(25 Nov 2013, 10:18 pm)tyresmoke wrote Dales & District review
Another new bit of territory covered for me today...
One of my mates (also a driver and enthusiast) likes to go on days out riding around so when our days off meet its always good to do something different. So today saw us off on a Freedom tour of North Yorkshire with a Dales & District Freedom ticket (£9).
We drove to Darlington as we figured it would be easier given the time constraints I had today (going out for a family meal on the evening... Just been to Toby Carvery!) and started from Tubwell Row.
Our first move was the MAN 14.220 with MCV Evolution bodywork, in the form of London reject AE60GRX, on the 0900 service 72 to Northallerton. This was a fairly quiet journey into Northallerton, gradually picking up more on the way as the bus entered North Yorkshire (where concessionary passes are valid from 0900 rather than 0930 in majority of the rest of the NE).
Getting into Northallerton at 0950 proved to be at the start of a busy period with no less than 4 other vehicles arriving and departing plus the town bus which we wandered down the High St to see. A rather smoky Solo (MX07JNJ) arrived and was replaced with an E200 before departing to Richmond on the 55, providing a rare working opportunity! The other independent operator operating in Northallerton is Abbotts of Leeming who run the hourly services 80/89 between there and Stokesley with two new Optare Solo SRs, of which we saw both during the hour or so we were there.
The next bus provided was one time Stagecoach Optare Solo MX04VLP on the 1042 service 153 to Thirsk, which proved to be rather flat and not quick by any stretch of the imagination! I believe this to be a former Devon County Council owned vehicle as it certainly wasn't to Stagecoach spec, though it did carry its Stagecoach fleet number above the cab. A rather stately ride saw us arrive into Thirsk around 1120, in time to see the Reliance vehicle (a Volvo B6BLE) and the Hutchinsons town bus (a ropey looking Cheetah) arrive.
We had over an hour break here due to the way the timetables work, but this allowed us time to see the other Thirsk town bus which was D&D Primo YX07HPC, and also wandered round to the coach park to find 2 Shearings vehicles and the Glenton Palmer branded Panther from Stanley Coaches all stopping enroute to/from various holidays, Monday being market day in Thirsk.
After a nice lunch from the chip shop in the town square, it was time to depart to Ripon, on board ADL Enviro 200 MX10DXM (which had earlier replaced the Solo in Northallerton). This provided a very steady run to Ripon on service 70, still sporting its (rather home made looking) luggage racks from its previous life on service 767 Harrogate-Airport.
Once we arrived in Ripon, we saw a few of Transdev's 36 deckers (Volvo B7TL's) which look very smart in their 'City Connect' livery, though I think I preferred the last version. Also around was Eddie Brown Solo KX04HPU on their town services and Dales & District's silver Iveco Daily NX10CCA on the 138/139 services.
The next move on the Freedom tour was onboard Optare Solo MX55BXR, operating the 1340 service 159 to Richmond. This being one of the Cummins powered Solos, it provided a quicker ride via Lightwater Valley to Masham where we jumped off and had a quick wander round the village. Its not hard to see why service 159 has recently been improved with a Sunday operation, with a decent loading even on a Monday afternoon, though it was a shame that the Wright Streetlite that is usually found on service 159 was nowhere to be seen!
After a 25 minute break here we jumped onto another of the same batch, MX55BXS on 1430 service 144 to Bedale, which has to be high on the list of tightly timed routes! A ride which I'm not sure could be provided by anything other than a Cummins powered flying machine, saw us whisked (literally...) upto Bedale in no time whatsoever! A 10 minute connection onto the service 157 departure to Hawes at 1505 saw us board another ADL E200, MX10DXY this time which appeared to show plenty of battle scars and seemed to agree with my perception that these E200s are not up to the demands of rural operation. This E200 struggled up along the country roads and a few jumpy gear changes and the low power certainly suggested that it was stuck in limp mode... A quick glance at the dashboard upon disembarking seemed to agree!
A 5 min connection in Leyburn from the 157 to the 159 turned into a -2 min connection (although this was partly attributable to leaving Bedale 4 min late thanks to waiting for the inbound connection off service 73). Luckily the 159 was sat there in Leyburn waiting for our arriving 157 in case of any connecting passengers, something which Dales & District seem to excel at! The driver of the E200 on 157 even contacted their office via the cab phone in Bedale to ask where the 73 was for a concerned customer wondering if he'd missed it, excellent customer service (especially from a driver which seemed to take delight in annoying everyone else...).
Another rather empty ride on the 1535 service 159 from Leyburn to Richmond was onboard former Leven Valley Solo NT06GKA, which was noticeably slower than the 55 plates which we had been on previously, despite also being a Cummins engined example! It still retained all of its internal notices from Leven Valley too, including its former fleet number. We were the only two passengers on this entire journey, albeit it was a short run from Leyburn to Richmond only, not starting all the way up in Hawes.
A quick (long enough given the cold!) stop in Richmond allowed some evening shots to be attained of the town service (which had dropped to a Sprinter by 4pm, usually a Solo through the day) as well as one or two of the Arriva Solos passing through on services X26/X27.
The last trip of the day was on Mini Pointer Dart MX06ULP on service 29, covering for the more usual Plaxton Primo. It had no destination displayed and only one operational number blind from what I could tell, so a board in the windscreen displayed the intended "29 Darlington" destination, not ideal in the dark for customers joining enroute (of which there were none), only one other passenger onboard on departure from Richmond Market Place, and they departed the bus within the confines of Richmond itself, leaving just the two of us on the remaining ride to Darlington via Melsonby and Cleasby.
All in all a good day out sampling some of the lesser used bus territory, and hard to believe Arriva used to run across the majority of it (in former guises for parts!) and its quite easy to see how Procters Coaches have built up a very large network. Unfortunately a lot of it now has the axe hanging over it, with North Yorkshire County Council having to find savings and proposing to chop a lot of services. The £9 Freedom ticket gives good value for travel across such a wide area, it may seem expensive to some (comparing it to the North East Explorer perhaps) but I don't mind paying that little bit extra in rural areas, its quite a nice change from riding around between towns.
Total log from today was:
0900 72 Darlington-Northallerton AE60GRX (MAN / MCV)
1042 153 Northallerton-Thirsk MX04VLP (Solo)
1229 70 Thirsk-Ripon MX10DXM (E200)
1340 159 Ripon-Masham MX55BXR (Solo)
1430 144 Masham-Bedale MX55BXS (Solo)
1505 157 Bedale-Leyburn MX10DXY (E200)
1535 159 Leyburn-Richmond NT06GKA (Solo)
1625 29 Richmond-Darlington MX06ULP (MPD)
Sounds like a good day out, and certainly good value for money. The only thing for me is that the thought of almost an hour on an MPD quite frankly terrifies me.
