Living the rural bus dream in East Sussex

A veritable bus paradise compared to many other English areas. I hope it doesn’t all come crashing down in 2025.

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This whole “winners and losers” situation just seems so arbitrary and perverse in how the money has been handed out. As we see, East Sussex gets a surfeit in that it can barely believe it has so much to spend, whilst neighbouring Hampshire gets nothing. The same goes for Somerset that gets a modest amount yet Dorset (whose bus services are now almost negligible) got nothing and yet the documents submitted were a cut and paste job from the same consultancy!

Some of this is almost reminiscent of the early 2000s Rural Bus Challenge cash where such were the funds made available for new services, councils could scarcely spend the windfall. Somerset was running services on Sundays that hadn’t seen a bus for donkey’s years – Yeovil to Chard, or Yeovil to Wincanton – and Roger’s experience in Sussex seems to echo that period. Spending money because it’s there and what of two or three years time.

I’d be happier to see funding spread more equitably, and for some to be ringfenced for capital investment into bus priority. Make the bus competitive against the congestion, and tie those in with commitments from the operators. Surely that is more sustainable?

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So East Sussex has got a huge windfall from the DfT’s funding allocations to local authorities for Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs), and they have, to some extent, improved/added certain services accordingly.
But, looking at particular routes in greater detail (i.e. those that are closer to home, for me) there are, and have been for some years, questionable operations/working diagrams that need to be looked into and modified/improved.
Firstly though, I must say that the new 29A service, from Brighton through to Heathfield, is a great idea, opening up opportunities for an otherwise relatively starved transport-served district, with its overall operational timetable functioning 7-days a week, from pre-sunrise to past-sunset, in most cases.
However, compare that to the new route 1066 (ex-254/304/305), and the amendments here might draw criticism in some respects, most notably for the fact that 50% of the direct, through services from Tunbridge Wells to Hastings (and v/v) have now been withdrawn, instead running only to/from Hawkhurst. To compensate for that, in some small way, those shorter journeys will connect-up with the 349 service from Hawkhurst to Hastings via Sandhurst/Bodiam – in many instances…..
…..but look at the new Sunday timetable for these services – what a shambles that is…..
It is probably five years ago that a brief (just a couple of years, maybe?) and very limited 254 service between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings was withdrawn, for the reason that it was underused and too costly to continue with.
Now, we have a reinstatement of the Sunday service which, as ever, is operated by Stagecoach, from Hastings, and which has been the case since they took over the route many years ago from ?Countryliner?, and who are quite content to run “dead miles” to/from Hawkhurst, in order for the “254” to be worked!
The new Sunday timetable, operating under the “1066” route number (a reasonable choice, given the place(s) it serves, though lacking any individual/dedicated buses with specific branding), runs every two hours, which is OK – but only between Hawkhurst and Tunbridge Wells – again!
But…… wait (and WAIT is the key word here) …… the 349 continues to run on a Sunday, as it has done for many years, between Hawkhurst and Hastings, so that is great….. until….. we find that the connections between the two services are as much as 75 minutes between them! Where is the logic and functionality in that? You might just as well introduce a Boris-Bike type operation in TW and Hastings, for all the potential interest those timetables are going to generate. After all, what is there to do in Hawkhurst for an hour on the best of days, never mind one on wet/wintery Sundays where shelter from the elements is minimal, to say the least!
In a few instances such as this, where service operations have gone pear-shaped and have been withdrawn because the operator struggled to make it work for them in financial terms, Hams Travel of Flimwell have stepped in and, somehow, managed to maintain the original (perhaps better) service – and with newer, brighter buses, complete with more personable drivers, making it a win-win situation for all concerned.
So, on that basis, and given the ideal geographical location of this operator, if only on Sundays, can they not be approached/encouraged to take on the “1066 & 349” services, and make it a direct one with just a change of numbers at Hawkhurst, through to Hastings & v/v?
Now, reverting back to the limited through services between TW and Hastings, I have not come across any updates that suggest passengers travelling the entire distance of the “1066” route who require a change of buses at Hawkhurst, will be allowed to purchase just one ticket, rather than one for each service – why is this not possible?
“Transfer Tickets,” to coin just one name in these instances, have been available to passengers in certain areas, and other countries, for decades, as well as alternative ticketing arrangements also being available to specific dual-bus journeys. In fact, in just the past few days, Chalkwell & Stagecoach have come to an agreement whereby passengers on the Sheerness-Sittingbourne-Maidstone corridor/routes, can buy one ticket to cover them for the two services – so why not adopt this in East Sussex?
Looking specifically at the Sunday timings….. who, apart from (possibly) the most avid bus enthusiast would want to leave TW on the first service at 09:45 and, after a 78 minute wait at Hawkhurst, continue their journey to Hastings, arriving there (not even at the seafront/shopping area) at 12:42?
Having accomplished that arduous journey, the by now weary traveller finds themselves with just three hours in the town, before having to return to TW on the last connecting services of the day, leaving Hastings at 15:45, to arrive back in TW at 18:42 – with only a 65 minute connection time at Hawkhurst!
Even Rail Replacement bus services cover the journey between the two main towns, in less than half of this overall time!
It is just so unbelievable that a potentially beneficial opportunity can be turned into a completely pointless operation that serves absolutely no practical purpose whatsoever! And in however many months time from now, it is quite likely that we will learn that not only has the “1066” Sunday service been withdrawn due to lack of patronage, but also the “349” has ceased to be on a Sunday, because no significant increase in passenger numbers has been recorded!
Where is the Initiative (or even Common Sense) in this business, today? Co-ordination is, surely, key in this business, is it not? Who conceived these Sunday 1066/349 working diagrams, and honestly considered them to be beneficial to both the operator, and the passenger? It is, putting it bluntly, akin to the work of numpties!
Finally….. why were/are the final two evening diagrams out of Tunbridge Wells never run as through passenger services to Hastings rather than curtail the final services at Hurst Green/Hawkhurst? – only to then run empty from there back to Hastings, albeit as far as Silverhill (Depot)! Surely a wasted opportunity where passenger convenience is concerned? – never mind the unrecoverable, direct costs to the operator.
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Aside from that nonsense, I will focus on the now truncated (for obvious reasons, with the introduction of the 29A), 231 Heathfield to Etchingham service.
I know little about the history of this route, but have noted that for many years it has covered the route between Etchingham and Uckfield, with, on occasions, a reasonable patronage.
But why Etchingham (other than the fact that there is a station there) as a start/finishing point? Or even, on School Days, Hurst Green?
As a former bus/coach driver myself, I am aware of the limitations regarding the turning around of vehicles at potential finishing points, which makes Hurst Green a bit of an issue, but I have an inkling that this route (albeit with a different number?) once went through to Hawkhurst, when there was once a Bus Station……?
But, regardless of that, why not timetable the 231 service through to Hawkhurst, in a clockwise pattern from Hurst Green via Flimwell, then out to Hawkhurst and The Moor, and back to Hurst Green for the return journey? There is an adequate waiting facility at the Eight Bells, on the Moor, and connections would then be available at Hawkhurst for passengers travelling to places like Cranbrook, Staplehurst, Maidstone, Bodiam, and (at Hurst Green) Hastings! (Assuming, of course, that Transfer/Inclusive Journey tickets can be made available, to make it all worthwhile!).
As it exists at the moment, the functionality of the 231 has extremely limited benefits as a public service and, as such, will surely be withdrawn completely at the next Transport Committee Review because, as it is, it simply won’t draw sufficient patronage to make it sustainable.
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I won’t go into the aspects of Flexibus, as I don’t know enough about it….. suffice to say that, convenient as it may sound, for what mostly seem to be single-passenger journeys, the whole operation looks to be a “money down the drain” scheme from the outset, which is a shame, but one which has seen many similar ideas introduced in different parts of the country, mostly to fall by the wayside. Based upon what I have witnessed recently, perhaps the drivers of these services might like to contribute to a new book entitled “The Lay-bys of East Sussex.” That, sadly for them, might generate more income for the operator than the services themselves?

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