That X10 video reminded me of when Transdev Yorkshire had the Red Express from Manchester to Leeds, it stopped at Chadderton, came off the motorway for connecting bus services to I think Halifax and Huddersfield, then back on the motorway nonstop to Leeds. Was a shame when they withdrew that, yet they've still got the part from Leeds to York.
In my view, it's not the pandemic. It's driver shortages. They could have made it work, especially with the train strikes. They reduced it because they had no drivers to run it. Reliability is a key issue and it's that that is stopping people using buses. If they had reinstated an hourly service before the first rail strike, I think they could have made a good go of it. They ran it down!
I agree they ran it down but like a number of longer distance services the footfall never returned after the pandemic due to a larger anxiety to travel out and the increase in working from home. Its a similar reason why the CityZap is going (another story for another day on that) as there just isn't enough customers on offer anymore to value up any competition across transport modes.
I knew when they first reduced the service to 2 times a day that they would get rid. It was denied by the bus company though. I caught it every week from the stop on my street.
Did you get to do the SL1 farewell because after one bus the SL1 will be withdrawn from stagecoach Yorkshire like the X10. Did you manage to do the SL1 farewell in Sheffield today?
Here in Exeter Devon Stagecoach are making routes R & S to Rifford Road circular longer routes, which I’m happy about cause I’m autistic and I love long bus rides. The only thing I’m mad about, is that it will be harder to get to the hairdressers now
Stagecoach should have used buses that are capable of motorway speed like what happened when the X32 ran. The coaches were great on the X10. Quick and comfortable but the coaches (which were new for National Express work) were not reliable. The buses were a massive downgrading of the service. There was Gold buses (ex Oxford Scania N230UD ADL Enviro 400) used on the X10 for a time but they were knackered and unreliable. (These buses are now allocated to Chesterfield). The 0650 journey had similar loadings as in your video back in 2020. I'm sad to see the X10 end. You missed out that the X32 was renumbered X30 before being withdrawn. The issue with the X17 running through to Leeds is driver hours. It's why the X17 is split at Sheffield even though it's the same bus. A similar thing happened with the X33 when that used to run.
Public service Motorway routes don't seem to be profitable . I used to get the 767 from Worksop to Meadowhall years ago and the only time it was jam packed with passengers was on a Saturday tea time. I miss the X12 too but that went too.
Same here in South Wales stagecoach have cut some major routes in the Cardiff Newport areas with some big gaps in the timetable and Sunday services well umm not much good and use the same buses the bus in the film identical to the bus 56 tredegar Newport o travelled on yesterday
And if anyone is interested, I've covered some Leeds focused routes that are changing. Part 1 is on today ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fvRbtitBlX8.html
With these services changes in October I am losing service 220 which is also getting withdrawn meaning no direct buses from Mexborough to wath or Cortonwood anymore, this for a few years also continued onto service 222 which is also getting withdrawn and in my childhood service 222 had used to have double decker buses on them in Yorkshire traction days and went straight along the main road Mexborough to Doncaster ( where globe x20 goes) the service ran every 30 mins combined with 223 service Doncaster to Barnsley but both had slightly different routes between top end of wath and Brampton. I do have memories with these routes but its too much to put down to a single comment.
Aye today is the last day mate unfortunately. As stated in the video the passenger numbers were only busy at certain times and the many other factors behind why it was decided to be discontinued.
@Chiltern Transport Productions From what i've seen, the Scania E300s are pretty shocking. Most of them in the Yorkshire fleet or Barnsley in particular tend to overheat or breakdown quite often. The E30Ds seem like a more suited allocation since they are more reliant, same with MAN Enviro 300s. Some Scania E300s can be alright however the ones based at this depot probably wouldn't suit the route very well. Despite being allocated/branded for the X19 and maybe 219.. They still end up being covered by other vehicles in the fleet.
Stagecoach does some cross boundary services into the Wakefield area with 59/59A doing Barnsley to Wakefield every half hour and 28/28C doing Barnsley to Pontefract every hour.
