Tuesday 6th August 2024
This summer school holiday has seen three new bus routes hit the road in Kent.
First up, commencing on Saturday 20th July, is a free shuttle bus on new route 51 connecting Folkestone West and Folkestone Central railway stations with Folkestone Harbour
Crosskeys are running the daily service on behalf of the County and District Councils deploying one of its smart double deck buses giving a very comfortable ride for the nine minute journey on a half hour frequency between 10:00 and 20:00 with an hour’s break at 13:00 and 16:00.
I gave the sevice a try out last Friday and any qualms I had about which of the two station car parks at Folkestone West the bus would leave from, immediately disappeared on arriving at the Dover bound platform…
… with plenty of high profile posters on both platforms…
… pointing passengers in the right direction to use the subway for the car park by the London bound platform. There was even a poster specifying where to wait. All very reassuring.
I caught the midday departure with one alighting as the bus pulled up and two other passengers who live locally using the service to get into town…
… but at the bus stop for Folkestone Central we picked up an impressive 24 more passengers who’d got off a recently arrived High Speed train from London albeit it’s quite a tight connection – we’d seen the train at Folkestone West and had both left at the same time.
A few passengers alighted in Shellons Street for the town centre but most alighted at the penultimate stop by the harbour…
… and close to the wonderfully restored former Folkestone Harbour railway station.
A couple of families boarded the bus from the terminus for the return journey.
There’s no printed timetable but details are posted prominently on bus stops along the route…
… and who can blame Crosskeys for promoting its coach tour programme.
It’s a shame the bus station isn’t included in the itinerary – the route passes it on the return route but it would entail a loop circuit on the outward – albeit that is also performed to serve Folkestone Central on the return.
It looks to be a popular addition to the town’s tourist offer and encouragingly has achieved high awareness.
It runs until 1st September.
Next up, from Saturday 27th July and running through to 31st August, are four return journeys a day between Ashford and Camber Sands via Lydd on Stagecoach’s Beach Bus 500.
As you can see the span of day is quite extensive with the first bus leaving Ashford at a rather precise 09:43 arriving into Camber an hour later with the last bus back from Camber as late as 19:00.
Camber Sands is a very popular destination thanks to Pontins and other holiday camp sites and a lovely stretch of sandy beach and I’m sure residents of Ashford will be pleased to have this new bus giving them the option of a lovely day out on the beach.
Camber is notorious for its parking problems which can often lead to disruption to buses on busy days so anything that gives beach goers an alternative travel option is to be welcomed.
The route is pretty much direct south via Hamstreet (not Ham Street as shown in the timetable) to Lydd (with its prominent church – as shown in the above photo) before heading west towards Camber and after passing by the holiday camps the bus turns at the western edge of the community at Farm Road.
I took a ride on the inaugural journey at 09:43 on Saturday before last and there were half a dozen other bus enthusiasts on board to mark the occasion as well as a family of three children, who were at the commencing stop in very good time…
… and about half a dozen adults looking forward to a day on the beach. There was a friendly atmosphere as passengers boarded with Stagecoach’s Steve, who joined us on the trip, taking photos of those boarding for their day out.
During the journey Steve made sure everyone was enjoying the ride and knew where to alight to access the beach in Camber, which is over the border in East Sussex.
It was impressive to see departure times for route 500 at bus stops and posters at the terminus bus stop in Ashford (shame it part covered the map though) …
… as well as at the bus stop outside Ashford International station.
Bus stops throughout the route had had the timetable added, as seen here in Camber.
It had also been encouraging to see Southeastern’s social media team had been promoting the new bus route in the week leading up to its introduction.
The Romney Marsh landscape is renowned for being somewhat flat, but its a lovely ride across the barren fields…
… and as you near the coast, water too.
If there was an i-Spy book for a road journey across the Romney Marsh, it would definitely include pylons to tick off, and, of course, sheep.
Approaching Camber Sands, from the top deck, you finally get a glimpse over the wall…
… of the beach that awaits.
I hope the 500 catches on – it certainly gives Ashford folk an alternative to Hythe and Folkestone as a coastal destination.
The third new route in Kent for the school summer holiday is Arriva’s 701.
It provides a new fast link between Maidstone and Bluewater Shopping Centre. Oddly it began on Thursday 1st August rather than the previous weekend, and the pre-launch timetable available online confirms it’s running until 31st August.
However, the traditional style of timetable presentation Arriva favours on its website was uploaded on the first day and shows Monday to Friday journeys with a code “1” indicating they’re “Only During school Holidays” implying the uncoded weekend journeys will continue into September and October. We’ll have to see.
As you can see its a 45 minute journey time with a half hourly frequency from 08:45 until 20:00 (17:55 on Sundays) with 15 minutes layover at each end (20 minutes at Maidstone and 10 minutes at Bluewater on Sundays – not sure why) meaning the route takes four buses to operate.
Passengers in the Maidstone area wanting to visit Bluewater previously had to use route 101 (every 12 minutes) to Chatham and change there on to route 700 (via Rochester and Strood every 20 minutes) which would have taken a minimum of 78 minutes depending on connection times in Chatham, so it’s a significant improvement.
All the more so as after leaving Maidstone’s King Street terminus bus stop the 701 only picks up at Maidstone East railway station and the Ringlestone petrol station alongside the A229 then its non stop to the A2 and all the way to Bluewater giving an impression of a very quick ride, which it is.
I saw the first bus arrive into Bluewater last Thursday morning and it was good to see half a dozen passengers on board – and only one of those, Alex, was there for the inaugural ride as an enthusiast, the others were shoppers heading for some retail therapy in Bluewater.
After the 15 minute layover Alex and I were the only passengers on the 09:45 departure – which isn’t surprising as it would have been quite a surprise for someone to be travelling from Bluewater to Maidstone so early.
A fast ride down the A2 over the Medway bridges…
… and then on to the A229 saw us arrive at the Ringlestone footbridge bus stop (the equivalent of the petrol station on the outbound journey) at 10:11, 11 minutes early, which enabled Alex and I to take a few photographs while the driver waited time.
Either the timetsble needs tightening up or that stop changed to ‘set down only’ status as it’ll do nothing to encourage passengers by making them sit and wait for ten minutes or so on a stationary bus just a few minutes away from Maistone itself. Indeed we were passed by a bus on the 101 which would have reached Maidstone ahead of us.
When we finally got going again and continued into Maidstone it was an on time arrival at the scheduled 10:30 arrival and another 15 minute layover before heading back to Bluewater at 10:45 with five passengers on board.
We arrived into Bluewater ten minutes early which tells me the running time is rather slack and with a bit of judicious tightening and losing 5 minutes stand time at either end would enable the route to be operated by three buses instead of four.
Numbers travelling on buses observed in the northbound direction were in the low single figures – ie four, five or six, but none on southbound journeys.
But that was only day one and I think the route has got potential. Its biggest problem is raising awareness – not one of Arriva’s strong points – especially as it’s only operating during August (or maybe not, depending on that weekend situation). Bluewater has acres of space for parking, but towards Christmas is renowned for getting very busy so it might well make sense to keep the route going at weekends until the end of the year.
If so, come on Arriva, you do need to up your game. A poster sellotaped to the stairs on the bus I travelled on was already showing signs of wear and tear…
… a timetable had been sellotaped to the timetable case at the King Street bus stop in Maidstone…
… but the departure stand at Bluewater had no timetable…
… so everyone was asking the driver as they alighted where does it pick up from, to which he explained stand 8 and handed an A5 timetable sheet, which unhelpfully doesn’t show the stand number.
The bus stop at Ringlestone didn’t have any information about the 700 (just the 101)…
… and Arriva’s announcement about the new route on its website (if you can find it) doesn’t exactly inspire you to travel.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS with Summer Su extras.
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 
The Folkestone route is obviously free for all but do the other two routes accept ENCTS passes?
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Yes they do.
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All good initiatives!
For the Camber Sands route, presumably the £5 return fare means that the route is out of scope of the £2 fare cap?
Also for the Camber Sands route, the publicity is excellent, but for the lack of a clear ‘Daily’ designation – personally I would be rather uncertain about whether to catch the bus without double-checking which days of the week it runs.
Stephen
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When I was younger in the noughties I remember taking a direct bus from Maidstone to bluewater by Arriva it wasn an infrequent service. It served more villages then went directly non stop. “Arriva 703 Maidstone, Larkfield, Snodland, Halling and Cuxton, before running fast on the M2/A2 to the shopping centre.”
500 is quicker between Ashford & Camber Sands then previously going one of two ways. Taking bus 11 and change bus or Train to Rye and then change onto bus.
Dan Barker.
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There is a fourth summer service in Medway – the 200A / 200C serving Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham via key leisure destinations operated by Chalkwell and Nu-Venture.
Buses operate hourly in both directions from the 20th July to the 1st September and funded by the Bus Service Improvement Plan. The fare is £2 single with up to 3 children per adult travelling free.
Bus 200A operates from Chatham Bus Station via Brompton [near Engineers Museum], Gillingham, Gillingham Strand, Gillingham Green, Grange Road, Twydall, the new Cozenton Park Sports Centre, Rainham, Lower Rainham Road, Riverside Country Park and Dockside Outlet Centre to Chatham Bus Station – calling at all bus stops.
Bus 200C operates in the opposite direction.
Passenger numbers are very low.
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The village may be known as Hamstreet but the station is Ham Street
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The Stagecoach Ashford map poster was carefully designed, so that other information could be posted in the bottom left hand corner, over the A4-sized panel about “greener travel” and the two buses. It even invites other operators to do so! Possibly in this instance, the graffiti on that section caused the person posting the info to put it elsewhere.
Minor correction – Arriva 700 is every 20 minutes, not every 10.
Stephen – indeed no £2 singles on the 500.
KCC
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Thanks – 700 frequency now corrected
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I got all excited for a second as I misread Crosskeys. Thought it said Crossleys. I’d have been down there for a ride on a DD42 in a shot.
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I can only assume the variation in turnaround times at either end on Arriva’s offering is to allow for the service to be operated with four vehicles and just four drivers. I note it’s not half-hourly all day Sunday with some longer gaps, presumably to facilitate driver breaks. Some turnarounds in Maidstone appear to be 35 mins if you mark the four buses journeys up (with some longer ones of around a hour too), which may be a 30 min break plus a bit of slack? – Hants & Surrey Bus Blog
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If Stagecoach are part of the £2 scheme, which they are, and if the 500 is a registered service, which I would assume it is , then it has to be part of the £2 scheme unless there is very good reason for it to be excluded, for example if ENCTS passes were not valid or it was a schools service . Operators cannot pick and choose which routes are excluded
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Seasonal services or those that run for less than 6 weeks consecutively I think being two such exceptions.
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You are correct anon 4:51pm. The rules state:
“The 2009 amendment order explicitly excludes certain types of services that are outside of the spirit of the mandatory national concession, with the aim of reducing, the potential for any confusion over which services areas eligible. The following types of services are excluded from the mandatory concession:
So the 500 can be out of scope on the 6 week rule and the tourism element and, in that regard, Stagecoach can and have picked and chosen!
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“Operators cannot pick and choose which routes are excluded” . . . not quite.
Operators can choose to exclude a route from the ENCTS scheme if it doesn’t meet the scheme requirements. Examples are seasonal services, or services which are not designed for “normal” passengers. Very often, LTAs will welcome this, as it helps them to stretch their budgets.
My understanding is that operators can opt to not include services in the £2 scheme for just the same reason . . . they don’t have to, but they can.
An example is X12 Peterborough – Boston – Skegness . . . split into two registrations. A return fare is £14 adult, with discounts for children and groups. No £2 fare there! In the olden days, this would have been an excursion !!
Another one for Roger to try out . . . it runs at weekends until the end of October. I was in Peterborough on Saturday . . . passengers were waiting from 9am for the 0945 departure, and Stagecoach had provided a duplicate!! Lots of holidaymakers with baggage waiting . . .
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Hardly any wonder the X12 is so busy with the state of rail services at the moment, and without fail, watching a Skegness or Nottingham train pull out from the adjacent platform at Grantham as a northbound train from Peterborough arrives! Only to be held at a signal just beyond the station to let the main line train pass a couple minutes later!!
Looking at the Arriva website 700 timetable, it is clear they intend running it during October half-term week, and considering the failure of the last direct service, am surprised they have committed four vehicles when one withered and died in a previous life.
Terence Uden
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The Crosskeys and Arriva operations are BSIP-funded; the Stagecoach service is a commercial venture. (The Medway 200 service is also paid for from BSIP).
KCC
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I believe the X12 return fare for ENCTS passholders is £9.
The service is generally rostered for 2 vehicles, though I understand from a chatty driver that if there is doubt about the need for a duplicate then it is “parked round the corner” while the other bus loads up.
The vehicles don’t seem to be tracking on bustimes this year although they did in the past. The usual performers are 10867 and 10868.
Ian McNeil
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ENCTS & the £2 fare scheme work differently and so how they work is different. ENCTS is a compulsory scheme and all local services are included unless it is determined they meet a small list of exemptions & the LA decides to use the exemption. Technically an operator can’t choose to exempt a route from ENCTS themselves, they can try & set it up to be excluded but only the local authority can actually decide to do so and if they see the route as being an important part of the local network it can’t be removed.
The £2 scheme is voluntary so operators can choose to be in or out as a company and even down to route or journey level (Konnectbus have a specific peak variation outwith the £2 fare cap presumably due to the large college it diverts to serve en-route to avoid undercutting their season tickets) as long as it is included in the calculations for funding before the last round of funding was agreed (so it wasn’t included in the calculation of lost revenue submitted to the DfT to work out what share of the pot you would receive). Technically no route introduced after the last funding round was agreed is actually part of the scheme and so all can be left out but most operators simply incorporate them to simplify marketing (when it was originally launched it was more common for new routes to be excluded due to this or if a tender gain the LA had to agree to cover the differential until new funding could be agreed) but they aren’t getting paid any extra money for doing so.
Dwarfer
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