Have free bus pass, want to travel.

A question about : Have free bus pass, want to travel.

If you have a free bus pass and want to travel, like most other people, you are only familiar with the services within your borough/county. For example within Northants, there is a service X4 which runs between Peterborough & Milton Keynes, albeit through Kettering/Wellingborough/Northampton. This would be ideal for covering a fairly long distance free, something we are unable to do with coach operators.

It occurred to me that if a few people from every county, submitted details ie destination/frequency/journey times maybe we could produce an interesting/useful piece of information which could appear on it's own website. (I have to say I know nothing about producing websites).

What we don't want I feel, is information from subscribers saying negative things like we don't use public transport or we don't have many buses where we live. No, this is aimed at people who do use public transport or would like to, but are as yet, unsure how and when.

I will copy and post this on another site and see how it develops in the next couple of days. If you do subscribe, I think it is quite important to include information such as this 9.30am start if it applies in your county as half the country does and half doesn't. If anyone can think of anything which might also be included, then feel free to make the suggestion.

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Best answers:

• There is an 'airport flyer' which goes from Southend-on-Sea via Chelmsford to Stansted Airport. Some time ago there was a letter in the 'Southend Echo' from a man who said he'd used his free bus pass to get to the airport and had then hopped on a cheap flight to Dublin and was having lunch by the banks of the Liffey.
  It had been a 'cheap' journey but not a 'free' one because even with a cheap flight he'd had to pay the same airport taxes as on any other flight. But he seemed happy with it.
  HTH
• oh Islandman, I've been thinking along these lines myself, wishing I could lock into other areas and discover how to get there. Trouble is for me - I live in London, so can't really begin to tell you about the bus services as there are so many.
  Do you know if 'out of London' bus passes do what the Londoners' freepass does, which is give access to the tube system. That is truly fantastic.
• No, I don't but watch this space and together we just might be able to provide information for everyone's benefit.
  We have been out of town today shopping and whilst having a sit-down, I overheard an elderly lady saying "I'm weary, I think I'll go and sit on a bus for an hour and a half ride round and rest my feet". Somehow I don't think that's what it's all about, but can see nothing wrong really.
• Here I am with the (bad) news - the national bus pass is for buses. So it does not cover the tube system.
• Oh, that's really sad. Well, I've said some bad things about Ken Livingstone in my time but it was he that introduced the London-wide freedom pass and it has truly been wonderful.
• I've picked up a few pieces, sorry if it's repeated from elsewhere.
  Special Note for London Freedom Passholders
  If you live in London and already have a Freedom Pass you need to get a sticker from your local post office to be able to use your card outside of London. This will also renew your Freedom Pass for free travel on buses, Tubes, trains, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and trams until 2010.
  If you don't already have a Freedom Pass you can apply for one at your local post office, unless you live in Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Sutton or Wandsworth where you will need to contact your local council.
  You usually need to fill in an application form and provide a passport-style photo plus proof of your age and address.
  ----------------------
  Suffolk offer free county-wide bus travel for all buses (before 9:30am etc) but only for Suffolk residents.
  Cumbria offer each district a different distinction:
  Allerdale, Eden, Copeland, Barrow: Free county-wide travel before 9:30am and after 11pm.
  Carlisle: Free weekdays after 11pm within Carlisle district.
  South Lakeland: Free weekdays after 11pm within South Lakeland district.
  South Yorkshire offer free travel from 9am for ALL concessionary pass holders, includes all buses trams and trains in the South Yorkshire PTE area. They have not limited their extension to local passes only.
  -----------------------------------
  if you're in London, this is a good way for those folk who hold these bus passes to see the sights:
  At Liverpool Street take the Number 11 bus which runs through the City, past the Bank of England, past St Paul's Cathedral, Fleet Street, The Strand, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall past 10 Downing Street and Horseguards, Westminster past Parliament and the Abbey, then through Victoria, including Westminster Cathedral, close to Buckingham Palace, through Pimlico to the Chelsea Hospital and Physic Garden, Sloane Square, King's Road through World's End and finishes up on Fulham Broadway.
  From here, a short interconnect via the Number 28 bus, takes you to Olympia, where you can catch the number 9 bus back into town. That follows Kensington High Street, past Kensigton Palace and Gardens, Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, up Piccadilly, though Piccadilly Circus, to the Strand, where you hop off and onto a number 15 bus to the Tower of London. You can, of course do the route in reverse, or simply start at the Tower instead of Liverpool Street, in which case you take a number 15 Westwards and change for the 11 on the Strand (perhaps popping up to Covent Garden in between buses).
  Transport for London will NOT allow free travel on tube, train or trams to anyone other than London residents, but they WILL allow free travel on buses at the same times as London residents, which are more generous than the national scheme -- if you're a night owl!. Monday to Friday: from 0900 to 0400 the following day; weekends and bank holidays: at any time.
• A lady from the North West decided to test the country wide bus pass. She began her journey in Berwick on Tweed and ended at Lands End.
  Details here
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/northwesttonigh..._feature.shtml
• never mind, we all are prone to this. welcome anyway.
• traveline cymru have such a service. You just put in your start point and destination. Fantastic but we are restricted to Wales. Good job it is such a beautiful country
• Does anyone have a foolproof way of defining a 'coach'?
  Our local (West Midlands) travel office couldn't! Best they could suggest was it would be a 'coach' if you had to book it!!!!!
  The obvious starting point is National Express Coaches. But, of course, NE run buses too!
  I assume all 'Green Line' routes round London are 'coaches'? But there are many 'green' buses.
• There are 3 very good routes available from Leeds to East Coast resorts in Yorkshire under the free bus pass scheme, they are:-
  Route:
  840: Leeds - Seacroft - Tadcaster - York - Malton - Thornton Dale - Whitby.
  843: Leeds - Seacroft - Tadcaster - York - Malton - Scarborough.
  845: Leeds - Seacroft - Tadcaster - York - Malton - Bridlington.
  All 3 are run by Yorkshire Coastliner
• Now that, Mr dwileflunker is exactly what I think I'm after. Straight forward and to the point, BUT, how I think it could be improved, is if you'd given 1) frequency and 2) an example of times as in departure/arrival. Thanks.
• three and a quarter hours, Leeds-Whitby seems to be average.
• I think there was a piece about this on Radio 4, in the last week ...
  It might have been this chap. Or it could have been on You and Yours.
  I know I caught snippets of it. I think he found it good to talk to other people waiting for the bus, to check he was getting the right one.
  The other problem he had was one bus timetable said "Thursdays only" but the bus never came even though it was Thursday, so he phoned up and was told it didn't say Every Thursday, and it wasn't. You had to phone the bus company and check if this was one of the alternate Thursdays on which it was running.
• here are some long distance routes that i use.
  the x10 goes from middlesbrough to newcastle hourly from early morning to around 7 to 8pmish. it is very good and the whole route takes about 1hr 15mins. the operator is go north east.
  the 685 bus goes from newcastle to carlisle and again runs hourly. it takes about 2hrs. it is a joint service between arriva and stagecoach.
  there is a 554/555 service that links carlisle with lancaster. you have to change at keswick though. there are only about 3 buses between carlisle and keswick in a day but they are more frequent between keswick and lancaster. that is also run by stagecoach. there is a more regular bus between carlisle and penrith which is another way of getting to the lakes from the north. that bus is the 104. stagecoach runs most of the services in the lakes and there are many routes to great locations. you can visit buttermere,grasmere, ambleside, coniston, ullswater etc.
  timetables for all the above routes can be found on the particular companies websites.
  there is also a downloadable map of public transport routes in cumbria here. it is very good.
  https://www.cumbria.gov.uk/roads-tran...busservmap.asp