NEW WOLD ORDER
Local buses can now take you and your bike to the Yorkshire Wolds. Our man in Wetwang reports...
“The X46 whisks you – well, like one of your Kenwood Chef’s slower settings – along the edge of the Wolds”
Bikes on local buses is something I usually associate with ‘abroad’. I did it in Slovakia last year, pushed for time in the Tatras. My laden tourer blocked the aisle, but everyone just clambered around it without objection. Communism may have produced terrible pop music, but it bred more accommodating bus passengers. Couldn’t do that in Britain!
Actually, you can. I’m not talking inter-city coaches (National Express, and Stagecoach in Scotland, sometimes take bikes in the hold if bagged; the Oxford Tube to London does similar, unbagged). I’m talking scheduled local services, with bikes wheeled on.
The benefits for utility and mild-leisure cyclists are enticing, especially in places asset-stripped of railways in the 1960s. Ride one way with the tailwind, bus the other. Cut out the nasty main road on a family ride. Bail out if the weather turns, a mechanical strikes, or you stop to help someone out, such as locals running a community pub who urgently need your business.
A few British services welcome bikes. The X62 Edinburgh–Galashiels; X95 Carlisle–Edinburgh; the 253 Berwick–Edinburgh; the X70/X71 Consett– Newcastle. Now add to them the X46 EastRider between York and Hull.
If that doesn’t race your pulse, it should. The X46 whisks you – well, like one of your Kenwood Chef’s slower settings – along the edge of the Wolds, a delightful and underrated road-bike playground. It’s a compact labyrinth of dry valleys, scooped out by ancient glaciers. Even the place-names are eye-catching: Wetwang, Spittal, Thwing, Kilham. What’s the best way to Kilham? Swat them with an OS map.
Now, thanks to the X46 (generous walk-on space for two bikes, no booking needed, free, plus tables, wifi and USB charging points...), you can explore the Wolds from York or Hull at leisure. Market Weighton, for instance, has a life-size statue of William Bradley, England’s tallest-ever man who stood 7’9”. Kiplingcotes has the ‘course’ of Britain’s oldest horse race, running since 1519: it’s roads and bridleways, so you can cycle it all.
Intimate little climbs and descents, and straightline roller-coasters, are everywhere, such as the Roman Road, which beelines from York to Bridlington over the Wolds, via Garrowby Hill (a Tour de Yorkshire Côte) and various bridleways. I gravel-biked it, bus-assisted, the other day. Scenic and timeless enough, but for extra atmosphere I ate only food the Romans would recognise. Breakfast was porridge, figs, pears, eggs and cheese, though I passed on bread dipped in wine. Lunch was salad and pork sausages – authentic, but not as authentic as ostrich steaks, flamingo breasts or roast dormice, though they proved unavailable in Waitrose.
As the bus beckoned, the crucial post-ride question was: wine (the cultured choice for Romans) or beer (considered the swill of barbarian, primitive, tattooed Brits)? So I had two pints of IPA. Then remembered the bus had no toilet.
Anyway, East Yorkshire Buses are doing us a big favour. In a commercial and social-media atmosphere that’s usually hostile to cyclists, they’ve invested in active travel, in more people using buses and bikes. Not just day-riders doing the Market Weighton to Beverley railtrail, but commuters who work a bike ride away from the bus station, regular hospital-trippers, bus-pass cyclists keeping enjoyably mobile, and so on.
My bus pass may be way off, but I’m utilising the X46 and many others should do too. If it succeeds, it will encourage other transport operators round Britain to do similar. Let’s hope there’s another one along in a minute.