Once upon a time -- around about 2/13/08 19:35 --
possibly wrote:

So, how many people get gibberish when I say the
price of a One Day Bus Pass currently stands at £3.50?
Works fine here in the USA


--
A true friend would stab you in the front. -- Anon

On 14 Feb, 23:51, "Rev. CMOT TMPV"
wrote:
Once upon a time -- around about 2/13/08 19:35 --
possibly wrote:

So, how many people get gibberish when I say the
price of a One Day Bus Pass currently stands at £3.50?

Works fine here in the USA


Astounding! The whole of the USA? I mean, I knew that fare zones for
buses in London were phased out in the recent past, but I didn't
realise we got the USA thrown in as well! Perhaps that was part of the
deal Blair brokered with Bush... you know - the deal that never
happened, or at least that's what we were told.

So, do I get Greyhound coaches thrown in as well, or is it simply
local buses? I suspect the latter, still it's an amazingly good deal.
If it is only local buses then I guess the idea of trying to get from
one seaboard to the other might be thwarted - I'm presuming here that
weekly, monthly and annual London bus passes are good for this deal as
well?

Which brings me round to thinking about the new English National Bus
Pass scheme for those 60+ or with a qualifying disability that
launches in April, which will allow holder to have free *local bus*
travel between 9.30am and 11pm weekdays and all day at weekends. I'm
reminded of a story Peter Masson told of a challenge he set himself in
his youth, which was to circumnavigate London in a day - but using a
"Green Rover" ticket which only allowed for travel on London Country
buses (the green ones), not LT's Central area buses (the red ones). I
believe he managed to get most of the way round on his Green Rover,
though did have to pay a fare on one or two bus routes.

So thinking along these lines, I eagerly await hearing of older
English folk who will take on the challenge of trying to cover great
distances using their free national bus pass, obviously only using
local buses. It could start off relatively small - for example a
journey between London and Brighton, or Manchester to Leeds - but
then it could gradually mushroom - Leeds to Newcastle, Manchester to
Newcastle, London to Newcastle, indeed Brighton to Newcastle... and we
haven't even considered the south west yet, let alone Land's End.

Obviously many such trips couldn't be done in a day, so nights would
be spent in B&Bs. I can see it becoming an obsessional hobby amongst a
small number of devotees... it could get competitive - who can get
from there will be BBC2 documentaries made about it...

If in five years I haven't heard about such a thing happening I will
be sorely disappointed, in fact I think I will emigrate. To the USA
with my annual all zones, all states Bus Pass.

"Mizter T" wrote

I'm
reminded of a story Peter Masson told of a challenge he set himself in
his youth, which was to circumnavigate London in a day - but using a
"Green Rover" ticket which only allowed for travel on London Country
buses (the green ones), not LT's Central area buses (the red ones). I
believe he managed to get most of the way round on his Green Rover,
though did have to pay a fare on one or two bus routes.

Yes. There was a link around Romford where I had to pay a fare on a red bus.
Then, after paying to cross the Tilbury Ferry, it was getting late (and I
was getting exceedingly tired) so, IIRC, I cheated by paying for the Green
Line home, rather than getting another couple of slow Country buses.

Peter

Am Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:53:55 UTC, schrieb Mizter T
auf uk.railway :

So, do I get Greyhound coaches thrown in as well, or is it simply
local buses?

Ask First Group, they own both.


Cheers,
L.W.

On 15 Feb, 17:27, "Lüko Willms" wrote:
Am Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:53:55 UTC, schrieb Mizter T
auf uk.railway :

So, do I get Greyhound coaches thrown in as well, or is it simply
local buses?

Ask First Group, they own both.

Cheers,
L.W.


Going by past reports of the unreliability of what First's customer
service departments say, I dare suggest that if I wrote to them asking
if I could use a London bus pass on Greyhound coaches to cross the
continent I might well get an answer in the affirmative.

On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:21:52 -0800 (PST), Mizter T
wrote:

On 15 Feb, 17:27, "Lüko Willms" wrote:
Am Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:53:55 UTC, schrieb Mizter T
auf uk.railway :

So, do I get Greyhound coaches thrown in as well, or is it simply
local buses?

Ask First Group, they own both.

Cheers,
L.W.


Going by past reports of the unreliability of what First's customer
service departments say, I dare suggest that if I wrote to them asking
if I could use a London bus pass on Greyhound coaches to cross the
continent I might well get an answer in the affirmative.

I propose you make the experiment

In message
,
Mizter T writes
Which brings me round to thinking about the new English National Bus
Pass scheme for those 60+ or with a qualifying disability that
launches in April, which will allow holder to have free *local bus*
travel between 9.30am and 11pm weekdays and all day at weekends. I'm
reminded of a story Peter Masson told of a challenge he set himself in
his youth, which was to circumnavigate London in a day - but using a
"Green Rover" ticket which only allowed for travel on London Country
buses (the green ones), not LT's Central area buses (the red ones). I
believe he managed to get most of the way round on his Green Rover,
though did have to pay a fare on one or two bus routes.

So thinking along these lines, I eagerly await hearing of older
English folk who will take on the challenge of trying to cover great
distances using their free national bus pass, obviously only using
local buses. It could start off relatively small - for example a
journey between London and Brighton, or Manchester to Leeds - but
then it could gradually mushroom - Leeds to Newcastle, Manchester to
Newcastle, London to Newcastle, indeed Brighton to Newcastle... and we
haven't even considered the south west yet, let alone Land's End.
There is a long tradition of this. Early in the development of
Blackpool as a resort, many people would make their way there from the
East Lancashire towns (and even across in Yorkshire) by taking trams
from system to system, walking the unserved sections in between.

I recall also an article *many* years ago in Buses Magazine of two
people doing a John O'Groats to Land's End trip in this way. Also, in
a later "Buses Annual" Stewart J. Brown and Gavin Booth did a cross
country trip from I think Liverpool to Hull in this way.

It's one of those things I've toyed with trying many times but alas it's
harder these days as the bus network has some remarkable gaps sometimes.
A Birmingham - Bristol trip in this way was a long-held ambition of mine
but there appears now to be no realistic way of going by bus from
Gloucester to Bristol, amazingly.

I do wonder if the "local bus" aspect of the new concessionary pass will
sometimes lead to confusion as to what does and does not constitute a
"local bus". Trent's TP service is one "grey area" I'd say. There
also was once a National Express service which became a local bus for
part of its length in the Pennines somewhere I seem to recall.

Tour buses such as City Sightseeing also advertise "local fares
available" (I understand to get some sort of deal with diesel duty). I
wonder if that might make *them* liable to carry 60+ passengers free of
charge? Test case coming I suspect!

Doubtless, someone will soon be posting here with answers to these and
many other questions.

I've had a hard but satisfying day working in Abingdon, though, so
having checked my e-mail I'm off for a bath and a beer!
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

Ian Jelf wrote:

I recall also an article *many* years ago in Buses Magazine of two
people doing a John O'Groats to Land's End trip in this way. Also, in
a later "Buses Annual" Stewart J. Brown and Gavin Booth did a cross
country trip from I think Liverpool to Hull in this way.

It's one of those things I've toyed with trying many times but alas it's
harder these days as the bus network has some remarkable gaps sometimes.
A Birmingham - Bristol trip in this way was a long-held ambition of mine
but there appears now to be no realistic way of going by bus from
Gloucester to Bristol, amazingly.

In the good old days of the National Wanderbus Pass (£2.97: Hants &
Dorset issued it as 3 x 99p tickets) I made several longish journeys
from Bulford, e.g.

Bulford - Salisbury - Southampton - Portsmouth - Brighton - Seaford
Bulford - Andover - Basingstoke - Heathrow - London - Cambridge
Bulford - Andover - Newbury - Oxford - Coventry - Leicester

Peter Beale

On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:51:43 +0000, Ian Jelf
wrote:

In message
,
Mizter T writes
Which brings me round to thinking about the new English National Bus
Pass scheme for those 60+ or with a qualifying disability that
launches in April, which will allow holder to have free *local bus*
travel between 9.30am and 11pm weekdays and all day at weekends. I'm
reminded of a story Peter Masson told of a challenge he set himself in
his youth, which was to circumnavigate London in a day - but using a
"Green Rover" ticket which only allowed for travel on London Country
buses (the green ones), not LT's Central area buses (the red ones). I
believe he managed to get most of the way round on his Green Rover,
though did have to pay a fare on one or two bus routes.

So thinking along these lines, I eagerly await hearing of older
English folk who will take on the challenge of trying to cover great
distances using their free national bus pass, obviously only using
local buses. It could start off relatively small - for example a
journey between London and Brighton, or Manchester to Leeds - but
then it could gradually mushroom - Leeds to Newcastle, Manchester to
Newcastle, London to Newcastle, indeed Brighton to Newcastle... and we
haven't even considered the south west yet, let alone Land's End.

London to Brighton is 68 (London to say Camberwell Green) then 468
(Camberwell Green to Croydon) then 405 (Croydon to Redhill) then
Metrobus 100 (Redhill to Crawley) then Metrobus 273 (Crawley to
Brighton).

I think Leeds to Newcastle would be a heck of a struggle these days due
to previous cuts in North Yorkshire. googles Well Newcastle - Durham
- Darlington - Richmond - Ripon - Leeds would be possible but I doubt
you'd achieve a return trip in a day.

I do wonder if the "local bus" aspect of the new concessionary pass will
sometimes lead to confusion as to what does and does not constitute a
"local bus". Trent's TP service is one "grey area" I'd say. There
also was once a National Express service which became a local bus for
part of its length in the Pennines somewhere I seem to recall.

Certainly the National Express services from Newcastle to Scotland via
Jedburgh worked on that basis and I think they still do.

http://www.nexus.org.uk/wps/wcm/reso...NAT-070305.pdf

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

Paul Corfield wrote:

On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:51:43 +0000, Ian Jelf
wrote:

In message
,
Mizter T writes
Which brings me round to thinking about the new English National Bus
Pass scheme for those 60+ or with a qualifying disability that
launches in April, which will allow holder to have free *local bus*
travel between 9.30am and 11pm weekdays and all day at weekends. I'm
reminded of a story Peter Masson told of a challenge he set himself in
his youth, which was to circumnavigate London in a day - but using a
"Green Rover" ticket which only allowed for travel on London Country
buses (the green ones), not LT's Central area buses (the red ones). I
believe he managed to get most of the way round on his Green Rover,
though did have to pay a fare on one or two bus routes.

So thinking along these lines, I eagerly await hearing of older
English folk who will take on the challenge of trying to cover great
distances using their free national bus pass, obviously only using
local buses. It could start off relatively small - for example a
journey between London and Brighton, or Manchester to Leeds - but
then it could gradually mushroom - Leeds to Newcastle, Manchester to
Newcastle, London to Newcastle, indeed Brighton to Newcastle... and we
haven't even considered the south west yet, let alone Land's End.

London to Brighton is 68 (London to say Camberwell Green) then 468
(Camberwell Green to Croydon) then 405 (Croydon to Redhill) then
Metrobus 100 (Redhill to Crawley) then Metrobus 273 (Crawley to
Brighton).


I thought the London to Brighton run could be an easily achievable
introductory one that just got people started, an eye opener as to the
new possibilities now available, as it were!


I think Leeds to Newcastle would be a heck of a struggle these days due
to previous cuts in North Yorkshire. googles Well Newcastle - Durham
- Darlington - Richmond - Ripon - Leeds would be possible but I doubt
you'd achieve a return trip in a day.


Stay in a B&B and use the money saved on not having to buy coach fares
for a night out on the Bigg Market...

....or maybe something a little classier!


I do wonder if the "local bus" aspect of the new concessionary pass will
sometimes lead to confusion as to what does and does not constitute a
"local bus". Trent's TP service is one "grey area" I'd say. There
also was once a National Express service which became a local bus for
part of its length in the Pennines somewhere I seem to recall.

Certainly the National Express services from Newcastle to Scotland via
Jedburgh worked on that basis and I think they still do.

http://www.nexus.org.uk/wps/wcm/reso...NAT-070305.pdf


I'm curious as to...

(a) why it is classed as a local bus service for the trip across
Northumberland - is it to take advantage of the lower diesel duty,
because it is subsidised or indeed a combo of the two?
(Indeed the same question can be asked of other such examples around
the country, though I will add that can't find any mention of a
subsidy for the 383 on the Northumberland CC website.)

(b) how many people really use it as local bus service? I suppose it
would provide three and a half hours shopping time in Newcastle.

(c) whether NX actually offer it as a commercially viable service?

Still, it would be odd to use the 383 for a return day trip from
Otterburn to the Toon and find oneself sat next to someone from
Wrexham headed to Edinburgh!