Saturday 10th May 2025
Continuing my Top 10 countdown towards the country’s Quirkiest Bus Route takes us this month to Devon to ride Britain’s least frequent schedule bus service.
Tavistock Country Bus operated route 112 famously runs just one return journey on the fifth Saturday of the month between April and September linking the company’s home town in Devon with Dawlish on the county’s coast.
This means the route comprises just two return journeys a year – this year on Saturdays 31st May and 30th August, being the two summer months with five Saturdays.
By a quirk of how the Gregorian Calendar pans out, in 2027 the route will run on Saturday 29th May but the second journey of the year will be a month earlier than usual, on 31st July, rather than in August and in 2028 route 112 will operate on 29th April and 29th July. You have to keep your wits about you if you’re a regular passenger.
The first pick up point for the bus is outside Lawsons, an old style “Kitchenware, Homeware and Home Living” store in Parkwood Road at the eastern end of Tavistock’s main retail street.
Departure time is 09:05 but, as I found when I travelled on the route a few years ago, it’s as well to get there well ahead of that time as demand for spaces on the 16 seat minibus for its twice-a-year outing over to Dawlish is always high. Indeed, the queue was already well formed by 08:40 that morning.
Tavistock Country Bus operate a booking system whereby half the seats on the bus can be pre-booked in advance, which guarantees a seat, with the other half available on a turn-up-and-go on the day basis.
When I travelled, blog reader John had kindly reserved the one seat left available to book in advance in my name and as he was also travelling and had planned to take a chance of grabbing one of the others available on the day of travel, after that kind gesture I wasn’t going to let him be disappointed, so made sure I was at the head of the queue to keep a seat for him, arriving at 08:30 to make sure of that.
By 08:55 there were nine eager passengers ready and waiting (including John) and not long after that the bus arrived and we all boarded.
The bus turns back towards Tavistock town centre and picks up at the bus station where more passengers joined, and luckily there was just enough room for everyone, and their walking frames, but it made for quite a cramped journey…
… as we headed down to Yelverton then across Dartmoor to Princetown, Two Bridges and Dartmeet followed by some very narrow twisty Devon country roads until reaching Ashburton.
It’s a one hour 46 minute journey to Dawlish and there are also stops in Newton Abbot and Teignmouth where some passengers alighted.
Most carried on to Dawlish where we arrived at 10:51. John and I then went our separate ways with a walk alongside the famous wall on my agenda with John aiming to travel on more of Devon’s fabulous rural bus routes. The other passengers enjoyed over four and a half hours in Dawlish before the bus set off back to Tavistock at 15:30.
People often ask what the rationale behind running the bus so infrequently is. Tavistock Country Bus run a number of local routes in the area on weekdays but on Saturdays run popular longer distance trips, each on a monthly basis. Exeter, Truro/Falmouth. Barnstaple and Paignton/Torquay operate on the first, second, third and fourth Saturdays of the month respectively, leaving those two instances when there are five Saturdays in the summer which is when Dawlish becomes the destination.
It’s a fabulous ride and a true quirky experience. But, if you’re thinking of taking a journey on the route at the end of this month, be warned, half the bus has already been booked out and a few weeks ago, when I checked, there’s at least four names on the waiting list in case a cancellation comes up. So, you’ll need to be outside Lawsons by soon after 08:30 at the latest if you want to ride Britain’s least frequent bus route.
Roger French
Did you catch the previously blogged Top 10 Quirky Bus Routes 10: White Bus route 01, 9: Borders Buses route 477, 8: TfL/Transport UK route 969?
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
If we’re counting days of operation as the critiera, then Merseytravel 62A (Crosby – Bootle – Aintree University Hospital) is a contender since I think it only runs on Christmas Day. It did however have six journeys this year!
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What a great resource for the people of Tavistock! – a day out of some sort every Saturday if you want, and a way of visiting friends and relatives you like to keep in touch with. And yet a perfectly logical use for a small bus at the weekend – presumably there is regular work for it Monday to Friday. Is this the only example in the whole of the UK? When I was living in Wadhurst in East Sussex, there was a weekly bus at one point to Cranbrook, Tenterden, Ashford and Canterbury – but on Sundays, so no good for shopping, and custom was low. I’d definitely have patronised a Saturday bus to a variety of places not easy on the regular bus or train routes.
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There are lots of buses in Devon and Cornwall that run only once a week but the G4 is the only other one that I know runs once a month. It goes from Gorran Haven to Plymouth and back on the 3rd Monday of the month.
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Not sure if you are referring to Saturday’s specifically, or the general idea of using spare capacity to provide a day out of some sort. Celtic Travel in Wales have a different market day run each day using a vehicle between school runs; Ludlow (M), Abergavenny (TTh), Carmarthen (F) and Hereford (W).
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Running on a Saturday is a little unusual but there are probably quite a few community transport operators across the country still doing once a month services like these. Just off the top of my head I know of two in Bedfordshire (Flittabus & Whitbread Wanderbus) who both do once a month services to bigger towns/cities (Milton Keynes & Cambridge for them for instance) around their regular weekly buses to the local towns (a different group of villages getting a service on different weeks). Not sure if they run any on weekends though let alone a 5th one in a month which is what makes this one more unusual.
There used to be lots of these types of services run commercially by bus operators a decade or so ago but a combination of factors have weighed against them – few would be the issue alone but the combination of all is what has done it. The obvious issue is the running costs, drivers wages & fuel costs mean tying up resource for a full day for a single trip is harder to cover costs at an affordable price for passengers. The big issue is concessionary passes meaning retired passengers (who dominate these longer distance shopper buses) can get to these places for free even if via 2 or 3 buses so the benefit of a single (discounted) fare to do so is no longer as great. The tightening up of drivers hours mean it is harder to mix with normal service work making them no longer something just to use up spare resource but instead need to carry more of their own costs themselves – this also means special vehicles are needed (fewer operators run any tacho work so they have few tacho equipped vehicles needed and the cost of maintaining them is greater so if you don’t need them for normal service it is difficult to justify). There are other issues around suitable vehicles, support and other lesser commercial & operational factors that build up to undermine the commercial proposition.
Dwarfer
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What an extraordinary route! But as demand is obviously considerable, why don’t they run it more often and with a bigger bus….? Also notice it links Yelverton, Dousland and Princetown, which the famous Princetown branch railway did until 1956. Do any other routes link those three places? Graham L.
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Oakley Coaches service 98 runs Tavistock to Yelverton via Princetown and Dousland Mondays to Saturdays with four journeys each way.
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Yes, the 98 (operated by Oakley’s) runs four journeys each way, Mon-Sat : Tavistock – Merrivale – Princetown – Dousland – Yelverton.
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I cannot remember the main coach operator in Tavistock (Tavy Coaches seems obvious) but Bruce and Roberts I think would have had at least one excursion in the early 1980 which may have not been in the comprehensive Devon County Council Public Transport timetables which would pick up and travel to similar destinations. A lot of Devon bus services mainly outside of Devon General/ WNOC were Market Day based weeklies with only one trip each way often serving off road villages where a daily services would not run.
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Tavistock might not be the largest town in the UK not having a Railway Station but all those destinations at one time could have been reached from the LSWR rail service – alas real economics at the time noted that Summer Peaks or Weekly peak travel didnt cover the allocated costs and Thus became one of the Western Region route closures, only for the expense of a more and more crowded or land taking A30 to be proved necessary.
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Running more frequently would actually kill the demand that there is. Buses serving villages in Devon have traditionally been Small, where even a Bedford SB was large and OBs ruled much of the land , even Wallace Arnolds Torquay based operations used 7ft 6in wide coaches and they were too big sometimes. Gourds of Bishopsteington ran I think a couple of Dormobile (or Martin Walker) style Commers or similar up the eastern side of the Teign Valley connecting Teignmouth and Newton Abbot , while Devon General used its small Marshall bodied Bristol LHs along the western side via Shaldon and other villages on a fairly frequent service (stopping patterns did vary a bit) between the same destinations.
All the monthly destinations are gettable from Tavistock on public transport with changes possibly somewhat indirectly, but in the days (other than registering to get bus grant) of regulation this kind of service would have been licenced as excursion ( though the intermediate stops do suggest a stage carriage operation in theory probably less in practice )
JBC Prestatyn
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I remember Greenslades also had some 7ft 6 in wide coaches, but thought that that was because there were some narrow bridges on Dartmoor. Maybe Wallace Arnold had narrow vehicles for the same reason.
(Greenslades and Wallace Arnold – now that’s a blast from the past!)
MotCO
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Grey Cars (the touring arm of Devon General) also had 7’6″ wide coaches for touring on Dartmoor.
Julian Walker
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A thoroughly enjoyable read, Roger, and it made me laugh over my muesli. Thank you.
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I have to confess that I had expected Roger to report that he was the only passenger, or maybe one or two others. I’m quite taken aback!
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Brilliant! A perfect example of how rural bus operation in the south west can work. Why change it, it’s worked for decades. Those who’ve always lived in urban areas, don’t always appreciate this.
I’m guessing Roger that you and John were the youth contingent on this journey!
I’d like to add one more quirky infrequent service though, one on which the return journeys run mostly on different days. Salisbury Reds 333 only runs for the summer and winter solstices. Last year the summer service had departures from Salisbury to Stonehenge from 1830 to 0100 on 20/21 June returning from Stonehenge on 21 June with the first departure at 0400 and the last at 1000. A similar pattern operated for the winter solstice.
There’s a quirky bus route challenge for you Roger!
https://www.salisburyreds.co.uk/summer-solstice-stonehenge-timetable
Also just a stone’s throw away (pun fully intended!), does the excellent Imberbus count as it is actually a scheduled bus service, the 23A, running just one day a year?
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The 333 sounds very interesting but not sure I’d want to wait at the terminus for Somali g for a return ride! And good call re 23A and its quirkiness, Keith. Many thanks.
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There’s an almost as quirky Reading Buses’ route which runs on the final two nights of the Henley Regatta only. Bus HR1, leaves Station Road Henley for Reading every 20 minutes from 10.30pm until 2.30am.
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Up until a couple of years ago, a number 76 ran on the 5th Saturday of the month between Easter and October from Grassington to Litton and was the only bus to serve the road off the main road through Arncliffe to Litton, miss it at Litton and it was a lengthy wait for the next!
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Here’s an thought, Roger. I was just listening to the BBC reporting as to why, suddenly, the UK is becoming so unhealthy. The assumption that each next generation lives longer is no longer valid. Apparently, three main factors – we don’t exercise as much, diets are poorer, and critically – many more are now suffering social isolation (despite seemingly living in a technically more connected world). So maybe the NHS should subsidise these Saturday trips.
As an aside, up here in Oxford, the local bus company hosts regular “Chatty Bus” events, selecting specific bus times and routes where extra people are on board to encourage social interaction. In fact, there is one next week. If you’re in the area and fancy reviewing it, link below (CH, Oxford):
https://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/chatty-bus-14th-May-2025
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When coaches were deregulated in 1980 a number of NBC companies stated what were basically regular excursions on a pay as you board basis – something you would have needed a licence for prior to that.
Trent marketed these a ShopAways and were mostly to/from Nottingham or Derby. In a previous blog Roger went from Buxton to Castleton. There used to a ShopAway from Castleton to Buxton on certain days with the vehicle going to Chesterfield and Nottingham on other days.
As these are really excursions I’m surprised the ENCTS passes are valid or the BSOG can be claimed. Probably excluded from the £3 cap as well.
Richard Warwick
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Fishers Tours of Dundee operate a network of limited stop services under the “Scottish Express” banner which they clearly state are “NOT COACH TOURS”. These run on frequencies from one day every fortnight up to twice a week, especially to shopping centres during December.
For example, service 260 Dundee – Largs runs fortnightly on Wednesdays and has a stop at the out-of-town Braehead Shopping Centre to the west of Glasgow en route.
What’s even more remarkable is the fact Scottish National Entitlement Cards, including those for under 22s, are accepted for free travel on these services.
William
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On some of these Fishers services, you can spend over 8 hours getting there and back for the benefit of 3-and-a-bit hours in the place you’re visiting!
Hardcore.
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London Country built up a big network of these as well, initially in the Green Line 7xx numbering series and then I think they were changed to a separate 9xx series. The ones around Watford and Hemel survived quite deep into British Bus days.
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I like the map, Dartmoor being a prominent feature.
I wonder if there are any Baskervilles living in the area to benefit from this service?
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When my parents lived in Torbay there were numerous Sunday Only services operated by First Western National which linked the Riviera with Tavistock, Moretonhampstead, Castle Drogo etc as part of Dartmoor Sunday Rover scheme.
On many a Sunday evening I would speak to them after they have travelled miles around Devon on a Sunday.
From my recollection the all day ticket wasn’t valid on Stagecoach however then First Western National had a large network across South Devon including thier local service in Wellswood.
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