, 65 different operators
ABOVE: An unidentified ADL Enviro400 MMC of Coach Services of Thetford, Norfolk, stands in the bus station of its home town, on Monday 5 February 2024.
219 individual bus rides, with 65 different operators or subsidiaries, including subsidiaries of:
- Arriva (five)
- First (seven)
- Go-Ahead (seven)
- Stagecoach (eight)
- Transdev (five)
I discovered several new independent operators, including:
- Axe Valley Mini Travel
- Bland's
- Caelloi
- Coach Services
- D R M Bus
- Dartline
- Filer’s
- Pilkington Travel
- Pullham’s
- Tally Ho!
I also met Holmeswood Coaches, but declined to travel with them, for reasons I have already outlined.
There were 30 rides with National Express West Midlands, 23 rides with Stagecoach South West and 15 rides across the Bee Network in Manchester (with four different operators).
ABOVE: Stagecoach South West 15897 (WA13 GEK), a Scania N230UD ADL Enviro400, loads in Coronation Road, Totnes, whilst substituting for a single-decker on route 7 (Totnes to Exeter). It's Saturday 4 May 2024.
Longest and Shortest Journeys
ABOVE: Metroline LT 556 (LTZ 1556), a Wright New Routemaster, passes Claremont Park, Brent Cross, on its double-run to Brent Cross West station, on Saturday 23 March 2024
Longest journey by time
Joint Winners:
Longest journey by distance
Shortest journey by time AND distance
Longest journey by time
Joint Winners:
- T12 Newtown to Wrexham - Two hours and 20 minutes*
- T2 Porthmadog to Aberystwyth - Two hours and 20 minutes
Longest journey by distance
- T2 Porthmadog to Aberystwyth - 58.3 miles
Shortest journey by time AND distance
- 25 Norwich, Prince of Wales Road to Castle Point - three minutes / 0.8 miles
More Numbers
ABOVE: A Transdev Blackburn Bus Company ADL Enviro200 MMC is seen in Blackburn Bus Station, working route 1 (Blackburn to Bolton), on Monday 1 July 2024.
- 206.3 hours: travelling (does not include time waiting for buses)
- 56.4 minutes: average journey time
- 15.7 miles: average journey length
- 28: nights away (all in Premier Inn)
- 934: Highest numerical route number of a service I caught (National Express West Midlands Kingstanding to Birmingham)
- 8: The number of route 1s I used (Exeter, Great Yarmouth / Hemsby, Nottingham, Preston, Wrexham / Chester, and three trips between Blackburn and Bolton)
- 8: The number of routes I used without a number at all (including five routes operated by Trent Barton)
- 43: Routes travelled on with either a suffix or a prefix letter
Extremities
ABOVE: The Torcross Sherman Tank, in Torcross, Devon, took part in the April 1944 D-Day Practice Landings at Slapton Beach, near Torcross, where it was lost at sea. It was recovered 40 years later and created as a memorial to the American lives lost.
Furthest point North that I have visited this year: Morecambe, Lancs (100 British Bus Routes: Route 41)
Furthest point East: Lowestoft, Suffolk (With a Camera This Time: A Return to Norfolk Part One)
Furthest South: Torcross, near Kingsbridge, Devon (story to follow in 2025)
Furthest West: Mathry Road Old Station, nr Letterston, Pembrokeshire, whilst travelling on Traws Cymru route T5 between Fishguard and Haverfordwest (Worcester to Cardiff, Part Four)
Once again, the time lag between my travels and the corresponding articles mean that I have taken you, Dear Reader, so much further North - to Callander on the Highland Boundary Fault in Stirling (100 British Bus Routes - Route 59), and all around Edinburgh (Criss-Crossing the City of Edinburgh, Parts One and Two).
Fares, Please!
ABOVE: Some of the tickets issued to me during the year.
Fares this year came out at £413.45 in total, an average of £1.89 per ride or 12p per mile.
Cheapest individual bus ride: £0.00 (Free Bus 2 in Manchester City Centre)
Most expensive individual bus ride: £5.70 (Bland's route R1 from Melton Mowbray to Corby)
If you're wondering about the odd 5p in the total (I certainly was), it's thanks to the £1.75 fare charged on the 102 from Uxbridge to Heathrow that I mentioned in my 24 Reflections about my 2024.
Bus Stations
ABOVE: Whilst Dudley Bus Station in the West Midlands is closed, buses are using nearby streets, including Tower Street, where National Express West Midlands 4831 (BX61 LKY), an ADL Enviro400, stands on Sunday 16 June 2024. It is about to undertake a trip to Merry Hill Shopping Centre.
Estimated number of bus stations / interchanges I started and/or finished a journey at in 2024: 90
My bus station count does not include:
- Dudley, West Midlands (closed for rebuild)
- Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire (closed for rebuild)
- Bradford, West Yorkshire (closed due to structural concerns)
- Slough (still closed, and seemingly abandoned, after the fire of October 2022)
- Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf (not open yet)
I have lost count of the number of times I have dashed from one bus to another in a Bus Station. I spent less than 15 seconds on the ground in Oldham Bus Station recently, and less than 60 seconds in Pontefract, where I had to dash from one end of the Bus Station to the other!
I spent 54 minutes at Preston Bus Station one evening, from 2006 to 2100 hours, then nearly spent another hour there because the bus I had intended to catch called into the wrong stand. There were six other people waiting with me, and not one of them told me that the bus had appeared. There's not much to do in Preston at that time of the evening!
The View from the Top Deck
ABOVE: D & G Bus 572 (CN17 BHE) passes through Aldridge, West Midlands, on route 36 (Walsall to Lichfield) on Tuesday 30 January 2024.
- 53 articles published in 2024
- Around 1000 new pictures added
- Perhaps 150,000 words (I've not counted)
- All articles from the old site reconstructed on the main site
- Another 13 routes presented in the "100 British Bus Routes" series, bringing the total so far to 47 routes (nearly half way). The series has not yet featured route 69, as promised for the last two years; nor route 4, promised 12 months ago!
The Future is Already Here...
ABOVE: Go-Ahead Metrobus 6405 (LV74 BZK) is a Hydrogen-powered bus (a Wright GB Kite Hydroliner). It is seen at Gatwick Airport working route 100 (Redhill to Maidenbower) on Friday 29 November 2024.
A major change comes to the bus industry around once in a generation:
- Driver-only buses in the late 1960s / early 1970s
- Low floor buses in the late 1990s
- Moving away from fossil fuels in the 2020s
There are so many electric buses on order (and a few hydrogen ones), and so many new models coming in that the bus scene is going to be transformed over the years to come. It should be fascinating!
'25 is Almost Here
ABOVE: Representing the approach of 2025 is a very similar picture to one I have used before, but taken three seconds earlier! First Buses of Somerset 47535 (MK63 XAM), a Wright StreetLite DF, passes through High Street, Dulverton, on a journey on route 25 to Taunton, on Tuesday 30 April 2024.
And so, 2025 beckons. Who knows what it will bring!
I still have a number of stories from 2024 to tell, but I hope to start my 2025 travels in January (work permitting of course). In particular, I intend to look at:
- The Bee Network in Manchester, which is due for completion in January
- The new ieTrams on route 358 in South East London, and the Fasttrack equivalents when they enter service
- The state of TfL
- More of my "100 British Bus Routes" - routes 44 and 3 are next; and
- Well... whatever I stumble across, from wherever I end up!
Whether you are a regular reader or are visiting this site for the first time, thank you for your support. See you in 2025!
Happy New Year!