(24 May 2023, 9:02 pm)F114TML wrote It amazes me that 4 bunches up so much, given you get 10 mins at Doxy and 6 at Downhill, and I don't find it all that hard to stick to time in the middle.Indeed, I've always wondered how and why the 4 bunches up so much.
3 currently has 96 min (1hr 36m) round trip (for some reason the running boards don't seem to match the public timetables), including 2 min stand at either end. I think you're a bit generous with the journey time reduction. Pre-Covid (when it served Farra and Gilley alternately), it got 10 mins between Farra and the Prospect via Plains Farm, versus 12 mins now; on a night it gets 8 mins. Prospect to end of Plains Farm gets 4 mins (by the public timetable), so really you're only looking at a 6 minute reduction in time, not 10 - journey time of 88 mins excluding all standing time.
Here's the discrpency, it only seems to exist northbound, but the one on the left is Bustimes, the one on the right is the running board.
Current round trip on the 4 is 108 min (1hr 48m), including all standing time (92min/1hr 32m excluding it). Diversion round Plains Farm would take that up to 96min (1hr 36m) excluding stand time.
It would seem likely to me then that the 3 is the one that's gonna get 1 min either end (or possibly 2 min at Farra, and 0 min at Hylton - because the 3 currently runs like clockwork, oh wait), and the 4 gets a minimum 9 min total. If I'm correct, then that'll prove Dan's earlier suspicion that pulling the 3 from Plainsy is purely to cut the PVR further.
![[Image: image.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/404364425043116033/1111034380006203562/image.png)
Interesting about the 3 discrepancies - can really see reliability on the 3 plummeting sharply after these changes. Dan's probably right. The 3 has always gone through Plains Farm as far as I can remember, with the 4 providing/competing with the 20 down Durham Road from Town to the Board Inn.