Tuesday 16th April 2024
What do the three bus routes linking Maidstone with Ashford; Ashford with Canterbury; and Canterbury with Maidstone have in common?
And I don’t mean they’re all operated by Stagecoach South East.
And I don’t mean they’re all (usually) operated by Enviro 400 double deck buses.
And I don’t mean they’e all at an hourly frequency for the end-to-end journey.
And I don’t mean I spent a recent enjoyable Saturday morning taking a ride on all three routes on a consecutive anti-clockwise circuit.
The oddity that connects them is ….. unlike every other bus route in Kent**, each has either an X suffix or X prefix alongside the route number yet none are limited stop or express routes.
That oddity aside, each route has some interesting characteristics as I found on my four hour round trip.
** Yes, I know there’s an 8X and 9X from Canterbury but they just denote extra peak time journeys.
Route 10X Maidstone to Ashford
I started off at Maidstone on the first Ashford bound journey of the day at 09:00 on route 10X (on weekdays there’s an 07:00 departure). It’s a 70 minute journey along the A20 with deviations serving Harrietsham, Lenham, Charing and Hothfield.
The bus starts off in Maidstone’s Earl Street but I joined in the High Street along with eight other passengers who boarded the empty bus with me.
We set off a few minutes late at 09:06 passing the site of one of the town’s now closed Park & Ride car parks before dropping a couple of passengers off as we left the environs of Maidstone which segue seamlessly into neighbouring Bearsted.
One passenger joined us and another at nearby Hollingbourne and then it was foot down on the open A20 as it parallels the M20 until we passed under both the motorway and the High Speed 1 railway line – the latter will see us cross over twice more, and the M20 once more, before reaching Ashford.
You get a real sense of the chaos caused on this and many other roads every time one M20 carriageway becomes a lorry park whenever disruption plagues the Channel crossing.
It’s not long before we make our first turn off the A20 to pass through the delightful village of Harrietsham…
… where two more passengers come on board and we squeeze through the parked cars.
Back on the A20 and nine minutes later we turn off to the south, this time, and pass through Lenham, famous for its huge HGV logistics and courier depot…
… and another very pleasant village centre where five more passengers join.
Back on the A20 and after seven more minutes we’re turning off again by the fire station and the A252 roundabout (for Canterbury) to access the village of Charing.
Seven more passengers board at the two stops in the village…
… and two more back on the A20 as we head towards the next ‘turn off’ for Hothfield.
It’s a short distance down to the apex of a triangle where we make a sharp turn left back along the other side of the triangle to the A20.
The bus can’t access the village itself as there’s no suitable turning point but the bus shelter at the turn is conveniently located on the edge of the community.
Back at the junction with the A20 which in history was a hugely contentious right turn for East Kent and Maidstone & District crews with sight lines from the west particularly dodgy and in pre M20 days the A20 was obviously much busier. For some time the manoeuvre was ‘blacked’ by the trade union.
My good friend Roger Davies, who in the mid to late 1970s was Area Manager for the north west area of the combined East Kent/M&D, often recalls a challenging, but in the end productive, three way meeting with TGWU representatives when I worked at Ashford bus garage at that time and we tried to allay drivers’ fears and restore the service back to Hothfield as it was also difficult for passengers to cross the A20 and a fair walk to a bus stop.
In those days routes 10, 10A and 10B ran half hourly (through to Folkestone too) and were jointly operated by Maidstone, Ashford and Folkestone garages with just a very few limited stop journeys numbered 10X.
No problems accessing the A20 when I did my recent Saturday morning journey as the only approaching vehicle (with a car behind) was a Maidstone bound (unusually) single deck on the 10X.
We’re now on the home straight and after picking up a few more Ashford bound passengers it’s not long before we negotiate the traffic light controlled huge roundabout on the western edge of the town which gives access to the M20, a link to the A28 north to Canterbury and south to Tenterden.
Back in the late 1970s when I looked after Ashford bus garage the town centre ring road was a one-way circuit.
Four decades, and more, later it’s been traffic calmed and made two-way so we turn right and make our way to the west side dropping almost all the 28 passengers on board off in Elwick Road by an entrance to the County Square Shopping Centre.
The bus continues the short distance to turn at the nearby railway station but as we’ve arrived eight minutes late at 10:07 I head off on a brisk walk across the town centre to make sure I’m in time for my next journey, the 10:20 departure from Park Street, located to the north of the shopping area, on route 1X for Canterbury. It’s a shame there’s no convenient interchange between the two routes.
Route 1X Ashford to Canterbury
It’s another hourly frequency which is supplemented with hourly short journeys (numbered 1A) at the north end of the route between Canterbury and Chartham. The bus arrives a couple of minutes late at 1016 with an impressive number of passengers alighting.
The driver efficiently oversees the nine of us waiting to board and even has time for a few puffs on his vape (on the pavement) before we depart on time at 10:20.
In my day the 1 (as it was numbered then) ran direct up the A28 to Canterbury operated by Leyland Nationals in “dual purpose” red and white NBC livery including more comfortable seats in an orange and black moquette.
Now the route includes deviations that were once the preserve of local routes, in particular heading north out of Ashford where we divert via the Faversham Road and Tritton Fields and where once again parked cars slow progress.
Then it’s out on the A28 for a pretty much straight line journey towards Canterbury.
One major deviation no longer applicable is serving the village of Wye but instead when we get to Chilham we double run along a short stretch of road not wide enough for two buses to serve a bus stop on the edge of the village – and inevitably met a bus heading towards Ashford on the narrow stretch.
The next deviation is to serve Chartham which included more parked car chicanery…
… and negotiating the level crossing overseen by the disused signal box.
There was one more small deviation around Thanington just before we crossed the A2 and the outskirts of Canterbury. We’d been picking up good numbers of passengers along the route and arrived into Canterbury bus station with 28 on board and eight minutes late at 11:22.
This had eaten into my stand time before the 11:30 departure for Maidstone on the third and final leg of my circuit on hourly route X3. However Stagecoach’s app was telling me the departure would be delayed until 11:42 due to late running on the incoming journey.
This gave me time to see the 1X depart back to Ashford a few minutes late (due out at 11:20) …
… and note how impressively busy the bus station was.
At 11:36 the ‘short’ 1A arrived from Chartham three minutes early and after a few minutes, a fresh driver jumped in the cab and changed the destination to X3 Maidstone much to the relief of the 20 or so of us waiting in the queue who all eagerly boarded and we left at 11:41, eleven minutes late.
Route X3 Canterbury to Maidstone
This route was introduced as recently as August 2021 between Canterbury, Faversham, Sittingbourne and Maidstone along with a sister X4 providing a half hourly frequency but the latter was subsequently withdrawn leaving hourly X3 journeys supplemented by long established hourly ‘shorts’ on plain route 3 between Canterbury and Faversham/Bysing Wood.
The X3 and 3 share the load of serving villages off the A2 between Canterbury and Faversham with the former deviating to serve Harbledown…
… and Upper Harbledown and the latter serving Dunkirk and Boughton.
Those aside it’s a fast non-stop run along the busy A2…
… passing the start of the M2 …
… before arriving into Faversham where we passed a Canterbury bound route 3 and 16 passengers alighted and a fresh intake of 16 boarded.
It was a busy Saturday lunch time in the market town and buses on routes 3/X3 use some narrow congested streets…
… a few of which are thankfully one-way.
Before leaving Faversham the route takes in a circuit of the Bysing Wood residential area which gained us more passengers as well as losing some at a number of bus stops before returning back on to the A2 (now single carriageway towards Sittingbourne).
Arriving into Sittingbourne’s ‘Bus Hub’ saw another exchange of passengers with seven alighting and an impressive 18 boarding.
When Stagecoach introduced the, then, half hourly X3/X4 in 2021 it competed with Arriva’s half hourly route 334 between Sittingbourne and Maidstone. Both the X4 and 334 have gone gone leaving Stagecoach as the only operator with its hourly frequency so it’s not surprising this was a busy bus as we continued our westerly course along the A2…
… until reaching the A249 from Sheerness where we turn left and head south to Maidstone.
Junction improvements with the M2 will soon see A249 traffic continuing south on a new flyover and avoid the roundabout which provides access to the M2.
The A249 takes us towards Maidstone and soon we’re on the outskirts of the town…
… where we cross over the M20 …
… and are soon at the bus stop in High Street outside the Mall shopping centre where 31 passengers alight and just one stays on with me to the terminus stand in Earl Street where we arrive 14 minutes late at 13:17.
The next journey back to Canterbury leaves at 13:22 giving the driver a few minutes to prepare for what I suspect would be another busy trip and I saw the bus making its way back up the High Street at 13:29.
But for me, it’s time for some lunch after an enjoyable four hour round trip on Kent’s three designated X routes which had each carried impressive numbers of passengers, if running a little late on each journey.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.
BusAndTrainUser 
“Maidenhead” ??
Good to see these interurban routes are doing well – any idea why they are numbered with an X?
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It went a bit off course at that moment!
Thanks for spotting that howler; now corrected.
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When the 10X adopted its current guise, it was said to have meant route 10 (which is Ashford – Folkestone) eXtended.
Darryl in Dorset.
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Good blog Roger, although it is Earl Street in Maidstone, not East Street.
Darryl in Dorset.
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Thanks Darryl; now corrected.
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‘changed the destination to X3 Maidenhead’? Maidstone I would believe it should be Roger.
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It was going off course! Now corrected. Thanks.
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I have travelled three times on the X3 over the past few months, timekeeping very bad and each journey followed a different route between Maidstone and Sittingbourne. One journey even going via Bluebell Hill and the M2
Peter Jenkins -East Sussex
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X routes as a modern phenomenon were/are created to allow routes to retain their headways without extra resources by reducing the number of stops.
They may well have been given an X to glamorise them in same way 700 and 900 series routes came into being.
These routes may serve all stops they pass, but the “1” doesn’t serve Wye and the “3” doesn’t serve Detling anymore.
Two limited stop routes I use that have subtly lost their speed over the years are the X1 from Birmingham to Coventry and the 700 from Brighton along the south coast in both cases covering local parallel routes that have been withdrawn.
From a users perspective I prefer 1X to X3 so related routes stay together by default rather being at the end especially in the modern era of computer generated lists of services.
I’m sure more limited stop services will be created in a world of increased congestion only to be slowed down again!
John Nicholas
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It is so good to see passenger numbers rising again . . . I would assume that the £2 single fare is responsible for some of that.
It does rather seem that all three routes need some extra running time, at least on Saturday mornings . . . it would be a shame if the increase in passenger numbers were to be compromised by unreliability. Obviously there’s a cost, but perhaps some careful interworking might minimise that cost.
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Interesting blog, Roger. Reminds me of happy times in the Garden of England.
Your Ashford-Canterbury map brings to mind a story from my old railway days. There was an old boy in the office, who used to be a signalman in London, but was retained on light duties in the office.
He would tell the tale of a station porter, who used to shout out the destinations alongside the train including the memorable one “….. Ashford, why kill ’em, cart’em to Canterbury”.
On a more serious note, the preponderance of parked cars is a constant challenge for drivers in many areas these days.
Peter Murnaghan
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Lovely blog but you have forgotten Kent has one more “X” route, the 6X from Maidstone to Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
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Awful liveries. Look like a 1980s contractors bus.
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The new Stagecoach colours are growing on me – certainly brings a splash of brightness to the Aquamarine and blues in Stevenage! At least it seems to me that Stagecoach take vehicle presentation seriously.
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I agree. Here in Nuneaton / Hinckley where they intermingle with Arriva Midlands, the Stagecoach vehicles are almost immaculate most of the time, unlike those of Arriva. That said, Arriva’s Hinckley depot vehicles are often a lot better presented than those that work in from Tamworth. I wonder how much is due to local depot management?
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Stagecoach do seem more “adventurous” than Arriva in operating longer distance services.
10X originates from the early 70’s when Wander Bus tickets were introduced giving unlimited day’s travel. Folkestone became a very popular day out during school holidays from Maidstone requiring full route reliefs. These could be full on leaving Bearsted and ran non stop to Folkestone. Driver & bus laid over at Folkestone to make a 10X return about 16.00. Later these 10X reliefs were added to the time table but in order to qualify for the then FDR Ashford was shown as a stop (but often missed as the bus was full). I drove it many times!
A similar 5X was introduced for Maidstone – Hastings.
Excellent blog, thanks.
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In the 1970s the 1X and 1 were each two-hourly, the 1X missed out Wye and Chilham but neither served Chartham or Thannington. The latter two were served separately.
At the time the X3 and X4 were operating in 2021 there were 4 buses an hour between Faversham and Canterbury. X3 is limited stop in the sense that it has never served Boughton or stops between Key Street and the M20 roundabout. The recent diversion via the M2 and A229 was while the southbound A249 was closed for 5 weeks.
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The X for Express may seem like a convention that must not be compromised, but as we saw in the past, the X may have stood for Extra. There are two Xamples that spring to mind where the X means something different.
James Freeman and Ray Stenning introduced the Excel brand for services in North Somerset (mainly to Bristol) and the services were renumbered to become the X1-X9. Some of those services still retain that number system even if the branding is now Badgerline and the routes are quite leisurely.
Similarly, Go South Coast has a number of services where the X denotes Cross Country nature of the services. The X3 is a long standing number but there’s no express element (now it runs only to Bournemouth rather than Poole). It was joined by the X4 and X5 from Salisbury to Larkhill and Swindon that were the plain old 6 and 5 in the past.
That many former limited stop routes, and cross country routes in general, now have to nurdle around housing estates to effect a replacement for local services is regrettable. However, there’s often barely enough passengers for one bus let alone two. That said, encouraging to see some decent loadings on Roger’s Xpedition.
Thanks, as ever, for the blogging
BW2
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So in other words the X is now a totally marketing gimmick probably to fool the public into thinking it is a fast service
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Who boards a bus without checking a journey planner or timetable to see when it gets to their destination? If it is a gimmick, and it works, why not use it?
blue
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given the lack of response to the question I take it you’ve accepted you’re incorrect in your statement?
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it’s worrying that buses were running so late on a Saturday morning, suggests that running times need extending.
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I’m fairly certain that Roger made his trip during the school holidays. These periods in Kent have now become major roadworks festivals, with works permitted that are not allowed in school term. Unfortunately that completely destroys bus service timekeeping, as it is more or less impossible to guess precisely what the impact will be in advance.
It was also the first day that the southbound A249 had reopened (its closure mentioned by Anonymous at 1357) with the approach to the Stockbury roundabout now reconfigured from two lanes to one lane, quite capable of causing a 5 minute delay in the off peak and much longer in the peak.
KCC
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Always get the impression reading these blogs that buses are now being used incredibly heavily. Yet at the same time, overall numbers are apparently hovering only around 85-90% of pre pandemic levels.
So maybe the only way to reconcile these statistics is if you still have a decent bus network, usage is high and increasing, whereas if you lost much of your local routes during the pandemic, there is by definition low usage (no buses to use).
When it comes to UK bus provision, we are possibly in situation of two states – you have something good, or you have something almost non-existent – and there is no middle ground….
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Talking of X bus routes, for many years there was an Ipswich trolleybus route X. The number blinds were only wide enough for one digit, and they’d used all the numbers! In about 2012 X was used for a short-lived bus service in the docks area.
New Adventure in Cardiff called their Crosscity route X1. It’s now the C1.
Andrew Kleissner.
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Stagecoach West Swindon services have disappeared from Bus Times.org. Rather annoying as I will be using their 55 service very soon.
Peter Brown
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Interesting that loadings were “impressive” on the 1X segment, as this section has only recently returned to a respectable hourly headway. There were some gaps (of through journeys) of up to three hours at times, and a far cry from quite recent times when it worked through from Hastings.
And please do not go down the road of favouring increasing journey times unless absolutely necessary. Better to work longer lay-over/recovery time rather than slow the service, and ensuring correct departure times may help. Merseyside travellers, soon to be another TfL land, face many of their journeys being lengthened this month, which will result in further passenger losses. Yes, traffic and particularly parked vehicles in every conceivable place cause appalling and unnecessary delays, but no two days are the same as AI tells us.
Terence Uden
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Your excellent blog inspired me to travel on the 10X yesterday morning from Ashford to Maidstone enticed by the £2 fare. Blimey there are fewer buses to Maidstone than 666s to Faversham, how the service has withered.
An excellent first generation Enviro arrived punctually in Maidstone to find what’s left of its bus service compared to 40 years ago.
This morning I travelled across the glorious Kent and Sussex countryside from Tunbridge Wells on well loaded former “express” service 729 renumbered 29 to reflect its all stops status. It still runs every 30 minutes and the Gemini whisked me to Brighton in two hours the same as forty years ago. There are still blue buses on the 49 but in those days I couldn’t use my Wanderbus on the blue and white corpy buses.
What a contrast in the fortunes of bus services between too destinations I know well!
John Nicholas
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Pre-pandemic Stagecoach Southeast used to produce some good printed publicity for the area. I assume all that remains long gone?
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Compared to the frequency between Canterbury and the north Kent coast, the frequency of these routes is poor. The now half-hourly route from Canterburyto Faversham often struggles with the numbers wanting to use it. The 1X Canterbury Ashford service has a 2 hour gap right in the midfle of the evening rush hour. None of these services run on Sundays or Bank Holidays (except for an hourly service Canterbury to Faversham). Indeed all Sunday buses out of Ashford to any other destination have been withdrawn.
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