Tuesday 29th November 2022 Having enjoyed a recent ride on the new CAF built Class 196 trains with West Midlands Railway I headed off to North Wales last week to see if the new sister Class 197 units being introduced by Transport for Wales would be any different. Actually I was on my way over... Continue Reading →
Sunday 27th November 2022 Growing rail revenue was the theme of one of the sessions at the ‘Future of Britain’s Railways’ Conference held over two days last week as part of the Modern Railways Expo exhibition in Milton Keynes. Modern Railways editor Phil Sherratt kindly invited me to join the panel discussion along with Mark... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th November 2022 Welcome to the penultimate AtoZ of public transport in 24 mid size British towns. Yes; despite all the speculation about eXmouth and Zennor, I’ve conceded defeat for X and Z but for today’s W, I was pleased to pay a visit to Weston-super-Mare a few weeks ago and see the progress... Continue Reading →
Thursday 24th November 2022 After all the hoo-ha in the summer over TfL's proposed severe cuts to central London’s bus routes reflecting its target to reduce mileage by 4%, better match service provision with reduced numbers travelling, simplify the network and reflect strains on TfL's struggling finances, it was announced yesterday almost all the proposals... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 22nd November 2022 Having seen Irizar’s new ‘ie tram’ bus displayed at the EuroBus EXPO show earlier this month I thought I’d take a ride on Go-Ahead London’s route 358, where the buses are destined to enter service early next year, to see how they’re likely to perform on this busy route. It’s a... Continue Reading →
Saturday 19th November 2022 Welcome to November's pot pourri of observational miscellany from recent travels around the country. Keighley leaflet heaven How lovely to visit Keighley bus station and find a great selection of colourful timetable booklets all designed to encourage travel around the bus network. The cleaning trolley could usefully find another home though,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 17th November 2022 After my two palindrome rides on London's bus routes 123 and 321 last month, it seemed a good idea to repeat the adventure and do an anagram variant with a journey on both routes 132 and 231, not least because it made sense to ride the 132 after finishing my journey... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 15th November 2022 Aside from two new trains for Southend Pier it’s been three years since I’ve written a blog about new trains entering service. That’s because it’s been three years since any new trains entered service. Abellio owned West Midlands Trains' West Midlands Railway (WMR) division has recently broken that famine with the... Continue Reading →
Saturday 12th November 2022 Ventnor’s not exactly mid-size having a population of just 6,000 although many summer visitors add to that in the tourist season, but the tail end of the alphabet was always going to prove a challenge. Situated on the southern coast of the Isle of Wight Ventnor is around 11 miles south... Continue Reading →
Thursday 10th November 2022 Amongst all the gloom and depressing news on our railways: Train Operating Companies running reduced services and/or random cancellations and the continued impact and threat of industrial action; and bus companies: cutting services due to dire financial performance as well as cancellations for lack of drivers; it’s sometimes hard to find... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 8th November 2022 It's time for another new DRT try out. This one's in Gloucestershire where £1.35 million from the DfT’s Rural Mobility Fund is paying for two schemes to operate in the county for a two year trial. One is in the southern part of the Forest of Dean... ... and the other... Continue Reading →
Sunday 6th November 2022 When I wrote about Stagecoach East’s cuts to services back in September I mentioned two routes in Peterborough (routes 23/24) the company was withdrawing from for which I couldn’t find any timetables online. I’m grateful to Mel Holly and Brendan Fox for explaining the services were limited to just three or... Continue Reading →
Saturday 5th November 2022 I wrote about Stagecoach East’s service cuts back in September and suggested at that time there’ll be other bus companies based in the area that’ll likely come forward to take over the bus routes being withdrawn. Sure enough Grant Palmer, Stephensons and Vectare stepped forward and contracts have also gone to... Continue Reading →
Thursday 3rd November 2022 The Euro Bus EXPO 2022 show is on at the NEC over three days this week (it ends today, Thursday). I popped up for a quick look round on Tuesday’s opening day to check out what’s new since the last exhibition four years ago which I blogged about here. Back in... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 1st November 2022 Welcome to the first instalment of an occasional series looking back to this day 40 years ago. It stems from today being the exact 40th Anniversary of my arrival in Brighton on 1st November 1982 to the role of Assistant Traffic Manager with Southdown. As you can see from my appointment... Continue Reading →
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