Brackley's Baffling Bus Business (2)

Brackley was, in ancient times, served by an infrequent bus route from Northampton running on to Bicester and Oxford. The 338 offered four buses a day.

 

The label "fast" was a tad on the optimistic side.

Then about a decade ago the successor to those four journeys, the X6, was integrated into the 88. This 1940s map shows the old A43 in red.

The 88 provided a hourly frequency along the old A43 between Northampton, Towcester and Silverstone with an integrated hourly 89 route to Towcester and Milton Keynes. The still infrequent Brackley and Oxford journeys were labelled X88 ...

... with the whole lot half-heartedly marketed as "gold" hence the dramatic logo on the front of the bus above and the rear end map below!

This integration failed to save the Oxford trips from extinction and Stagecoach fizzled out at Silverstone where a "connection" was available with a tendered X88 ...

... completely ignored by the Northamptonshire publicity "machine". (of course, it was tendered by *xf*rdsh*r*!)

There were substantial protests and a strong local campaign and, much to everyone's shock and pleasure a brand "new" service was introduced every hour through to Silverstone as before, but extended every two hours to Brackley and on to Bicester where, of course, frequent buses ran on to Oxford.

Result!

But it didn't last. Tender money was, again, withdrawn, and Stagecoach retreated again to Silverstone with the odd peak journey pushed through to Brackley on Mondays to Fridays.

The most recent change has been to take the 88s away from their "traditional" villages along the old A43 (leaving the hourly 89) and run it via Northampton Station (good), Swan Valley and the new super A43 by-passing all the intervening localities.

Many readers may not be quite au fait with a Northampton district of Swan Valley.

The 88 runs via Sixfields ...

... serving a chunk of empty space and the Cobblers footy ground; then via Upton Way calling at more empty space.

Finally it does the rounds of more empty space plus loadsa warehouses at the Swan Valley industrial area ...

... before joining the "new"A43 and zooming almost non-stop into Towcester. In passing, note the brown smear towards to upper part of the aerial view.

Now that smear is Dragonfly Meadow (yes, really?) ...

... part of Pineham Grove. Coming soon:- Butterfly Gardens ...

... Pineham Lock (that's part of Hunsbury Meadows, of course) and Pineham North; not to mention Pineham Barns.

fbb can only assume that Stagecoach have availed themselves of a nice bulging bag of "Section 106" money to encourage them to take service 88 away from places with people and into a series of blasted heaths. This is a scheme whereby developers get planning permission if they agree to pay for bus services to their development. The money runs out (as, often, does the bus service) when all the people have moved in.

Amusing snippet. The Pineham development is on the south west fringes of Northampton, near the M1 services on the map below, bottom left.

Pineham Avenue is, confusingly, to the north of the town in greater Kingsthorpe and by that radio mast, top centre.

That is going to create some fun and frustration as folk search for their destination in the wrong place! Well done Northampton Borough Council road naming team!

But we digress. Tomorrow, eventually, we tackle the next stage in the Frayed Ends at Brackley.

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Another Snippet

No 3 son, who is working in Swtizerland for a few months, sent his old man a picture of this bus.

Could it be a possible reference to fbb and the vehicle's destination? Surely not!

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 Next Brackley blog - Thursday 19th October