With my bus excursions almost every Friday, I have a small list of prospective routes ready to pad out on the fly.
Today, being a Thursday, was a bit of a last minute decision and the destination chosen was Rugby.
First job was to walk about half a mile to catch the first omnibus, the X12 to Birmingham International Station.
I arrived with about ten minutes wait when I was joined by a woman pushing what seems to be obligatory for the first free bus of the day, a wheeled shopping trolley. This particular one was topped with a kid’s organ – musical that is.
As I was checking my phone to see where the bus was, she noticed it and exclaimed that she had forgotten to pick hers up. “Should I go and get it?” She asked. “You’ve got seven minutes” I replied after checking the online timetable. “I only live over there”, she gesticulated, “if you’re not here when I get back, I missed the bus!” And off she went.
With time to spare, she reappeared, presumably reunited with her mobile.
It was then, looking at her musical cargo, that I asked if she would be playing it on the bus. “Nah” she explained, “I’ve taken the batteries out”. She then told me that it was heading for the charity shop. The last trip with no longer wanted toys involved a bag of teddy bears. She went on to explain that a child on that bus spotted the bears and was rewarded with one to keep. Quickly word got out and my companion ended up handing out bears to all the toddlers on the bus.
Shortly after the X12 arrived whisking me off the Birmingham International.
At International, which is a bus / rail / air interchange, I didn’t have much interchanging to do; I didn’t even have to change bus stops as the X1 to Coventry rolled up about five minutes later.
During my short wait, I did notice that there are toilets almost adjacent.
Toilets are an important aspect of bus travel, especially for those who qualify for an older persons’ bus pass – especially if on water tablets !
I have been making a mental note of those bus stations with the necessary facilities. International, Wolverhampton and Lichfield feature towards the top of the list. Travelling through Birmingham means nipping into Wetherspoons.
PLANNING
I use a number of tools to plan my excursions.
Often, I’ll just pick somewhere on the map (Google Maps) then employ an app called Moovit to plan the individual parts. Moovit is also used during the journey.
A recent addition to the toolbox is a website called BusTimes. This useful site allows you to search for a place and then tells you all the bus services from that place.
The National Express service arrived on time and headed off to the A45. The bus from Birmingham to Coventry used to be the 900 (I seem to recall) but has been redesignated an X meaning that it is an express route. It’s been a while since I’ve done this trip so can’t really say if it’s any quicker or not. However, it didn’t take too long before rolling into Coventry’s Pool Meadow bus station.
I had time to check out the facilities (another entry on the list) and grab some provisions from a little newsagent.
Checking on Moovit, I saw that the next bus to Rugby would be the 86 departing from outside of the Transport Museum just a couple of minutes walk away under the magnificent Whittle Arch.
This imposing structure was constructed to commemorate Frank Whittle, who was born in Coventry and invented the turbojet engine. There’s a statue of Frank beneath the sixty metre span whom I passed on my way to the bus stop.
Within five minutes, a small, single decker pulled up and on I climbed scanning my pass and picking a seat which should give me a good view.
A lot of the buses that I ride on my wayward excursions are small , single-decker affairs and I try to sit where I’ve circled that lady. Sitting on the left allows me to operate my phone with my right hand; I get a good view as this seat is slightly elevated over the rear wheel arch and, I can photograph road signs without having to shoot across the bus.
The 86 made its way out of Coventry stopping outside of The Binley Mega Chippy. This uninspiring chippy was, about three years ago, somewhat of a social media sensation with people travelling from, literally, around the world for a bag of chips.
The roads were blocked by the crowds and there was even a song – I shit thee not !
Either the chips failed to live up to the hype or, more likely, the TicTokers have moved on to something else.
Our bus made it’s way through Binley and Binley Woods, nipping in and out of settlements as it wound it’s way to Rugby arriving about fifty minutes after leaving Mr. Whittle behind.
I half remembered a shop on the road into Rugby from many years ago and I kept an eye out to see if was still there – it was.
With batch being the local name for a bread roll (Rugby and Coventry area) I can understand why Arnie would christen his shop as he did but I feel that he missed a trick – why not … Arnie’s Sarnies ?
On the subject of sandwich shops, probably the best that I’ve seen was Baguetty Junction in Cardiff.
I left the bus a stop or two past Arnie’s and went in search of Adventure Lab caches.
In 2015, the celebrate the Rugby World Cup being held in England, five giant rugby balls were installed around the town. My AdLab was questions based at each of these balls.
2023 was the two hundredth anniversary of that fateful day when William Webb Ellis picked up the ball during a footy game and ‘invented’ rugby.
Now, if that happened today, surely it would have been a yellow card and a free kick. Where was the ref.? Did they check the VAR ?
With all the locations visited, I checked Moovit to find the next bus for home.
This time it was the 85 back to Coventry.
This service went back by a slightly different route passing Brinklow, Combe Abbey and what used to be Walsgrave Hospital (now University Hospital Coventry and Warwick).
I only mention Walsgrave (sorry UHCW) as this is where my other half did her nurse training whilst living in the Nurses’ home before getting a bed-sit in Coventry for her final year.
Back at Pool Meadow (Coventry Bus Station) I had a short wait before boarding the X1 back to International and then a local bus back home.