219 - It Is Fine! (5)

Sprotting Stops In Spotborough

Historically, the village of Sprotborough existed to support the posh folk of Sprotborough Hall.

The Hall has long gone, its driveway replaced by a road called Park Drive, still with an extended estate lodge on the Melton Road ...

... and ribboned with posh housing ...

... until you get to the original village itself, where, presumably, some of the Hall's staff would be domiciled. The buses don't go that way. From Doncaster they continue along Melton Road to the Ivanhoe (restaurant and B & B) ...

... where be stops, and a shelter for Doncaster bound passengers. 

If you were a service 49, you would turn left here and trundle down Thorpe Lane to the church ...

... where you would hang a right and find stops on both sides of Main Street.

There are stops again further along Main Street ...

... where the 49 turn right onto New Lane. There are stops at the end, just before you are back on Melton Road.

The 49 turns right, having completed the "loop" and hies its way happily back to Doncaster. The Travel South Yorkshire bus map shows the 49 clearly but lacks a directional arrow.

If you are a daytime 219 (or even a 219A) you would eschew the village and keep straight on via the Melton Road. 

BUT, if you were an early morning, evening or Sunday 219 (etc.) you would follow the 49 route via the church and Main Street to the top of New Lane but turn left and press on westwards to Barnsley. Here is a street map which may help.

We have seen stops on both sides of the road, so you would expect buses TO Doncaster to use the same route, but in the opposite direction.

Don't be foolish dear innocent reader; this is UK Public Transport, where logic never fully extends its influence to what actually happens.

Early morning, evening and Sunday 219s continue along Melton Road past New Lane, turn RIGHT into Thorpe Lane, then via Main Street and New Lane in the path of the 49, before turning RIGHT and traversing a bit of Melton Road a second time on its way to Doncaster.

There is an historic logic in this as it ensures hat buses TO Doncaster always leave from the same stops in Sprotborough village. Kevin Tennent doesn't quite understand that this does not happen all the time.

So here is my view of what a better, more direct, easier-to-follow route might look like. It cuts off the round-the-houses in Thurnscoe off, and the doubling back in Great Houghton, as well as the needless Sprotbrough loop, where the bus goes down the same road twice!

Maybe when the 49 ran half hourly and the 219 also ran half hourly there was a competitive desire to snaffle as many of the few Sprotborough village passengers as possible; hence the cunning plan of running buses round in circles. 

Now the 49 is reduced to almost nothingness and the 219 is just hourly, you do wonder whether this is the most helpful way. At no time will both routes be operating together and a few sticky labels on the bus stop flags would sort it all out.

Then there is the one bus a day via Cadeby.

Logic dictates that it, too, should loop the loop at Sprotborough on the way TO Doncaster.

But it doesn't.

It runs straight along Main Street, turns left up Thorpe Lane and tight into Melton Road calling at stops opposite those used for every other journey of the 219 going to Doncaster.

Confused.com!

Which Leaves The 219A, Eh?

Here are the 219 stops as shown on the fully detailed Traveline timetable.

And here are the 219A stops for the same stretch of the route.

They are 99.9% identical - please feel free to look at Traveling and double check.

The only difference is that an extra stop is shown on Houghton Road for the 0628 from Darfield. The additional stop is called Houghton Road Thornley Crescent.

Its is one of two stops used by buses that do NOT serve the estate at Merrill Road.

You might jump to the erroneous conclusion that 219A label is used to designate buses that don't go via Merrill Road.

But, sadly, only the 0610 from Barnsley doesn't and the 0750 and 0850 do - but are still numbered 219A.

And there is NO Thornley Crescent in Thurnscoe.

Aaaaaaagh!

 Next Variety Blog : Saturday 30th April