The turn of the new year is a time for reflection on things past, so in this column, indulge me a little. I recently acquired a Northern bus timetable dated January 1949, a handy pocket-sized production of over 300 pages in very small type.
The UK experienced ‘peak bus’ around then before the decline set in, driven by the need for freedom after the privations of wartime, with cars unaffordable, domestic fridges a rarity, television yet to hypnotise the population into a languid stupor every evening, and homes lacking centrally-heated warmth. In 1949, people actually went out after dark!
What of the timetables? A joy of simplicity. Same routes, same running time, same frequency from six in the morning until gone 11 at night. The working week was five-and-a-half days, so no Saturday morning reduction and not a sign of a school day variation (although plenty of school extras as footnotes).
Such was the level of demand that the back cover pleaded with passengers not to travel in the peaks, and not to rely on catching the last bus. Not because it might fail to run, but because “the company cannot always promise to provide sufficient duplication.”
Even in those days of 2230hrs pub closing times, a last bus was typically around 2330hrs. On Saturday, there was even a 2330hrs from Tow Law across the Durham Moors to Consett.
That half day at work on Saturday meant precious leisure time for the rest of the day, and time to go out! So at around 1300hrs on Saturdays, frequencies exploded. 30 became 15, 15 became 10, etc., right through to the last bus, and pretty much the same on Sundays.
You just know that position brought with it scores of long weekend backshifts, which no doubt were all covered and probably with a few spares for duplication.
There were shortcomings in this utopia. No limited stop services on the whole patch – just all stops for everyone. Some early buses fed into trams at Heworth and Wrekenton, but you had to pay twice.
You had to go through hoops to get discounted fares or multi-journey tickets, and there was some inter-availability of bus and rail return tickets, but to use a return half of a rail ticket meant a lot of work for the bus conductor and no doubt traffic audit too!
But even so: Which bus operator of 2023 would not swap to 1949 given the chance?
