Bus pass

t0rt0ise

jbuchanangb said:

Also in London there are no time restrictions, whereas everywhere else in England the standard is not before 9.30am on weekdays, no restrictions on weekends. 

Not so any more. In London freedom passes are valid from 9am Mon to Fri and any time weekends. For Londoners the same time limits apply on the tube.

jbuchanangb

My apologies. It seems that the rules changed on 15 June 2020 in London. Must try to keep up.

glennevis

In Scotland, where by the way there are no time limits,  we always have to state the destination. If I'm undecided (might break my journey at the shops) I just state the terminus. Ticket issued is the same as for fare-paying passengers with concessionary fare recorded as zero.

Neil49

A popular journey on the south coast is the X53 which goes between Poole and Exeter via Weymouth, Lyme Regis etc. It takes just under 6 hours but quite a few people take overnight bags and stop off at various resorts en route. 

martindow

Neil49 said:

A popular journey on the south coast is the X53 which goes between Poole and Exeter via Weymouth, Lyme Regis etc. It takes just under 6 hours but quite a few people take overnight bags and stop off at various resorts en route. 

East of that is also a lovely trip.  You can take the Breezer bus from Poole to Swanage via Corfe Castle and then route 50 Breezer to Bournemouth.  This is open top in summer, normal double deck in winter and drives onto the Sandbanks ferry to cross the entrance of Poole harbour.  One of the delights is that the bus overtakes the lines of cars waiting for the ferry to get to the front of the queue..  In summer especially there can be a long wait if you are in a car.

JGB1955

I don't state my destination when getting on the bus... sometimes I still haven't worked out where I'm going to get off!  Annoyingly, when going east, the first relevant bus is at 09:33 (good) but going west it's 2 minutes too soon (bad)!  (We only have a bus once an hour).  No tickets are ever issued.

skycatcher

In NI you need to tell the driver where you are going they then issue you with a ticket (you cant get returns only singles). You can also use it on the trains and I think its usable 24/7. To get cross-border access you need to be 65+.

Neil49

martindow said:

Neil49 said:

A popular journey on the south coast is the X53 which goes between Poole and Exeter via Weymouth, Lyme Regis etc. It takes just under 6 hours but quite a few people take overnight bags and stop off at various resorts en route. 

East of that is also a lovely trip.  You can take the Breezer bus from Poole to Swanage via Corfe Castle and then route 50 Breezer to Bournemouth.  This is open top in summer, normal double deck in winter and drives onto the Sandbanks ferry to cross the entrance of Poole harbour.  One of the delights is that the bus overtakes the lines of cars waiting for the ferry to get to the front of the queue..  In summer especially there can be a long wait if you are in a car.

Thanks for that tip. My wife gets her pass in a few weeks time and is looking forward to using the South Coast holiday routes. 

macman

jbuchanangb said:

My apologies. It seems that the rules changed on 15 June 2020 in London. Must try to keep up.

That may only be a temporary change. It was done in order to deter the isits from clogging up the buses during morning rush hour, while they were running with reduced capacity during the pandemic.

t0rt0ise

macman said:

jbuchanangb said:

My apologies. It seems that the rules changed on 15 June 2020 in London. Must try to keep up.

That may only be a temporary change. It was done in order to deter the isits from clogging up the buses during morning rush hour, while they were running with reduced capacity during the pandemic.

It was said to be temporary to start with but it's now permanent.