Tuesday 29th April 2025 Aside from people blasting out music and conversations on their phones (see Saturday's blog), another annoyance travelling by bus these days is the impact of roadworks, whether it's a gruelling slow journey when on board due to consequential traffic queues or waiting in vain for a late running bus caught up... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th April 2025 Good for the LibDems. They’ve proposed an amendment to the Bus Services Bill, currently going through Parliament, which would add people playing music and videos out loud on a phone speaker on public transport to the list of antisocial behaviours such as dropping litter and using threatening behaviour. Anyone caught blasting... Continue Reading →
Thursday 24th April 2025 I took a ride on Red Eagle’s newly introduced route 500 on Tuesday to see how it was settling in. Readers may recall this competitive service against Arriva’s troubled route X5 between Hemel Hempstead and Aylesbury was announced a few weeks ago before Arriva publicly admitted it was throwing in the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 22nd April 2025 New tenders for subsidised bus services issued by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead earlier this month have meant changes to many routes and their operators with Go-Ahead's (Oxford Bus) owned Carousel expanding its reach as far as Staines and (Reading Buses' owned) Thames Valley taking on the infamous Windsor... Continue Reading →
Monday 21st April 2025 This Easter weekend's blogfest began with a Book Review, so it seems appropriate to bookend it with another. Keith Shayshutt has just published another treasure trove of nostalgia comprising historic details about bus route and operational developments over a period of time in a geographic area. Following his previous books looking... Continue Reading →
Sunday 20th April 2025 Yeovil Pen Mill I'm back on the fortnightly wander around places with two stations today and following my visit to Wakefield a month ago, here’s another pair of stations between which trains run in public service, albeit here in Yeovil, not very many. Yeovil Junction Timings of the limited number of... Continue Reading →
Saturday 19th April 2025 Today's post celebrates a true bus and rail industry legend who reached the milestone age of 75 yesterday. To mark the occasion my good friend Ray Stenning was given a surprise birthday celebration with 30 close friends and colleagues door stopping his home/office in Shepherds Bush late yesterday morning on a... Continue Reading →
Friday 18th April 2025 Welcome to the first of an Easter special of daily posts over the bank holiday weekend and kicking these off here's a review of a splendid new book that's just been self-published by blog reader Eric R Sykes. As the title suggests the book features scenic bus routes that can be... Continue Reading →
Thursday 17th April 2025 There’s a new ‘kid on the block’ providing express coaches between London and Stansted Airport. Flibco has been awarded a five year contract by the Airport's owners commencing 1st April, replacing previous incumbent Airport Bus Express, for the lucrative link to Stratford and Liverpool Street where it competes with National Express,... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 15th April 2025 Readers may recall an Explore Wales trip I did with my brother last September when we missed out on a planned journey on the lovely Sherpa'r Wyddfa branded route S1 through Llanberis and a ride on the Conwy Valley railway line from Betws-y-Coed to Llandudno Junction due to a late running... Continue Reading →
Saturday 12th April 2025 After Windsor and Northumberland I'm in south west London for this month's featured bus route I've ranked eighth in Britain's Top 10 Quirky Bus Routes. It's a TfL contracted route, operated by Transport UK (formerly Abelllio), running from Whitton via Richmond, Mortlake and Barnes to Roehampton. Some readers might be puzzling... Continue Reading →
Thursday 10th April 2025 Last Saturday I had the pleasure and privilege of speaking at the annual South East Bus Festival held at the Kent County Showground at Detling near Maidstone. What a lovely day it was with thousands of visitors wandering around the large display of buses, old and new, enjoying glorious sunshine as... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 8th April 2025 Welcome to the brand new cross-River Silvertown Tunnel linking North Greenwich with Leamouth and Docklands with the aim of relieving congestion in the nearby Blackwall Tunnel. It opened yesterday, on time and on budget (£2.2 billion). The 0.9 mile tunnel includes a lane dedicated to buses and lorries and sees one... Continue Reading →
Saturday 5th April 2025 Situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester... ... the Ordnance Survey map gives the suburb of Reddish five named areas. North Reddish, Mid Reddish, Reddish Green, Reddish Vale and South Reddish. The first and last of these give their names to the area’s two railway stations - Reddish... Continue Reading →
Thursday 3rd April 2025 Welcome to another round-up of miscellany that's caught my eye during recent travels and apologies for it being a few days after the month end, but Hulleys, Orpington and Oakham took priority. First Bus restructures (again) If it seems Arriva, First Bus and Stagecoach are for ever restructuring or launching transformative... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 1st April 2025 Answer: Both places saw a bus route denoted by the letter R withdrawn over the weekend. In TfL's continuing drive for efficiencies to save a few vehicles here and there (it all helps with Superloop expansion), from Saturday, it rerouted the already circuitous half-hourly route B14 (Bexleyheath-Sidcup-St Mary Cray-Orpington) to take... Continue Reading →
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