Bus hire -v- cab hire

Initial problems (I'm sure soneone else will amplify....)

1. For that distance, if private hire (unlike in preservation) both driver and vehicle would have to comply with EEC regulations. So it's a tachograph-fitted vehicle and a driver who's tachograph trained. Complusory breaks, including one of at least 45 mins for that distance.

2. If you're taling about a bus (not a coach) all recent vehicles have to be delivered with a maximum speed of 50mph: even before that most responsible operators insisted on it anyway. On single carriageways the legal limit is 50mph for buses anyway.

Obviously you specify bus not coach - - for many operators a coach would be considerably cheaper than a bus, but your post clearly has a reason behind it .

As a rough guess, my first thought was somewhere in the region of 4 hours - bear in mind that coaches have a limiter set at 100 Km/h (62 mph) and have slower acceleration from a stand than a car. National Express coaches from London to Sheffield are timed at around 4 hours which will include some intermediate stops.

What you're suggesting should be within an EU hours (tachograph rules) day, which allows a maximum of 9 or 10 hours' driving a day, and maximum of 4.5 hours driving in one stretch. (personally, as a passenger, I'd prefer a short break in such a journey unless the coach has certain facilities)

If we're talking a load that would fit in a cab, though, a smaller vehicle will almost certainly be more economic, on fuel consumption grounds at least. If the vehicle has 16 or less seats, the driver can do such a journey on UK domestic drivers' hours.

There are quite a few firms out there (not necessarily the big bus operators but some of London's coach operators do have smaller coaches as well) who have MPVs and minibuses available for hire - I'd have thought this would be a better bet. Depends how many of you there are - a long journey with 4 passengers in a standard saloon car gets a bit uncomfortable.

Vehicles with more than 8 passenger seats should be PSV licensed if used for hire & reward. There are some out there that aren't and might be cheaper. But bear in mind that a firm that disregards this bit of law might not be so hot on maintenance or letting passengers down if they get another booking. Or little details such as insurance.

Vehicles with 8 passenger seats or less come under taxi (hackney carriage or private hire) licensing. I'd have thought most minicab firms will take bookings for longer distance journeys (firms in "the provinces" often do airport runs to Heathrow / Gatwick and such)

You'll obviously have to pay something towards the dead mileage though - it may be more cost effective to pay a London based firm to do both directions and the waiting time at your destination than to pay a London based firm and a northern firm each to do a one way trip plus dead mileage.

If you do end up booking 2 separate cabs, I'd strongly recommend booking the homeward trip in advance rather than on spec when you're there - they may or may not find a driver willing to undertake an 8 hour round trip, and since there's no drivers hours rules in the taxi world, you'll have no idea how long that driver will have been on duty before taking you home.

As for how much it would cost, it's going to depend a lot on when and what day of the week you want to do it. If it's during the middle of the Olympics, it will cost more than it would on a quiet midweek day during the autumn schools half term. All I can suggest is do some phoning.