Every route 100. 6 of 26.

Tuesday 19th March 2024

Two of Britain’s bus services numbered 100 are Park & Ride routes and in a happy numerical coincidence when I took a ride on Guildford’s route 100 on Saturday afternoon, the first of the two to be featured in this fortnightly blog series, the car park was packed with people …

… but not travelling on the regular Park and Ride but parking up to enjoy another 100 – the 100th anniversary celebrations of the much respected family owned Guildford based Safeguard Coaches.

To mark this milestone, Safeguard was running heritage buses on a special 10 minute frequency shuttle service between the Onslow Park & Ride car park (used by ‘normal’ bus route 100) and the town’s relatively modern but very impressive cathedral located close by. It made for a wonderful site alongside the ‘terminal building’ at the car park as buses shuttled up and down every few minutes coping with the crowds who’d turned out to join in the celebrations.

When my friend Ray and I arrived at the car park early on Saturday afternoon it was obvious which route was proving the most popular with passengers.

We were the only two passengers taking the Stagecoach operated Park & Ride route 100 into the town centre departing at 14:15.

Everyone else was wanting a nostalgic ride on a bus from yesteryear to the cathedral.

The Onslow Park & Ride car park is located in Richard Meyjes Road, conveniently close to the A3, west of the town centre. It’s one of four such sites around the town, three of which are currently active: Artington in the south (route 200) and Merrow in the east (route 300) and one still in a post Covid dormant state, Spectrum, not far north of the town centre.

Interestingly the bus route serving Onslow used to be numbered 400 pre Covid, but when reinstated as recently as September 2023 it took the number 100 making it the newest use of that number in this ‘Every route 100’ blog series.

Stagecoach has the contract to run Guildford’s Park & Ride operations on behalf of Surrey County Council and in January 2019 splashed out on nine swish new battrey electric powered ADL Enviro 200EV buses launched in a blaze of publicity using the “glide” brand name and a Best Impressions designed livery.

It’s only a 12 minute ride from Onslow car park to Guildford’s Friary bus station, with one intermediate stop at the railway station. But if you want to be time efficient you need to plan your arrival by car carefully as just one bus provides a half hourly daytime timetable on the route – not an ideal frequency for a service of this kind – although an extra resource at peak times makes for a 20 minute service.

First bus of the day leaves the Park & Ride site at 06:30 (07:15 Saturdays) with the last bus back leaving Friary bus station at 19:00. There’s no Sunday service.

There’s a special £1 single fare on the 100 to encourage passengers (concessionary passes aren’t valid) while it’s £1.60 (£3 dayrider) on routes 200 and 300 with a £12 weekly ticket. I like the bit on the Surrey County Council website which states the Guildford Park & Ride dayrider “gives one day’s travel to and from all Guildford Park and Ride sites” (as if motorists will want to spend their day travelling to and from all three sites on a bus).

The ‘terminal building’ at the car park contains a waiting area, a couple of accessible toilets and an abandoned office-come-kitchen for the non existent supervisor – another Covid cut.

There’s also an abandoned ticket machine to pay for car parking that no longer applies and now proving to be a bit of an eyesore…

… and a notice leaves motorists in no doubt when the exit gate will be locked – what’s the difference between “8pm” and “PROMPTLY AT 8.00PM”, Ray and I wondered?

The buses have the ‘Iron Brew’ blue and orange interiors …

… and some rather shouty internal cove panels which as well as promoting the abandoned Spectrum car park also display out of date maps for Stagecoach’s Guildford bus network. Many of the buses now spare from the Park & Ride reductions are now to be found on Stagecoach’s local bus network still sporting Glide Park & Ride branding.

We had a very quick ride into town noticing how the quietness of the engine was drowned out by the rattles and clangs as the bus travelled along Guildford’s rough road surfaces and we soon arrived into Friary bus station.

Having ticked the ‘ridden route 100’ box, like everyone else, we spent the afternoon enjoying nostalgic rides on the heritage vehicles provided by the London Bus Museum and The Friends of King Alfred as well as a couple of fine examples of former Aldershot & District buses.

It was a joy to see such a large crowd including people of all ages enjoying the rides on three special shuttle routes Safeguard had laid on from the town’s cathedral.

Route A ran to and from the town centre; B to and from the nearby Park Barn residential area; and C the Onslow car park shuttle.

One vehicle proving popular was the London Bus Museum’s UMP227 a prototype AEC ‘RF’ built for London Transport to evaluate prior to ordering the famous class of single decker for both central and country area routes.

Another vehicle attracting much attention from the London Bus Museum was a 1925 Dennis D type with Dodson bodywork now fully restored and on static display outside the cathedral.

Many families with young children were thoroughly enjoying themselves creating a real community feel demonstrating just how well regarded Safeguard is by its passengers and Guildford residents.

So many people attended with queues for rides building all afternoon that extra buses from the standard Safeguard fleet were deployed to help out on the three shuttle routes from the cathedral, where activities were centred.

Hundreds of bus enthusiasts were enjoying the afternoon including familiar faces and it was lovely to meet so many blog readers and viewers of my appearances in Geoff Marshall’s videos. Good friends James Freeman, chairman of The Friends of King Alfred …

… and Leon Daniels, chairman of the London Bus Museum were doing their bit to move crowds and join in the celebrations.

A band played in a tent outside the cathedral while inside there were stalls selling books and models and other transport memorabilia.

Safeguard had a stall inside the cathedral and one outside selling a wonderful commemorative brochure with all proceeds going to a local charity, the Foundation Centre.

Written by Mark Lyons and with great photos on every page it succinctly covers the highlights of the company’s history with each decade given its own page/s.

It’s a great read and if you can get hold of a copy I’d certainly recommend doing so.

Purchasers of the brochure were also treated to a goody bag with copies of Safeguard’s excellent publicity, a pen, and a teddy bear making for a great value bonus gift.

Heritage rides ran between 12:00 and 16:00 followed by a special reception for invited guests in the cathedral where speeches and formal recognition was paid to a very special bus company marking its special anniversary.

Many thanks to the highly regarded Safeguard managing director Andrew Halliday (pictured below)…

… and all the hard working Safeguard team for laying on an excellent celebratory event and thanks and congratulations to the Newman family (pictured below with Andrew) for keeping their faith in the company for 100 years.

Long may it continue.

I’ll leave you with some more photos from Saturday afternoon.

Roger French

Did you catch the first five ‘Every route 100’ blogs? Here’s 1 of 26 (Stevenage-Hitchin) 2 of 26 (Crawley-Redhill), 3 of 26 (Lincoln-Scunthorpe), 4 of 26 (Glasgow-Riverside Museum), and 5 of 26 (Campbeltown local).

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS with occasional Su extras, including tomorrow.

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