MK1 on the M1 -v- X1 on the A5

Tuesday 23rd JULY 2024

Many years ago Stagecoach ran a bus route (numbered VT99) on behalf of Virgin Trains linking Milton Keynes Central station with Luton and its airport. Press fast forward and it became route MK1 and more recently Stagecoach linked the service to its Luton to Bedford bus route creating a pronounced V shape…

… which no passenger would ever use to travel from end-to-end* but was a handy way for Stagecoach to operate the MK1 from its Bedford based garage with buses and drivers continuing through from one half of the route to the other.

(*…except me. Readers may recall I took a ride in March last year).

In Luton, journeys from Bedford continue from the town’s Interchange to the airport via Wigmore returning direct to the Interchange and on to Milton Keynes, while buses from Milton Keynes go direct from the Interchange to the airport returning to the Interchange via Wigmore and then on to Bedford.

Arriva runs 12 buses an hour between Luton Interchange and the airport (routes A, F70/F77, 100 and 757 – with the 100 now going via Wigmore).

Understandably the company is sensitive about others encroaching on this market, so there must have been some consternation when Stagecoach added to its MK1 with the introduction of another route between the town centre and airport via Wigmore. It’s a new hourly shuttle route introduced on 24th June, denoted by the route ‘number’ LAX, now making for three buses an hour including the two on the MK1. I’m not sure why Stagecoach have chosen to muscle in on this market – when I saw the bus yesterday it wasn’t carrying any passengers and must be inefficient to operate from a Bedford base.

Stagecoach departures from the airport via Wigmore to the Interchange on the MK1 and LAX are at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour (with a journey time of 20 minutes) and direct on the MK1 at 40 minutes past the hour (its given 15 minutes, but takes less than 10). From the Interchange to the airport it doesn’t work quite so well with departures via Wigmore at 10 (MK1) and 20 (LAX) – and bizarrely at 17:20 buses on both routes leave at the same time. Direct journeys on MK1 leave at 57 minutes past the hour.

An empty bus on LAX arrives at Luton Interchange yesterday afternoon

Add to this melee Stagecoach’s extension of its routes 9A/9B (Bedford to Hitchin) onwards to Stevenage every half hour competing with Arriva’s route 100/101 and you can see why staff at Arriva decided enough is enough.

Not only has Arriva restored the frequency of route 100/101 from three buses an hour back up to four an hour, it’s also been rerouted, including a new circular ending to the route from Luton Interchange via Wigmore to the airport and then returning direct whereas before it served Wigmore and the airport prior to the Interchange.

But much more significantly, Arriva has introduced a brand new hourly Monday to Saturday route numbered X1 between Milton Keynes and Luton running direct via the A5 and Dunstable which competes with Stagecoach’s MK1 via the M1.

Three X1 branded coaches took to the road yesterday so I popped up to Luton to take a look.

Stagecoach’s MK1 takes 50 minutes to link the two town centres while Arriva’s new X1 allocates an hour northbound and 65 minutes journey time southbound to/from The Point.

The company also runs a much slower route F70/F77 via Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard taking an hour and a half which, as explained above, also extends over to the airport.

Arriva’s website promotes the fact its new service is a “coach service” and also that passengers can change at Luton Interchange (where the X1 terminates) on to any other Arriva bus over to the airport.

At Milton Keynes buses terminate at the city’s Central Station having served The Point for the shopping centre.

It was good to see a timetable leaflet complete with route map (as well as one for the enhanced 100/101) available at the Travel Centre in Starbucks at the Interchange.

Supplies were also available on board coaches…

… together with a complimentary croissant and orange juice.

New timetables were also displayed at bus stops…

… and during the morning electronic signs came to life with updated information.

I took a ride on the 11:15 departure from Luton Interchange and was initially taken aback at the number of passengers waiting to board…

… but it turned out this large group travelling together got on the late running 10:55 departure on route MK1 which arrived, picked them all up, and left at 11:14 just before us.

It was just me and driver Liz as we left Luton on time but at Dunstable a woman boarded who’d been passing the bus stop and noticed departure times for the new service and made an instant decision to take a ride. Then in Hockcliffe, a small isolated hamlet on the otherwise non-stop section of route on the A5…

… which now enjoys a decent bus service rather than a very restricted offering, two young lads who’d also seen information posted at the bus stop on Sunday were excited to give the route a try and even more impressed to hear the fare to Milton Keynes was just £2 compared to £15 they’d been shelling out for taxis.

A road closure by the MK Stadium necessitated a minor route diversion via the A5 and Groveway…

… but we still arrived at The Point (for Midsummer Place) on time where the three passengers alighted for some retail therapy while I continued on to the end of the route at the station.

The timetable allows 15 minutes to reach the station whereas it only takes about five so the end to end journey took 65 minutes which compares very favourably with the MK1’s equivalent 70 minutes although that includes an even more generous 20 minutes to get from The Point to the station – goodness knows why.

Liz went off for a well earned rest after completing her duty for the day and Metz took over for the return journey at 12:45.

Three passengers boarded with me at the station while at The Point I was impressed to see nine passengers board – some of whom would previously have caught an F70/F77 and others an MK1. One lady travelling to Dunstable was very hesitant about boarding, worried she’d get lost, but Metz, myself and another passenger (also going to Dunstable) reassured her and in the event she was overjoyed at the time saving the X1 offered.

I took the opportunity to hand out the timetable leaflet and about half a dozen passengers on board were delighted to receive a copy – which just shows you how much they’re appreciated.

After all that persuasion and encouragement we departed The Point a couple of minutes late at 12:57 having used up the slackness of the 10 minutes allowed from the station to reach The Point in the southbound direction.

It was another smooth journey with the Stadium diversion, four way controlled temporary traffic lights in Dunstable and around a ten minute crawl through some roadworks reducing the dual carriageway Dunstable Road towards the Luton & Dunstable University Hospital to one lane potentially impacting journey time…

… but in fact we reached the Interchange just a few minutes down indicating there’s resilience in the running times.

For a first day experience it ticked all the boxes – branded vehicles, bus stops updated, timetable leaflets available, very friendly drivers encouraging and reassuring passengers and obvious interest being generated. I coincidentally bumped into Toby France and Matt King (Arriva’s Head of Commercial and Network Manager respectively for the Midlands region) in Milton Keynes who’d been up since before dawn ensuring all went well for the inaugural day having initiated the idea for the service.

Matt and Toby

It was particularly encouraging to hear these two young enthusiastic and committed managers, both now with some significant experience of working in the bus industry and meeting tough targets, tell me how I Squared Capital, Arriva’s new owners, were keen on developing growth opportunities, such as the potential the X1 offers, whereas the emphasis in the latter years under Deutsche Bahn control had been all about cost cutting – which obviously has a finite limit.

Bearing in mind ….. Arriva has had the three coaches being used on the service sitting spare since before Covid; Milton Keynes and Luton (Arriva has a base in both) are big enough city/towns that should be able to sustain two direct fast buses an hour (ie the X1 in addition to the MK1) by two different routes; the A5 is more direct than the M1 (look at the map above) and is perceived as being just as quick as the M1 (which can be prone to delays); supplementing the F70/F77 with a quicker route between Milton Keynes and Dunstable is a good idea; onward travel connections between the Interchange and airport are good; there’s a printed timetable leaflet with route map …. then Toby and Matt could be on to a winner.

But… the coaches may meet a mixed passenger reaction – some on board yesterday thought it was the height of luxury and loved the idea while others struggled to board up the stairs and, of course, access for wheelchairs will delay things due to the need for the lift to be deployed rather than the slickness of a low floor bus.

Also… I always find it a tad frustrating you can’t see fully out of the front windscreen due to being at the same height as the sun-visor…

… and it would be good if the destination display could be made nice and bright as that’s one of the main ‘touch points’ for passengers of the new route.

And …. it’s going to need continual high profile awareness raising to reach the potential markets in both Milton Keynes and Luton and the top dogs at I Squared must understand it takes a long time for a new bus route to develop into profitability – at least a year to eighteen months.

But… that large group I spotted at Luton Interchange shows the potential. The MK1 seems to do well.

So… if all those boxes are ticked … the omens are good.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS with Summer Su extras.

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40 thoughts on “MK1 on the M1 -v- X1 on the A5”

  1. Another Arriva X 1 like the short-lived Guildford to Horsham route a few years ago.

    So why does Arriva not use the Arriva Express brand name they use in Czechia and Slovakia so successfully?

    Malcolm Chase, Buses Worldwide

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The Arriva Express brand isn’t mentioned on the arriva.sk website at all, so I’m not sure it’s being used succesfully in Slovakia.

      The three routes it’s applied to in Czechia are long distance, cross-country coach routes competing with Regiojet (Student Agency) coaches/trains and with CD (state railways) inter-city trains; they’re not short-distance services like the X1 is.

      Maybe one of the benefits of the new ownership of the Arriva Group is that local managers such as those Roger met are free to do what they feel is best for their market rather than being subjected to branding mandates from HQ as was the case under DB ownership.

      Changing the subject away slightly, I’m still mildly surprised that DB hadn’t ever insisted Arriva rebrand to verkehrsrot (transport red) livery with “DB BAHN Arrivabus” branding the way they had with all their German bus operations.

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  2. Re Matt and Toby’s comments about Arriva’s old DB owners – back in the 1980s, an old accountant told me ‘Cutting costs is easy – you just cut them; the real skill is getting what you sell right and selling more of it’.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. This spat , detailed by Roger , has cost the protagonists 9 extra buses, the LAX being the most pointless route. Cost , say £1.2m, with Stagecoach’s Bedford operation clearly being already financially challenged as it has recently ceded three routes to Grant Palmer.

    Surprising that Arriva did not use vehicles that could run on the Luton to Dunstable Busway which would have reduced journey times. What next, MK1 to a half hourly frequency? There used to be through rail tickets from the West Coast main line to Luton Airport but I could not find any on the Avanti website.

    It appears the MK1 is up for some marketing award. Presumably the judges have just swallowed an entry from Stagecoach without looking at the reality on the ground.

    The three Arriva coaches were previously used on the X6 Coventry-Leicester, who now have to put up with something less comfortable.

    I squared investment will be interesting, replace about one third of a very tired fleet would be a start.

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    1. The coaches on the X1 aren’t off the X6, the 3 coaches are still on that today (though they only have 3 so if one is off a bus is used so the allocation of a bus is routine) and AAO was never one of them (currently it is AAV/X/Y), but are off the same batch which were originally purchased for a new service from Stansted Airport to London which never happened due to COVID lockdowns happening just before the start date.

      Dwarfer

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I think you may find that it is the other way round from August 1st, when Stagecoach in Bedford take several routes from Grant Palmer.. I have no idea why the LAX was started, but doubtless when Stagecoach is involved, it has some ultimate purpose if only for Driver scheduling.

      Somewhat ironic that bus “wars” are breaking out in a previously calm area after the battles in the 1980s, and just as our new political Masters are seeking to “control” as much as they can.

      Terence Uden

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  4. I feel they are missing an opportunity to really compete with the MK1 by not serving the airport directly, though I guess it requires an extra coach.

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  5. Interesting to read that Arriva’s new owners are keen to invest. Better than buying to asset strip, which I feared was what might be happening based on the recent Aylesbury and High Wycombe closures.

    Very reassuring to see that things were done properly for day 1. So often that’s not the case.

    Handing out leaflets to the new passengers – are you demonstrating a bias toward Arriva vs. Stagecoach Roger?

    Michael Bennett

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The closure of High Wycombe and Aylesbury was announced whilst it was still DB. In any event, the financial situation was probably irredeemable and arguably there’s not enough room for two operators in those towns.

      Interesting to see if there will be a hardening of attitudes towards encroachment into Arriva territories now they’re under new management. First have increased their competitive operations in Essex esp Colchester without much movement for Arriva.

      BW2

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      1. One has to wonder how long Arriva can survive in Colchester. They are facing competition from First Essex and Centre Bus in Harlow as well

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  6. I quite agree with you, Roger, on the point about Sun Visors on coaches. They completely ruin any prospect of a forward view for passengers. Really frustrating. It cannot be beyond the whit of clever people to design a screen that shields the sun from the driver’s eyes, but allows a ‘see through’ view for the paying passengers in the nearside seats..

    Petras409

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    1. Perforated sections on sun blinds already exist on several coach models but are probably an additional cost option.

      -blue

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      2. Those Temsa’s have perforated sections on their sun blinds which can be seen in the picture at the top of the windscreen, I suspect it is standard spec on any coach. What is actually largely obscuring Rogers view forward is the destination blind box, though the non-perforated section of the blind is also there as the driver has the blind almost fully up (as he doesn’t need it) and lining up with the destination blind and the bottom section has to be non-perforated such otherwise it won’t function as a sunblind for the driver.

        Dwarfer

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  7. One advantage the MK1 (and 99 before it) has over the X1 is by serving the large complex of warehouses near Kingston in Milton Keynes. I would hazard a guess that was where the large group of people you photographed in Luton were going to. A Sunday trip on the 99 before the change only had penny numbers at the Airport and Central MK, but about 70 on from Luton to the Warehouses. Of the people boarding at Luton Airport, all went to places not served by the X1 in the east of MK.

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    1. Maybe if the workers stick to the MK1, the leisure travellers will realise they can avoid them by catching the X1! 😀

      Daniel

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    2. My recent experiences of the MK1 are somewhat different – loads of passengers between Central MK & Luton, with OK numbers using the Kingston warehouse stops (admittedly I’ve not used it on a Sunday). Usage at MKC station / Luton Airport has always been rather light, though.

      Sidenote – Roger, your initial reaction to seeing all those passengers at stop 12 made me chuckle.

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    3. Anonymous at 11:10, I travelled on the first trip out of Milton Keynes on the X5 towards Oxford one Sunday morning and was surprised at how busy it was – until we got to the warehouses near Bicester and almost everyone got off.

      These warehouse complexes are perhaps the 21st century equivalent of the heavy industry which kept so many bus companies busy during the mid-20th century, although given the low pay rates and random shift patterns they offer I don’t know how many of the passengers would be able to afford to pay commercial fares once the £2 maximum single is withdrawn.

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  8. I am confused. Does the X1 operate non stop between Dunstable and MK area or does it stop in Hockliffe?

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  9. Paul Dodge, if you look closely at the photo of the X1 map in the leaflet, there’s a small stretch in Hockliffe which isn’t non-stop.

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  10. It’s worth noting that there has been an improvement in timekeeping on the MK1 since Roger reported on it last year. This has been partly down to shorter delays related to road works at Clophill on the A6, but also to scheduling stand times of 55 to 65 minutes at Milton Keynes Central Station, the outer terminus of the route. Does any other hourly route in Britain include such a lengthy break as a matter of routine?

    And yes, the MK1 bus resting at the terminus is occasionally commandeered on to the X5 when breakdown or severe late running occurs on that (half-hourly) route.

    Ian McNeil

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    1. I think the reason for the long ‘stand time’ at the Milton Keynes end is to provide a statutory / meal break for the drivers – when the MK1 was introduced, the round trip was (on paper) just within the 5 1/2 hour limit for a driving spell, but in practice it wasn’t enough time, and led to curtailments as drivers were running out of time.

      Now the running time has been increased, it’s scheduled as close to 3 hours each way, so a round trip on the MK1 is more than can be done in one ‘half’ of a driver duty.

      But yes, it effectively adds another bus to the requirement for the route.

      I’m not sure whether the LAX service works stand-alone in terms of duties, or whether drivers on the MK1 now take breaks at Luton, and work a mix of MK1 / LAX in their duty.

      Roger C.

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  11. Tried the X1 today – despite the traffic (Cadent gas works on Dunstable Road started yesterday, of all days*), it was great to ride a coach to MK and back once again. The through tickets to Luton Airport are a nice touch so the X1 will be my go-to when returning home; I’ll likely stick with the MK1 (from ASDA) heading to MK, though.

    [* Will continue until the end of August, but at least the Anglian Water works at the B5120 junction should be done in a few days]

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  12. I’m surprised nobody has commented on the livery, it’s awfully basic to say the least and the colours are awful!

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    1. It’s the livery they’ve had since new with some simple branding added.

      For a brand new route reliverying was probably a level of expenditure that the managers concerned couldn’t justify.

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      1. To be fair it’s no better or worse than the last green line livery application on the Merc Tourismo fleet.

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  13. The VT99 with through fares was a very smart move, presumably generated by Stagecoach’s investment in Virgin Trains but that effectively put Luton Airport on the VT network. They promoted it well – I used it several times from the north and I know high volumes of through tickets were sold from Coventry.

    Of course this means that the X1 is missing a huge trick by skipping the airport. Through fares are one thing, but an extra change together with ‘connection anxiety’ and the hassle of transferring bags again? No chance, sorry.

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    1. | Stagecoach’s investment in Virgin Trains

      On balance that could be said to be Stagecoach’s ownership of Virgin Trains. Whilst they had the minority shareholding of 49% in Virgin Rail Group, operating XC + WC, Stagecoach held 90% of ECML Co (VTEC) meaning that overall they were the major shareholder in VT branded rail operations.

      It was noticeable that despite all their shouting, Branson’s Virgin Group backed away from major financial exposure to the railway as soon as they could find someone else to take as much of the risk as possible and, despite periodic announcements in the media, I doubt they’ll return in their own right; they’ll just lease the brand name out to a different organisation while taking all the credit, as is their usual business method.

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  14. slightly off topic but on the X38 Burton – Derby Arriva have registered the full 20 minute frequency service. Currently joint with Trent, each operator running alternate journeys with two vehicles per operator. Arriva will now require 4. Another bus war? No idea what has prompted this. The current joint operation has lasted for over 30 years.

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    1. I wonder if Trent are pulling off the X38? They’ve been having significant issues with cancellations across the company due to vehicle unavailability over the past year.

      Local enthusiast sites have suggested they’re struggling to recruit enough maintenance staff and also have inadequate parts supplies, but in fairness some of those sites can be more than a little hysterical at times and tend to assume the worst for everything.

      However, it’s not at all unusual to see fleet-livery or debranded-route-liveried buses now as vehicles are shuffled around to try to keep services running. The days when “the really good bus company” was anything other than an overblown marketing slogan have long gone.

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  15. Off topic (sorry). I thought this quote from a reader lamenting Glasgow’s failed public transport projects caught my eye, as the same could be said of Bristol’s Metrobus:

    “We’ve had the bus link to the new Southern General, ie the QEUH, built but it’s a shadow of what we were led to expect. The publicity gave us modern, almost tram-like buses, but the reality gives us old diesel buses that don’t even get priority at traffic lights”.

    I really hope that Birmingham Sprint doesn’t go the same way. Also, in Aberdeen there are plans for a Belfast Glider inspired BRT with similar publicity graphics, yet I read elsewhere that councillors are wobbling over objections from the usual crowd against only recently installed bus gates in the city centre.

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/24470594.glasgow-made-many-wrong-turns-public-transport/

    Peter Brown

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    1. | I really hope that Birmingham Sprint doesn’t go the same way.

      The West Midlands is apparently having real issues with availability of hydrogen for one set of their low emission buses, meaning that those allocated to Walsall are (according to a blog I read which is written by a NXWM driver) mostly off the road, with diesel buses substituting and single-deckers having to be used on the less-flagship routes that those diesel ‘deckers are being borrowed from.

      All these projects are great, but they all seem to make the same assumption of available energy sources, be that hydrogen or electricity. I hope that’s not going to be the Achille’s heel for them all.

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  16. Instead of competing on already served routes, perhaps Arriva would consider running a decent service for the residents of Milton Keynes that doesn’t involve the Bletchley to Wolverton corridor.

    One can only hope their new owners might consider this but after events in Hemel and Aylesbury it seems unlikely.

    MKIan

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    1. Don’t worry, as a resident of Bletchley I am fed up with the service too! Taxi takes 8-9 minutes from MKC station, bus takes 35 minutes with an extra 5-10 minute walk. At least the taxis are cheap!

      Bring back the tendered bus services and kill off MK Connect, please…

      Causton

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      1. | Bring back the tendered bus services and kill off MK Connect, please…

        This is something you should get onto your MP about: the new government should be pushed to move DfT’s bus funding from DRT such as MK Connect to supporting timetabled local bus services.

        In fact it’s something we should all (in England, at least) get onto our MPs about, as if money’s going to be thrown at providing buses which are always going to be major loss-makers, they could at least be scheduled services which can be relied on rather than pot-luck DRT.

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  17. It looks like Stagecoach are putting a foot in the door, ahead of a possible service takeover under public control.

    In the meantime, Arriva are merely using coaches previously under-utilised.

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  18. Isuppose there were London Trolleybus geeks who would have ridden all the way from Hampstead Heath to Parliament Hill Fields, or even Canons Park to Barnet!!!! I have probably ridden an awkward journey for fun but can not remember a “for instance”! It is a pity the wires between Kentish Town Station and Monnery Road were never shown on any official map!

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