Kingsbridge Vintage Bus Running Day is back this weekend, with more buses and more routes for their 10th year.

Event organisers, the Thames Valley and Great Western Omnibus Trust, have been able to attract more entrants and have expanded the route network to celebrate reaching this milestone of a decade.

All services are free and there is no limit to the number of journeys you can take during the day. From the buses you will be able to see sights not possible from a car as you drive down the Devon lanes with high banks and hedgerows.

Since the first Vintage Bus Running Day in 2008, the event has grown in popularity every year and has become established in the Kingsbridge calendar on the third Saturday in September. Last year 6,000 passenger journeys were made on the 38 buses in service on 22 different routes.

This year a record 46 vintage buses are expected, so that extra departures are being scheduled in response to the demand experienced last year. On the most popular routes there will be duplicate vehicles giving the opportunity to change vehicles at the outer terminus.

Colin Billington, organiser, said: “This year there will be shorter workings to Frogmore and Aveton Gifford both giving spectacular views over the Kingsbridge Estuary.

“There will be morning and afternoon tours to Blackpool Sands using two luxury coaches with a short stay to enjoy the scenery and give time for refreshments or a walk along the beach.

“To plan your day, programmes are available now from Kingsbridge Information Centre for £6, or can be purchased in the bus station on the day from 8am.

“The programmes contain full details of the routes, timetables, the buses expected to attend and the journeys being carried out by each vehicle during the day together with illustrated features, this year on the transition from the horse-drawn stagecoach era to the motor bus in the early 1900s, based on newspaper reports from the archives of the Cookworthy Museum.

“Programme sales will help to defray the organiser’s costs and provide much needed funds for its charitable activities so please support the trust by buying one.”

The event will start at 10am and end at approximately 5.30pm with all services leaving from and returning to the bus station on the Quay. Early morning feeder services leaving Plymouth at 8.30am and Totnes at 8.40am, 9.20am and 9.40am will enable residents and visitors from there to travel by vintage bus to enjoy a full day out.

Return services will run during the day and later in the afternoon, the last leaving Kingsbridge at 5.30pm for Totnes.

Colin, who has a home near Loddiswell where he keeps his collection of vintage buses, continued: “We are ready to welcome vintage buses from as far afield as Sussex, Maidenhead, Coventry, Herefordshire and Penzance all coming to Kingsbridge at their owners’ expense for the experience of using them on the original routes on which they would have run.

“We are very grateful for the backing of our principal sponsor, Kingsbridge’s own Tally Ho Coaches, who are supporting us in many ways behind the scenes. We are also grateful to the other bus companies and local advertisers who have continued to sponsor our event again this year.

“All of the roads we are using are former or current bus routes so we would ask other road users to recognise the age and speed of our vehicles and kindly make way for them when they see them coming in the opposite direction.”

Buses and coaches, ranging from 1930s single deckers and traditional double deckers to a 1990s minibus, will operate services on routes radiating from the Bus Station to coastal villages on both sides of the Kingsbridge Estuary.

Plymouth Citybus’s popular vintage Leyland open top bus is returning this year and will operate on services to Slapton and Salcombe. The oldest bus in service is over 80 years old. All vehicles are subjected to rigorous safety checks prior to the event. Vehicles are provided from the trust’s collection and by individual owners who have lovingly restored them to their former glory and who are making them available for the event at their own cost.

For the 10th year the organisers have incorporated all of the routes used in previous years. Some of the routes date back to the earliest days of motor buses where services in the South Hams were started by the Great Western Railway in 1909, both for local travel and as feeders to the branch line from Kingsbridge to the main line at Brent.

Services will revive routes to Salcombe, Bantham, Thurlestone, Hope, Sherford and South Pool, Beesands and East Portlemouth, Slapton, Blackawton, East Allington, Totnes, Loddiswell and California Cross, Goveton, Modbury and Bigbury-on-Sea.

A special feature of this event is the use of small country buses designed to safely negotiate the narrow lanes of the South Hams. From the comfort of a seat on the bus, passengers will be able to enjoy travel at the leisurely pace of days past and the beautiful scenery.

For more information, call 07990 505373 or email: [email protected]