£2 UK BUS CHALLENGE 2 - How far can we get from London by BUS ONLY? Part 1
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- Welcome to the second edition of our £2 UK bus fare challenge, where we see how far we can travel by bus in just 2 days from London! The government has kept single bus fares at £2 until the end of 2024 allowing us to attempt this mammoth challenge again.
Join me on the first part of this trip covering almost 300 miles with a plethora of different buses and operators to see how far we can get, and whether it's cheaper than the train!
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The £2 fare is great but it’s weird how I can get from home to 2 stops away for £2. Then I can get from Plymouth to Bude, 50 miles away by road also for £2.
Interesting point you've raised there. It's very possible that since the £2 bus fare scheme was introduced, some short distance fares which originally were less than £2 have increased in price. Nevertheless, it's nice to have a unified fare system so you know that any bus you go on will cost no more than £2.
Bus Challenge
I live in Kent now and even though the timetables are a lot shorter than the trains, the fares are wayyyy cheaper, especially getting to and from London.. singles £2, day passes are like £7..wonder what and if the prices will change to after December.
I really hope that the £2 bus fare is retained after December, considering its popularity among passengers. Even the bosses of large transport companies like Stagecoach are calling on the government to keep the £2 fare scheme as it's drawn so many more passengers to the bus. Bus prices before the scheme were spiralling out of control - I once paid £5.50 for a single fare between Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City, which is more expensive than a peak-hour train ticket.
Lovely video, looking forward to seeing where you head next! I personally managed to do London to Exeter on £2 bus fares in a day and that vid is on my channel, I definitely love doing these kinds of trips
Thank you! London to Exeter is amazing for one day - I'll definitely check out your video this evening. Look forward to sharing future episodes!
Loved the video, will be watching the remainder of the series. Would be nice to see the time it took for each individual journey.
Thank you! That's a good idea - I'll see if I can include this in future episodes.
I've done Croydon to Cardiff, Heathrow to Lincoln and Redhill to Bournemouth in one day which were all incredibly fun to do. Sometimes you have to do a massive detour to make progress. Heathrow to Edinburgh by local bus made super easy my the amount of express routes on the east coast.
Wow, those sound like super fun trips! You do unfortunately have to make a few detours. The buses up the east coast do get a little sparse between Yorkshire and Teesside which is a little annoying.
@@ItsAllAboutTheJourney York to Newcastle is reasonably easy, and you can make it very scenic by using the Coastliner, and Arriva run buses direct between Scarborough and Middlesbrough and GNE between there and Newcastle making it a good way to fast track up. Did have to go through hull to get to York though 😛
@@benttwiggy5940 This is one of the only ways you can get up towards Newcastle by bus. I took a slightly different route to get north as you may see!
I did London (Southgate) to Nuneaton by bus about 7-8 years ago. 610 Cockfosters to Luton, 97 Luton to MK, X7 MK to Leicester, 48 Leicester to Nuneaton, then a local bus (41) to my then home.
Looking forward to see the rest of the challenge.
Hope you didnt get stung too bad by the taxi home from Northampton. By rights the train company is liable to get you to your destination. Or was it a choice to take a taxi rather than wait for replacement buses being organised or something?
Looking forward to sharing the following episodes too - there's a lot to uncover!
The Northampton incident happened late at night (about 12am-1am) after a long delay between Crewe and Rugby. We weren't supposed to stop at Northampton at all but had to so that the crew didn't work overtime. There were no replacement buses available, so Avanti paid for the cost of the taxi home for me and my family which was nice, particularly as I don't think they're legally obliged to in cases of disruption that aren't their fault.
@@ItsAllAboutTheJourney glad to hear you didn't get stung with it. They absolutely do have to get you to your destination.
Oh I admire your patience....when I was young and foolish at University, I went from Coventry to Grays in Essex via a series of buses (Northampton, Bedford, Hitchin, Harlow, Romford) - took all day! I just get in the car these days! Tempura rice? What an odd concept! As I understand it, Tempura items are coated in batter and deep fried, and I doubt that Boots' rice was like that!
The thought of deep fried rice coated in batter...
That sounds like it would have been a very fun trip - guess it would have been much harder to plan a trip like that back then - with paper timetables and booklets? (I don't want to insinuate your age!) It's only very recently that bus companies have been posting timetables on the internet to a good and consistent standard; with the dawn of bus tracking only in the past 5 years or so.
A great video, I've subscribed.
Thank you 😊😊
Thanks for your support! Glad you enjoyed the video :)
I understand the £2 fare will not be extended like it has been several times in the past, so I'm glad to see you making the most of it
Currently it looks like the £2 single bus fare will be discontinued on the 31st Dec 2024. However the £2 bus fare has dramatically changed peoples' opinions and usage of buses so much, that even bosses of transport giants like Stagecoach are urging the government to keep the £2 bus fare. When private sector companies are urging the government to continue the scheme, you sure know it's profitable too. (Not sure if the same can be said about smaller, local operators though.) This is a really positive sign, I can see the £2 bus fare scheme continuing past the end of 2024 and becoming a semi-permanent thing.
I have used several.buses in the UK with the £2 fare even in remote parts of England. Great initiative if you consider that evsn long routes such as the Coastliner from Leeds to Whitby now costs just £2 for over 100 km
The Coastliner is a fantastic route, and a very comfortable one too. I didn't get a chance to ride it on this trip, but I'd love to ride it end to end from Leeds to Whitby - such varied scenery from the historic urban landscapes of York and Leeds to barren moorland close to Whitby. I wonder if this is the longest route you can take on the £2 single fare.
@enricomonti156
Sounds like I just have to do this journey :-)
Wow! Surprised I have never come across your channel before! You seem to have made some really innovative stuff, and there is lot for me to catch up on! Especially interested in your Tokyo metro area videos as I have an interest in that system!
Love how this video was narrated and edited so well. Clearly some inspiration from the Travelling Turtle series. Can’t wait for future episodes of this journey. Subscribed!
PS. I’m from really near Potters Bar too, so its nice to come across a local haha
You can get a bus from Leeds to Scarborough for £2 single fare.
Thank you for your kind words! Travelling Turtle's videos were a big inspiration for my bus challenge videos. Tokyo's trains are a fascinating system and I can't wait to return to Japan in the future. Looking forward to sharing and editing more videos from this journey!
I recently did First Eastern Counties Excel route from Norwich to Peterboro and Arriva's 724 from Heathrow CBS to Harlow, both for the amazing £2 fare. An absolute bargain !!
Was is this only localbus challenge
Sullivan didn't lose the London contracts - they gave them up overnight without notice as TFL were late paying them and were struggling to work with a small company according to their press release
Great to see another £2 bus fair challenge 😊 Looking forward to seeing how far you go. Does the total spent figure mean how much you have spent before boarding the bus? The £0 for the first bus got my attention.
Hello . I am a recent disabled pass holder and live just outside London in Kent, I really would like to know a route between London and Norwich.
Mmmmmm.
Want to explore
Hi there! I've got a nice route for you with some personal recommendations. It's quite a detour but necessary because there are so few buses running between Cambridge and Norwich.
From Central London, you could get the 113 up to Edgware. The 113 is likely one of the fastest ways to get out of London by bus as it spends a lot of time on the dual carriageway.
From Edgware get the 614 up to Hatfield. Again a nice fast route whilst allowing you to see a little of countryside Hertfordshire.
From Hatfield you could get the 610 or X10 up to Luton. These have just received a set of brand new buses.
Then get the MK1 up to Bedford and the 28 over to Kimbolton. Kimbolton is a pretty little village but do plan to be here before 2pm as the last bus out of Kimbolton is at 2:30pm.
Then get the 400 to Huntingdon Bus Station, run by the local operator Dews Coaches. This was a really friendly bus route where everyone seemed to know each other. The last bus on this route leaves Kimbolton at 2:30pm so make sure you're there before then.
Then get the 904 to Peterborough Bus Station. A stylish single decker running along the course of the old Great North Road adjacent to the A1 for most of its route.
Then get the "excel" bus route between Peterborough and Norwich, via Wisbech, Kings Lynn and Dereham. A frequent and pleasant bus route with one of the most comfortable interiors I've had on any bus. The stretch between Peterborough and Norwich takes almost 3 hours but is still pleasant.
This is theoretically possible to do in one day (though you'd have to get up very early in the morning and arrive quite late at night.) Take a look at the first two parts of my first bus challenge which I did in 2023, where I followed quite a similar route: ua-cam.com/video/o4vVyiN0uO8/v-deo.html
Alternatively, if you're running a bit late for the 400 or don't want to risk it, from Northampton there's an X4 route which will take to Peterborough in just over 2 hours via Corby. This is a larger detour but the buses on the X4 are much more frequent.
Hope this helps - Norwich is a bit of an annoying place to get to by bus so a direct route is almost impossible.
@ItsAllAboutTheJourney
Thank you ever so much for typing such a long lengthy reply, I really do appreciate it .
I'm not sure if I can make the journey in one day but I will give it a good try .
Will be in about 2 weeks time as I'm a little busy right now.
Thanks again Paul.
@ItsAllAboutTheJourney
My 2nd bus would be the 321 which will get me to new Cross.
Glad you found it helpful - hope you enjoy your trip!
@@KurnazTilki-v4s see how much a coach returning to london might be - or even the train
Cambridge has the longest guided busway in the world
I didn't realise that, it is indeed! There are plans to extend west towards Cambourne via the Colleges, and also north towards Waterbeach from Cambridge North too.
Excited for the next episodes
Can't wait to share them!
@@ItsAllAboutTheJourney Any ideas when next one will be ready
@@UKTransportExplorer I'll try to get the next one out in the next couple weeks or so. I'm very busy at the moment with university so my upload schedule is likely to be patchy at best.
@@ItsAllAboutTheJourney No worries mate.
Interesting that Sullivans do the £2 bus fare, as they weren't originally on the list!
Those Temsa Safaris are lovely, I've sampled those used on the X6 from Coventry-Leicester.
Sullivan do indeed do the £2 bus fare scheme now, which surprised me a little. The last time I travelled with them between Potters Bar and St Albans the single fare was £3.95, almost double... I'm not sure how long Sullivan's commercial operations will survive having lost all their London routes. None of their commercial routes seem particularly well used.
I completely agree, the Temsa Safaris were kept in fantastic condition with a very smooth ride and comfortable seats. The Temsa Safaris used on the X1 are the very same buses which were used on the X6 until July 2024. They're now living a happy life at Milton Keynes depot.
Gotta love express bus routes operated with coaches, valid with the £2 fare or day tickets; they rarely seem to last these days, don't they?
It's a real shame that there are so few of these cheap, comfortable coach links. I'm not sure how long Arriva's X1 will last, though usage seemed high when I travelled. A few more passengers got on at Dunstable as well from as a few villages on the way, so the bus had around 25-30 people on by the time we reached Milton Keynes. I believe some local bus services in the far north of Scotland are operated by coaches, though Scottish buses are not part of the £2 fare cap (which is only in England and Wales).
can you do the south via kent and sussex next?
Oooh - sounds exciting! There are some fantastic bus companies in Kent/Sussex (Metrobus, Brighton and Hove etc.) so I'd love to sample them. I'm quite busy with university in the coming months, but in the future, perhaps we can see how far west we can get from London, or maybe south/east into France or Belgium...
@@ItsAllAboutTheJourney I think you should try from central london and see how far you can get via kent (arriva and stagecoach) and sussex (brightin and hove etc)
not london as thats only a square mile you mean greater london or hertfordshire for 313
My apologies, Greater London is the administrative name of the region with its 32 boroughs.
London usually refers to the whole thing as you can see on road signs, the borough’s being London boroughs, transport for London, etc. the specific square mile area is ‘the city of London’ or just ‘the city’. You wouldn’t exactly say parliament isn’t in London just because it isn’t in the city of London
@@vadosegalaxy1597 no parliament is in westminster
@@BIGV710 yes it’s in Westminster but Westminster is in London
@@vadosegalaxy1597 no it is not its in greater london get your facts right