Annual Review and Quiz of the Year 2023

Saturday 23rd December 2023

Welcome to another end of year nostalgic look back over the last twelve months of frenzied bus and train activity in the UK with BusAndTrainUser’s Review of the Year along with the ever popular Quiz of the Year testing your knowledge and memory recall of the year’s quirkier happenings.

And if you’re wondering where the much sought after BusAndTrainUser Awards for 2023, which usually accompany such ramblings, have gone, fear not, they feature in a Christmas Eve Blog Special tomorrow and rounding off this long Christmas weekend Blog bonanza will be my annual 100 Bus & Train Events in 2023 in a ‘less than ten minute’ vlog launching on Boxing Day.

Reader alert: reading time is longer than usual for what follows (around 20 minutes), so if you’re time-scarce here’s a quick two-second summary of what follows with a quick word cloud….

Let’s start off with the Quiz of the Year as some answers inevitably come up in the commentary which follows and if you don’t spot the answers, there’s a full listing at the end of this blog.

Quiz of the Year 2023

1. Where would passengers be going if they travelled on the newly launched Carlean Express in 2023?

2. What transport operation’s owners changed from Blue to Red following a takeover in 2023?

3. Why were passengers on a Jubilee line train surprised on arrival at Charing Cross in July and Bond Street in September?

4. What fleet of buses withdrawn from service in 2023 were kitted out with a shower and toilet facilities for their new role?

5. Which transport hub gained a Dart but lost a multi-storey car park?

6. What comes next in the sequence March 2023 …. June 2023 …. October 2023 …. ????

7. What connects Leicester, Bedale, East Leeds, Watford in 2023?

8. Who was the odd one out among CEOs at Go-Ahead; First Group; Stagecoach; Mobico in 2023?

9. What connects Manchester Airport; Bognor Regis; Bristol; Plymouth in 2023?

10. Why did pedestrians in one street in central Leicester hear a croaking sound every time a bus passed them by?

How did you do? If any of those stumped you, read on … and enjoy the BusAndTrainUser Review of the Year.

The story of 2023 in a nutshell

It’s been a year of contrasting developments for buses and trains. Whereas franchising is now dead in the water (or is it dead on the tracks?) on the railways with new Passenger Service Contracts now in place, for buses, a new franchising era began with a high profile bell ringing start in Greater Manchester in September as Mayors of other northern Combined Authorities all race to join the Burnham bandwagon to ‘take back control’ and get their names in the headlines.

Stagecoach and Rotala, which only months previously pursued legal action in the courts in an attempt to stop franchising performed a screeching U-turn so as to get a piece of the action in the new regime by submitting bids to run the services.

But that turned out to be just the start of a veritable autumnal torrent of U-turns kicked off by our helicopter-flying and motorist-supporting Prime Minister making long term investment his theme by promptly cancelling the country’s biggest long term investment project, otherwise known as most of HS2, in favour of short term gimmicks all set out in a Network North document ridiculed within 24 hours for its inaccuracies and school child geographic howlers. That farce was quickly followed by the Mayor of London joining the U-turn Club by dropping plans to withdraw the Travelcard after successfully negotiating a better deal with Train Operating Companies (TOCs), while not to be outdone, the RDG/TOCs – aka the DfT – performed their own U-turn by cancelling proposals to close almost every ticket office after an unprecedented 750,000 responses to the public consultation, making it the largest feedback ever.

As well as U-turns, 2023 was also noteworthy for extensions; not least to the £2 maximum bus fare’s initial three months from January; firstly extended to June, then October (when it was set to become £2.50 until November 2024) but ending up spanning two years until December 2024 at £2, allegedly thanks to the cancellation of HS2’s northern phases, albeit that money would have funded infrastructure to last for well over a century, somewhat longer than a cheap giveaway for bus travel until the next election when all that part of the money will be gone even though it wasn’t due to be spent on HS2 by then anyway. But that’s politics for you.

Deadlines for new train introductions, new station openings, new bus deliveries, availability of hydrogen supplies, new electric power units also all succumbed to extended lead times, famously with hydrogen powered buses being delivered for use in Liverpool but initially with no hydrogen to run them as well as in Crawley and Birmingham where only a limited supply trickled out, while South Western Railway’s Class 701 Arterio trains originally due into service in 2019 still hadn’t turned a revenue earning wheel as I write this nor has Cardiff’s replacement bus station, for the one closed in 2018, seen a bus, let alone any passengers.

But more positively Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funds began to flow followed by BSIP+ funds for those local authorities that initially lost out enabling struggling bus routes post Covid to continue as well as new bus routes (Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire in the vanguard) and cheaper fares alongside more “still-flavour-of-the-moment-despite-losing-a-fortune-and-no-hope-of-sustainability” DRT schemes hitting the road in Kent, East Suffolk (for the second time), East Sussex (ten zones), Surrey (five zones), Cheshire West and Chester, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, Wiltshire (three zones), West Sussex (two zones), Shropshire, Dedworth and Heathrow and the Daddy of them all, 30+ buses across three zones in the West of England which I’m told must, under no circumstances, have a bad word said about it as the Mayor absolutely insists it’s all working perfectly. Yeah, right. As a counterbalance a number of schemes were abandoned with a checklist coming up shortly.

It wasn’t just BSIPs that led to new bus routes being introduced, Heathrow Airport began to splash its cash on bus links again after the Covid pause with new or improved routes to a range of destinations in west London (principally for staff) and the Home Counties.

Industrial relations continued to be strained on the railway with both ASLEF and RMT pursuing one day strikes throughout the year in support of long outstanding wage claims and while the former has renewed its strike mandate for a further six months, everyone has welcomed the latter’s ending of its dispute and acceptance of a pay deal.

Meanwhile Unite members at National Express West Midlands began an all out strike in March which in the event lasted just six days after a whopping 16.2% pay increase was agreed.

Joining the trend after two one-week strikes in the autumn, Unite members at Go North East began an indefinite strike at the end of October which in the event lasted five weeks, only ending after an improved 11.2% increase between January and July followed by a 10.5% increase from July was accepted by a margin of 749 to 658 in a ballot.

Top pay award of the year was an 18% increase for Abellio’s London bus drivers to settle a long running dispute at that company which changed ownership early in the year too, as Abellio sold out to the management team as Transport UK Group Ltd.

Changes to ownership in 2023 also saw Go-Ahead acquire Pulhams and Southdown PSV, Stagecoach acquire People’s Bus, First Bus bought Ensign, Vectare bought Galleon Travel (aka Central Connect) and in a surprise move Hulleys of Baslow bought Go-Coach Hire in Sevenoaks. After much speculation the Hythe Ferry was sold by its owner Blue Funnel to Red Funnel while DB finally found a company willing to take Arriva off its hands in the shape of I Squared Capital “a leading global infrastructure investment manager” with the deal expected to complete early next year.

Go South Coast took over First’s bus routes and depot in Southampton in February after that company’s tactical withdrawal. Nationalisation saw the Caledonian Sleeper franchise move from Serco to the Scottish Government with TransPennine Express taken from First Group to the UK Government owned Operator of Last Resort. Meanwhile First Group won a new contract for Avanti West Coast in October having been given six months to implement a much needed improvement plan in April and Arriva similarly gained a renewed contract for Cross Country. RATP Dev bought out the remaining stake in RATP Dev Transit London it didn’t own after a deal with Tower Transit which exited the London bus market completely leaving RATP to deal with its own ailing finances.

On the tracks, Bank Underground station reopened after a £700 million upgrade as did Ryde Pier and Nineham Viaduct both after remedial work, while the Treherbert line closed in South Wales until next February as did Kentish Town Underground station until next June so its 26 year old escalators can be replaced. No trains ran on the Marston Vale line until the end of November (and then only in peak hours) following VivaRail’s demise terminating arrangements to maintain the line’s Class 230s.

But in better news the Luton Airport Dart shuttle from Luton Airport Parkway station finally got going, trams started running to Wolverhampton railway station on the long awaited and much delayed West Midlands Metro extension and in Edinburgh trams finally reached Newhaven and as a bonus the also much delayed Public Inquiry report into the much delayed introduction of the tram in 2014 along with substantial cost overruns was finally published after three million documents had been scrutinised.

There was a falling out between Stagecoach and Flixbus in Aberdeen after the former refused permission to the latter to use the bus station’s departure stands for its competing service claiming there was no room, which was challenged by Flixbus, while the withdrawal by Connexions Buses of routes X1A/X1B between Harrogate and Knaresborough ended long running competition with Harrogate & District on that corridor. Competition also ceased, after many years, between NatEx West Midlands and Diamond Bus with routes 4/4H/4M between Walsall and Hayley Green/Merry Hill becoming a TfWM partnership route but intensified between Aylesbury and Oxford as Red Line increased its X20 to half-hourly against Arriva’s 280.

While the north lamented its lost HS2, earlier in the year London Northwestern brightened things up by marking this year’s poignant Eurovision Song Contest hosted on behalf of Ukraine in Liverpool with a special celebratory livery.

Finally for this section, in London, an underwhelming campaign saw TfL promote the 160th anniversary of the Tube throughout the year, but you may not have noticed.

2023: A Good Year for….

1. Passengers travelling between Leeds and Scarborough whose bus fare reduced from £15 single to £2.

2. Passengers in Leighton Buzzard who’ve been enjoying BSIP funded free bus fares (until tomorrow) since Arriva introduced a new network in May while passengers in a number of other locations enjoyed the odd free travel day or weekend including the 24/25 July in Kent, over two weekends this month in West Berkshire and for the whole of March in the Rhondda.

3. Passengers in Leicester who’ve seen a transformation as the city’s bus network continue to benefit from fleet investment in new electric buses, new bus routes (including a free city centre circular, branded hop!) and a coordinated network between Arriva, First Bus and Centrebus.

4. Vectare which continued its expansion, turned its NovusFlex DRT operation in Lubbesthorpe into a fixed half-hourly route branded NovusFosse as well as acquiring Galleon Travel (Central Connect).

5. Travelcard the much loved integrated ticket in London was saved from its January 2024 demise after successful negotiations between TfL and the train companies, albeit with a 3% real increase in price in the New Year.

6. Ticket Offices in rail stations, saved after an unprecedented 750,000 responses to the public consultation (and a General Election next year).

7. Technology suppliers who continue to successfully sell their ride sharing software and algorithms to gullible local authorities, also encouraged by consultants on lucrative contracts, and which go on to demonstrate all the symptoms of cognitive dissonance as they claim DRT is a great success.

8. Clean air lovers in London who’ve enjoyed the benefits of ULEZ since it’s expansion Capital wide in August, including those living in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

9. Autonomous buses which took to the public roads in trials in both Edinburgh (Stagecoach) and Didcot (First Bus) as well as Milton Keynes (Aurrigo).

10. Go South Coast for the much deserved double win whammy at both the UK Bus Awards and the Route One Awards as Bus Operator of the Year.

2023: A Bad Year For…

1. Serco which handed back its Caledonian Sleeper contract to the Scottish Government in April.

2. HS2 which lost its raison d’être in September with the northern leg to Manchester amputated north of Lichfield and Euston as a terminus still in doubt.

3. Network North, the Prime Minister’s much trumpeted HS2’s alternative spend, which lost all credibility within 24 hours as firm plans announced by the PM in his Conference speech to rapturous applause and standing ovations turned out to be “just examples of the sorts of things money could be spent on” according to Secretary of State Mark Harper the next day, which was just as well as enhancing the A259 link between those northern outposts of Bognor Regis and Southampton was one part of the plan which turned out to have muddled up the latter with Littlehampton, while plans for a £100 million mass transit system in Bristol and reopening the Leamside line disappeared from the document overnight and other howlers included a Metrolink extension to Manchester Airport (opened in 2014) and placing Manchester on a map where Preston is.

And only this week it turns out that bastion of Britain’s northern cities, London, is to see its roads benefit from the cancellation of HS2, with funds diverted to fill the Capital’s pot holes – which is certainly a creative definition of the phrase “levelling up”.

4. Barry Docks Transport Interchange the £3 million facility to integrate buses with trains at the South Wales station where no buses go. Strangely enough there’s been a distinct lack of a ribbon cutting grand opening too. But in better news seven journeys a day on Adventure Travel’s route B3 are being diverted to use the four bus shelter facility in the New Year.

5. TfW’s Class 230 trains on the Bidston to Wrexham Central Borderlands line which have struggled to maintain a presence due to a whole host of faults.

6. Marston Vale line between Blethcley and Bedford which has been operated by buses for almost the whole year until a few peak hour journeys gained Class 150 trains at the end of last month.

7. Hydrogen buses in Liverpool given a high profile launch at last year’s Bus & Coach Expo at the NEC with all ten funded by the Combined Authority delivered to Stagecoach and Arriva but sadly no hydrogen was initially available to operate them.

8. Rail Delivery Group which lost a large dose of credibility parroting the DfT line that Train Companies had all independently come up with proposals to introduce “better face-to-face interactions …. able to help more customers across a range of needs” by closing virtually every ticket office only to have to back track when the DfT stabbed them in the back announcing it had instructed train companies to cancel their closure plans.

9. Passengers travelling along Botley Road, Oxford who’ve experienced a road closure under the railway bridge by Oxford station since April and due to continue until October 2024 following archaeological finds beneath the railway bridge which is due to be replaced as part of a £161 million station and railway upgrade.

10. South Western Railways Class 701 Arterio trains which still haven’t entered full service four years after the originally planned introduction in 2019 with rumours of a ‘soft launch’ of the odd return journey to Windsor this month proving to be unfounded.

Time for a recap of the year’s comings and goings.

Hello and Welcome

It was another year of musical chairs for bus and train company top brass with a hearty hello to new managing directors including Jens Abromeit (Arriva UK Bus), Dan Bassett (Ipswich Buses), Andrew Cullen (First North and West Yorkshire), David Cutts (Go-Ahead London), Martin Gibbon (Stagecoach South Wales), Craig Hampton-Stone (Cardiff Bus), Zoe Hands (First Manchester, Midlands and South Yorkshire), Alex Hornby (McGills), Leonard Lee (Go-Ahead Singapore), Luke Marion (Oxford Bus), Dervley McKay (Go-Ahead Ireland), Tom Morgan (Wellglade Group), Matt Rawlinson (Diamond Bus North West and Preston Bus), and Marc Reddy (Stagecoach South) while Claire Miles took over as CEO at Stagecoach, Miguel Ángel Parras became CEO at the Go-Ahead Group joining newly appointed Matt Carney CEO (Bus) and Patrick Verwer CEO (Rail) at the Group while Andy Lord became Transport Commissioner for London. New Train Company managing directors included Mike Bagshaw (MTR Elizabeth Line), Angie Doll (GoVia Thameslink Railway), Chris Jackson (TransPennine Express), Andy Mellors (Avanti West Coast) and announced for January Steve Best (Arriva Rail London) and Spring 2024, Tricia Williams (Northern).

Other ‘hellos’ in 2023 saw passengers welcome an octet of new rail stations to the network including Inverness Airport, Reading Green Park, Marsh Barton, Portway Park & Ride, Thanet Parkway, Headbolt Lane, Brent Cross West and East Linton as well as an expanded Bank Underground station with new escalators, moving walkway, corridors and yet another entrance/exit while Morley railway station moved 80 yards to the north and Gatwick Airport railway station’s three year upgrade was completed.

It was also the year we said hello to mid week engineering works with Network Rail and LNER (and also Lumo), giving it a try on the East Coast Main Line which closed between Doncaster and Grantham on a Tuesday and Wednesday in May, but nothing seems to have come of it.

Meanwhile in Scotland there was a trial Sunday/Monday closure for a bridge renewal on the Neilston line and a blockade on the Barrhead line for electrification works was handed back on a Friday. That blockade facilitated an upgraded service introduced earlier this month using Class 380 trains coinciding with the new December timetable, as Scotland continues to expand its electrified lines while down in north London ECTS (European Train Control System) equipment was commissioned on the Northern City Line between Finsbury Park and Moorgate. Also new this month are four TransPennine Express trains a day between Manchester and York via Wakefield Kirkgate and Castleford, using the newly reinstated platform 2 at the latter.

Warrington gained a new bus garage and a new bus station opened in North Shields but sadly not many buses graced its first few weeks as Go North East bus drivers were on strike …

… while Barry Docks Transport Interchange opened with no buses scheduled to arrive or depart …

… and in Ryde the Transport Interchange reopened after a redesign and revamp.

Thanks to the DfT’s ZEBRA funding scheme as well as investment by bus companies, bus fleets benefited from deliveries of new vehicles during the year including many battery/electrically operated as well as some hydrogen powered albeit encountering problems with the supply of hydrogen particularly impacting Birmingham, Crawley and Liverpool. Inverness was the first British city to become an all electric bus city for its local bus routes with Coventry not far behind and Oxford due to complete the transition next year.

Meanwhile other prominent new deliveries included ADL Enviro400s to Stagecoach replacing its fleet of buses operating the ever popular route 555 in the Lake District and Go South Coast introduced new buses on its busy route m1 between Bournemouth and Poole and route 1 between Newport and Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

Over in Wales, after much anticipation, electric powered buses finally began operating the TrawsCymru route T1 between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth in March with vehicles based in a new depot with charging facilities in Carmarthen …

… and after a long wait, it was first announced in October 2020, it was confirmed just yesterday the proposed route T22 (Caernarfon to Blaenau Ffestiniog) for which electric buses have been in long term storage with Gwynfor Coaches, will commence in February next year.

New names and brands for 2023 included Mobico (formerly National Express Group), beeline (back again for First Berkshire), Windsor Express including Flight Line and London Line (formerly Green Line 702/703), City Swift (at McGills), North Tyne Rockets (Go North East), Carolean Express (LNER’s 11:00 KGX-EDB), the Bee Network (Greater Manchester), Superloop (TfL’s new ‘not quite a loop’ network), Aircoach (First Bus’s new Leicester to Birmingham International Airport service), hop! and Zipper (free central area services in Leicester and Hereford) and a whole host of fancy DRT names Stagecoach Connect (Kent), Flexibus (East Sussex), Surrey Connect, Wiltshire Connect, iTravel (West Cheshire and Chester), Book-a-Bus (West Sussex), GoToGate (Dedworth and Heathrow) Connect On-Demand (Shrewsbury) as well as the return of Katch (Suffolk), more Worcester-on-Demand and of course the extensive WESTlink scheme in the Bristol area.

In Derbyshire it was hello to two new open-top bus routes branded Breezer (Hulleys) and Peak Sightseer (Stagecoach) and down in Bournemouth, Transpora’s new Bournemouth Coaster competed with the Beach Breezer from ‘more bus’ while Clacton gained a Breezer thanks to Hedingham.

New train fleets entering service included Stadler built Class 231s with Transport for Wales, Merseyrail’s Class 777s…

… and just this month the first of 17 new trains for the Glasgow Subway entered service. West Midlands Trains launched the first of its Alstom built Class 730s on London Northwestern last month and c2c began operating a few of its 12 new 5-car Class 720s on peak hour journeys while Avanti West Coast made good progress with the refurbishment of its Pendolino fleet, completing all the 11 coach trains.

It wasn’t just new train fleets hitting the tracks either, down in Dorset Swanage Railway’s heritage Class 117 DMU began running a service between Wareham and Swanage on four days a week between April and September much to the delight of train enthusiasts and tourists.

New bus routes, mostly thanks to BSIPs and the generosity of Heathrow Airport included 64 (Witney-Swindon); 68 (Wantage-Faringdon); 84B (Potters Bar-Barnet); 99 (Boscombe Beach Bus); 100-103 (Telford-Wellington); 108 (Oxford-Bicester); 122/3 (Watlington-Reading); 126/7 (Watlington-Thame); 319 (Kirkby-Skelmersdale); 500 (Chichester-Littlehampton); 721 (Luton-Hemel Hempstead); 725 (Stevenage-Rickmansworth); 730/731 (Basingstoke-Heathrow Terminal 5); 902 (Glasgow-Edinburgh airport via Airdrie); 907 (Stevenage-Cheshunt); 908 (Stevenage-Welwyn Garden City); M4 (Cribbs Causeway-Bristol city centre); RA3 (Watford-Heathrow Terminals 2/3); SL1 (Walthamstow-North Finchley); SL10 (North Finchely-Harrow); T8 (Corwen-Chester); X10 (Luton-Hatfield); X20 (Colchester-Stansted Airport); X30 (Seaton-Exeter) and X34 (Didcot-Newbury) while in Kent route 3 (Sevenoaks-Orpington) reappeared after a Covid break.

And finally for 2023’s hellos we welcomed the Bus Centre of Excellence while Derby won first prize to become the proposed home for the (will-it-ever-be-introduced?) Great British Railways HQ, but then suffered the indignity of train builder Alstom announcing many potential redundancies among its staff due to a lack of train orders going forward, and of course, not forgetting a welcome ‘hello’ to the refreshment trolley launching on Lumo following the abandonment of the previous ‘order before you travel’ arrangement.

As always there were many sad goodbyes and end of eras during the year; let’s have a reminder.

Goodbye and Good Luck

Leaving their senior roles for pastures new, retirement or what’s euphemistically called ‘to spend more time with their family’ in 2023 were managing directors David Bradford (National Express West Midlands), Jeff Counsel (Wellglade Group), Paul Dyer (Cardiff Bus), Ian Humphrey (First Manchester), Paul Matthews (First West Yorkshire), Michael Watson (Stagecoach South West and currently Mobilisation Director with First Bus), Heath Williams (Ipswich Buses), and Nigel Winter (Stagecoach South Wales) with even bigger cheeses leaving including Christian Schreyet (CEO Go-Ahead), Martin Griffiths (CEO Stagecoach), Tom Stables (MD National Express), Carla Stockton-Jones (MD Stagecoach) and Paul O’Neil (MD Arriva UK Bus). It was also a fond farewell to Anthony Smith the much respected long standing CEO of Transport Focus while three rail farewells included Chris Gibb (CEO Scottish Rail Holdings), Matthew Golton (MD TransPennine Express) and this month, Paul Hutchins (Arriva Rail London).

We saw the end of Abellio’s involvement in the UK as well as Serco’s tenure-ship of the Caledonian Sleeper. Fond farewells were bid to Cross Country’s HSTs, Southern’s Class 313s, Greater Anglia’s Class 321s and Transport for Wales’ Class 175s, while GWR handed back its Class 769s never having turned a revenue earning wheel as well as retiring all its Castle Class HSTs except for three workings and this month TransPennine Express withdrew its Nova 3 fleet of Class 68 locomotives and lovely Mark 5A coaches.

More farewells included First Bus’s City Reds in Southampton, Xelabus’s short lived contracts in Bournemouth, McGills Eastern Scottish brand pulling out of Livingston not long having taken it over from First Bus and Arriva’s operations in Macclesfield, Winsford and Oswestry as well as its involvement on route 685 (Carlisle-Newcastle) and withdrawal from a whole host of routes on North Tyneside while National Express closed down its Touromo branded leisure division.

Sadly the last bus left Aldershot’s bus station conveniently sited alongside the railway station (as seen below in the midday sun) as the plot was sold off for development.

Sadly Little Gem was no longer the little gem it once was in Greater Manchester when it ceased trading in April while in September Birmingham based The Green Bus Company packed up and in London Tower Transit left the market completely after a deal to sell the remaining 12.5% stake in RATP Dev Transit London.

2023 saw a welcome goodbye to peak fares in Scotland and a farewell to return fares on LNER while more worryingly financial problems led to the withdrawal of all bus subsidies in Thurrock and Slough with Nottingham’s Easylink network up for withdrawal due to financial problems at the City Council. Over at London Northwestern it was goodbye to First Class seating.

Terminal lovers bid a sad farewell to TfL’s route 271 from its iconic Highgate Village turn around as the route number succumbed to withdrawal in a route reorganisation and cuts, together with route number 168 later in the year. Even more poignant was the ditching of the Red Arrow brand with the two sole surviving routes 507 and 521 succumbing to another of TfL’s Central London bus culls.

Other key bus routes that bit the dust included TrawsCymru route T19 between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog after Llew Jones withdrew its operation.

Another year, and another not unexpected farewell to a number of DRT schemes that either ran out of funds or those in charge finally saw the light included Ready2Go in Inverurie; YorBus in Bedale; FlexiBus in East Leeds; NovusFlex in Leicestershire; Flecsi in Blaenau Gwent along with Bwcabus in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion and just this month Arriva Click in Watford.

It wasn’t even a hello to Arriva’s electric buses in Milton Keynes and Stevenage before it was goodbye as the company turned down previously agreed funding from the DfT’s ZEBRA scheme. Meanwhile bus depots in Folkestone (Stagecoach) and and Bridgwater (First Bus) closed their doors for one final time, National Express Transport Solutions closed the Clarkes of London depot in Sydenham and the former Kings Ferry base in Gillingham and the ‘Little Tram’ ran for the last time in Buxton.

Numbers of the Year

0.14 passengers per hour on the DigiGo DRT scheme in Essex (according to the DfT’s Rural Mobility Fund Evaluation: Interim Report.

£1 the price paid by RATP Dev to Tower Transit in September for the remaining 12.5% stake in RATP Dev Transit London the company didn’t own.

12% of passengers on average used ticket offices to buy tickets according to the DfT/RDG proving conclusively average percentages are meaningless statistics.

£17.36 cost per passenger journey Watford Borough Council incurred on the about-to-be-abandoned Click DRT operation on the town.

18% wage increase for Abellio bus drivers with two years service in London giving an £18 per hour rate.

20 mph default speed limit introduced in Wales.

25% passenger growth on Taunton’s town bus routes following introduction of a £1 single fare.

£70 per day strike pay paid to Unite members on their indefinite (five week) strike from the end of October at Go North East.

73% of 12-15 year olds took up a Scottish concessionary bus pass (75% of 16-21 year olds).

130 bus operators joined the £2 fare cap when it began in January.

£70,000 cost of branding for TfL route X26 shared between TfL (£30,000) and Heathrow AIrport (£40,000) introduced in June, only to be phased out three months later as the new Superloop branding took over.

600,000 average number of passenger journeys a day on the Elizabeth Line which received its full peak service in May with 24 trans per hour between Whitechapel and Paddington.

750,000 responses to the consultation to close ticket offices with an overwhelming 681,176 opposing and 1,824 in favour.

3,000,000 documents presented to the Edinburgh Trams Inquiry.

£80,000,000 funding to extend Bus Recovery Grant in England from April to June.

£160,000,000 BSIP funding to “improve fares and services” in 64 English Local Authorities of which £80,000,000 in BSIP+ funding is available in 2023/24 and the remaining £80,000,000 in 2024/25

£600,000,000 DfT funding for the £2 fare cap now extended until December 2024.

£341,000,000 expenditure by Merseytravel to introduce bus franchising on Merseyside.

£1,000,000,000 funding redirected from HS2 to “bus services across the North and the Midlands as part of the Network North plan” with a first tranche of £150 million “to improve bus services over the next financial year” announced on 23rd October.

£1,175,000,000 annual revenue from leisure travel on the railway with £851,000,000 from commuting and £177,000,000 from business travel.

And that’s about it for 2023 but there’s just time for the answers to this year’s Quiz.

1 LNER’s 11:00 KIngs Cross to Edinburgh so named to mark the Coronation; 2 The Hythe Ferry was sold by Blue Funnel to Red Funnel; 3 A signaller routed a passenger train into Charing Cross on the disused former ‘branch’ in error while Bond Street was renamed Burberry Street in a commercial deal to promote London Fashion Week; 4 Go-Ahead’s articulated buses from the withdrawn Luton Airport shuttle service were shipped for use in Ukraine and kitted out with a shower and toilet; 5 Luton Airport saw the new Dart shuttle begin and later in the year a devatsating fire destroyed a multi-storey car park; 6 November 2024 was to be the fourth extended date for the £2 (to become £2.50) maximum bus fare in England funded by the DfT before being extended again (and not increased) to December 2024 so either answer is correct; 7 These areas all saw DRT services withdrawn n 2023; 8 First Group; the other three saw new incumbents in 2023 (First did in 2022); 9 They all appeared in the Prime Minister’s Network North document in error; 10 Leicester City Council’s new electric buses on its city centre hop! service used the sound of a bell and a frog croaking in pedestrian areas to warn pedestrians a bus was approaching.

How did you do? 8-10: Excellent; you win the Gold Award for BusAndTrainKnowledge; 6-7: Brilliant; you’re a BusAndTrainExpert. 3-5: Good; you have the makings of a BusAndTrainExpert. 0-2: Poor; you need to start subscribing to my blog.

Finally, don’t miss out on the prestigious BusAndTrainAwards 2023 in tomorrow’s Christmas Eve Blog Special and another special Blog-turned-Vlog uploading on Boxing Day.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS with a special Christmas Eve Blog Special tomorrow.

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