An Angus teenager has used just local bus services to travel 600 miles to Westminster.
Hamish Fraser, 19, set out on his epic trip – using 22 buses – to find out how reliable services are across the UK.
The Dundee University politics student was on the road for 42 hours after leaving his hometown of Montrose.
The only rule was that the buses could not be booked in advance.
Hamish told The Courier: “I have been thinking about doing it for a while.
“I’ve been doing a lot of things relating to the reliability of buses across the UK compared to Angus, which I have been working on in my role as a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament.
“I know how difficult transport is here so I had the idea to go on a long bus journey just to compare what it’s like.
“The only reason I decided to go to Westminster is because it’s somewhere everyone knows.
“We may feel we’re a bit far away from Westminster. It was quite symbolic in a way.”
22 buses and £2 capped fares
Taking advantage of his Young Scot Card, the journey through Scotland – which took Hamish from Montrose to Dundee, then on to Edinburgh and to the border at Berwick – was free.
Hamish then took buses from Berwick to Newcastle, Durham and then Darlington – which cost him £5.40 in total using a north-east day ticket.
He stayed the night in Darlington before setting off for his second day of travel.
That took him through the English towns and cities of Northallerton, Thirsk, York, Leeds, Pontefract, Barnsley, Chesterfield and Derby, before an overnight stop in Leicester – after 16 hours on the road.
His final day’s travel took him from Leicester to Northampton, Milton Keynes, Luton and Watford before he reached London at Edgeware station.
He then used London buses to get to Baker Street and, finally, Westminster.
The total outlay on travel was just £34.90 – more than half the cost of the cheapest advanced train fare between Montrose and London available this week, but taking two days longer.
The journey was abut 600 miles long due to the route Hamish took – a direct journey is about 500 miles.
Driver’s three-point turn after missing stop
He said: “It was all planned out before I started the journey and there were a few problems along the way – but nothing that really hampered my plans.
“The biggest issue was on a bus in Yorkshire when the driver did a three-point turn and travelled back 15 minutes to go to a stop he had missed out.”
Other bus enthusiasts have completed similar trips in England in recent weeks, including Andrew Cowell – who went from Derby to Cornwall using local services.
It comes as dozens of operators in England are taking part in a government-funded scheme where fares are capped at £2.
Hamish added: “Britain still has a usable bus network – it might be unreliable at times but it can certainly get you where you want to go.
“While I only used some of Britain’s buses to get from Montrose to Westminster, I saw many towns and cities across England that I had never been in before.
“I made conversation with countless surprised passengers and drivers and had a thoroughly good experience travelling through places, rather than just between them.”
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