Wiltshire Day Rover
Day Trip 01/07/15
I started off on by purchasing my ticket on Stagecoach West service 8 at Regent Circus Swindon and took bus 34837 from there to the bus station.
I then decided to have a ride on Go-Ride service 90 originally to Hungerford, but the times of connecting buses would of left me with to long a wait there so got off at Great Western Hospital, the driver of SN58BZL which is one of their 16 seat VW Krafters with VDL bodywork was unsure about the ticket, he shrugged and looked puzzled, I explained what the ticket was and that it was valid on their service according to both Wiltshire County Council and Go-Rides website that it was valid. Once the bus got going it was a nippy ride to the hospital where I bid it farewell and then had to wait for my next bus.
My next bus was Thamesdown Transports Dart 209, which was on the 48A to Marlborough. On boarding I also found my landlord who was travelling to see relatives. The bus took a long, roundabout route through the villages of Wanborough, Liddington, Aldbourne & Ramsbury where we had a van driver who did not like waiting for the bus to move, the bus then went through Mildenhall to Marlborough where I left the bus to get a coffee.
Coffee brought thanks to my landlord & Costa, I decided to find another bus to take. I could of took a Thamesdown bus to Hungerford, APL on the 42 to Calne, Tourist Coaches Solo on the 217, Stagecoach West Trident on the 80 back to Swindon or Salisbury Reds Enviro400 on the X5 to Salisbury.
I decided to take the X5. I got on the bus to go to Salisbury on the X5 service, operated by Salisbury Reds (the old Wilts & Dorset), this route has changed since I last took it, and with the weather being the hottest day of the year with temperatures in the 30s, the Enviro400 was like an incubator, mind you I could of plugged in my phone as the bus had USB charging points I didn’t catch the fleet number but I think it was 1598. The route has changed over the years, it was the same route to Pewsey and on through the countryside down to Larkhill & Durrington, then a new route via new builds and a retail park into Amesbury and then out to Boscombe Down, where things have also changed, the bus no longer goes up to the entrance of the camp, but now goes through a new housing estate and back to the A346, where it is back to the same old route to Old Sarum and into Salisbury, where it no longer serves a housing estate but keeps to the main road, and with the bus station being closed it dropped us off on Blue Boar Row.
I got off the bus and looked around to see what bus was next to use, Salisbury has changed since I last came here, gone are Optare Spectras, Deltas and MetroRiders, the services are now in the hands of Enviro200, Enviro400 and Dart MPDs with some Solos hanging on and plenty of ex-London double deck buses and Scania OmniCity Double Deck buses.
I decided to jump the Red1 service to the District Hospital, as I had done the Bemerton Heath end of the route so many times when it was the 52/53 routes. The trip to the Hospital was straight forward, but the hospital it self was confusing and surprised me. The buses used are Enviro400s branded for the Red1 and they also have USB charging points, which must be something being added to all new buses operated by Go-Ahead group subsidiary’s as Oxford also have them on their newest buses. I travelled to the Hospital on 1578. I got off the bus and walked through the hospital to get a drink in the hospital canteen, the bus dropped me off at what I thought was the main entrance but I had to walk through to this as the canteen was on level 2 with the main entrance. I found it and then walked through to another entrance to get the bus back to Salisbury.
I got another Red1 service with bus 1573 back into the city, another badly parked car stopped us from getting onto a bus stop and caused the bus to block a yellow box junction, when I got off the bus I headed into the Salisbury Reds travel shop to get an up to date collection of timetables then looked for the stop to get the 2 to Devizes as I had seen various Volvo Olympian double deck buses on this service through the day and last week at Devizes.
The bus turned up on time and was not a double deck, but DAF SB120 Wright Cadet 3410, which took me to Devizes. This is another route that takes many twists and turns through villages and had to squeeze past a removals van twice in one village. This was the best bus of the day as it had wide opening windows which put a good breeze through the bus, the downside was it was chosen by local school children to get home, but they were well behaved and quiet so the journey went smoothly as for the second time today I crossed Salisbury Plain, the difference was this part had red flags flying as the army were firing live ammunition from there tanks. I still did not see any tanks at the tank crossings and can safely say that all the times I have travelled across the plain I have never seen anything other than a Land Rover or Personnel carrier at these crossings, the bus took me into Devizes.
At Devizes I had a choice, I could have a quick turn round the local services on Stagecoach West Solo 47122, go to Calne or Chippenham on APL Travel service 33 using one of the MAN/Ikarus buses or take the 49 back to Swindon, I chose the 49 with bus 15638 which took me out of Devizes and promptly got stuck in traffic due to roadworks (just like back home in Swindon). We cleared the roadworks and shot into Bishops Cannings, where on the narrow country road for the umpteenth time today we came across a speeding car that seemed shocked to see a bus coming towards it and then promptly shot into the verge to let it pass. The bus continued onto the A345 and onwards to Avebury where the same village idiot who shouted abuse at me last time round was still sat at the Red Lion, I could of got off and took the former Connect2Wiltshire service 42 that APL run back to Marlborough but decided to stay on the 49 which continued through to Wroughton and then Swindon, where I alighted at Regent Circus and was happy to see that due to roadworks my bus home was delayed, so I waited and took the 22 home which was being done by Thamesdown Transports Dart MPD 103.