On a February Friday, I decided to travel to Sheffield from Manchester (via the airport) by bus. Recently, I would have been able to do this on the excellent Hulleys of Baslow X57 – The Snake – which for various reasons the company withdrew in January.
On the day that I was travelling, the Snake Pass was closed (and still is, several days later) owing to storm damage. Such closures (because of adverse weather) are not uncommon on this road, which may be a factor in Hulleys’ decision.
I had done some pre-planning for this trip, using both the Derbyshire County Council online bus maps and timetables, as well as the websites of bus companies High Peak and Hulleys. I started my journey from Manchester Oxford Road, on Stagecoach 43 direct to the airport (Fare: £3.50). The 43 runs every 10-12 minutes or so throughout the day and takes about an hour to get from central Manchester to the airport, through some challenging urban roads, often with parked vehicles along the single carriageways. At the airport, after a short break, I caught the High Peak 199 “Skyline” to Buxton. This service runs every 30 minutes to and from Buxton.
Unfortunately, the bus I caught was 20 minutes late, for reasons that soon became…
