Hulleys unrealistic Breezer service

[joseph]

Hulleys have launched an open top service from Baslow to Castleton, however reports on other forums are saying timings are totally unrealistic with one report of a journey finishing in Castleton at a time when it should have been arriving in Baslow from it's return journey! Personally, I'd have simply used this bus for a shuttle every 90 mins between Chatsworth House and Matlock station as Chatsworth isn't well connected to Derby surprisingly without having to mess about with the very limited 217 or a change in Bakewell/Chesterfield which isn't guaranteed to connect. The direct road down to Matlock however could be an issue so it would have to divert via Bakewell, hence the 90 minute frequency.

[dwarfer1979]

Hulleys have a reputation recently of using very tight running times on their new services in recent years, they introduced an extension from Bakewell to Buxton a year or two ago with timings that I couldn't even match using Google Maps for car speeds and I understand this one isn't far off that either, which for an open top route is completely ridiculous as they should be scheduled slower than a normal bus not faster. As I understand it a route similar to this, whether it was anticipated to be open top or not and whether it was this precise route I'm not sure, was part of the Derbyshire BSIP plan so there is a structural reason behind this route though I'm not sure Hulleys are doing this iteration with council funding - it may have been wiser to secure DCC assistance to have sufficient resource to make the timetable work.

An hourly service from Matlock to Chatsworth would be easy (25-mins each way is realistic), even for an open topper, most of the route is down the A6 & the section around the Chatsworth Estate to get to the main stop has historically seen regular double-deck use so shouldn't have any issues but isn't that scenic so the extra issues around open toppers would probably not be worth it. The links to Chatsworth from the south have never been great, it has always been more focussed on the Sheffield end which has now concentrated on running to/from Bakewell rather than alternating with Matlock (which has other links to Sheffield via Chesterfield so the market is smaller for that flow).

[stephen01]

May 29, 2023 5:49:04 GMT 1 joseph said:

Hulleys have launched an open top service from Baslow to Castleton, however reports on other forums are saying timings are totally unrealistic with one report of a journey finishing in Castleton at a time when it should have been arriving in Baslow from it's return journey! Personally, I'd have simply used this bus for a shuttle every 90 mins between Chatsworth House and Matlock station as Chatsworth isn't well connected to Derby surprisingly without having to mess about with the very limited 217 or a change in Bakewell/Chesterfield which isn't guaranteed to connect. The direct road down to Matlock however could be an issue so it would have to divert via Bakewell, hence the 90 minute frequency.

From what i've seen on twitter it's allegedly the idea of a certain 18 yr old enthusiast of theirs (same person who obssess over the original Snake Pass route). However, this doesn't seem to be the original route hinted at last year by the company.