Sunday 30th June 2024
Blog reader Stuart got in touch and kindly recommended I take a ride on the Faringdon Tourist Bus.
It was a new one on me. A Saturday only route exploring border territory where Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire come together, comprising three circular round trips, each lasting almost two hours. Journeys leave Faringdon at 10:00, 12:00 and 15:00.
Commendably, the route is funded by Faringdon Town Council who paid Stagecoach £6,825 in the 2023/24 financial year which, as well as paying for last year’s summer service which ran on eight Saturdays between 5th August and 30th September…
… also covered the cost of a winter service of two return journeys on Saturdays from Faringdon to each of Lechlade and Highworth commencing on 4th November.
Stagecoach operate the route with a short ADL Enviro200 with rather basic seating for 28 passengers.
This summer’s service, began on 4th May operating on 22 Saturdays through until 28th September.
It’s very unusual to see a Town Council fund a bus route, not least one aimed at tourists rather than residents so all credit to them for using funds in this way to boost the tourist potential of this part of south west Oxfordshire and into neighbouring Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.
Stagecoach does its bit to promote the service and make it enticing with the following included on its website…
… although the “Route Map” isn’t really one at all – you have to click through to the timetable to find that.
A hop-on, hop-off day ticket is priced at a reasonable £5 with half price for children and concessionary pass holders.
As you can see, the route involves an inner and an outer loop which are followed in a one-way circuit. The downside of this is passengers wanting to visit the famous White Horse near Uffington have a 70 minute journey before reaching there, albeit a very pleasant journey.
Similarly passengers travelling back from the tourist hot spot of Lechlade-on-Thames have a 30 minute journey there but an 83 minute ride home.
Although this journey time can be shortened by about half an hour by alighting as the bus completes its outer circuit and is back in Faringdon, albeit about a 10 minute walk from Market Place, before the bus embarks on its inner circuit.
The map on the Stagecoach website shows the route numbers of bus services which can be used to reach the Faringdon Tourist Bus (FTB) in particular the 20 minute frequency route S6 between Swindon and Oxford.
I travelled on this from Swindon allowing plenty of time to connect with the 12:00 departure on the FTB. The bus left Swindon on time at 10:55 but a slow driver and quite a busy bus saw us arrive ten minutes late at 11:44 rather than 11:34. I’m glad I didn’t risk the next bus, 20 minutes later – the promotional messages on the bus are incorrectly stating the frequency as every 15 minutes.
Interestingly two adults with two very young children in a double buggy also travelled into Faringdon on that S6 and caught the FTB travelling to Lechlade. Our only other passengers were two young women who travelled from Faringdon all the way round to the stop for the White Horse.
So, not huge numbers using it but I assume the Town Council are pleased with its performance to have agreed funding for 2024/25.
It’s a pity the seats are not the most comfortable inside the Stagecoach bus and also I noted incorrect departure times are displayed by Gloucestershire County Council at the bus stop in Lechlade which I tried to email them about but their feedback form puts you into a never ending loop – maybe they’ll read this?
Aside from staff salaries and the purchase of a fire alarm for £7,092, paying Stagecoach £6,825 in 2023/24 was the Town Council’s biggest expense in an annual budget of just under £80,000.
If you’re passing through Faringdon on a Saturday this summer then I can recommend taking a ride on the route, especially as I’m not convinced the cost will be justified for the route to run for a third year, lovely though it is.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS with Summer Su extras including today.
Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.
BusAndTrainUser 
Unfortunately, and unusually for Stagecoach, this particular vehicle looks to have the dreadful “Urban 90” type seating, which makes even TfLs Overground and Elizabeth Line hard seats seem comfortable by comparison. I imagine an acquired vehicle from elsewhere.
But full marks to Faringdon Town Council and if only Oxfordshire County Council provided a Bus Map, many more people might realise it exists.
Terence Uden
LikeLiked by 1 person
County bus map is coming later this year, alongside town and where to catch your bus maps. We’ve just awarded the contract for these.
Dave Harrison, Oxfordshire County Council
LikeLike
That’s good news and I look forward to seeing the maps, Dave. Will they be available as printed paper maps or only online?
A. Nony Mouse
LikeLike
County map printed and online, others online only – although of course nothing to stop them being printed out and available in TICs etc.
Dave Harrison
LikeLike
I wouldn’t say this is north west Oxfordshire; rather “bottom left hand corner”.
Roger G, Oxford
LikeLike
Thanks; wording amended.
LikeLike
It is described as a Tourist bus but actual tourist information is absent, A number of places and locations are marked but there is zero information on then, can you get to them on the bus and how do you get to them. Are there any charges etc
Perhaps the could also do a deal with a local pub or restaurant so you could buy the bus ticket and the meal
Marketing is bever a strong point with buses
LikeLike
Trent Barton and Transdev are rather marketing led and noticeable because of it.
I don’t think your comments are offering a fair perspective, Bob.
-blue
LikeLike
I did this on the last day of operation last year (in case it didn’t operate again, but was told by the driver it had done well and would indeed reappear for 2024). I started at Shrivenham on the second journey and finished there on the last one, as nearer to Swindon, with an hour break in Faringdon. I found both journeys well used, the first with several apparently local older people doing the full circuit and the second with a good number picked up at Kelmscott Manor, having obviously travelled there, a former home of William Morris, on one of the earlier journeys. Maybe the William Morris fans all managed to do it last year but it looked like a good new public transport link to that place.
LikeLike
Sounds lovely! But a wee typo near the start – the White Horse is near Uffington, not Uffingham. Graham L.
LikeLike
Thanks; now corrected.
LikeLike
Slight typo Roger – it’s Uffington not Uffingham. Also, the 15 min headway refers to Mon-Fri peaks where the service does run every 15 mins into Oxford (AM) and out (PM).
As for the vehicles, they do have the urban 90 seats. These were vehicles that Stagecoach acquired with the remains of the former Wessex operation in Avonmouth. Some of the vehicles were in such poor condition that they never entered Stagecoach service but the best were given a refurb and repaint and are used on low usage routes around Swindon.
Most people barrel through the area on the A420 but the area around Faringdon and out to Lechlade is really attractive. Good to see this initiative – not one I’ve got round to yet.
BW2
LikeLike
Thanks for spotting the typo. Now corrected.
LikeLike
Sadly, there would appear to be no railway station interchanges for those wishing to use public transport (trains) from further afield (London)?
LikeLike
That is why the S6 runs frequently from both Oxford and Swindon
LikeLike
In terms of town council’s funding buses, maybe it’s unusual but there are quite a few examples in my area.
My town council in Barton Upon Humber part fund the 254 town bus three days a week – £1897.37 contribution in 2023-24
https://bartontowncouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Over-500-2023-24.pdf
Over the Humber Bridge in Hessle, their town council fund a Friday service (Wednesday recently added with BSIP funding)
https://www.hessletowncouncil.gov.uk/little-bus/
In Driffield the town council and Kirkburn Parish Council contribute towards the 530 Driffield Town Service
https://driffieldtowncouncil.gov.uk/town-bus/
Pocklington Town Council also fund their town service
https://www.eastyorkshirebuses.co.uk/services/EY/197
Humber Transport
LikeLike
We heard a lot about this in Oxford last year, but nothing this year. So pleased to hear it is still running. Interweaving with the Oxford Swindon bus opens many opportunities beyond doing the full circuit. Well done all though and hope passenger numbers are good. CH, Oxford
LikeLike
Roger
Always a problem adding my i/d on responses – H here
Noting the route with the terrain and single track roads this makes an ideal service to include cycle carriage as a contract condition as the default for all Comnun nan Eilean Siar contracts has been for at least 3 decades, and #HitransRTP introduced for the 448 service linking 3 ferry piers in mid Argyll plus Lochearnhead – a detail which saw Colin Craig wake up to this restoration of the old SMT condition for carrying cycles on their rural routes, and steady return of this service for many West Coast Motors local services. After 20 years we’ve also got cycle space reservations on the express coach routes as well
Cycle carriage on the Farringdon loop also enables users to cut the ‘corners’ to improve the level of service, if the bus tracking is reliable
I embrace the economic model of Henry George, greatly favoured by Dave Wetzel the former no 2 for Ken Livingston at TfL and with long experience of bus operation on the front and back platforms. This has huge opportunities to capture revenue uplift from a few local pubs which in turn can offer bus shelters with draught beer and a comfortable place to sit & wait as a further input for support and promotion of this service (you should review the Commercial Inn at Tarbolton (historically the base for famous Tarbolton Batchelors’ Club in C18th) for a well appointed bus shelter
Noting the vehicle type and size I’d suggest that the local Council might consider –
Cheers
H
PS for Humber correspondent – would like some more detail on the service on A15 across the Humber Bridge. Are these routes supported by LidlUK with stops at the visitor Centre (North side by toll plaza & visitor centre, South side by looping through the Lidl Car park). Very handy for trips to Lidl for shopping from North shore
LikeLike
Sorry if I gave the wrong impression, but no cross-Humber services funded by Lidl or town councils. The Barton and Hessle town service stick within their town limits (bar a very short diversion into Hull on the Hessle Town Service).
The main route across the Humber Bridge – the 350 from Hull to Scunthorpe – is largely commercial with some BSIP funded enhancements Mon-Sat Eve and 1 journey on a Sunday. The 250 from Hull to Grimsby is fully commercial. I don’t know the financial specifics, but the 255/256 from Hull to Barton essentially exist for Wren Kitchens workers. Other than that there are some school/college services and National Express.
None of the cross-Humber services serve Lidl car park, although the store is within walking distance of stops served by the 250/255/256/350 on Ferriby Road in Barton – and the bus stop announcement system used by Stagecoach does comment about ‘alight here for Lidl’.
No services into the north bank Humber Bridge Country Park, but all cross-Humber bus services do serve the ‘toll plaza’ stops
Humber Transport
LikeLike
Morning Roger, yes we at GCC are reading and can confirm that the timetable was replaced last Wednesday. Can we take it that your trip was before that date?
I’ll take a look at reporting issues via the website, I suspect a recent update may have broken something.
Regards GCC
LikeLike
That’s good to know and thanks for letting everyone know. Yes; my journey was prior to Wednesday. Thanks again.
LikeLike
Yes is a shame that there’s no railway connection. Noted that the S6 serves Faringdon, but in my experience, getting the car driving public to use buses for leisure is an uphill struggle, let alone asking them to catch a bus in order to catch another bus.
LikeLike