On 10/02/2019 16:06, Arthur Figgis wrote:
On 10/02/2019 15:03, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
13:51:40 on Sun, 10 Feb 2019, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
On 10/02/2019 13:30, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
13:12:32 on Sun, 10 Feb 2019, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
Waiting at a bus stop yesterday, I noticed the times for a
few-days-a-year return bus service from Kingston to Eastbourne.
Why does this exist?
Does anyone actually spend 3h 5min on a bus to Eastbourne,
ratherÂ* thanÂ* take a train?
Â*Easily beaten by the 3hrs 50mins for the Oxford-Cambridge bus.
These days aren't those posh vehicles with according to
Stagecoach "the luxury of leather reclining seats, air
conditioning and free Wi-Fi" (and tiolets), rather than ordinary
red double-deckers like this
https://www.flickr.com/photos/drakes...hs/35717850435
Yes, it's cheap, 10 quid return compared to train fares from
GBP8.50Â* single... but you would spend more of the day on the
bus than inÂ* Eastbourne. It looks like coffin-dodger passes are
not valid(?).
Â*The X5 (above) offers an unspecified discount for card-holders
beforeÂ* 9:30 which implies they are valid after 9:30.
"Special £7 Return on 774 only for Freedom Pass Holders.No other
concessions available."
Â*What's 774?
Dorking to Tunbridge Wells or Bluewater, it seems. GoAhead seem to
have a handful of these odd infrequent return services.
Â*I was wondering how 774 applied to the X5.
I was wondering how the X5 applied to transport in (or from) London...
It's a well-known example of a bus service with longer end-to-end
times than the OP's. Or do you think residents of Kingston are more
fidgety than those in Oxford or Cambridge?
I can see the need for a frequent, direct link between a major centre of
education, science, technology etc, south Midlands-ish towns not linked
by rail, and a place where marmalade comes from, but it is less obvious
where there would be a bus from a fairly generic suburb to a suburb
no-one has heard of to a place with fast trains to a random seaside town.
It's not a question of "need".
You may find it hard to believe but some people enjoy sitting on a bus
and looking at what's passing by outside the window; then spending a few
hours at the seaside (or wherever); then sitting on the bus on the way
back looking out the windows again (or if it's dark talking about what
they've seen and done). And they'd rather do that - very cheaply - than
spend more money on a faster route by means of a series of journeys by
rail. There may not be very many such people these days. But it
doesn't take very many to make a service which runs so rarely
potentially profitable, especially if Go Ahead are making use of assets
which would otherwise not be in use.
--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid