Our Website Manager Tom and Website Editor Stevenhave been out and about again sampling what the South Coast’s buses have to offer. Here, they tell of their experience of a journey that had been in the pipeline for almost a year…..Southampton to Brighton by bus.
We had talked about making an excursion to Brighton by bus for a long while, but our discussions had never really got any further than the drawing-board. After nearly a year of saying that we would do it soon, Tom set a date for actually doing it; that date being Friday 14th June 2013. It had been far too long since our original plan to complete the journey, and we were not going to let anything get in the way of finally doing it. This is what happened.
We met just before 8am on the day at Hinkler Road, where we would begin our epic journey on First’s 3. Our choice of getting First instead of Bluestar was based on two factors; the first being that we needed to get a Hampshire Dayrider for the X4 to Portsmouth later on, and the second being that due to time constraints, we would have to change buses at Itchen Bridge. The vehicle on the 3 was 66154 - S354 NPO; one of a few Wright Eclipses serving in Southampton. We ended up getting to Itchen Bridge on time and shortly after getting off, we saw what was to be our next bus going towards the City Centre; the X4. Knowing that it wouldn’t be back for a good quarter of an hour at least, we grabbed the opportunity to get some food and drink supplies for the upcoming journeys.
(66154 - S354 NPO at Itchen Brigde)
The X4 was a few minutes late on arrival, but in peak traffic this was understandable. We were especially pleased in it being a Scania (65019 - YN54 NZT), which has just recently become the standard allocation of vehicle for the route, owing to its higher-than-expected passenger growth. The bus left Southampton swiftly, and it wasn’t long until we were shooting down the A27 towards Park Gate. We spent some time discussing buses (unsurprisingly), and concluded that we both liked the Scanias as a whole, but we were both also in agreement that the rear destination screen is downright impractical on these models. The destinations zoom past way too fast for the human eye to properly comprehend, and are only given a couple of inches of room to make way for the route number. This was our only complaint however. The journey was quite nice, going through Locks Heath and Titchfield, and by the time it had left Titchfield the bus was almost completely full – testament to the news of passenger growth.
(65019 - YN54 NZT at The Hard)
Just over half an hour later we were pulling into The Hard in Portsmouth, albeit several minutes late, which sadly meant that we were to miss the 10:35 Coastliner that we intended to catch, and would have to get the 11:05 instead. We were relieved to be able to stretch our legs, and this was after a 90 minute journey. We daren’t think what the 4 hours + journey was going to be like, though we were highly anticipating it. Our original intention was to walk to Clarence Pier in Southsea so we could join the bus at its starting point, simply so we could say we did the whole of the Coastliner 700.
We decided to get one of the Portsmouth local services to take us there instead, partly due to time constraints and also due to our own laziness. We got the 1 (42128 - S628 KTP) to the end of the road that leads to the pier and walked the short distance to the 700 bus stop. Here, Tom took the opportunity for some photos, and it wasn’t too long until our carriage arrived.
(42128 - S628 KTP at The Hard)
A double-decker (15602 - GX10 HBL an Alexander Dennis Enviro400) in full Coastliner livery was to be our carrier up to Chichester. Our initial plan was to get off at Chichester and take a break for half an hour before joining the following bus, though this didn’t happen – more on this later. The bus waited for about 10 minutes before setting off, and we were primed and ready, sat at the front of the upper-deck for maximum viewing potential. Our trip to Chichester was interesting, in part because outside of Portsmouth it was a mystery to us where we were. An hour and a half after setting off, we arrived in Chichester Bus Station, which is conveniently opposite Stagecoach’s bus depot. We got off the bus and Tom again used the time we had for gathering some nice photos of buses and trains – the Bus Station is again conveniently located next to Chichester railway station. If we were told to describe Chichester in one word, it would be the word “convenient”.
(15602 - GX10 HBL at Southsea)
What happened next went against our original plan. We initially allowed ourselves half an hour in Chichester for the next bus, but as we had arrived quite early into the bus station, it had to wait time for a few minutes before continuing. Because we had nothing to do in Chichester, Tom came up with the idea of boarding that same bus, which we promptly did, bringing us back on schedule from earlier. Thankfully the driver had changed over so we were spared some strange looks. We vied to sit at the back of the top deck for the rest of the journey, and a couple of moments later we were off again.
(Chichester Bus Station)
There wasn’t that much to note until we got to Worthing, where the bus actually began going along the coast, as opposed to slightly inland from it. We didn’t really care though, we were enjoying the scenery and the thrill of being on one of the longest commercial bus routes in the UK. After a quick driver change in Worthing the final leg of our mammoth journey was underway. We were pleased that the weather had picked up, and the sun was shining after what had been an overcast morning. We arrived in Brighton more or less on time at 3:25 – kudos to Stagecoach for their impressive timekeeping over such a long journey. Although we thoroughly enjoyed the ride, we were glad to be off the bus, and the camera came out once again for some pictures of the many buses that grace the city. Our trip to Brighton would be memorable for another reason, involving a well-known restaurant and a ridiculously large amount of fish, but that’s for another blog.
(637 - YN54 AOM Brighton & Hove)
(Harry Ramsden's Fish & Chips Challenge)
That was the last of the buses for the day, and our return journey was to be done by train, just to be different. We walked up to the train station, which is perched on the top of a long hill that stretches from the seafront. Shortly after 5:30 we had got our tickets and were boarding the train, thus completing what had been a brilliant day.
(Southern - 377 465)
Overall we had a great time on our journey. As mentioned earlier, it had been something we’d wanted to do for a long time, and finally doing it was hugely satisfying. Would we do it again? Probably not. Sitting on a bus for such a long period of time can get quite uncomfortable, even for hardened enthusiasts like ourselves, but we would almost certainly attempt riding another bus route of such a length when such an opportunity arises.
