Every route 100. 4 of 26.

Saturday 17th February 2024

Having featured three fairly strategic route 100s so far in this year’s meander around the country ticking off all 26 similar numerically defined bus services, this latest route 100 journey experience is much more of a quirky oddball kind of a route.

It’s one of four route 100s to be found in Scotland and this fortnightly blogging odyssey found me in Glasgow for a very bespoke route linking the city centre with two museums – Kelvingrove and the Riverside Transport Museum on the banks of the Clyde where the route terminates.

The route also takes in the Armadillo Concert Hall, Finnieston, Kelvinside and Partick on its way to the Riverside Museum.

The Ovo Hydro concert hall

The eastern end of the route includes a convenient loop in Glasgow city centre serving Buchanan Street, George Square and close to Glasgow Central station with a stop in Argyle Street.

The timetable comprises eight return journeys between approximately 10:00 and 17:00 and is operated by Glasgow Community Transport with a three year old electric powered Fiat 15 seat minibus.

A round trip journey time is 51 minutes so there’s roughly an hourly service but with a slightly extended layover at the Museum at 15:24. The first three Glasgow bound journeys and last two outward journeys are routed direct to the Riverside Museum which saves 15 minutes running time.

As you can see from the bus stop plate photograph below, Garelochead Coaches used to run the service until it was halted for the Covid lockdown in March 2020 and when it reappeared in April 2022 the contract was awarded to Glasgow Community Transport.

Bobby is the regular cheerful driver on the route and he reassured me he never tires of doing the same duty every day explaining no two days are the same with some journeys very quiet and others attracting many passengers.

The route can be prone to traffic delays but Bobby explained he’s got contingencies to cope including taking the direct route avoiding Kelvingrove Park (also served by other bus routes) to get back on time.

Indeed on the day I travelled I’d been waiting for 15 minutes in Argyle Street for the 14:02 departure so finally gave the company a call and just as I was being reassured the bus was on the road and had probably got held up in traffic, Bobby duly appeared.

Although there’s a ticket machine Bobby explained it wasn’t possible to issue tickets and furthermore it didn’t accept contactless but luckily I had a £5 note for emergencies of this kind and handed it over for the £3 fare.

The 12 seats (and three tip ups) are laid out to a 2+1 formation giving plenty of room for a wide aisle. It’s a bit ‘welfare like’ as befits the Community Transport’s other work undertaken by its quite extensive and varied fleet.

No-one else travelled on the journey and we arrived at the Riverside Museum where we picked up a passenger returning to the city centre.

To get back on time Bobby took the short cut back into the city by avoiding Partick, Kelvinside and Finnieston as timetabled.

He must have assumed no-one was waiting at those stops, which as I mentioned earlier, are served by other bus routes in any event and the positive outcome was we got back into the city centre on time ready for the next journey.

As bus routes numbered 100 go, this is one of the more unusual of the 26 to be featured this year, being something of a specialised service for a specific market. The route is subsidised by Glasgow City Council which is just as well as other than the City Sightseeing Tour, there’s no other public transport to the Riverside Museum.

And I was left with a feeling something wasn’t quite right with this particular route 100 ….. !

Roger French

Did you catch the first three ‘Every route 100’ blogs?

Here’s 1 of 26 (Stevenage-Hitchin) 2 of 26 (Crawley-Redhill), and 3 of 26 (Lincoln-Scunthorpe)

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS.

Comments are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.

36 thoughts on “Every route 100. 4 of 26.”

  1. Can we please see the West Berkshire Council Transport Services DRT being done because we were promised that the whole of West Berkshire would be served from Calcot towards the Wiltshire Hampshire & Oxfordshire borders but it has the app doesn’t work full stop and laggs plus crashes constantly

    Also we were promised the Tadley Baughurst Kingsclere old Burghclere & Highclere would be Serviced but unsurprisingly lied too and I’m completely fed up with it

    Becca Seymour & Jenny Sawyer

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  2. On the one hand, it’s helpful to have a ‘short cut’ to get the bus back on schedule, but not helpful to anyone who might be waiting at the stops that are omitted.

    Carllo

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    1. As the section of the route missed has other more frequent buses into the city centre, it’s hard to imagine anyone watching other buses go past while specifically waiting for this (late running) minibus. The 2 runs every 12 minutes so passengers would have seen at least one if not two in the time they were waiting! The only stop not served by other routes is Finnieston conference centre, but presumably as a regular driver on the route Bobby knows what the likelihood of anyone wanting to get the bus from that stop is.

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  3. Perhaps the section of route that is covered by other services and is regularly omitted by Bobby if running late should be advertised as ‘set down only’ on the timetable?

    Kirk

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  4. Obviously I wouldn’t post this in general comments, but re Bobby driver saying he’s unable to issue tickets or take contactless payment, but cash only, there’s surely a potential occurrence of till dipping ?

    35 years in retail before I became a bus driver 18 months ago

    Neil

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        1. SPT no longer have any involvement in the provision of this service, hence the timetable no longer appears in their subsidised services list. Funding is provided on a direct grant basis by Glasgow City Council to GCT. The buses were also funded by the Green Energy Fund, Scottish Power having previously contibuted to the running costs of the service.

          Andrew

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  5. My local Cardiff routes 57 and 58 are exactly the same except for a section in the middle. I have heard drivers running late being called up and told to “take the short cut via the bypass as there’s another bus close behind you” on their inbound journey. Fair enough for those closer into town as it evens up the service, but no good for those at the far (my) end who specifically wish to reach a destination served by only one of those routes, if it’s their bus which has been so instructed.

    Andrew Kleissner

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  6. Just a couple of corrections Roger. It’s Kelvingrove Museum, not Kelvinside, and that’s the Armadillo concert venue as the OVO Hydro is to the right hand side and is cylindrical.
    It certainly seems like Bobby is the most trusted driver at GCT, dealing in cash only and never issuing any tickets! Although he appears to be trying to get the machine to miraculously come to life in the top picture with the only other fare paying passenger!

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  7. From my limited observations on people using public transport to access the Riverside Transport Museum, most use either the Subway or Scotrail which provide fast, frequent and reliable services to Partick station. Then an approximate 10 minute walk to the Museum.
    There are 6 trains per hour on both the Queen St low level and Central low level lines (less on Sundays), merging to 12 each way at Partick, each taking about 7 mins to reach Partick station from the city centre. These services also serve other city centre stations including Charing X, High St, Anderston and Argyle St, plus a multitude of stations throughout the Greater Glasgow area.
    The Subway takes a little longer but still a fast 12 mins or so from their two city centre stations. Central low level also serves Finnieston for the Scottish Events Campus which incorporates the Hydro, Armadillo and Conference Centres.

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  8. On our one visit to the Museum, about 5 years ago, we were pleased to use the bus. I think it was every half-hour then, with two vehicles, but I may be wrong.

    Andrew Kleissner

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  9. Are more 100 routes “special” rather than normal regular bus services ?
    Wandering slightly off topic I see London Overground lines have their names (and colours) announced – any special blog day for that ? And does it bring the Glasgow Underground (?Subway) back to being the only orange coloured urban rail network in the UK ?( see back on topicish ) Oh, and was the £3 fare a return journey. I thought bus services had to issue tickets -even the old farebox ones ejected a variety of tickets – does it differ in Scotland – where presumably your English local authority pass doesnt count. Did you go back to actually visit the museums ?

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    1. I don’t know about tickets. Here in Cardiff, when I use my Concessionary Pass on a Cardiff Bus service, I get a ticket. On Adventure Travel, I don’t. Both use the same Ticketer machines.

      You certainly don’t get a ticket using Oyster in London!

      Andrew Kleissner.

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    2. The TfL bus map has become a bit of a mess as they now clutter it with so much information. It gets even more of as mess when you have London Overground and parallel National rail services, TfL only dhows the Overground and National rail only the national rail ones so you have to look in two different places

      The old system of just showing the Network Rail logo for LU stations that connected with National rail was far better

      If they want an Overground map it ought to be a separate Overground map and why should it only show overground it should show all the Local London National rail lines

      The London Overground covers some of the Greater Anglia service but not all but most are local services

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      1. I don’t believe the Network Rail logo has ever been used on any TfL map.

        I think you mean the National Rail logo, otherwise known as the British Rail double arrows.

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    3. Historically there was no requirement to issue tickets, indeed many small operators did not. Ticket issuing has really only come to the fore across all operators since local authority subsidy and requirement of ETM for collection of data.

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  10. Thanks, Roger, for highlighting this service. I have had difficulty finding the timetable for the service and being confident that it actually runs. You can still find the old Garelochhead Coaches Timetable which was 1/2 hourly on-line.

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  11. The quirkiness of this CTG service was apparent when I used the 100 as a final connection to attend an event in Glasgow a few weeks ago.

    Initially surprised that the destination display didn’t mention SEC (Scottish Event Campus) as that’s the only venue it goes to by a fairly direct route.

    To get to Riverside Museum, other options using the frequent service on either subway or train and 10 minute walk from Partick are quicker than this very infrequent and circuitous bus service. And if you’d looked behind the museum, you would have seen the new Govan-Partick bridge under construction over the River Clyde which will bring Govan Interchange for Subway and bus to within a 5 minute walk of the back door of the museum.

    Also joining the 100 in the City Centre was a young lady with a young child. She boarded the bus then produced a First Glasgow day ticket. After the driver had explained that this ticket was not valid, she got out a card for payment. She was then told that it was cash only so had to rummage around for some change. I checked if I had enough change to help her but no joy. Not many people carry change these days!
    I think the child’s impatient expression persuaded the driver to say ‘OK just take a seat’. So the passenger counts will be well out if this happens a lot.

    No cash to worry about an another subsidised electric bus service that CTG have been running. This operates through Pollok Park to the Burrell Gallery, although its a pleasant walk for those who are able to.

    The Glasgow 100 has always been an interesting service to travel on. Garelochhead and a previous operator used 2 of the first electric buses in Glasgow under contract.
    And in the pre-Riverside days of First operating just as far as the SEC, an open top bus sometimes featured on the route.

    Neil Wallace, SAPT committee member

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  12. London fare box routes (eg New Addington C1-C5) back in the day certainly issued NO tickets.. you put the money in, which spread itself over a sloping plate in the clear part of the machine so as the driver could see what you’d paid, then he pressed a lever and it dropped into a lower more secure metal collecting box, (like in cash telephone boxes), never to be seen again. No change could be given and no coins could be returned!

    You didn’t need to individually pay the correct amounts-if you got on as a group even including different fares (eg Adults with Children) as long as the driver could see you’d paid at least the correct total amount then that was fine, and Overpayers who weren’t used to the system would just get a shrug of the shoulders when asking for their change!

    Mackay

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  13. Omg, I should have used a “they” instead of a “he” above so as not to offend anyone nowadays,(rolls eyes), but back then it invariably was a “he”…

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    1. You see Mackay, whatever you do or say, even apologise, now manages to upset Someone in the “Woke” society we now find ourselves in. Don’t worry about it……

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    2. If you’d like an argument, try the Daily Mail comments section. This is really not the place. Thank you.
      Tom Atkins

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  14. Fareboxes are still like that , at least in Cardiff – although tickets are issued, and there are other ways of paying apart from cash.

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  15. No need for the additional comment regarding gender above. I’m rolling my eyes at you thinking that it was appropriate to even submit it. For the record, I’m a cis male who’s sick of people making trans or non binary folks the button of your jokes.

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  16. It’s always a mystery to me why First Essex Buses issue a ticket for concessionary travel but First Eastern Counties don’t especially as I believe that they share senior management.

    For the past 103 years Joseph W. Lodge of High Easter has run a very rural service into Chelmsford. A young lady boarded that bus yesterday and expected to pay by card and to receive a ticket. She was disappointed in both respects!

    Nigel Turner

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    1. I think Stagecoach MCSL from Preston & Chorley depots still issue tickets for concessionary travel but other Stagecoach MCSL depots do not

      SM

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  17. I was issued with a zero fare ticket on Stagecoach route 104 from Penrith to Carlisle when using my ENCTS pass. The driver asked me for my destination in a tone of voice that I should have known it is
    the normal practice.
    Steven Saunders

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    1. It ought to be the normal practice really; if bus companies and local authorities want to know where concessionary passholders are travelling, they need to record the start and end of journeys, not just where they get on as is the case in much of the country.

      I got a similar tone of voice from the driver when I used my card to pay for a £2 single on a TrentBarton bus in Nottingham and asked for a ticket. Apparently *everyone* knows that you don’t get issued a ticket when doing so, even though you don’t touch out (every every other company I’ve ever travelled on using tap-and-cap insists on touch-in-and-touch-out).

      A. Nony Mouse

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      1. In most places bus operators don’t need to know where concessionary passengers are going, reimbursement is based on a proportion of the average fare of fare paying passengers (that proportion being a ‘generation factor’ that doesn’t seem to be based on any form of reality and then this figure is multiplied by number of concessionary boarders) not the actual journey made by the concessionary passengers. Most operators used to ask but since councils didn’t care it was an unnecessary process & printing a ticket was just one more piece of wasted paper.

        Interestingly I’m still not sure if you should be tapping on & off with Trent or not, I have never had a driver actually tell me I needed to tap off when asked (and as I am always making longer distance trips it will always be a £2 fare so it isn’t costing me so I can’t be bothered to push it) but I have heard that Trent management are unhappy that since they moved to tap-on (& off?) that their journey information has got poorer as no one taps off anymore compared to the old Mango scheme. Maybe if that is the case someone needs to tell Trent managers to properly brief their drivers and make their website clearer as I can’t find any instructions there. NCT only have tap-on with some not very clever calculations to work out what to charge, if I have understood correctly they look at your subsequent journey and work out how far you travelled (but if you board in Nottingham City Centre on one of the country routes but don’t return by NCT bus they charge you the 1 zone fare even though you have travelled multiple zones).

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        1. Just catching up blog-reading.

          Trent gave up issuing tickets to concessionaries several years ago, probably about ten. Even before this, you weren’t asked where you were travelling to.

          I used to use Mango when and where my ENCS pass wasn’t available, but I find a phone pass awkward and now there is no discount except on Red Arrow, so I just pay £2 in cash if I go out before 9.30.

          Trent seem to have removed anything about contactless from their website, but from memory, you could either buy any ticket (eg a Zigzag) or Tap-on, Tap-off. If you didn’t ask the driver for a ticket, it was assumed that you would tap-off, or be charged to the end of the run. I don’t think there are any adult fares below £2, so people don’t bother to tap-off.

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  18. I came back from Glasgow last weekend and while a good network of services there is no integration fares wise.

    With the biggest suburban rail network outside of London plus the famous Subway, and many bus operators there is no ticket which covers everything. To me SPT need to do much better in this regard. Considering the 100 is pretty much for visitors only, how confusing is it to have a bus route which no other operators tickets are valid on it?

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