Our Concepts
Express bus to Northampton
Express bus to Northampton
Our concept for a frequent express bus route to Northampton, providing a faster journey time to the town and the railway station.
Maybe the lowest capital cost option would be a new limited-stop express bus route to Northampton railway station and Northampton Northgate – the only stops being Daventry bus station, Northampton railway station approach road, and Northampton Northgate bus station.
In order to approach car-competitive journey times a bus route would require dedicated bus lanes in areas of congestion, likely requiring road-space reallocation in both Northampton and Daventry centres. Depending on the degree of modal shift achieved this could have a negative effect on the levels of road congestion.
Downsides ⬇️
There are clear downsides and upsides to this proposal. Most notably, buses attract fewer passengers away from the car than rail modes. Buses also cost more to maintain and operate in the medium-long term (for the same passenger/hour/direction capacity), even though initial capital costs are lower.
Financial viability 💸
This service would compete with existing stopping Stagecoach services from Daventry bus station to Northampton Bus Interchange reducing the patronage on existing services. If the new limited-stop service does not attract sufficient completely new bus users then there is a risk to the financial viability of both the new and existing bus services. This could pose challenges when attempting to attract an operator to provide the service.
Climate change and frequency 🥵
Unless electric buses are used for this bus route (meaning brand new vehicles will need to be purchased), it’s unlikely to meet national and regional climate change aims for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The buses would need to run on a frequent basis – perhaps every 20 minutes during peak times – to be used in addition to the existing (half-hourly) Stagecoach offering to Northampton via Weedon Bec.