In my InBox

Tuesday 4th November 2025

Welcome to a new blog feature where from time to time I’ll share some messages and emails readers have kindly sent me so they benefit from a wider audience.

Good news on the X1 in Glasgow and trains to East Kilbride

Bryan got in touch following my reference to JMB Travel’s route X1 between Hamilton and Glasgow in the recent blog about deregulation: “I was happy to see you giving a mention to JMB’s commercial initiative of running service X1 between Hamilton and Glasgow, a route that First Glasgow withdrew a couple of years ago. JMB seem to be doing well on the route since they will be improving the timetable from 2nd November.”

And clicking on the link Bryan sent confirms the good news: “From Sunday 2nd November 2025, we will be introducing extra journeys at busy times on Mondays to Saturdays.  We will also be introducing a NEW Sunday service on the route for the first time, with buses operating hourly during the day.There will also be a minor change to the Service 226 timetable on Sunday evenings – the first journey in each direction will no longer operate.  These journeys will be partly replaced by the new Sunday service on the X1.” This is really good to see not least also the comment after the new timetable is shown “Paper copies will be available on the Glasgow Fast X1 buses from early next week.”

Bryan also tells me “ScotRail have done a couple of proving runs with Class 380 and 385 units on the now electrified East Kilbride line, my commuting line when I worked in SPT. So all looks set for a full electric service from 14th December.”

Meanwhile, Roy got in touch to let me know McGills are ceasing its Edinburgh AIrport to central Edinburgh ‘airport express’ route set up in competition with Lothian in January 2024. Looking at the app, it would seem the route will end after 14th November.

Will The Towans be cut off again in 2026?

Darren got in touch from the Riviere Towans Association to see if I can help raise the profile of the lack of buses serving Towans in Cornwall during summer 2025. Darren explained “the Riviere Towans Chalet Camp alone comprises approximately 300 holiday chalets, each with its occupants now facing significant accessibility challenges. Similarly, the Riviere Sands Haven holiday park, home to an additional 300 caravans, is now effectively isolated from public transport options to and from St Ives” adding that the disruption “extends to guests staying at the Penellen Hotel, numerous other private holiday lets scattered throughout the surrounding area, and, importantly, the permanent residents who rely on this service for their daily needs and leisure activities.”

Back in First Kernow expansionist days a few years ago Towans had its Sunseeker branded S2 during the summer.

This was replaced by another seasonal service in 2024, the T2A, which supplemented route 15 but for summer 2025 Darren was alarmed to see there was nothing, with no reappearance of the T2A and a curtailed 15 in St Ives. Darren approached Cornwall Council which he reports they say the route “does not have capacity to serve the Towans”.

He disagrees, pointing out “the 15 runs into Marazion which has services serving it from the U4 and number 2 routes. If the 15 went straight from St Erth to Longrock then that could save enough time to run up to the Towans.” Darren also adds “we also do not understand how the T2 route can encompass a diversion to the St Ives Bay village in Lelant that only has 300 properties whereas we have 900 to 1000 properties!”

Darren makes a good point about the 15 going via Marazion which is well served by other routes, especially following the new competitive route 2. Here’s hoping Cornwall Council can find a solution for 2026.

Corporation Street consternation in Blackpool

Clifford wrote to see if I could help with an issue he’s had two years running when visiting Blackpool in November which coincides with the illuminations season. Clifford watches a show in Blackpool and aims afterwards to catch the last Stagecoach bus back to Preston on route 61 at 23:15 but last year it never arrived at the bus stop in Corporation Street. “Plenty of Blackpool ‘Corp’ buses were departing” he wrote and later discovered buried in the depths of the Service Updates page on Stagecoach’s website…

… that buses on the 61/68 are on a town centre diversion on Friday and Saturday evenings during illumination season – and unhelpfully with a varying time when this kicks in depending how dark it is.

Bryan rightly complains no information is posted at bus stops to help passengers so he contacted Lancashire County Council, whose website shows it as a contracted service “only to get a cold shoulder reply that the bus had run on time according to Stagecoach Merseyside’s tracking, who my comments were forwarded too.”

Come on Stagecoach you can do better than this – how about effectively communicating with passengers rather than burying information on a website and thinking ‘job done’.

Stagecoach in the Cairngorms

Thanks to Daniel who followed up my post about the journey from ember between Aberdeen and Dundee via Braemar and the Cairngorms with a splendid photograph taken around 10 years ago when Stagecoach extended its route 201 south from Braemar over that gloriously scenic section of the A93.

And well done to Ed who not only told me how much he’d enjoyed a ride on the new Peak Pathfinder 62 bus service last week “thanks to your blog back in May” explaining he “caught the train to Buxton, then the Stagecoach 65 across to Grindleford Station, then the train to Hope. I walked down to the village then caught the 62 into Castleton and had an hour off the bus there while it did another trip to Edale and back. Then I caught the 62 again all the way through to Buxton, a fantastic journey especially the steep climb up from Edale. I finished off by taking the 61 from Buxton to Glossop and then the train home from there. All three bus routes had absolutely superb scenery, lovely villages and lots of interest.”

Ed then went on to describe his travels in Scotland…

“Inspired by your several blog posts about the ember electric coaches, earlier this month I had a wonderful six day holiday in Scotland to try out the recently expanded network. Starting from Aberdeen, I caught the ember E1 to Dundee, had an hour in Dundee, then returned to Aberdeen on the superb E11, a road I have hoped to be able to take a bus over ever since I first caught Stagecoach’s 201 to Braemar. The following day I did the E7 from Aberdeen to Inverness. Then it was the E6 to Wick, Thurso and Scrabster, which was also a very scenic road which I had been planning to take the X99 one day but the Ember was an even better option. I returned south to Inverness on the E6 again. Then there was a leg on CityLink to Perth Broxden, where I changed onto Ember E3 to Dunblane, but from this week I would have been able to take Ember directly to Dunblane! Dunblane is a lovely town where I had an hour and a half break, then I caught the E4 to Fort William, another stunningly scenic route which was on my list to travel on one day. After a night in Fort William, my final Ember route was the E5 to Glasgow, a lovely route which I have travelled several times before on CityLink. I was hugely impressed by the quiet, smooth and comfortable Ember coaches and their great and friendly drivers, the whole experience was very relaxing and enjoyable, and I am already planning my next trip!”

Wow, what a wonderful six day’s ride around Scotland’s finest scenery.

And now there’s even more routes to travel on with ember….

ember’s new INV-EDB route

Roy got in touch to let me know ember are launching a new Inverness to Edinburgh express coach route from tomorrow (Wednesday 5th). It complements the Inverness to Glasgow service the company started a couple of weeks ago on 22nd October. The new route calls at Aviemore, Dalwhinnie, Pitlochry and Perth with initially seven return journeys a day increasing to 12 from 26th November running ’round the clock’. An end-to-end adult single will be £18.10.

More on Gatwick Express

Peter made contact following my recent comment that with Gatwick’s second runway approved we’ll need to see the Gatwick Express increased back to four trains an hour. Peter’s a regular user of the Brighton Mainline and had a counter view that a 15 minute frequency “could only be contemplated if all airport passengers from Victoria used it, which of course they don’t.” 

He pointed out “in 1984 the Gatwick Express was inaugurated with some success, to keep airport passengers’ luggage off the regular service trains since this had long been a cause of heated arguments” reminding me that at Gatwick “other services between these points were shown as terminating at Clapham Junction and this ruse seemed to be effective” but was subsequently abandoned.

Peter observes “in my experience the Gatwick Express is now usually lightly loaded outside the peaks.  The service was reduced to half hourly and merged with the Brighton ‘fasts’, facilitating the provision of two dedicated hourly services to both the East and West Coastways, increasing capacity and avoiding splitting and joining at Haywards Heath.  This also made better use of line capacity as paths are lost if trains terminate en route.  On weekdays, Gatwick has 8 tph from Victoria and 6 tph from the Thameslink core. I continue to use the line on a fairly regular basis, both Southern and Thameslink, and in my opinion the current timetable has been better thought through than any other in the past sixty years.”

TfL’s farcical bus stop timetable displays

As readers will know TfL has completely lost control of its display of timetables at bus stops with missing timetables now more common than those which are posted. Neville sent me an email yesterday expressing his understandable frustration at TfL’s incompetence in responding to the many observations he’s made to them about a missing panel on route E3. Neviille told me “I decided to report a problem back in the spring of this year that had existed for at least a year. However, I wasn’t expecting quite the scale of uselessness in making the effort I have continued to make since then! There’s no hope, which is the conclusion I think you’ve reached on this subject too.” Here’s how Neville described the situation on TfL’s feedback form.

Back to Cape Wrath

And finally for this round up is a wonderful email from Mel Holly reminiscing about his trip to Cape Wrath, also in 2019 as mine was, when he made the journey with two friends to mark the 50th Anniversary of a small car club they belong to by driving from Bognor Regis to Durness (for Cape Wrath) but living in Peterborough, Colchester and Sunderland, the trio had first to drive to Bognor Regis to begin the adventure.

Mel explains “the trip’s reason was we’d established that Bognor Regis-Cape Wrath is the furthest you can go in a [nearly] straight line on the mainland. Naturally, we avoided motorways and other club members joined us for the trip at various points. These three were the only ones that did the whole length”… and Mel sent through a photo of the three cars with his being the light blue Trabant.

Mel also sent through photos of the wonderful foghorn beyond the Cape Wrath lighthouse which is also worth a visit “Like you,” Mel concluded, “I would heartily recommend a visit.”

That’s all for now.

Roger French

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