During the Pandemic, it’s often been the case that we’ve stayed local and travelled little to avoid potentially spreading the virus and any other illnesses we might have to others. For the last several months in the UK however, COVID-19 infection levels have remained stubbornly high but fairly stable, with deaths and hospitalisations following a similar pattern.
We have taken to visiting family a little more following the easing of restrictions, and a few weeks ago whilst en route to Leeds to visit my folks, we were in traffic behind the Coastliner Bus, the 843, which travels between Scarborough and Leeds & vice versa (or “the Big Blue Bus to Grandmas” as Joseph and I call it) and noticed the digital screen on the rear advertised an offer – “from anywhere to anywhere £1 after 7pm”. I wondered out loud to Sarah “does that mean I can travel from Scarborough to Leeds after 7pm for £1?” and after reading the appropriate page of the Coastliner website, discovered that I could indeed. It sounded like a great silly experiment to do (I’m easily amused and a cheap date; you’ll know this if you’ve read any of my previous posts, dear reader) and so following the obligatory eye rolls from Sarah, and despite the nearly 3 hour anticipated journey time, I decided it was on.
My Dad is in the process of clearing out the loft at their Leeds home, resulting in several boxes of my old childhood toys seeing the light of day, in some cases, for the first time in 20-30 years. Joseph has been exploring the loft’s contents during his stays with my folks over the various school holidays in the last year and has already liberated (and promptly destroyed) a number of toys including my Real Ghostbusters Ecto-1; I decided that to continue my minimalist bent, rather than hoarding them, I would sort through the boxes and my Dad kindly agreed sell on eBay those items which were worth listing, with the remaining being donated or simply thrown away if in poor condition. It seemed like a good excuse to tie-in the loft raid with my bus trip!
Having kissed Joseph & Sarah goodnight, I left the house a little after 19:10 on Friday 19th November 2021 to make my way to the bus stop from where I could catch the 843; it’s only a few minutes from our house meaning that it’s convenient to get on & off the bus when making the trip. I’m shortly joined by two other gentlemen waiting for the bus, one of whom is extremely inebriated, holding his can of Carlsberg Special Brew in one hand and his phone in the other, barely able to stand and using the bus stop post as a prop to prevent hugging the pavement. It’s only a few minutes wait until the 843 arrives at 19:29; the bus driver rebukes the gentleman for trying to bring his beer aboard (he promptly abandons the can on the ground – litterbug) and I stand well clear of him to avoid softening his fall should he lose what little stability he has left. Luckily, our worse-for-wear friend is only going to Seamer just a few stops away, for which the driver charges him £2.20, making me fear that the rumoured £1 fare to leeds might be too good to be true.
I hop aboard and ask the driver if the rumours are indeed true – he professes to having forgotten about the offer, but after a few key presses on his computer, asks where I’d like to go for my £1. When my response is “Leeds, please”, the driver is somewhat dumbfounded. “Leeds?! Is that just because you can?”. I reassure him that my parents live in Leeds and will be collecting me from the bus station and he’s then satisfied that I’m not a (complete) nutjob. I pay my fare and take my seat on the lower deck in the middle of the bus.
I’ve recently bought some wireless Beats Studio Buds earphones from Amazon when they were on offer, as unfortunately my cheap Aukey wireless earphones (also bought from Amazon for £15) either keep dropping signal or not charging properly in their case (Joseph has since pinched these). As the Beats were cheaper than Apple’s other branded earphones EarPods at the time I bought them and came with a free 6 month Apple Music subscription worth £60, even though they were still expensive at £120, I was satisfied they were a good choice. I connect my iPhone to the free onboard WiFi and listen to the soundtrack from the film “The Crow”, lovely & warm inside my Big Red Hiking Hood & sharing the bus with only one other passenger between Scarborough’s outskirts and Malton. It takes a good 45 minutes to reach Malton, just 20 miles or so away from Scarborough.
The Coastliner depot is at Malton, where we have a brief stop-off for a driver change. The first driver, now departing, gives me the thumbs-up as he disembarks and comments on how it’s a great value trip to take. He hands me over to the new driver and we’re away again, now with just me aboard. Sections of the main route down the A64 are closed, but the driver is seemingly ploughing on nonetheless. We reach the road barrier for the closure, where we pull over and the bus engine is turned off. The driver lets me know we’re just waiting for a Highways Agency escort to meet us and take us safely down the closed section, as there are people working on the road overnight. I’m informed this might be as long as a 20 minute delay, but the escort arrives within 5 and we’re underway again. The plod down the closed section takes only a short while, even at 20mph or less, before we’re through the barrier at the end of the closure and turn a hard left through the outlying villages of York.
As we draw closer to the city, and what will be more than half of the journey distance, more passengers join me aboard. By this time, it’s a little after 9pm and there are young folk travelling into the city centre for their Friday night out; it makes me feel old to see my greying reflection in the windows I stare through, serving as a stark reminder that it’s now more than 20 years since I joined Rick, H & Gav at our student gaff on Calton Street in Huddersfield to sit the final year of the LL.B. The time seems to have passed by in a flash and I honestly struggle to recall where it has all seemingly gone to.
It’s a short while before we’re back in familiar territory after a stop at Tadcaster, steaming towards the junction where the A64 meets the M1 and where Sarah, Joseph and I would normally exit. The 843 stays on the A64 however, travelling the old main route into Leeds via Seacroft & Killingbeck, glimpses of the ever taller Leeds skyline peeking out over the horizon. It’s a little after 10pm at this point, and I have to be careful not to look at my phone screen too much, as the bumpy roads are making me feel a little queasy; I’m fine as long as my glance is to the city outside the window. There are quite a few more stops at this point for local traffic, and we finally pull into the Leeds City Bus Station shortly before 22:30 to the tune of “Just like Tiger Woods” by Steel Panther. I thank the driver for one of the best £1 I’ve ever spent and hop off to find my folks waiting for me nearby. Dad’s recently had both his flu and COVID booster jab and is feeling a little under the weather – he’s driving wearing his clothes, bathrobe and his coat! It’s a short trip to my folks place, where after an hour or so of stuffing myself with the treats that Mum’s bought for me or baked, we hit the sack.
It did indeed take a little under 3 hours to reach Leeds, but to be honest, there’s simply no other way of making the journey so cheaply. Even if I walked it on the White Rose Way, I’d need gear, food, drink, lodgings etc. which you simply couldn’t obtain for such a small fee and the journey would take several days to a week. Unfortunately, my plan to take the same trip in reverse the following day was scuppered owing to the fact that the return journeys all terminate at Malton and whilst there might be just one train available to Scarborough after my arrival, my folks insisted in taking me back home to avoid my missing the connection and I paid them for the fuel.
I’d happily take the bus again in future, as the time seemed to pass quite quickly and it was comfortable & warm enough. In all fairness, you can’t really go wrong for £1!
Big Red Hiking Hood 