Cotswold Lament

After posting and commenting on the photo of N951 NAP at Bibury, I have been reflecting on the group of routes that this bus regularly used to operate. These routes all passed through what most would consider the touristy parts of the Cotswolds.

I have already alluded to the 860 between Cirencester and Bibury (extending to Aldsworth at peak times) but this route was attached to route 864 (Yanworth to Cirencester) and route 866 (Southrop to Cirencester).

All three routes made a full weeks work for one vehicle and one driver and all were lost in November 2011. We were not so careless as to lose the bus or driver, both of which have been redeployed!

The tender for these routes was the first won by the recently formed Cotswold Green Ltd in January 2007 (not the first operated as most of our work was acquired with the business of Ebley Bus Ltd), they were also the first routes that I had won for Ebley Bus! I had also managed these routes for Stagecoach during my stint as Operations Manager at Stagecoach in the Cotswolds! Just to add to to the above, I also drove the predecessors to these routes in the early 1990's in the very early stages of my career!

During the early days, operating the route for Ebley Bus, I would drive these routes at least once per week. You get to know all of your regular passengers by name and they, in turn, get to know you. In a not so rare moment of reflection, I remember those regular passengers who passed away during my association with these routes and how especially on the 864 and 866, where the same people travelled most days, you really could feel the sense of loss. It also could really change the feel of the service when it was one of the more dominant characters that had passed on.

These services acted not only as a means of transport but as a mobile social centres allowing people who, as it seemed to me, would not normally associate with each other to meet! The advent of free travel for the elderly broadened the circle a little but thankfully did not change the atmosphere.

It may be a cliche, but you really can feel a part of the communities that you serve!

In the last weeks of our operation of these routes I made sure that I would have one last opportunity to drive them and it was comforting that I was not only recognised but that many still remembered my name!