Bus v train - centre to centre comparisons

[whole diary]

[grahame]

One of the most powerful graphics we sued during our "Save the Train" campaign was a comparison of bus journey times along the "A350 corridor" - Swindon via Chippenham and Trowbridge to Warminster.   Although the journeys are possible by bus (daytime, Monday to Saturday at least) they're very slow compared to the train;  in the "Save the Train" days there was no effective train between Chippenham and Trowbridge, and the point was made about the time taken.

Following on from other thread on the forum concerned with the idea of taking the bus if your train's cancelled, I have redrawn my diagram and looked up current figures:



The shining light in the east is Oxford  , the unlabelled figures in black are (road) mileages.  Black figures in minutes are the time taken by the fastest daytime bus, and blue figures in minutes are the fastest daytime train.   Black and blue m.p.h figures are average speed, end to end, by bus and train.

I have put in a dotted line from Swindon to Salisbury as I'm comparing the "direct" (ha, ha) bus to the TransWilts train, which isn't direct either, covering a total of some 60 miles.   There is a strong flow between these two places, so the comparison is worth adding.

You'll note the slowest average bus speed (all under 15 m.p.h. end to end) are all in West Wiltshire; to a great extent the bus services here are all doing what the train doesn't - catering for what I may describe as wayside communities and town suburbs on their way out of one and into the next.   But that doesn't half make them frustrating for inter-town passengers!

Toward Salisbury, there's much more open countryside and the bus speeds up - also it doesn't go all around the houses as it run into the city. And the Bath to Bristol bus I've shown is the fast one .... the slower one that "does" the houses on the way manages a princely 13 m.p.h

All of which goes to show there are different markets for bus and train ... and encourages me to suggest that people joining th e bus at intermediate points between the towns would be advised to connect onto trains if they're heading out on a regional rather than a local journey.   If only the connections always worked!

[Chris from Nailsea]

Whose handwriting is that, grahame?  It's much neater than yours. 

[grahame]

Whose handwriting is that, grahame?  It's much neater than yours. 

Thank you. Always much easier on a whiteboard!

[Chris from Nailsea]

And, on a rather more serious note: there are some very interesting comparisons there, between the journey times by bus and by train. 

As an aside: my own journey time between Nailsea and Bristol, in my commuting days, was ten minutes by train or 30+ minutes by bus. That, simply, is why I chose to use the train.

[chuffed]

I took advantage of the Stagecoach Falcon offer of £5 day return. Bristol to Plymouth for over 60s under 25s and concessionary pass holders, including disabled. Very comfortable coaches, very skilled and customer focused professional drivers and a brand new coach station in Plymouth. I didn't use the return halves as I went down on Monday and came back Friday. Journey time just over 3 hrs.

Was also very impressed by the way First Kernow drivers handled the ancient double deckers around Cornwall. Very steep gradients, very narrow lanes and 90 degree bends to negotiate That's rather too many 'very's' in a couple of short paragraphs, but no other word would do !

[Chris from Nailsea]

Indeed, Veryan is a village in Cornwall. 

[Rapidash]

There's no denying the fact that rail is significantly quicker than bus for anyone travelling from Torbay to Exeter or Plymouth.  Takes roughly an hour by train, 1h30 or more by bus.

In fact this winter, Stagecoach are slashing the X46 down to four journeys in either direction, so the train is about the only realistic option!

[bobm]

The X46 was launched after the opening of the Kingsteignton bypass.  I wondered how successful it would be.  Your post above seems to provide the answer!

[Rapidash]

The X46 was launched after the opening of the Kingsteignton bypass.  I wondered how successful it would be.  Your post above seems to provide the answer!

As a route it's been around for years It got upgraded to Gold last year, with an increased timetable this summer.

The drivers on the route are a bit baffled the by the reasons given for the reduction - allegedly peak time passengers have dropped since the roadworks started, and it's no longer sustainable. This directly counters my own experiences, where it has seemed much busier, especially since the road opened.

Last bus back from Exeter will be at half five. Yuk.