Tuesday 30th August 2022 Cornwall is the country’s luckiest county; being first in the queue to receive oodles of Government cash to splash on additional bus routes, improved frequencies, new buses and cheaper fares - the way things are promised for 31 other areas fortunate to draw a winning ticket in the Government's Bus Service... Continue Reading →
Sunday 28th August 2022 Back in 2014 - a Solo in Uppingham on route RF1 Some people like to drive cars sporting a personalised registration plate depicting their initials. It’s not so easy to do this when you’re a 'bus and train user' but routes numbered RF1 and RF2 are pretty close to the concept... Continue Reading →
Saturday 27th August 2022 Yesterday afternoon saw the second outing of an interloper’s new weekly appearance competing on the West Coast Main Line. The rail tour company Locomotive Services Ltd (trading as InterCity) has started running a southbound journey between Crewe and Euston followed by a return back to Manchester leaving London in the busy... Continue Reading →
Thursday 25th August 2022 Firstly an update to Tuesday's blog regarding Kent's bus cull for blog subscribers and early morning online readers before the post was updated at 07:30. Thanks to reader Darryl I added an update after it had been published to confirm at a Kent County Council Scrutiny Committee meeting last Thursday the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 23rd August 2022 Earlier in the year I reported on Kent County Council’s review of its supported bus services with a mission to save £2.2 million from the Council's annual £6.1 million tendered bus budget. And that was before the impact of Covid Bus Services Support Grant/Bus Recovery Grant originally scheduled to end this... Continue Reading →
Sunday 21st August 2022 Continuing my AtoZ travels, I thought Potters Bar would make for an interesting mid-size town to look at with it being on the fringes of, but not part of, London. Although with a population of surprisingly only around 22,500 it’s more in the small-town size category, rather like O is for... Continue Reading →
Saturday 20th August 2022 Southern and Thameslink seem to be going through a bad patch lately with cancellations and delays for a whole variety of announced reasons including “due to more than the usual number of trains needing repair at the moment”; “due to a shortage of train crew”; “due to a problem under investigation”... Continue Reading →
Thursday 18th August 2022 HCT Group, the country's leading social enterprise bus operator, posted an ominous update on its website a few days ago. It announced last Friday community bus route 812 in the Borough of Islington will cease operation after Friday 26th August. Although not a headline grabbing seismic development in the grand scheme... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 16th August 2022 It looks as though Oxford’s failed Pick-Me-Up DRT operation is going to make a comeback; this time in deep rural Oxfordshire (cue emoji with raised eyebrows). It’s reported Oxfordshire County Council later this year is planning to replace hourly tendered route 250 which currently serves the expanding residential development known as... Continue Reading →
Sunday 14th August 2022 I wrote about the lovely two new trains for Southend Pier after my visit back in May when unfortunately teething problems meant they weren’t out on the tracks so was pleased to be able to fit in time to take a ride on my recent trip to Foulness Island when one... Continue Reading →
Saturday 13th August 2022 Let’s take stock. The battle for TfL is ominously sliding towards a possible nuclear option of bankruptcy and Government "taking back control"…… Rail strikes are continuing with more trains in the sidings than on the tracks today with ASLEF drivers’ turn to stop work and RMT and TSSA members out again... Continue Reading →
Thursday 11th August 2022 A couple of years ago I blogged about Rosso’s hourly route 13 that runs from Rawtenstall bus station to New Hall Hey taking just six minutes for the full circular round trip and at that time claimed it must be Britain’s Shortest Bus Route. That led to a number of other... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 9th August 2022 I was last in Snowdonia on the erstwhile Snowdon Sherpa network of bus routes almost a year ago last September and concluded my blogged review with a hope the network would receive some attention to presentational detail and expanded to fulfil its obvious potential. Coincidentally, good news followed with a much... Continue Reading →
Sunday 7th August 2022 Thursday 4th August 2022's stark announcement Bournemouth’s buses dramatically changed colour yesterday following the sad news on Friday 29th July the town’s Yellow Buses had called in the Administrators. The company ceased trading less than a week later at 18:00 on Thursday 4th August leaving the town without its familiar bright... Continue Reading →
Saturday 6th August 2022 It’s the smallest town I’ve visited in my fortnightly AtoZ safaris but there aren’t many O options to choose from. Oswestry’s population at around 17,000 means it’s not my normal ‘mid size’ town for a visit although by Shropshire standards it is in fact the second largest town in the unitary... Continue Reading →
Thursday 4th August 2022 I left you in Tuesday's blog arriving in Narborough on the Vectare operated NovusFlex DRT bus. Keith kindly set me down in Narborough rail station's car park soon after 12:30 and I had cautiously arranged my next journey on the new FoxConnect DRT service from there at 13:00 allowing time for... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 2nd August 2022 I recently blogged about Leicester’s new St Margaret’s bus station observing more exciting public transport developments were coming to this forward looking city. And here we are again, looking at three new initiatives in the city and another in neighbouring Leicestershire, including two new DRT schemes. Launching yesterday was NovusFlex operated... Continue Reading →
BusAndTrainUser 