Great Western Coffee Shop

No clues to begin with:

(https://bristolrailcampaign.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/wwrs20240721_scaled.jpg)

Looks like a (stagecoach?) Double-decker bus... ::) ;D

Backing off (or coming onto a stand).
Suspect backing off somewhere.

Hmm. the 'Bus Stopping' sign is illuminated, suggesting it's coming in?

OK, so some answers:

* The operator is NOT Stagecoach;
* This is one of three vehicles leaving this location, all at pretty much the same time;
* The 'Bus Stopping' sign was not illuminated. In fact no-one rang the bell at any point during the journey.

So it's a rail replacement bus, somewhere.

A golf special in the Troon area?

I like your thinking, but no. It is (as PrestburyRoad suggested) a rail replacement bus service.

Newport ,Chepstow Caldecott possibly.

No. Time for another clue: The bus substitution involved a long section on the A1.

Talk of rail replacement buses reminds me of the unwelcome view from one of the top deck front seats of a rail replacement bus between Bath and Bristol way back in June 2009. Humungous congestion on the Keynsham bypass.

Can't recall if the cause was an accident or road works that coincided with the line closure, but even at a distance of 15 years, that view immediately flashed before my eyes. We were there some time.

Mark

(https://i.postimg.cc/xTqMzZrM/keynsham-bypass-sunday-7th-june-2009-1000.jpg)

Yes, that's the Keynsham 'by-pass' on the A4.  Tell me about it.  ::)

 Between St Neots and Bedford?

Sorry for the distressing photo. If anyone needs to know about one-time proposed road schemes, a borehole search can be revealing. They're to be found, mapped out, on this British Geological Society web site. The intention for for a Saltford bypass that would have joined the Keynsham bypass with the A4 at Twerton Fork, Bath has left a clear trace, with the ghost of a plan for Pucklechurch to Ilminster running north east to south west across the route too. (Boreholes are clickable and you can then often discover dates, purpose and if very lucky, a borehole record...)

Mark


https://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/geoindex/home.html?layer=BGSBoreholes (https://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/geoindex/home.html?layer=BGSBoreholes)

Sorry Mark - was Red Squirrel down this hole then?

He wasn't. And I can tell you that traffic on the A1 was flowing quite freely that day - even where it passes under the M1...

Sorry, didn’t spot this. No; wrong A1.

I was thinking of Europa Buscentre/Great Victoria Street. I can't find anything matching what little can be seen in the picture, but there's a lot of building going on round there.

Northern Ireland then. Between Belfast and Londonderry/Derry?

You are getting very warm, stuving… eightonedee is the wrong side of Belfast.

I'll try Belfast to Dublin next......

Reverse that and you’re spot on…

That's a long distance for a bustitution. How long did it take?

Needed the Starship Enterprise rather than the Stagecoach Enterprise...

It’s a 2 hour journey, with an hour of it being bustituted. So where was I?

So to close this out before I set another one running, the answer I was looking for was: Newry