Trip to Ellesmere and Oswestry 26-10-2009

Bus	From	To	Service	Operator
MX58 AAU	Ellesmere, Cross Street	Burlton	501	Bryn Melyn
PIL 9338	Burlton	Ellesmere, Cross Street	501	Bryn Melyn
2370	Oswestry BS	Whittington	70	Arriva Midlands

Matthew had seen the #501 in Shrewsbury on the previous trip out, and indicated he wanted to catch this service. So as promised, we took him to Ellesmere to ride on and photograph this service. The plan was to have a quick out and back journey on the #501 Ellesmere - Shrewsbury, and then to do the Tanat service #449 to Oswestry. We drove to Ellesmere, and we had dinner at a chip shop on the high street that has a few tables (a helpful map in the main car park helped us find this!). After dinner, we strolled up to the main bus stop, which is Ellesmere's equivalent of a bus station. I consulted the timetable as printed off from Traveline, and worked that we could do the 13:40 to Marton, for a 5 minute wait for the 13:50 off Shrewsbury. I made the assumption we could do the #449 after that. The bus down was the new low floor Optare. Having spoken to the driver he recommended that we got off at Burlton, (A small village on a crossroads where the bus turned) also the return ticket was 70p cheaper! We had about a 15 minute wait in a bus shelter that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere! The return bus was an older Optare single decker. We arrived back at Ellesmere to see the #449 pull off after about 45 Seconds (We should have run for it!). Consulting the #449 timetable, I realised that unless we stayed around for two hours, we couldn't catch this bus...

We decided to drive into Oswestry, and see if there was any other bus that he could catch. The plan was that mum would go with him on the bus and I would travel behind in the car (the Mrs tells me off for calling it the support vehicle) and then pick them up to go home. We saw another Tanat bus which we nearly did (D71), and he identified another service which he wants to catch in the future. It was at this point I realised that I did not have my mobile phone, so we had to make a firm decision as to what we were doing! In the end he had to settle for the #70 the Shrewsbury, which they caught as far as Whittington (a move that we had done previously). Having picked up Matty and mum, we went home...

A good little trip out in fine autumn weather, shame I didn't research the #449 service properly...

(Mark)


Optare bus MX58 AAU sits in Cross Street, Ellesmere awaiting time before working 13:40 #501 to Shrewsbury. (Matt)


Bryn Melyn Optare bus PIL 9338 at Ellesmere on the #501 from Shrewsbury shortly after arrival. (Matt)


One that got away... Tanat 249 on the 13:30 449 to Oswestry. (Matt)


Arriva Midlands 2370 on the #70 to Shrewsbury taken at Oswestry. (Mark)