I stumbled across a game called UK Bus Simulator where you “Drive a bus around a british town and earn money for your work by picking up passengers. For it to work, please follow the coloured arrow infront of your bus before you start. That way, you wont get lost. Bus stops only gather passengers every minute”. Unfortunately, no eight year old is on hand to show me how to setup/play this game! If you get it to work please let me know how.

It appears from this page, which is linked from the game’s site, that you can choose the bus route to drive and the Stagecoach 46 route from Winchester to Southampton is there!! And it’s here that the little know facts are set out “Winchester (46) Winchester is a small village in the middle of no where. This express service takes you directly there and back, via the city centre.” You learn something new everyday day :-)

PS I’ve just realised that those who don’t know Winchester, or the 46 bus route, may not understand this. Winchester is not a small village but a City, it was the original capital of England. The 46 route is about as far from express as you can get taking up to 1 hour 25 minutes compared to the direst bus time of 50 minutes.