Urban/Interurban Buses
Here’s where I keep a list of useful bus services with links to timetables that I have found on my travels around Britain and Ireland. Those more rural routes extending into hill country continue to reside on my hillwalking website but they are listed below this page in the same menu for sake of completeness. What you’ll find here are those that are of use to anyone whether they engage in outdoors pursuits or not. This is a living list so please let me know via the contact form if there are any that you’d like to see here that I have missed. In the meantime, I’ll be growing the list anyway so it might be worth returning from time to time to see what else I have found.
1: Wrexham-Chester
This service goes to show that Arriva does expand in some places with Sunday frequency having become half-hourly for much of the day rather than hourly all day as it was before. The story gets even better on weekdays with up to five services an hour. Trains are hourly if you are lucky so I suppose that’s what helps a bus service to succeed like this one seems to have done.
2 Dublin Airport-Dublin-Arklow-Gorey-Enniscorthy-Wexford-Rosslare
Here’s an admission: I have been playing with the idea of crossing to Dublin from Holyhead and then returning home via a Rosslare-Pembrokeshire ferry instead. Train timings don’t make this work so well but this hourly service makes things a lot easier. Handily, it serves Dublin Airport too as well as places in Wicklow and other parts of Wexford county. All in all, it makes a daft notion workable should I ever choose to make it happen.
5/5B/5S/X5 Llandudno-Bangor-Caernarfon
On Sundays, the service frequency may be hourly but it is impressively more regular for this North Wales coastal bus service. Apart from the Bangor-Caernarfon leg, it shadows the railway for much of its route too. Saying that, you have more of a chance of getting a regular service from places like Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr if you make use of the bus option. For some reason, I have yet to do exactly that and I cannot pin down exactly why. In fact, it has been travelling between Bangor and Caernarfon that has been the cause of my using it in the past.
10/10A Macclesfield-Bollington
It appears that a few folk have been coming along here looking for a link to a timetable for this regular bus service so it’s about time that I offered one so here it is. The frequency is half hourly during Monday to Saturday daytimes but it is never less than hourly at other times. It’s a help that it starts early and finishes late too.
14 Limerick-Castleisland-Kerry Airport-Killarney
For the record, this service calls at all the major towns near the N21 in West Limerick and that makes it interesting to me for more than getting between Limerick city and the airport at Farranfore or Killarney. Service frequency is two-hourly and covers a good stretch of the day too. This looks a useful one for those planning a visit to what is a scenic part of the planet.
18 Trafford Centre-Sale-Manchester Airport-Altrincham
19 Altrincham-Sale-Manchester Airport
It was my attendance at a training course held at the Premier Inn on Runger Lane that has brought both these services to my attention. It is the second of the pair that is the more frequent on all days of the week (every fifteen minutes during the day versus half hourly; both run hourly in the evenings) with the exception when the frequency is hourly like the first. Both serve the cargo handling centre of Manchester Airport with the 19 having it at one end of its route and the 18 passing through there as it continues to Altrincham via Hale Barns.
27/27A/27B: Macclesfield-Knutsford
This useful rural service is operated by Bowers on behalf of Cheshire East Council that runs hourly every day (no evening or nighttime journeys) apart from Sundays and bank holidays. There usually is a three-a-day summer Sunday and bank holiday service every year as well.
All Year Round Monday-Saturday Timetable
Summer Sundays and Bank Holidays Timetable
38: Macclesfield-Congleton-Sandbach-Crewe
One of the stalwarts of Cheshire’s interurban bus network, this is probably the sure-fire way of getting between Macclesfield and Crewe and has proved very useful for starting many a journey to Wales for a walking excursion, especially of a Sunday morning. The frequency is hourly with different timings for Sundays and bank holidays in comparison to the rest of the week. I have always found that the service runs well apart from those late evening occasions when a bus driver places rather too much weight on the bus’s accelerator. Let’s hope that inclination has been eradicated since I witnessed an attempt to get from Congleton to Macclesfield in less than ten minutes one night.
Sunday Timetable
Timetable for Rest of Week
40 Rosslare Harbour-Waterford-Cork-Tralee
For some reason, I managed to get it into my head that connection between Cork and Killarney were poor but the discovery of this route changes all of that. After all, the service frequency between Cork and Tralee is hourly most of the time so I am wondering quite how I managed not to find the service before now. The next to hourly extension to Rosslare is a revelation too though I have to admit that going to Ireland via Rosslare would make a massive round trip for me. Nevertheless, it’s an option that might need to be considered if arctic weather ever blights Dublin Airport again.
42: Congleton-Holmes Chapel-Middlewich-Crewe
If I had wanted to make a journey from Macclesfield to Holmes Chapel without a car, I would have been unsure of what to do until I saw this bus service (yes, a connection needs to be made in Congleton but that’s better than nothing at all). It runs on all days of the week except Sunday and bank holidays with the Congleton-Crewe frequency being two-hourly on Saturdays and hourly on the other days of the week.
51: Cork-Limerick-Shannon Airport-Ennis-Galway
In my U.C.C. days, there were times during the summer when I made use of the southern section of this service to travel between Charleville and Cork. Then, the frequency was near to two hourly and there were occasions when two vehicles operated some departures from Parnell Place Bus Station in Cork. On one occasion, the second vehicle was an elderly interurban bus mainly used for services to West Cork and it felt a comedown from the more usual coaches. Something tells me that things have moved on a lot since then with the service frequency extended to hourly for most of the timetable. Interestingly, not much distinction is made between Sundays and Public Holidays either. Another change has been the making more of calls to Shannon Airport and my spending several frustrating hours there before Christmas 2010 is what’s caused me to look at what travel options are available from the airport. Unlike my tarnished impressions of Aer Lingus, this service doesn’t look at shabby nowadays.
61: Buxton-Glossop
After a request in a comment below, I have gone and added this one along with a few others that have been in mind for a while. Not only does it shadow the A6 for part of the way, calling at the likes of Whaley Bridge and New Mills, but it also pops by Hayfield too. The latter is a definite plus point for exploring the moors round about there. All in all, it looks useful.
66 Swindon-Shrivenham-Faringdon-Oxford
Business travel has taken me down to Oxford and Oxfordshire and I found this bus service for use as a back-up option for getting about the area. The frequency is hourly on Sundays and mostly is half-hourly on other days of the week. That makes it a viable option and it runs from early morning to late night too.
67: Maynooth-Celbridge-Dublin (Merrion Square)
67n: Dublin (Westmoreland Street)-Celbridge-Maynooth (Specified direction only)
67x: Celbridge (Salesian College)-UCD Belfield
There used to be a time when visits to Éire took me to Celbridge at times and these services came in very handy though they have changed a bit since those days. The 67 is the main daytime service and the frequency largely is half hourly with the 67n being a nighttime bus service taking folk out of Dublin. By accounts, the 67x is a university student service that operates at peak times only from Monday-Friday and not on bank holidays; UCD is one of Ireland’s biggest universities.
67 Timetable
67n (Nitelink) Timetable
67x (Xpresso) Timetable
130: Macclesfield-Wilmslow-Handforth-Cheadle-Manchester
With trains providing a faster means for travel if getting to Manchester is your objective, this is mainly for anyone wanting to travel part of the way. That’s something that it does reasonably well so long as buses do not get caught up in heavy traffic or break down and drivers leave you off at stops as you require. Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday service is hourly and starts before trains do, providing an invaluable travel option. Daytime service is half-hourly on other days with penny-pinching by the council reducing the service level to two bus runs each way after 19:00 (now detailed in a separated in a separate timetable with Arriva no longer doing so) and those only go to Parr’s Wood in Didsbury rather than all of the way into Manchester.
Arriva Timetable
BakerBus Timetable
200: Wilmslow-Styal-Manchester Airport
On the few times that I have used the service, it didn’t seem particularly well used. I was left with the impression that it was one of those little known services that are operated with council and National Trust support (it calls at Quarry Bank Mill, an NT property). The service runs hourly seven days a week from around 09:00 until around 18:00 and serves Wilmslow’s train station. There is a rail alternative but it was running at almost the same time as the bus service when I last checked, a daft state of affairs. There was a time when service times were staggered, a more sensible approach, and it would be good to return to that state of affairs.
226 Cork Airport-Cork Bus Station (Parnell Place)
During my time living in Cork, I did notice local buses emblazoned with airport route markings at the city’s bus station but paid them no other heed until a pre-Christmas spot of air travel disruption had me looking at alternatives to Dublin’s airport. A result of these inspections is my rediscovery of this route again and the service frequency is approximately half hourly for much of its operation period during the day. That makes it more than useful though timings are a little on the eccentric side, if truth be told.
249 Cork-Cork Airport-Kinsale-Garrettstown
This seems to be an interurban bus service that serves Cork Airport while plying its route between the city centre and the more rural parts that make up West Cork. Service level to Garrettstown isn’t so high (mostly Thursdays and Fridays, it seems) but that to Kinsale is more than workable on a daily basis. All in all, this has to make a break in West Cork an untaxing possibility for those living beyond Ireland’s shores.
343 Limerick-Shannon Airport
344 Ennis-Shannon Airport
While the 51 Cork-Galway timetable is a good one, I am adding these local services to complete the set so that you have the full picture of what bus services are available and there seem to be plenty of them too. Hopefully, they’ll cut down on the need for car hire for getting about.
368 Wythenshawe Hospital-Wythenshawe-Cheadle Hulme-Stockport
369 Manchester Airport-Wythenshawe-Cheadle Hulme-Stockport
X69 Manchester Airport-Cheadle Hulme-Stockport
Stockport gets regular bus connections to Wythenshawe and Manchester Airport because of these services. The 368 and 369 are half-hourly for much of the period of their operation with the X69 running early in the morning or late at night. Of the three, the 368 only runs from Monday to Saturday though the others are seven day services. Journey times depend on the time of day though the range is from 35 to 45 minutes, not so disgraceful really.
375: Mellor-Marple-Bosden Farm-Hazel Grove-Stepping Hill-Stockport
383: Stockport-Marple-Romiley-Stockport
384: Stockport-Romiley-Marple- Stockport
A hole in a train timetable was the cause of my using the last of these to get from Marple to Stockport and I was at my destination in around 30 minutes, something that highlights how near the two places are to each other. As it happened, I was travelling on a Sunday but weekday travel times aren’t that much longer either. Another point in favour of 383/384 is their frequency of operation and the length of the day that is covered by each. In contrast, the 375 is a daytime only service that runs along a less direct route (takes much longer too) than the others on an hourly timetable. Well, you cannot say that Marple isn’t well served by public transport.
375 Timetable
383 Timetable
384 Timetable
378: Wilmslow-Handforth-Stanley Green-Bramhall-Stockport
Sometimes on my way home from Wilmslow, I see a Stagecoach bus waiting at the stop in between working services between Stockport and Wilmslow. While it means that my bus cannot stop where it should to leave passengers off and on, it has been a reminder to add an entry for the timetable in here. Journey time is of the order of an hour so it cannot compete with the train on this basis. Nevertheless, it runs hourly between Wilmslow and Stockport and every twenty minutes along the part of the route that is within the GMITA area during daytime hours Monday to Saturday.
392/393: Macclesfield-Stockport
Since the start of 2009, this has been operated by BakerBus on behalf of Cheshire East Council and called “The Shuttle”. Some changes have been made from the existing timetable but none of these seem to be that major and new buses have been promised too. The 392 still goes around by Bollington and Pott Shrigley while the 393 follows a more direct route via Adlington.
401: Alnwick-Beadnell-Bamburgh
411: Beadnell-Bamburgh-Berwick
Until a recent reorganisation of services, this was all one route but it is split in two now. It may be a while since I last looked at these things but I don’t recall the 401 being a Monday-Saturday service but it is now and the Sunday 401 is no more. One look at the current timetable will tell you that both services are being operated independently and that they don’t always connect with one another, hardly the best of circumstances but for the existence of the 501 (see below). Nevertheless, anything that offers more travel options cannot be a bad thing.
480 Dunoon-Hunter’s Quay Holiday Village
While it’s no city, Dunoon is strung out for a few miles along the coast so a bus service like this is invaluable for getting about. For one thing, it links two ferry ports along with areas like Upper Kirn and Milton. The service may only operate during daytimes from Monday to Saturday bu the half-hourly frequency is very useful for those with luggage.
501: Newcastle-Morpeth-Alnwick-Belford-Berwick (via Alnmouth, Seahouses and Bamburgh)
505: Newcastle-Morpeth-Alnwick-Belford-Berwick (via Great North Road)
Northumberland may be one of England’s forgotten counties in some respects but it does have attractive coastline and good empty hill country surrounding the Cheviots. It takes 45 minutes to traverse by train and the bus running times that you see for these services will cause some pause for thought (travelling non-stop by coach from Newcastle to Berwick takes around 75 minutes anyway).
518: Newcastle-Morpeth-Amble-Warkworth-Alnmouth-Alnwick
Going around by the coast to serve places like Amble, Warkworth and Alnmouth may extend the journey times of this hourly Arriva-operated service but the places mentioned are well worthy of your time, particularly Warkworth with its castle in its centre. In fact, I hope to make time from my hill wandering to do just that. Connections from Alnmouth’s train station are possible but I am unsure as to how well they work in timing terms; they didn’t look so wonderful the last time that I checked but that may well have changed in the intervening period.
747: Heuston Railway Station-O’ Connell Street-Busáras (Central Bus Station)-Dublin Airport
When I used to fly to Dublin on trips to Éire, this was a route that I often used though it has changed a little since I was a regular user of the service. Previously, the 747 (it can’t be an accident that it is reminiscent of a certain jet airliner…) terminated at the Dublin’s Central Bus Station, Busáras, and it was the 748 that served Heuston station. That no longer appears to be the case with the 747 being extended and the 748 getting dropped. With the state of the Irish economy and its government’s finances, I suppose that it was inevitable that changes would be made by a state-owned company like Dublin Bus.
900: Edinburgh-Glasgow
Trains are not the only high frequency public transport option between Glasgow and Edinburgh since Scottish Citylink operate this shuttle too. Journey times are of the order of 78 minutes with a limited number of stops being made along the way too. Current advertising capitalises on oversubscribed and more expensive train travel (a Glasgow-Edinburgh service that I recently used was very busy) but I cannot say that a seat is guaranteed all of the time. Nevertheless, it’s always good to have a variety of options.
901 Glasgow-Greenock-Gourock-McInroy’s Point-Wemyss Bay-Largs
906 Glasgow-Greenock-Gourock-Wemyss Bay-Largs
907 Glasgow-Greenock-Gourock-McInroy’s Point-Dunoon
908 Glasgow-Braehead–Greenock-Gourock-McInroy’s Point-Wemyss Bay-Largs
All of these services allow you to get to Cowal or islands in the Firth of Clyde in one way or another. The 907 extends to Dunoon using the Western Ferries sailings between McInroy’s Point and Hunter’s Quay while all the others meet with ferries at one place or another. The service frequencies are good too though the 907 only offers around five journeys a day and the overall frequency on Sundays is hourly once slight undulations in the actual running times are taken into consideration.
Connect 19 & 19X: Macclesfield-Whirley-Prestbury
There was a time when this was an ugly duckling of a route with buses that seen better days being operated by a company of which I had heard little. In recent years, that all changed with the award of a contract to Bowers and the availability of a council-owned low floor bus that formerly plied the roads between Macclesfield and Stockport on the 392/393 service. The 19X has the most direct route but that is an occasional service compared with the more circuitous 19 that goes around by Bond Street before continuing along Chester Road as far as Broken Cross from where it runs around by Whirley and Upton Priory before making it to Prestbury. There’s no Sunday service but that doesn’t appear to inhibit its patronage from what I have seen.
Connect 88: Knutsford-Wilmslow-Altrincham
Following a request from a visitor, here’s the timetable for a service that seems to bring a fair few folk here. There is no Sunday service but the hourly daytime frequency every other day of the week makes it useful and it passes runs by the Viewing Park and Cargo Centre of Manchester Airport too, though there is more of a walk than other ways of getting to those places. Under the custodianship of Vale Travel, the service has got new buses in the last few years. It’s a council-supported service so we’ll have to see how things go in an age of public sector austerity.
Skyline 199: Buxton-Stockport-Manchester Airport
Perhaps amazingly, Buxton gets a direct bus link to Manchester Airport and Macclesfield doesn’t. That may be a consequence of Derbyshire folk making more use of buses than their Cheshire counterparts but that is not to take from the usefulness of Trent Barton’s offering. Incidentally, it also serves Disley in Cheshire along with places across the Derbyshire boundary like New Mills, Whaley Bridge and Chapel-en-le-Frith. It may not stop at as many places in Greater Manchester though I have seen Hazel Grove and High Lane gaining a mention. While I know that there is always the train, buses offer a little extra in terms of convenience and there can be railway engineering works.
Swift: Derby-Ashbourne-Mayfield-Uttoxeter
It struck me as strange that one of the predecessors to this service, the One (Mayfield-Ashbourne-Derby), was a Monday to Saturday service without bank holiday running given the numbers of people that I saw using it on two Saturday visits to Ashbourne. Since then, it’s been combined with a 409 service between Uttoxeter and Ashbourne to give a new service with many of the features of the older ones, though Uttoxeter now sees more buses than it did. This looks like the hallmark of a company that cares about its services so the surprise regarding Sunday services grows. Maybe I should go there of a Sunday to see if there is any obvious reason for this but the non-Sunday service seems a good way to get around anyway. Be warned though that evening services are run by Arriva rather than Trent Barton, to my mind a consequence of council support. They also are less frequent than their daytime counterparts with no service to Mayfield or Uttoxeter either.
The Witch Way: Manchester-Prestwich-Rawtenstall-Burnley-Nelson
On the destination boards for the buses plying their way between Pennine Lancashire and Greater Manchester, you’ll find route numbers like X43 and X44 but the branding has to be the more memorable. Surprisingly for England, this is one example where buses win out over trains because there is no direct rail link between Burnley and Manchester and train journey times are no better than the direct buses. The service has its own website where you can find out more about what seems to be striking piece of flair among the identikit operations of the bigger travel groups. Transdev Lancashire seem to have paid extra attention to the quality of the vehicles operating what effectively is an express double-decker service, never a bad thing.
Transpeak: Nottingham-Derby-Matlock-Bakewell-Buxton-Stockport-Manchester
Guidebooks aren’t usually so forthcoming when it comes to learning about bus routes but that’s how I got to learn about this offering from Trent Barton. Travel is by coach or low floor single-decker bus, depending on the journey. You are more likely to find the former plying the route on the full extent of the route between Nottingham/Derby and Manchester with the latter on journeys starting or ending in Buxton. Either way, it’s a useful one to know for getting about the Derbyshire Dales with places like Matlock and Bakewell being on the route and the service has its own website too.
X84: Leeds-Otley-Ilkley-Addingham-Skipton
As a means of getting between Leeds and the likes of Ilkley or Skipton, it probably doesn’t hold a candle to its rail counterpart. Nevertheless, trains can and do malfunction sometimes so it’s good to have alternatives and being able to swap between the Airedale and Wharfedale lines has its place when chaos descend on the railways. Of course, buses always matter more for the shorter journeys along part of their route as opposed to the their full extent.
