Sunday 11th June 2023
After my Exmoor Coaster bus ride last Monday, described in yesterday’s blog, I turned my attention to East Devon for three more interesting bus journeys on Tuesday.
First up was new route X30 introduced on 3rd April thanks to Devon County Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan funded by the DfT. Operated by Stagecoach, the timetable comprises three return journeys on Mondays to Fridays from Seaton to Honiton and then taking a quick route into Exeter.
I caught the first journey aimed at commuters to see how it was doing, now in its tenth week. The bus leaves Seaton at 07:00 but I joined it at Honiton at 07:40. It arrived at the market town’s High Street bus stop five minutes early at 07:35 with seven already on board. While waiting time to depart three boarded with two more joining at the next stop as we left the town.
Whereas the half hourly route 44/44A between Honiton and Exeter operates via Ottery St Mary and other villages taking a lengthy 80 minutes to reach Exeter the new X30 does it in only 48 minutes. After leaving Honiton we’re quickly on to the fast flowing A30 for a 20 minute non-stop thrash to Clyst Honiton where we arrived another four minutes ahead of schedule so paused again and picked up another passenger.
Not long after that there’s a huge roundabout complex where the A30 meets the M5 which the bus negotiates helped by strategically placed bus lanes and traffic light phasing…
… although on Tuesday there was very little other traffic to get in the way.
We then turned off what becomes the A3015 and entered Exeter via Monkerton, Whipton and Polsloe along Pinhoe Road which I assume is because that’s regarded as the quickest route.
Although it didn’t seem like it as we hit a few traffic queues.
We had dropped a passenger off as we passed close by the Met Office and another had alighted by the Science Park just before the M5 junction while eight more boarded at various stops as we headed into Exeter albeit those stops are served by frequent city services and I did wonder whether passengers who’d been on the bus for over an hour since Seaton might feel frustrated we were doing all these local pick ups on what is purporting to be an “express” service.
We arrived into Exeter’s newish and slimmed down bus station a minute ahead of schedule at 08:27 with nine alighting – the others had all got off at the previous stop in Sidwell Street.
It’s still early days for a service like this to gain traction so I guess (ignoring the local passengers in Exeter) 13 is an encouraging number at this stage. It certainly provides a much more attractive journey time from both Seaton and Honiton into Exeter (together with a new facility into Exeter from Colyford and Colyton) although Honiton does have the train as an option too of course, but not to the Science Park or Met Office. And you could certainly knock ten minutes off the running time on that first journey to make it even more attractive.
After a ride down to Exmouth on Stagecoach’s former Gold, now yellow, branded route 57 which runs at an attractive 15 minute frequency I took a ride on the company’s popular open top route to the Sandy Bay holiday complex.
Big Beach Bus 95 runs every 30 minutes taking two buses but one was off the road on Tuesday so was substituted with the bus used at weekends on route 222 between Dawlish Warren and Teignmouth which runs hourly using just that one bus – it was a bit unfortunate the large “every 60 minutes” logo could be misinterpreted as applying to the 95 from a distance especially as no route number was shown in the graphics. Still, better than having a missing bus, I suppose.
I caught the third journey of the morning from Exmouth at 09:30 and was the only passenger boarding with the driver explaining emergency roadworks by the church in Littleham from the previous evening were preventing the service continuing down to Sandy Bay. This was a bit disappointing but I still enjoyed the journey along the seafront as we left Exmouth …
… before the route wanders through residential roads until we got to Liittleham and sure enough signs indicated the road ahead was closed.
The driver curtailed the journey at a convenient spot to turn around for a 20 minute wait before he was due to return so during that time I wandered down to see how the roadworks were progressing only to find the hole had been filled in, the contractors packing up and everything returned to normal, albeit with a rather messy road surface.
I reported back to the driver but by then it wouldn’t have made sense to continue to Sandy Bay without knock on late running of ensuing journeys. He set off back to Exmouth and I decided to wait for the next bus to arrive and continue on to Sandy Bay on that.
It was the first time I’d been there and I hadn’t realised what a huge complex it is.
Route 95 is the only public transport serving the holiday park so bearing in mind the first three journeys had been unable to operate on Tuesday there was a good crowd waiting for the first journey at 10:30. I don’t know if any had been waiting in vain since 09:00.
Stagecoach has got a bit of a gold mine on their hands with this route I reckon.
After that I wandered over to Sidmouth on a busy journey on Stagecoach’s hourly route 157 to have a ride on the five journey a day Axe Valley Mini Travel (AVMT) operated route 899 which links the town with Seaton and is famous for taking the extremely narrow lanes through Branscombe and Beer.
I was joined in Sidmouth by Hannah, a lifelong special friend from schooldays, who was on holiday in the area and knows me well enough that it wasn’t a strange thing to do when meeting up for both of us to take a ride on a quirky rural bus route prior to having a nice lunch in Seaton.
But on boarding the bus for the 12:40 departure it was disappointing (and a sense of déjà vu) to hear the driver again advise of more roadworks blocking a road which would prevent us from passing through Branscombe itself.
Instead we had to divert up to the A3052 for a short stretch.
It was still a lovely ride along some very narrow Devon lanes with the inevitable meeting of cars coming towards us which needed reversing. We carried two other passengers from Sidmouth and picked up two more by Beer Quarry who’d been out for a walk and three more in Beer.
It was also nice to see a shopkeeper jump on the bus in Beer and hand the driver a can of drink as a gift.
The 899 is a great little rural route and long may it continue.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
The Exeter-Honiton 44/44A is not half-hourly but has an untidy one hour gap ago every two hours since the last contract renewal amid driver shortages. The X30 is surely routed into the City that way to serve Exeter College on Cumberland Way which lost its only bus service when Stagecoach withdrew its dedicated RED Honiton Road P+R service (the site now served by passing local services from Cranbrook and Exeter Airport, passengers returning from the City having to alight on the opposite side of the road by the Miller & Carter)?
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I wonder whether FBB will scrape your blogpost as usual even though it’s on his patch!
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I remember holidaying at Sandy Bay in the late 60’s. The road to the site was single track with passing places, but I still believe if was served by a bus route.
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I stayed there as a child during 3 years in the mid to late 70’s. For the first two years the service ran with ex Devon General AEC Reliances, then on the third year it was a Bristol RE.
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I don’t know what the metric, sorry Sir Jacob Rees Smog!, for a bus route is to break even but I am guessing that 13 passengers isn’t enough.While people have a right to bear cars then the buses will have a constant uphill battle and it’s one they can’t win.People who do those longer commutes like say Seaton to Exeter tend to be professional people who will use rail if it exists but not interurban buses and park n ride are the only bus that they catch.
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We can only dream of a day when the railway line between Honiton and Exeter has been further upgraded and the service is frequent enough not to need any express buses.
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I remember staying at Sandy Bay as a child at least twice during the 1960s when the Motor Caravanners Club held weekend meetings there. It was served by a Devon General Albion Nimbus running to Exmouth
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I’m not sure about the forward visibility from the upstairs front seats on that Stagecoach open topper!
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More background Roger, the closed top evening service into the camp on the 95 is withdrawn this season (a local Littleham service stops near the entrance but I can’t see passengers being happy to walk particularly as the camp itself is so vast and has several bus stops within it) as are the two ‘day trip’ open top route 95 positioning journeys from central Exeter sadly (only now running from Countess West near the depot). The (now yellow as you say) 57 has only just been restored to every 15mins off-peak & certainly needed it (having halved during the previous severe driver shortages). Colyton (X30) of course lost it direct Exeter links when the First Jurassic Coast X54 peak variants into Exeter were cut a few years back (unrelated the current Weymouth-Poole X54 is also severely pruned & barely survives).
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I enjoyed 4 annual holidays at Sandy Bay with my parents in the late 1950s. Coming from Exmouth it was necessary to change buses at Littleham to a small bus with very few seats to cross the weak bridge over a stream and then up the single track road to the caravan park and down the only road through the centre of the site to terminate near the fish and chip shop, close to the current terminus.The park was much smaller then with toilet blocks with baths, no showers then, and no running water or drainage in the caravans. There were some food shops accessed by some wooden paths level with the counters. Very primitive.
Having gone for a ride on the 95 last year while at the Exmouth bus running day I found the site now very confusing and, in my opinion, far too big. I much preferred it as I remembered it. The beach seemed to be very busy then, goodness knows how crowded it must be nowadays with only one way onto to it.
The lovely red Devon General buses with blue interiors looked much nicer than the Stagecoach messy livery and as for that ghastly yellow, did the designer feel sick at the time?
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Holidaying at Sandy Bay in September, so lookimng forward to riding the 95 as part of a few days out! I’ve ridden the route before but just going there and back.
Oddly, I came across a similar curtailment of an open top service due to roadworks the other day, when I used the car park at Sand Bay (in Somerset) to use First’s 1 into Weston Super Mare, only to be told by someone that the buses were terminating at Kewstoke due to emergency roadworks. As I walked past them, the roadworks were fixed!
Later though, my return journey continued back to Sand Bay.
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You could do a thing where you go on different buses called Beach bus not sure how many there are there’s the Boscombe beach bus 99.
Other journeys you may like:
Stagecoach – Thanet open top Route 69 Ramsgate Broadstairs.
Stagecoach Eastbourne’s Dotto Train.
Seven Sisters bus and coach company have two routes in Eastbourne the sightseeing bus and Pevensey Explorer.
More Route one in Poole.
More in Dorset have a series of route called Breezer.
The Isle of White has summer routes.
New forest tour.
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