Friday 30th April 2021 Thandi’s 11:30 Birmingham bound coach departs Victoria Coach Station yesterday FLiXBUS restarted British domestic express coach services last week with an extended range of destinations served from London so I thought it was worth giving the ambitious German company another road test. My first trip with FLiXBUS was immediately after ‘Lockdown... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 28th April 2021 It's all happening in Barking. And it's looking pretty good for the potential 26,000 public transport using residents the development known as Barking Riverside is hoping to attract as the promised 10,800 new homes planned for the next few years come on stream. Rail operator c2c has just started work on... Continue Reading →
Saturday 24th April 2021 It’s uncertain times for buses in Greater Manchester. Assuming Stagecoach and Rotala’s legal challenge against the Mayor and Combined Authorities’ decision to introduce franchising fails, the next few years are set to bring many changes, not least the current variety of liveries replaced by one unified brand. If TfGM’s promotional media... Continue Reading →
Thursday 22nd April 2021 Readers may recall my attempt to try out North Lincolnshire Council’s JustGo branded Demand Responsive Transport service when it launched last September. The £9 million (over three years) scheme is operated by Go-Ahead owned East Yorkshire using software provided by tech company Liftango and Mercedes minibuses redundant after the TfL funded... Continue Reading →
Monday 19th April 2021 As the deregulated era of free market bus operation draws towards a close it’s not surprising head-to-head bus competition is pretty rare nowadays. Not least currently because Covid has reduced passenger numbers to (at best) less than two-thirds of normal times, and no one is making a profit in the current... Continue Reading →
Friday 16th April 2021 It used to cost just £14 to land on Monopoly's Bow Street but in 2021 the latest new station of the same name (added to Britain's rail network on 14th February) has come in at a tad higher cost than that - an eyebrow raising £8 million - to build. And... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 14th April 2021 Not by one of my favourite London bus routes, the W3 (famous for its breathtaking top deck views across London as buses pass in front of Ally Pally), but on foot along what's now called the Parkland Walk following the abandoned rail line that became known as the Northern Heights. It's... Continue Reading →
Sunday 11th April 2021 A big thank you to the London Bus Museum team for organising today’s ‘Running Day’ on route 65 between Ealing, Leatherhead and Dorking. It was great fun and made up for missing the usual Spring event held at the Weybridge based museum. In many ways it was even better to see... Continue Reading →
Friday 9th April 2021 The Isle of Sheppey has been on my ‘to visit again’ list for some time, so news Arriva are retrenching from the island by closing their garage with its rather basic facilities sited alongside Sheerness station seemed a good reason to arrange a trip yesterday. I'd also been browsing Arriva's infamously... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 6th April 2021 It's not often TfL's bus stop contractors manage to install new bus stops in time for the start of extensions to bus routes. (Readers will recall my recent ride along new route 456 featuring 'dolly stops' and temporary flags despite plenty of notice before the service started.) But in Wandsworth, they've... Continue Reading →
Friday 2nd April 2021 It’s good to see Bournemouth’s Yellow Buses running open-top bus services again after a Covid enforced absence last year. My friend Ray Stenning and I took a trip to the lovely south coast resort today to have a ride. There are two routes this year, numbered 11 and 12. The former... Continue Reading →
BusAndTrainUser 