Saturday 29th April 2023 Another month's round up of notable sights spotted on recent travels. Hooray for a London bus map Many thanks once again to Mike Harris who has just published the latest up to date version of his Greater London Bus Map. It's edition no 40 and bang up to date including today's... Continue Reading →
Thursday 27th April 2023 The Katch DRT operation was introduced in May 2021 for a 12 month trial by Suffolk County Council. It provided a link between Wickham Market railway station located in the village of Campsea Ashe, Wickham Market itself located two and a half miles away and Framlingham village six and a half... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 25th April 2023 Last Friday Rob Jones, managing director, Stagecoach in Cumbria and North Lancashire (that name is going to need an update now Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness councils have replaced Cumbria) kindly invited me to the launch of the company’s circa £3 million investment in nine smart new Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC... Continue Reading →
Saturday 22nd April 2023 Ipswich Buses is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year. Founded in 1903, it's one of just five municipally owned bus companies left in England (along with Blackpool, Nottingham, Reading and Warrington) with two more in Wales (Cardiff and Newport) and not forgetting Lothian in Scotland. The company's head office and bus... Continue Reading →
Thursday 20th April 2023 One of my favourite quirky bus routes in London is the Richmond Park free minibus which has been running on Wednesdays between April and October for some years (aside from 2020 an 2021 due to Covid). This year's operation began on 5th April and includes an extended route, an increase to... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 18th April 2023 Central Hertfordshire residents woke up to a brand new bus route on Sunday. Operating an hourly frequency, seven-days-a-week, the new route 907 links Stevenage with Ware, Hertford, Hoddesdon, Broxbourne and Cheshunt. And if you're thinking some of those towns are already linked by the existing bus network, you'd be absolutely right.... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th April 2023 Aside from DRT another topic that often comes up in these blogs is the state of bus provision in Harlow. In November 2021 I wrote about a positive outlook for the future highlighting the Borough Council's plans to completely rebuild the bus station. That can’t come soon enough for the long... Continue Reading →
Thursday 13th April 2023 I needed to get from Lancaster to Glasgow last month and instead of heading up the West Coast Main Line (which was closed north of Carlisle anyway due to track works at Carstairs), having plenty of time, I decided to enjoy a leisurely ride around the wonderful Cumbrian coast on the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 11th April 2023 The ten mile heritage railway line run by Swanage Railway saw trains reconnected to the National Rail network again last week with a three/four journey a day four-days-a-week service through to Wareham. The line was severed in 1972 when British Rail ripped up the tracks after the train service was withdrawn... Continue Reading →
Saturday 8th April 2023 It's an Open Access duo for the next two letters in this year's fortnightly A to Z of bus and train companies enabling a 'compare and contrast' of two very similar rail businesses. Grand Central, owned by Arriva, was set up as an independent business in 2000 beginning operations in December... Continue Reading →
Thursday 6th April 2023 As well as bright green buses in the West of England from Monday (see Tuesday's blog), this week has also seen the launch of a fleet of bright green buses on a new circular bus route around Leicester city centre. I paid a visit on Tuesday to take a look. Branded... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th April 2023 This week sees the controversial withdrawal of many tendered bus routes within the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) area and their replacement with an extensive DRT operation. It's been a rocky road to implementation and I've got a feeling it'll be an even rockier road now it's up and running.... Continue Reading →
Sunday 2nd April 2023 I wrote a tribute to the wonderful award winning photographer Roger Bamber when he sadly died last September. Before his untimely death he'd been working on a book showcasing the tremendous collection of photographs taken during his lifelong career including spells with the Daily Mail, the Sun and The Guardian. It... Continue Reading →
Saturday 1st April It’s been a scenic bus route on my ‘to do’ list ever since I took the marathon Stagecoach route 35 from Elgin to Aberdeen in Autumn 2021 and the driver recommended route 201 from Aberdeen to Braemar to me. I finally got the opportunity to achieve this goal while in Scotland recently... Continue Reading →
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