Thursday 27th July 2023
Following the good news story in Tuesday’s blog discussing the bus boom in East Sussex I’d intended to keep the good news rolling today with another blog about an exciting new service connecting Oxfordshire with neighbouring West Berkshire but yesterday’s travel plans were thwarted by a signalling problem disrupting trains out of Paddington. But have no fear there’s plenty of other bus expansion stories to relate as the Summer 2023 new bus route bonanza continues. That’s if you live in the right postcode area of course.
I headed over to Colchester to take a ride on First Essex’s latest addition to its growing inter-urban bus network linking key towns in the county with Stansted Airport.
Introduced on Sunday the new Airlink branded X20 runs hourly from Colchester to the Airport via Marks Tey and Braintree (previously the preserve of route 370) then via Great Dunmow to the Airport.
From Great Dunmow the X20 runs fast to the Airport whereas Arriva’s route 133 between the two locations operates via Felsted and takes 55 minutes compared to the X20’s 37 minutes.
The X20 timetable includes journeys leaving Colchester as early as 03:20, seven days a week, returning from the Airport as late as 23:15. An hourly frequency runs every day with an end to end journey time of one hour and 40 minutes from Colchester town centre but in a move to provide good rail connections most journeys commence at Colchester railway station prior to picking up in the town centre adding a further 15 minutes or so to the journey.
Buses used on the route are Enviro 200s formerly used on Chelmsford Park & Ride. They’ve been given a smart Airlink branding …
…. with interior promotional information on the cove panels.
Stand time at Colchester and Stansted Airport varies during the operating day but is typically about 13 minutes at each end.
I aimed to catch the 11:35 from the north side of Colchester railway station where this route terminates but noted when the bus was due to arrive from its inbound journey at 11:27 it was only approaching the western outskirts of the town. It finally made it to the station at 11:36 and after a quick turn round seeing a couple of passengers alight and just another passenger and myself board we were off at 11:38 just three minutes down.
The timetable includes a generous running time of 12 minutes to the town centre departure point in Osborne Street then five minutes pause time, consequently we arrived on time at 11:47.
But our driver wandered off telling everyone waiting they’d have to wait for the relief driver to arrive before boarding – which I never think is a good practice – leaving passengers feeling unwanted.
The relief driver finally arrived five minutes later at 11:52. By the time he’d logged into the ticket machine and got the nine patiently waiting passengers on board it was 11:55 but then a warning buzzer started sounding which meant shutting everything back down and booting up again (twice) and we finally got going at 11:57, five minutes late.
We’d picked two passengers up between the station and town centre and two more as we left the town centre making 15 of us on board.
As we headed to Braintree we were kept quite busy with seven more passengers boarding at various stops but losing 12. At one point we had 18 on board.
In Braintree we met our third set of roadworks as we approached the town centre at 12:50 – the time we should have left the bus station after a three minute scheduled pause.
After going nowhere for five minutes in one queue we got going but just as we neared the bus station we got stuck behind a lorry scooping up rubble from another set of roadworks which blocked the road for a whole ten minutes.
Thus included much hooting from the growing queue behind us who couldn’t see the cause of the delay.
Our Braintree bound passengers understandably all decided to abandon the bus during the wait leaving only the Airport bound diehards who’d all got on in Colchester including a family of four and a RyanAir cabin crew member. He’d been enjoying a doze for most of the journey while Dad of the family had been swotting up from a Guide Book For First Time Visitors to Rome. He certainly had plenty of time during the journey to plan out the family’s upcoming holiday itinerary.
We left Braintree 18 minutes late at 13:08 with four new passengers joining us in the bus station, two of whom alighted in Great Dunmow and two more with an empty shopping trolley completely fooled me by continuing on to Stansted Airport with the aforementioned family, cabin crew member and myself.
The couple just didn’t fit the stereotypical plane spotter image or new bus route riding fans.
We finally arrived at the Airport bus station at 13:43 instead of the scheduled 13:27 but with a couple of quick vape inhales outside the bus our driver swiftly served the three waiting passengers and was away back to Colchester at 13:45 just five minutes behind schedule.
I reckon the X20 has potential with the popularity of Stansted Airport especially with Essex residents and First Bus seem pleased with its two other Airlink brands – the X10 from Chelmsford and X30 from Southend-on-Sea.
A colourful leaflet for the X20 has been produced to promote the service but I didn’t see any copies to pickup at the station or in the bus.
However timetable departures were displayed at both Colchester and Stansted Airport and, as far as I could see, all along the route and although sticking A4 posters in shelters with sellotape, as here at Colchester railway station, never gives a professional image I’m sure the person who did this was motivated by the right reasons … to promote the route and raise awareness.
Four days in it’s certainly encouraging to see passengers already using the bus to and from Stansted Airport and I’m sure the market will grow as awareness increases.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS and Su DRT extras.
BusAndTrainUser 
Hello Roger, I’d be surprised if they were Colchester Park and Ride vehicles, as that is Arriva. Were they from Chelmsford, which Vectare won a while back?
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Ah; could be. Thanks.
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Bus links to Stansted can only thrive, even with the curse of traffic delays.
There have been recent stories of massive crowds waiting to get off the platform at Stansted Airport station due to manual checks of every ticket by just two staff!
But there’s no apparent plan to automate the ticket gates there, in spite of Project Oval extending contactless travel beyond London – but not to this airport!
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I wonder how well this will dovetail or compete with NatEx’s long-standing 250/482 route from Ipswich to Stansted? You get a nice coach for that, on the other hand free travel for concessionary pass holders presumably isn’t available!
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In the distant past there used to be a railway way from Bishops Stortford to Braintree
The last passenger service was in March 1952, Freight traffic carried on until 1971
The 18 mile line was single track except for passing loops at Dunmow and a couple of other stations. Most of the old track bed now forms the Flitch way. There have been some proposals to try to get the line reopened
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As you say, early days. But most passengers did not use the bus to get to the airport. I wonder if “airport” branded buses (especially with X in their number) instil more confidence? Probably the last bus the bus company wants to cancel…
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Well there are over a 100 National Express coaches from London to Stansted so more people must be using them than you think
If the London ULEZ does come in in August that may increase bus and train usage to the airports as well
The key to driving up usage is the frequency
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Arrival operated the 133 from Essex Uni in Colchester to Stansted Airport but discontinued a few years ago as found it impossible to keep to the timetable so hopefully the X20 has more success.
The National Express is truly an express route starting in Ipswich with only one stop in Colchester and stops at Marks Tay Station and the outskirts of Braintree.
Neither the £2 £are or the seniors concessionary fares apply although by purchasing a NE senior card you get 1/3rd off.
The X20 has a good chance of booming as the Colchester/ Braintree corridor has always been a busy route.
Very sensible to connect Dtansted with Colchester Station and many years ago Anglia Railways, at the start of raile privatisation had a dedicated mini bus doing just that
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Without looking at the detail, and I am sure I will be corrected, it seems the hourly X20 (single-deck) has almost totally replaced the mostly double-deck 370 (ex-70), which operated at 30 minute intervals at times on the Colchester-Braintree section. I gather there is a 320 peak supplement, but that is all. I know more buses come in at Marks Tey to Colchester, and the loading suggest the new service is sufficient. Perhaps it was more a desire to find homes for the ex-Chelmsford Park and Ride vehicles, and double-decks may yet return if loadings improve.
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Whilst not impacting the X20 I wonder what impact the ULEZ will have on bus and rail services? I suspect it may increase usage
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As Bob says, there was a railway line from Braintree to Bishops Stortford. I was born in a hospital by the side of it and, according to my mother, some of the first sounds I heard was the noise of the morning freight train passing by. With Guy Arabs and Leyland Titans passing the door of the hospital, this probably explains a lot.
The 370 from Braintree to Colchester was worked by double-decks on an hourly basis but had been half hourly pre Covid.
Although First Essex are not likely to admit it, the X20 is designed to encourage Arriva to give up operations in Colchester. For some reason the Arriva 133 Braintree – Stansted Airport is worked from Colchester which explains the random 132 journeys from there to Braintree.
In an ideal world the Braintree – Stansted section deserves a half hourly frequency but now we have two hourly uncoordinated services.
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They are different in that one stops everywhere and the other only once in Dunmow.
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Thanks for another interesting report. Unless I have missed something, is it possible in such bus reports to indicate acceptance or otherwise of older persons Concessionary Bus Passes. Thanks.
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The shopping trolley ladies were no doubt heading to Bishops Stortford for shopping. This still retains a market and a traditional High Street. The tradional Braintree to Stortford link is long gone. I can’t help thinking Arriva would be better extending one of the Harlow to Stansted routes through to Braintree instead of the 133, and also thus saving the need for the 132.
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The 133 and X20 do serve different markets between Braintree and Stansted Airport so might survive together. The 133 is part funded by Stansted Airport itself and should have Sapphire spec Streetlites allocated – should, they’ve been absent for a couple of weeks now.
One minor other correction, the X10 runs from Basildon to Chelmsford then on to Stansted Airport.
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One assumes the X20 is participating in the fare cap scheme so it will be interesting to see the effect on patronage when eventually the fare cap finishes. I know this goes for all services, but these airlink services have traditionally been ‘premium fare’ routes. Indeed, I seem to remember another blogger commenting that the single fare he purchased was the same price as the Hertfordshire all-operator Intalink Explorer day ticket.
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On a related point, as this is relevant to other express/long distance routes into East Anglia
Do you know how many routes effectively started as parliamentary rail replacements, and may are still funded in that basis? There is certainly one route from Peterborough/King’s Lynn/Dereham/Norwich which fits that description (and “Dereham Coach” is a station on the national rail website with a departure board paghe and it is possible to persuade the national rail website to show the schedule for buses on that route).
I’m thinking that some of the Essex expresses (east/west) may also fit this.
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My gast has never been so flabbered. I have just got home and First Essex has paid for a X20 leaflet drop in my village. I’m about two and a half miles from the line of the route so this must be a fairly comprehensive leafleting campaign.
I would say that is probably only about the third or fourth time in fifty years that I have received bus information this way.
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Heathrow is also going to gain a new link from 21st August when Newbury & District starts a 731 from Basingstoke to Frimley connecting to a new 730 to Heathrow terminal 5 calling only at Camberley and Bagshot. It is not clear from the Surrey C. C. website whether the 2 services run through or just connect at Frimley.
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@John Where can I find the timetable for the new 730/731 service? It may resolve an issue of travelling to near Basingstoke when the trains from London (SWR) are not working
I have had had a good look online and can’t find anything; only a broken link to the Reading Buses website (duckduckgo has an entry but it 404’s on the reading buses website)
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It’s good to see these services being used, but I wonder how many of the fare-paying passengers would use them at full fare?
First Essex don’t allow their day tickets to be used on the Airlink services, even for non-airport journeys such as Southend to Chelmsford, so any connecting journey could get rather expensive without the £2/£2.50 fares.
They do have period tickets which are valid on the Airlinks, but with a noticeable uplift.
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The £2 fare is valid on the First Essex Airlink services. If drivers are charging different fares they are wrong
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Bob, I think you misread the post from A Nony Mouse.
They were saying that the £2 (increasing to £2.50 in due course) is valid, hence the question as to how many would use them at full fare.
The poster is correct that First Essex ordinarily charge premium fares, even on those journeys that don’t reach Stansted, including non acceptance of day tickets. It’s a good point – the standard 42A from Stansted was axed post Covid in favour of the X30 and premium fares continue to be charged. What of the X20 between Colchester and Braintree… when the £2.50 fare goes, what happens to local passengers?
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Get the 133 Arriva stopping service between Stansted and Braintree.
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Do please read what I actually wrote, Bob, not what you choose to assume I wrote.
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MilesT
The Heathrow to Frimley (730) (Station, not the High St. stop/one opposite Waitrose towards Farmnboro’/Aldershot) whilst at the other end of the High St. bears the 730(towards Heathrow) and 731 (towards Basingstoke)plates/Stickers and at Camberley, the stops are actually at Pembroke Broadway a short distance away. The Heathrow/Frimley section of the timetable can be found at: (BUT Note the above) https://ehq-production-europe.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/07b89676ab21d569ca45390c3501e75657022cdf/original/1684847455/ed8ed1d29ddd8c01d50ab7dc6f385d7f_Reading_Transport_Ltd_-_Route_730_-_New_Application.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4KKNQAKICO37GBEP%2F20230728%2Feu-west-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20230728T152338Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=e7b4e0be05c686d33c4e5a50cc35760ac959ee696b86b21492d4b3d34731a507.
More is in the Heathrow Staff booklet (Getting to work or similar) implying the Frimley/Basingstoke section is every 2 hours but it’s often more frequent and sometimes with longer gaps. I suspect for driver changeovers but maybe someone with more knowledge will know why more journeys continue from/to Basingstoke than terminate at Frimley!
With thanks to Surrey/Hants Bus Blog!
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@Ian J The link didn’t work, but was enough of a clue to track the information down to an extent.
Annoyingly, the full timetable (730/731) down to Basingstoke isn’t published (and hence I can’t check the detailed route either), only the 730 timetable. Reading Bus website teases the 731 but the timetable web page was still 404 when I last checked a couple of days ago
And also hasn’t (yet) been published to usual travel tools (traveline.info, moovit, Google), again when I last checked a couple of days ago.
Not great! I wonder if there is anything yet posted at Basingstoke bus station (or wherever the terminus will be–could be elsewhere in the town e.g. at the rail station)
It does seem 730/731 will not be in the £2 scheme, and cost wise will be more expensive than the train for my needs (assuming offpeak travel, network card, central London to near Basingstoke). Useful fallback but nothing more.
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I have now found an update on the 731 timings on Surrey CC website, courtesy of Hants & Surrey bus blog.
But not a detailed routing to help understand what the bus does between Frimley and Old Basing (the bit I am interested in)
Also a lack of late night journeys on the 731 section makes this less useful as a backup for my particular travel needs than I had hoped.
Still not yet visible on Reading buses website, nor traveline.info, moovit, google etc.
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I had a trial run on the X20 yesterday, coincidentally with the same bus as Roger used. I’m not sure what’s wrong with it but there’s definitely something adrift, possibly with the ECU since the gear changes were very odd.
We had nine passengers from Braintree to Stansted which I thought was reasonable for a new service. Two were picked up on sections not covered by the 133 so I expect they are very happy about the new route.
I returned by Arriva’s Service 133 which carried about 25 passengers.
At Colchester’s Osborne Street, the (Council produced) departure list only shows the service going as far as Braintree which is legally correct but unhelpful. Somebody (Colchester Bus Users Group?) has inserted a notice into the board explaining that the buses really do go all the way to Stansted. Oddly the electronic screens do show Stansted as the final destination.
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Can anyone tell me where the airlink ‘colchester to stansted’ actually drops you off at the airport end please? is it right outside the airport door or is it in a coach or car park where you then have to get another bus to the actual airport door. Im trying to allow the right time to get a 6.30am flight
thank you in advance. (were leaving from colchester)
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Hi Susan – just sent you a reassuring email.
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