Route 89 (Doncaster) (Read 1,040 times)

[humberside]

Can anyone tell what route service 89 (Doncaster-Bessacarr) used to take and when it ended. Thanks

[Tom B]

The 89 began in, I think, 1987 as the M89.

The route was

DONCASTER, Southern Bus Station - Waterdale - Regent Square - Bennethorpe - Bawtry Road - Ellers Road - Ellers Drive - Boswell Road - Stoops Road - Alston Road - Broughton Road - Stoops Lane - West Bessacarr Bus Turning Circle - Bessacarr Lane - Checkstone Avenue - Dunniwood Avenue - Bawtry Road - Plumpton Park Road - Goodison Boulevarde - Packington Road - Warning Tounge Lane - Gleneagles Drive - Muirfield Avenue - Sunningdale Close - Warning Tounge Lane to terminate over the railway bridge at BESSACARR GRANGE, Turning Circle.

However in 2001 it was cut back to Muirfield Avenue, as the railway bridge was weak and only Dennis Darts and Optare Metroriders could safely pass accross. So they could use Fleetlines, Atlanteans and Olympians on a timetabled basis, the route was revised to not serve the bridge. For the next few years you were as likely to see an Atlantean as a Metrorider, which was great fun on some the roads - the route is not suited for anything that's bigger than a Dart really.

It finished on Saturday 4th September 2004.

[humberside]

Thanks for that

[Tom B]

I have some more information - a 1997 timetable - in PDF form back in Doncaster which I'll send you when I'm next down there if you like.

This shows, ISTR, that the route once included a loop round Herten Way (pre-75 I imagine) and an hour's break at midday (teabreak).

Having thought about it more, initially it was worked with 1 Leon bus and 1 Mainline bus, generally an E reg Eagre Beaver. At some point, 1994ish, the Eagre Beavers were withdrawn and the route reverted to hourly. Around 1997 Leon put an extra bus on to give a half hour headway, excepting an hour near lunch.

Another memory was in 1996 when they resurfaced a lot of West Bessacarr - in true Leon style, the drivers simply drove over the pavement and grass verges!

The route tended to get very busy in the peaks, both people using it in preference to First (much cheaper even then) as well as those who were on a unique section of route (Boswell Road, Checkstone Avenue, Bessacarr Grange). With the absence of any school bus to Bessacarr from town it generally took loads of schoolchildren. In addition to this, the 0910 from Bessacarr was often packed out, being OAP time. Usually that trip was worked by an Olympian. In later years there were Olympians on around lunchtime (presumably covering breaks of the regular Metroriders) and for the last two trips of the day, presumably after a school run. However due to the big buses being on school runs, the peak hour services were always Metroriders - I'm quite sure they often got over capacity. Saturdays and School Holidays always saw a very mixed bag of allocations - often deckers, occasionally the Lynx with every so often a Metrorider! I think they wanted to put the schools fleet to some use over the long summer break.

To be honest I think the route was viable - it was heavily used at many times, it would have been used more if it wasn't run unreliably, however again the age old problem with MASS with money going missing raised it's head.