A Plethora of Route 200s
22 January 2025
BusTimes.org lists 17 bus routes in Great Britain that carry the number 200. To mark this, my 200th article, here's a look at seven of them...
Runcorn Local Service
ABOVE: Arriva North West 3049 (MX10 DAU), a VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar 2, arrives at the Runcorn High Street interchange working
Runcorn local route 200, on Tuesday 12 November 2024. The digitial destination display is too weak / fast for my camera, but the driver is waving!
As I am heading to Yorkshire anyway (Leeds, to be precise), it's a straight-forward detour to call into Runcorn, Cheshire. Nestling between Liverpool and Warrington, with one of the most stunning bridges across the River Mersey, this is the only one of the seven route 200s that I am going to talk about that I haven't actually travelled on.
Barring a few journeys from / to nearby Widnes (starting with an 0446 departure), this route 200, operated by Arriva North West, is basically an hourly service looping between Runcorn High Street and Halton Lea (home of the famous busway), via local suburbs such as Astmoor, Preston Brook, Red Brow and Murdishaw.
But where is the bus? The timetable shows that it is supposed to complete a journey at 1103 and start the next one at 1109. By 1115 there is no still sign of it, but a check on BusTimes.org indicates that it is running late. Very late...
In off-peak periods this is a single-vehicle route, and the bus will be chasing its tail all day unless it gets so late that an entire journey has to be cancelled.
When it does turn up, half an hour late, it comes into the interchange from the opposite direction to that I am expecting. All the publicity - online and in stops - suggests stop C, but the bus has come in on the opposite side of the road and picks up from stop B. The locals, who have waited an extra 30 minutes of course, are at stop B, so clearly they know something that the internet doesn't.
Flitwick to Biggleswade
ABOVE: On Monday 20 January 2025, Grant Palmer 230 (YX70 OKH), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, has just arrived at Biggleswade Bus Station on a journey on route 200 from Flitwick.
There's a part of Central Bedfordshire that the major operators appear to have forgotten about. Looking around Biggleswade produces only services provided by independents such as Grant Palmer and community operator Ivel Sprinter, whilst Whippet Coaches is chasing at their heels a few miles away, consolidating its own network across Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
In this highly car-dependent commuter territory, Grant Palmer route 200 is basically a two-hourly service from Flitwick, 11 miles to the south-west of Biggleswade as the crow flies. There's a bus interchange at the railway station, but the 200 abstains from using that convenient pick-up point, in favour of starting opposite the Bowls Club on nearby King's Road.
Maybe that's why there are only two of us for the 0930 departure (actually 0937) on this particular Monday morning. The bus is smart and modern, and the fare is still only £2 in this £3-cap era, but there's a distinct smell of cigarette smoke in the saloon.
ABOVE: The Church of St John the Baptist in Flitton, Beds
This route is designed to link a number of small villages between Flitwick and Biggleswade. I lose my only fellow passenger at Silsoe, but gain a new one at Upper Gravenhurst.
There's only one bus per day in each direction diverted into this village; a fact that my new companion bemoans. "The Council says it can't afford to send any more buses in - what do we pay our Council Tax for"? Unless he can get to the 1300 departure back, he faces a two-mile walk from the nearest stop served by the other buses on this route.
This is a brisk journey - the driver is in a hurry. The passenger count livens up from Shefford (by far the largest settlement between the route's termini), and is busier for the rest of the journey.
We seem to pass a lot of High Streets on the route - High Street Greenfield, High Street Flitton, High Street Silsoe, High Street Shefford, and High Street Broom (though this last one sweeps - ahem - into a High Road almost immediately)!
We take a diversion on the approach to Biggleswade. This is only apparent because one of the passengers remarks on it - there's a road closure somewhere on the normal route.
We have made up four minutes by the time we reach Biggleswade Bus Station at 1032, so we're just three minutes late. The next journey, at 1035, will start on time, although the running times feel tight on this service.
Grays to Basildon
ABOVE: First Essex 33507 (LK08 FKZ), an ADL Enviro400, arrives at Grays Bus Station on a journey from Basildon on route 200, on Saturday 11 January 2025.
Operated by First Essex, this route 200 is allegedly the 'long way round' between Grays and Basildon, although it only takes seven minutes longer (65 minutes instead of 58) than the 'direct' thrice-hourly route 100. The main difference is that hourly route 200 digs deeper into the village of Orsett, a village situated at the southern edge of an Ice Age flood plain.
ABOVE: Not snow, but ice, lies on the pavement as the temperature struggles to get above zero on Saturday 11 January 2025. This is the Stanford Road, north of Orsett Heath in Essex.
There's a banned right turn out of King Edward Drive, in Thurrock, that requires us to turn left and undertake a double-run to the nearest roundabout and back - a trip of the best part of a mile in total.
The A13 trunk road is close to the 200 for much of the way. In fact, we cross it three times in quick succession, although the latter two crossings are only necessary to enable us to circumnavigate the vast Orsett Cock Roundabout.
The main town on the route is Stanford-le-Hope. St Margaret's Church, 800 years old, acts as a focal point for the town.
A ride on route 200 shows how much green space and attractive housing there is top be found in this area of Essex. With a series of decent transport links as well, this is prime commuter territory. Buses should thrive around here.
ABOVE: Various First Group buses, in various liveries, line up at Basildon Bus Station on Saturday 11 January 2025.
Raynes Park to Mitcham
ABOVE: Go-Ahead London General WVL 429 (LX11 FJE), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, is seen in Hartfield Road, on the Wimbledon one-way system, on Friday 29 November 2024.
Transport for London Route 200 made the headlines in January 2024 for all the wrong reasons, when one of the Optare Metrodecker EVs that worked the route caught fire in Wimbledon, leading to the whole of the route's electric fleet being temporarily withdrawn from service. Twelve months on, these electrics remain in the minority on the route, with the balance of the allocation made up of older double-deckers.
Starting at Raynes Park, a mile-and-a-bit south-west of Wimbledon itself, route 200 takes the long way round to Wimbledon, making a double-run into the Copse Hill area near Wimbledon Hill Park. Right Move reports that "the majority of properties" sold in Copse Hill during the last year were detached properties, "selling for an average price of £2,730,193". Expensive, and it shows.
ABOVE: High Street Wimbledon, in Wimbledon Village, north-west of the town centre, finds Go-Ahead London General Ee 140 (LG23 FBE, centre) hard at work, alongside an unidentified ADL Enviro200 (right). Route 200 turns left here, to head for Copse Hill. This is Friday 29 November 2024.
After the long ramble from Raynes Park to Wimbledon, route 200 continues across south-west London, in a continuing meandering fashion, through South Wimbledon and Collier's Wood, before concluding at Fair Green in Mitcham, a tiny piece of green space that is dwarfed by the 460 acres of Mitcham Common, 300 yards down the road.
As a London bus service, the effects of traffic show up in the timetable for route 200. The first journey from Mitcham, leaving at 0450, is timed to take 34 minutes to Raynes Park. Fast forward to the 0715 departure, and the four that follow that at the nine-minute frequency of this service, and the journey time goes up to 61 minutes.
ABOVE: A rear view extreme close-up of Me 16 (YJ21 EYV), one of the few Optare Metrodecker EVs that has re-entered service on route 200. It is seen here near High Cedar Drive on the Copse Hill double-run on Friday 29 November 2024. The bus is heading to Mitcham - the opposite direction to my Raynes Park service.
Banbury to Daventry
ABOVE: Stagecoach Oxfordshire 36096 (MX59 JAU) stands in Daventry Bus Station on Saturday 18 January 2025, between trips on route 200 to/from Banbury.
The majority of Banbury to Daventry route 200 runs in Northamptonshire (Northants), but this hourly route is operated from the Banbury end, by Stagecoach Oxfordshire.
We're a mere 12 minutes out from Banbury, and just past Juction 11 of the M40 motorway, when we pass a sign welcoming us to Northants, but we're back in Oxfordshire a moment later. It's just a quirk of the A361 road being reasonably straight whilst the county boundary is a bit wobbly.
It will be less than three miles, as the crow flies, before we cross the border again - for good this time. But the 200 itself gets the wobbles itself on this section when it turns off the main road into a very narrow road that needs passing places to allow a bus to traverse it. We seem to be in the middle of nowhere - there are no buildings here, just fields - but this is all a ploy to enable us to fully access the village of Wardington, a bit further on. It's a worthwhile detour, as passengers both board and alight here.
ABOVE: St Mary Magdalene Church, Wardington
We cross the Northants boundary and come to the village of Chipping Warden. Just beyond, the construction of the HS2 High Speed line is underway, as we pass the Chipping Camden tunnel (better picture - and a video - can be viewed here).
This will be a 1.5 mile-long tunnel, and will be finished with trees, plants, and shrubs on top. One day, we won't even remember that it's there!
On through the villages of Byfield, which seems to be quite extensive, Charwelton, and Badby, and we reach Daventry's basic bus station - really just a segregated section of a Tesco car park - four minutes late. There's only two minutes' turn-around time here, so the bus back will start late.
ABOVE: The Burton Memorial, Daventry - named after a Clerk to the Daventry Borough Council and Grade-II listed.
Gatwick Airport to Horsham
ABOVE: A Wright Streetlite DF of Metrobus stands in Horsham Bus Station between trips on route 200 from/to Gatwick Airport. It's Friday 29 November 2024.
There are two route 200s from Gatwick - make sure you catch the right one! There's a National Express coach to Bristol, and a route 200 bus to Horsham! The former is a coach, so isn't eligible for my review of bus route 200s. But they both pick up at the North and South Terminals at Gatwick Airport, so be careful!
Go-Ahead Metrobus operates the latter; the only route 200 to run 24-hours a day (including Christmas Day). This is a key service linking Gatwick Airport with the towns and villages to the south-west - Ifield, Bewbush and Horsham. The service uses smartly-presented and branded Wright Streetlite DFs. As well as outside branding, the interior cove panels carry a stop-by-stop guide to the route:
ABOVE: Part of the interior route information provided by Metrobus for its route 200. The arrows indicate that a stop is in one direction only. In the case of Standen Place, for example, there is only a stop towards Horsham, which is out of shot on the left of the diagram.
Whilst the route is generally reasonably direct, it does take the long way around through Littlehaven and North Heath, taking 16 minutes off-peak from Millthorpe Road, Roffey to Horsham Railway Station, whereas the more-direct route 23 (Crawley to Horsham) covers the route between these points in five minutes.
But maybe passengers covering the bulk of this route will not object to a slight detour. The buses are smooth and comfortable, the journey feels brisk (even if going round the houses a bit, as described above), and 65 minutes will get you from end-to-end.
The route even manages to avoid Crawley, a busy market town, in favour of the tranquility of the "former" village of Ifield, which is now described as a "neighbourhood" of Crawley.
ABOVE: My 'best' picture of a route 200 bus in Horsham is not ideal. The display hasn't come through on the phone properly, there's street furniture in the way, and part of the "200" branding is missing! Other than that, a marvellous photo! Go-Ahead Metrobus 6124 (SK19 FCC), a Wright Streetlite DF, is approaching Horsham Station, en route for the Town Centre, on a sunny Friday 29 Novmber 2024.
Horsham is a lovely market town - its existence can be traced back to 947 AD, where it is mentioned in King Eadred's land charter.
The Bus Station is central to the town, but the passenger area is a little cramped. If a couple of services are due imminently, circulation space is non-existent (that is, I suppose, a sign of a reasonably healthy bus market in an affluent area of West Sussex).
ABOVE: A "top deck" view of Horsham Bus Station, on Friday 29 November 2024. The bus on the left is a Stagecoach South ADL/TransBus Enviro300 on route 63 to Guildford.
Leeds to Heckmondwike
Leeds to Heckmondwike
ABOVE: Arriva Yorkshire 1550 (NK61 EBJ), a VDL DB300 Wright Gemini 2, has just passed the Bruntcliffe Crossroads in Morley, West Yorkshire, on its way to Leeds on route 200. It's Wednesday 13 November 2024.
It seems to me that many of the Arriva Yorkshire routes operating from Leeds are paired up to offer services to nearby towns by two different routes, or by the same core route and then out to two different destinations. We have the 202 / 203 to Huddersfield, the 254 / 255 to Cleckheaton then Huddersfield or Halifax respectively, and the 200 / 201 to Heckmondwike, or "Heck", as it seems to be known to many of the locals!
ABOVE: Arriva Yorkshire 1977 (YX17 NLO), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, heads along Neville Street in central Leeds, on an incoming journey on route 200 from Heckmondwike, on Wednesday 13 November 2024.
So I've boarded the 200 to "Heck" in the middle of the morning school run. As I've been staying to the west side of Leeds railway station, the idea of walking all the way to Leeds Bus Station, to the east, has seemed unnecessary given that the bus picks up near the railway station. And the reward is that 30 or 40 other passengers have reached this bus ahead of me!
Never mind. Virtually all of them get off by the time we reach the White Rose Centre, a major out-of-town shopping centre, three miles south-west of Leeds city centre. Almost all buses serving Leeds are referred to as the "[something] line", to help people navigate their way around. The 200 is the "White Rose" line.
A much calmer journey ensues as we head for Morley, in the heart of the "Heavy Woollen District", a region of textile-focused industrial development, so-called because of the heavyweight cloth manufactured there from the early 19th Century.
But we don't stay here long. We turn into Queen Street and approach the Grade-I listed Town Hall building, before suddenly turning right before it and making a hasty retreat out of town.
ABOVE: A view looking west, from College Street in Birstall.
We come to Cleckheaton - the "Cleck" to complement "Heck". The King Edward VII Gardens Memorial Park has been dressed up for the Remembrance weekend, which has just passed. The effect is moving and humbling.
ABOVE: King Edward VII Memorial Park, Cleckheaton, on Wednesday 13 November 2024.
It's been a broadly-straight run from Leeds to "Cleck", but, at Hartshead Moor, just beyond "Cleck", the bus turns sharp left, from a south-westerly trajectory to a south-easterly one, for the last haul into "Heck".
We're onto high ground here, and one can look back across at Cleckheaton below. Although we're on the designated route, where buses run every half an hour on weekdays, the bus stop is convinced that the service along here is rather more limited...
ABOVE: This is a regular stop on route 200, at Hartshead Moor, despite the "School Services Only" descriptor.
We reach Heckmondwike, on schedule at 0946, 94 minutes out from Leeds Bus Station. There's no Bus Station here at the moment as it's being renovated, but the drop-off point is literally next to the site.
I've enjoyed some stunning scenery, and have visited a number of delightful West Yorkshire towns on this bus. A really enjoyable ride, that I heartily recommend if you're in the vicinity.
ABOVE: Arriva Yorkshire 1539 (YJ61 OBO), a VDL DB300 Wright Gemini 2, in Northgate, Heckmondwike, on Wednesday 13 November 2024. In this case, the blind display hasn't failed to be caught by the camera for once - it is literally in the one-second blank moment that occurs when the display is being updated - in this case from "200 Heckmondwike" to "201 Leeds".
And The Rest...
What of the other route 200s, then? They seem to be quite a motley collection, based on the timetables and other online materials available...
West Coast Motors runs one from Campbeltown to Machrihanish in Western Scotland, twice a day (three times on Saturdays). If you can't place Campbeltown, it's just under 60 miles south-west of Glasgow as the crow flies, but you would need a crow, or an alternative flying object, to do the direct route, as there are two stretches of water to cross!
Whilst connected to the mainland, you would need to travel via Inverary, Lochgilphead and Tarbert - around 138 miles! (There is a through 926 coach, though, taking nearly 4.5 hours.) The actual 200 route here is a coast-to-coast journey of about six miles, from the Clyde coast to the Atlantic Coast. Machrihanish is so far west that, if you were to go due south, the next bit of Britain that you would reach would be the coast just north of Morvah, 5.5 miles north-west of Penzance in Cornwall (you would hit land in Northern Ireland on the way, though).
Also in Scotland, Avondale runs a local 200 service in the Clydebank / Drumchapel area north-west of Glasgow. Its intensive service, every 10 minutes, makes it the most frequent route 200 outside London.
Somewhere north of Dumfries is a local route 200 that runs twice a day between Thornhill and Durisdeer - a round trip lasting half an hour! And there's an Edinburgh Airport to Ocean Terminal service that avoids the city centre of Edinburgh itself.
A number like 200 is going to be a good choice for a Park & Ride service, and there are two, in Plymouth and Guildford. There might be a third in York (see below).
And of course there are school services - Penzance to Truro (First Kernow), and Thetford, Norfolk to Mildenhall (Coach Services). The latter seems to be a schools variation of the all-day service 201.
There's also a service 200 between Essendon (south-west of Hertford) and Colney Fields Retail Park, near London Colney in Hertfordshire, only just outside the M25. It runs just once a week, leaving Essendon every Monday morning at 0951 and getting people back there by 1316, with two hours and five minutes at the Retail Park.
But the strangest of the lot, to my mind, is the First York route 200 between Askham Bar (Tesco and Park & Ride) and James Street, York. This is not a straight-forward route, as the BusTimes.info map shows. What makes it strange is that there are just three journeys, in this direction only, leaving at 0430, 0535 and 0640, Mondays to Saturdays. There are no return journeys and no other trips during the day. These journeys must have a purpose - the only suggestion I can find online is that it is a Works service that has been opened up to the public. Curious!
West Coast Motors runs one from Campbeltown to Machrihanish in Western Scotland, twice a day (three times on Saturdays). If you can't place Campbeltown, it's just under 60 miles south-west of Glasgow as the crow flies, but you would need a crow, or an alternative flying object, to do the direct route, as there are two stretches of water to cross!
Whilst connected to the mainland, you would need to travel via Inverary, Lochgilphead and Tarbert - around 138 miles! (There is a through 926 coach, though, taking nearly 4.5 hours.) The actual 200 route here is a coast-to-coast journey of about six miles, from the Clyde coast to the Atlantic Coast. Machrihanish is so far west that, if you were to go due south, the next bit of Britain that you would reach would be the coast just north of Morvah, 5.5 miles north-west of Penzance in Cornwall (you would hit land in Northern Ireland on the way, though).
Also in Scotland, Avondale runs a local 200 service in the Clydebank / Drumchapel area north-west of Glasgow. Its intensive service, every 10 minutes, makes it the most frequent route 200 outside London.
Somewhere north of Dumfries is a local route 200 that runs twice a day between Thornhill and Durisdeer - a round trip lasting half an hour! And there's an Edinburgh Airport to Ocean Terminal service that avoids the city centre of Edinburgh itself.
A number like 200 is going to be a good choice for a Park & Ride service, and there are two, in Plymouth and Guildford. There might be a third in York (see below).
And of course there are school services - Penzance to Truro (First Kernow), and Thetford, Norfolk to Mildenhall (Coach Services). The latter seems to be a schools variation of the all-day service 201.
There's also a service 200 between Essendon (south-west of Hertford) and Colney Fields Retail Park, near London Colney in Hertfordshire, only just outside the M25. It runs just once a week, leaving Essendon every Monday morning at 0951 and getting people back there by 1316, with two hours and five minutes at the Retail Park.
But the strangest of the lot, to my mind, is the First York route 200 between Askham Bar (Tesco and Park & Ride) and James Street, York. This is not a straight-forward route, as the BusTimes.info map shows. What makes it strange is that there are just three journeys, in this direction only, leaving at 0430, 0535 and 0640, Mondays to Saturdays. There are no return journeys and no other trips during the day. These journeys must have a purpose - the only suggestion I can find online is that it is a Works service that has been opened up to the public. Curious!
ABOVE: A busy scene in Wimbledon as Go-Ahead London General WVL 430 (LX11 FJF), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, passes through on its way to Morden on Friday 29 November 2024.
And that concludes my review of bus routes numbered 200 across Great Britain. Well, in England and Scotland - curiously there don't seem to be any route 200s at all in Wales.
It also concludes my 200th article for this website. I've enjoyed bringing stories of my adventures to you, as well as the occasional opinion piece. I have a number of tales from 2024 still to tell, and there are new adventures to be had and told as well, of course!
I'm not planning on slowing down, on either the travels or the articles, but one never knows what is around the corner. I wonder whether, towards the end of 2028, I might be writing an article that is headed with a picture like the one below - a route 400 for my 400th article? Time will tell!
ABOVE: Lothian Buses 499 (SF17 VOP), a Volvo B5TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 3, is seen at the Gyle Centre, near Edinburgh, working route 400 from Edinburgh Airport to Fort Kinnaird, on Wednesday 13 September 2023.
BELOW: An approximation of the 17 Route 200s covered in this article, with red lines (or circles for circular routes) for the featured services, and purple lines / circles for the others.
