Buses

I have returned the Mobility car and have ordered a new car which will be delivered towards November. My son has put me onto his car insurance and I have the use of my old car (I sold it to him) for the next two weeks while he is on holiday. I will not use it a lot has I want to start going to places by bus only local for starter Wigan /Leigh/St Helens then slowly further afield no need to rush around now.Maybe go to Bolton Bury even Manchester places I never real[y visited when I had a car.With the weather we are having not much chance of doing a lot in the gardens so might as well venture out and let some one else do the driving

Peter, If you live in greater Manchester get an annual tram and train pass added to your bus pass for £10.

PeterP

You will find that if you do travel around the Geater Manchester area on a £10 train and tram supplement, you will find many other elderly people with the same circumstances as yourself but getting out and about to visit the many attractions, museums, interesting pubs, cafes etc to take their mind off things.

Take care and do not let your situation get you down!

Good to get out and about Peter and a travell pass is a great way to do it.

Caught a bus to go to the life centre a couple of week ago 1st time in a year .Nowt's changed except the colour still bone shakers

PeterP

Early days though Peter, take your time, hitting the buses with a pass can bring great pleasure, but as in all things in life, you can end up on the wrong bus, at the wrong time, with the wrong folk, and end up stranded, not knowing where you are, so be careful, and take it one step at a time, and maybe not just yet.

But there is a smashing bus, which comes from Ashton and goes down Golborne Road towards Golborne and it ends up in Leigh, it actually starts off in Wigan, and Tom and his good lady wife caught it, when they went to hospital in Manchester, but a word of warning about that bus, and indeed all buses, and that is be careful at what times you catch the bus on school days, because that 610 from Wigan to Leigh via everywhere, also goes past about ten schools on route, and if you are on that bus between three and about half past four, it can be 'horrible' so if lets say you were in Leigh at about 2.45pm and you were thinking of catching the bus home, then my advice would be 'don't' and adopt a siege mentality, and hunker down in Leigh, until the kids have gone home, it's awful being on a bus when the schools kick out, and I think you can imagine why.

Technology,,,, it can do your head in, but it can come in handy, because on a decent phone, you can have the Bee Network app installed on it, and when waiting at a bus stop, it will show you on a map exactly where your bus is in real time, so no thinking if you have just missed the bus, or has it been taken off, you can see exactly shat the situation is, and I have a couple of taxi apps on my phone, an Uber app and a Veezu app, because you have probably heard of Uber, but Veezu have been buying up taxi companies from all of the country, in Wigan and Ashton Veezu are now called Britania taxis, but the app is in the name of the parent company, which is Veezu, and lets say you ended up in Hyde, and there was no bus back to Manchester, you could use your taxi app to call for a taxi, and the app tells you how much it would cost, and the fare is paid from your card, and if you confirm the booking you can see on a map where your taxi is, and you can even call and speak to the driver, all done through the app.
You can of course not do any of that, if you so wish, because it is a free country, you can do what you want to, you can just go and wait at the bus stop, it's up to you.

I much prefer using public transport, If i use my car My rule of thumb is, out after 10 am and home before 2pm, I'll go down in history as

Tutankhamun ( two till ten car man)

PeterP said, "Caught a bus ...... a couple of week ago 1st time in a year. Nowt's changed except the colour still bone shakers"

Tell us about it, Peter!
I haven't used a bus here for years, anyroadup, last week I used two in one day, Liverpool airport to St.Helens centre (No.89) (£2) followed by St.Helens centre to Ashton (No. 320) (£2).
What a terrible experience! You feel every bump (and there's many on these roads) and every stop shoots you forward as the brakes are too keen.
It was like being on the 'Mad Mouse' (Blackpool Fair) for an hour and a half.
The airport to St.Helens centre went through different council estates too, each one full of speed-humps, which didn't help matters. The 'Arriva' bus felt like, and sounded like, it was going to fall apart at any minute.
I'm entitled to bus passes for Greater Manchester and Merseyside but I'll tell you what, after that 'bus riding' experience, they can shove their 'passes' where a monkey shoves it's nuts!

Well I will second and third those remarks, but I think it is a question of 'age' and you can get used to anything, but as I have stated in a previous topic, I spent a few minutes repeatedly being launched off the back seat off a bus in Winstanley a few weeks back, as in the nobhead bus driver tried to make up time, by speeding over the speed bumps, and the bus was rattling away, so yes it is uncomfortable when the driver drives like that, because the buses of today are a lot faster than the buses of yesteryear, when the old Wigan Corpy, LUT bus drivers could hardly get a full bus up to 30mph, and he had to grind through the gears to get to that speed, but now any idiot with a right foot can be a bus driver, they just press the right pedal and the thing shoots off, and press the left pedal and it stops, and rather rapidly too, and that is why modern buses are full of those hanging bars, and other trapeze equipment, because when you get on or off a bus, yoo have to swing through the bus from bar to bar, like a monkey in the jungle, and it is those bars rattling which makes a speeding bus so noisy.

But I notice that the old uns on the bus, who obviously get buses all of the time never batted an eyelid at the roller coaster of a bus ride, and that is why I say I suppose you can get used too buses being driven like that now.

I don't know if I'm getting on the same buses as you because I've no complaints about the ride I've had on many buses, sure you get bumps but you don't feel a pot hole like you do in a car, the bus shrugs them off, I prefer buses and trains all day long to cars,

I can only put it down to the bus suspension. Maybe, when tomplum used the bus it was quite full, which meant it was carrying weight? A bus has to have suspension which is capable of carrying a fully loaded bus so, when there's only half a dozen folk on it, it's going to be very bumpy.
That said, you don't get that sort of treatment when you ride on a coach, do you?

And Maybe my standards of luxury are lower than others, Someone once said, " Tom ud ride on a shovel if someone would pull it" '
anyrode, the worst ride on public transport was, Wigan Bus station to Gatwick airport. one change over at Birmingham and one bus driver break. It took 7 hours in total, I chose it because it was cheap, £35 return for myself and Mrs Plum but,,,,,never again, I did't use the return half, I hired a car to return

The ride comfort will depend on the road conditions and driver pillockness, if yoo are on a route with a lot of speed bumps, then it is not going to be has comfortable a ride as on a route without speed bumps.
If your driver on any route is an absolute pillock, then you are to have an uncomfortable ride whatever the route, because the pillock will be harshly accelerating, braking and throwing the bus around, the worst combination is a speed bumpy route, with a pillock of a bus driver

The ride was not that bad it was when at a bus stop that all the bus seemed to rattle the most also being over 6ft tall not a lot of room between seats. I will get to know the best place to sit or even go upstairs and look at the journey from a different angle

This bus is the 610 but its from 2018 so there are things you'll see thats gone, Like the fields at rose hill

the bus that is going the wrong way

610 is 55 minutes from Leigh to Wigan, 608 is 35 mins, 609 is 37 mins.

Thats very interesting and informative Angel, thanks, We will take that in consideration for our next hospital visit to Manchester,

good for you Peter p. get out and about. you see the world differently by bus.

Kath normally I drive every where and like you say there are things that you miss whilst driving. I have the use of my son's car for a fortnight then mainly buses till my new car arrives back end of Oct may be Nov. Just getting used to using the car which is a manual I have been driving Automatic's for 8 years but its like riding a bike it all comes back to memory. Also no need to rush anywhere now so can afford to waste a few hours on buses let some one else do the driving

Angelwood


As to the journey to Leigh from Wigan, it just depends where you live, I live to the south of Wigan so the 610 is just the one bus from Goose Green to Leigh, it does go via everywhere, but if you are not in a hurry, then that is OK, the 608 and 609 are like you say quite a bit quicker from Wigan to Leigh, but for me to catch the 608 or 609 it would be another bus journey into Wigan, which incidentally I have done so several times before, but if I was PeterP I would consider jumping on the 320 in Stubshaw, and intercepting the 609 at Platt Wazz, the 609 Wigan to Leigh, goes via Lower Ince, Spring View, Platt Bridge, Bickershaw and into Leigh along Wigan Road and Plank Lane

If you are not in a rush the 610 is a pleasant ride? Also when you get to Leigh the George And Dragon is a nice cheap pub just at the side of the bus station.

Turned out for a bus just before 10-00(610to Leigh)went upstairs to have a birds eye view bit of a bouncy ride and plenty of sideways motion maybe the driver was avoiding the potholes. Had a bit of a walk round to areas I normally don't visit like the library (Barclays Local inside) top end of Lord Street and the post office. Got a bus home and got home about 1-00pm long enough has knees were aching . Next time out will aim for a longer time out and sit down or find a watering hole or cafe to break up the time and rest the legs

Peter. have you thought about taking a nice coach trip on a day's excursion somewhere nice?

Grayway are very reasonably priced and go to all sorts of places of interest. No hassle waiting for a bus there and back; comfortable seats; no driving and, usually, similarly aged people.

I've only been on one once, but it was wonderful, although I wouldn't recommend Haworth (Emmerdale) or Whitby as the streets there are extremely steep, and I don't think th'owd knees would thank you for it.

Mollie M not a bad idea . Memory Lane Coaches used to do day trips will look on line to see what there is thanks

You're very welcome, Peter. It'll get you out and about for a few hours and, instead of going to places alone, you'll have somebody to chat with as well.

Let us know if you do decide to take a trip, and where to.

Molly m I have booked for a day trip to Snowdonia and a ride on the Llanberis Railway. Could have not picked a better date because there is a pop concert on local to me on the same day so I can get away from the noise

Peter that's brilliant. Snowdonia is very beautiful, and I'm sure you'll enjoy your ride on the chuffer train.

Last time we went there was many years ago and we stayed in an pub/hotel called the Fairy Glen in Betws-y-Coed. We could see Mount Snowdon from there.

Good pick that Peter, Llanberis Railway is good and you will enjoy that day , its only about an hour from wigan and better by coach because parking is atroachuse and expensive ,

1 hour by coach from Wigan to Llanberis Tom?

Is Lando Norris driving it?

Don't forget the 20mph speed restrictions in Wales!

It took me over 2 hours the last time I went but there were five of us in the car.

The last time I went over the Llanberis pass, I got caught up in the annual Ironman competition, which I did not know was taking place, and it were horrible, I don't know why they had just not closed the road over the pass, until the cycling part of the competition had finished.

What does it matter how long it takes? Peter has booked a day away in comfort without his having the hassle of driving, with a change of scenery and, perhaps, getting to know new people. Some of you are so negative, ya curmudgeonly owd fogies! If you can't say summat nice, say nowt at all!

There's plenty of them in Scotman's Flash.