16 June 2008

Worksop alterations

An overhaul of bus services in Worksop is about to come into force with re-numbering of the local town services as well as providing increased weekend and evening journeys to settlements in Bassetlaw in general. Full details are available on the Stagecoach website. Click here to see the new Worksop town map.

Branded 'BusAboutTown' services in this area of Nottinghamshire have been reviewed with support from Notts CC. Most of the ADL Enviro200s that had been parked at Grimsby since new have been painted in the Stagecoach corporate colours but with the addition of green where the blue would normally be in order to signify the involvement of the local authority - a similar colour scheme was applied to the Local Lynx buses that generally operate Services 27 (Retford-Misson) and 31 (Worksop-Tickhill(-Doncaster)) from May 2007.

A similar brand was applied to Retford in January and has seen significant growth in the east Notts town. The investment in Worksop and neighbouring areas of Bassetlaw will see the new ADL Enviro200s replace some the last Mercedes-Benz 709D minibuses - a vehicle type that became synonymous with Stagecoach during the mid-to-late 90s. When many depots in the East Midlands area had seen their MD 709s go, Worksop's fleet of the 23/25 seaters continued. Certainly these new vehicles will be a welcome replacement for both passengers and drivers!

However, we understand that "bread van" operation in Worksop will cease from 23 June when the new services come into effect. Worksop town services 44, 45 & 65 will be re-numbered to 4/4A, 5/5A and 7/7A and a new town service number 6 will be introduced.

Now no longer inter-worked with the Retford town services, Service 42 (Worksop-Retford) has been extended to the north-east of Worksop to commence/terminate at Wensleydale to an hourly frequency, running in between an hourly frequency on Service 43, which operates to Manton Wood (Wilkinsons HQ) rather than Retford (Service 42).

All services operating under the Local Lynx brand name (including Airport Lynx) can be viewed here. Unfortunately there is no route map yet, just a collection of timetables. It's interesting to see that the production of the publicity surrounding the new routes has been done in traditional RoadCar style, using their cartography and collection of timetables to the main map, rather than the Best Impressions-style guides that Stagecoach usually favour.