In my Inbox

Saturday 6th December 2025

Another month’s round up of emails readers have kindly sent me….

ember shakes up the coach hire market

Roy kindly drew my attention to further expansion by ember, the forward looking coach company in Scotland. Not only did the company launch two more inter-city routes between Glasgow and Inverness and Edinburgh and Inverness in October but last month began a new strand to its portfolio of electric coach hire AND something novel, a completely transparent hire rate. Its website explains the cost of each hire is a £300 flat fee plus £60 per hour of driving and £20 per hour waiting. With friendly drivers, live tracking, simple pricing, 100% electric, reliable and comfortable coaches I can see the ember approach will once again prove a winner and shake up the private hire market.

The ember website also includes a very helpful FAQ section too.

Cross words about Cross Country

Mel emailed me following my comments about overcrowding on Cross Country trains in last week’s Seen Around blog to add his forthright thoughts: “my most recent experience was the on-time 20:13 from Birmingham International (origin, Manchester) to Bournemouth, which arrived full and standing as a four-car Voyager. When I got off at Leamington Spa, it was still very full, and more people were trying to get on. This is not untypical. As a regular on the Birmingham-Peterborough service, apart from the odd days when you get a longer train, it is generally full and standing as you describe. Given XC’s fares are generally high, I don’t get why they need such a big subsidy. It would be interesting to do a big desktop recast.”

Mel went on to explain the background to the XC franchise reminding me “the last time it was properly re-franchised (when the routes were to change) Virgin decided not to bid when the DfT said it would be a two-car DMU network. Virgin saw the potential (which is obvious and very clearly big) on these routes, but the DfT just saw it as a ’no investment’ railway and couldn’t be persuaded otherwise.” Mel also added his thoughts on the Thameslink graffiti situation and concluded “it is terrible, and makes travelling on Thameslink – upright ironing board seats and no power/USB sockets or tables – even more unpleasant. Quite why people think having the DfT in charge is a ‘good thing’ is beyond me. Remember, it was the DfT that specified the trains (like the IET) and forced them on the operator, because they were ‘cheap’.”

Why bother telling TfL things?

Neville passed on his frustration at TfL’s feedack reporting service for logging details of damaged bus stops or those displaying incorrect information. He rather depressingly explained “I decided to report a problem close to home 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.”

To illustrate his point, Neville sent me the following acknowledgment received from TfL about his latest report….

And then, on a similar theme, the next day, I received an email from Max providing “a condensed account of TfL’s awful diversion arrangements in Sidcup, where part of the High Street was closed.” It’s difficult to succinctly summarise the chaotic arrangements Max described with two different diversions for two sets of roadworks but he provided me with a few maps to try and explain things…

… and the following explanation…. “Diversion A is shown in blue, diversion B in green, the exact location of the roadworks by a black dash and the buses’ normal route shown in red. For simplicity’s sake I have stuck with just the 51, 233 and 492 as these were the only buses affected by both sets of roadworks. I don’t believe the roadworks were supposed to overlap at all, and true enough diversion B’s roadworks only started once A’s had finished, however TfL’s communication did not reflect this. And in the time between roadworks A finishing and B starting, half of drivers continued following diversion A and half went back to the normal route, even with buses arriving literally one behind the other. Signage on High Street throughout instructed passengers to use stops S/R on diversion A (even once B was in place and diversion A was then impossible for the 51/233/492) – this was a problem particularly at stops T/U/V, which were not supposed to be served by these buses during either diversion. A 233 was seen driving the wrong way up the one-way system on diversion B.”

Express routes in the slow lane

Richard emailed with “a random thought” having reflected on London’s “Superloop and Bakerloop services being marketed as ‘express’ routes, I wonder whether, in view of the fact they cannot travel at more than 20mph and will be subject over certain sections to much slower average speeds, they could take the award for the slowest express services ever?”

He went on to explain “I doubt many, if any, other express services across the UK could claim to be anywhere near that slow, either now or in the past (except maybe those running 100 or so years ago)! It almost seems something that should be referred to the Advertising Standards Agency as ‘express’ implies ‘fast’ and would-be passengers might expect something much quicker than they will actually get. It could be construed as misrepresentation. These routes should have been marketed as limited stop services as that is what they are, although I have always wondered whether Joe Public understands what that term means, as it really is an example of ‘bus speak’ as I call those things that we understand internally and assume passengers will do so similarly without questioning whether they actually do or not.”

Peter gets Arriva to act

Peter got in touch following my visit to Scarborough to try out the X28 to tell me about the lack of timetables on display at the main bus stop outside the town’s railway station for Arriva’s popular route X93 to Robin Hood’s Bay, Whitby and Middlesbrough.

Peter explained “there is nothing in any of the bus shelters to say where it goes from, or when, or even at all. There are no printed timetables, nor anywhere in the town to get any bus information at all.. This has been the case for over 20 years. I only moved here in March, but I have sent emails to Arriva and to the council but without reply. The other bus shelters, served by Coastliner to Leeds and East Yorkshire services, all have timetables. Once you leave the station area, Arriva stops all have Arriva timetables too, even on the moors in the middle of nowhere, so why not at the terminus where nearly everyone boards? This week I have printed a timetable myself and posted it inside the shelter. I wonder how long it will last, and I wonder how many summer visitors never find out there is a bus to Whitby.”

That sounded like another example of a kind act by a helpful passenger to let fellow travellers know about a bus route only for another email to arrive from Peter the next day saying “after my timetable had been up for two days, it vanished, as I feared it would. But at the same time a brand new timetable case appeared on the adjacent lamppost with an up to date timetable….first time in 20 years. I spoke to a driver and he said that mine had been spotted, and had finally shamed them into action. So hopefully I did some good.”

It certainly did Peter, and well done to you although, as he pointed out, it’s a shame the plastic timetable case was damaged within a day and he also pointed out the yellow notice on the bus shelter (in the other photo) proclaiming route 93 stops there is a relic from the old United days – the last time the number 93 was used.

More Medway grief from roadworks

Readers may recall an insider working for a bus company in Medway tipping me off about disruptive roadworks in Strood back in April leading to a blog report. He’s got back in touch last month to say “me again! Strood strikes again! Today has operationally been extremely challenging due to emergency works that are scheduled up until the 18th November. Drivers cover Strood on one portion of a duty, and say Gillingham on another, so this had quite a great affect! It again highlights how one hold up can create gridlock. It went as far as Chatham Rail Station and beyond at one point … with … some 133’s and 191’s, diverted to avoid Strood completely.” He also sent me a Google map image which all too effectively demonstrates the scale of the challenge.

£285 for an upgrade to First

Andrew followed up my blog about rail ticket pricing to let me know “my son yesterday booked a single train ticket from Truro to Wellingborough for next Monday, with a Railcard, for £30.30 but was horrified to be offered a first class option for £315.35. Who in their right mind would go for that option? It is not surprising to see the seats empty!! I suppose somebody either thinks that we are stupid or has a weird sense of humour …..”

Armistice praise for Lothian

John emailed on 11th November to say “this year Lothian Buses publicised in advance all buses would pull over for two minutes at 11am. It was apparent from overheard radio messages that a prearranged count down was taking place as the 31 I was aboard passed Haymarket. I walked into Princes Street as the cannon fired in Edinburgh Castle at 11am. The new BZL electric bus pictured on route 24 like other buses had pulled to the side of the road with the driver activating the hazard warning lights before resetting the destination to show “Lest we forget” message. After the cannon fired a second time to mark the end of the minutes silence the incoming driver reset the destination and proceeded in service. Full marks to Lothian Buses for their highly professional commemoration of Armistice Day.”

A sign of the times

Steve followed up my recent blog about Oxford’s Temporary Congestion Charge by emailing me the above photo he took of a sign by the railway station telling cyclists not to leave the bikes in the area.

Darting about a website

Damon emailed to let me know Go-Ahead owned Dartline are “taking over a number of routes in Devon from Stagecoach in early January. Namely most journeys on the 6A (to be 66), as well as the complete operation of routes 96, 97, 348/349, 360 and 369 (Country Bus taking the 173, and MD Bus the one vehicle 660/855/856/859 school/shopper routes).”

He went on to add “what intrigued me was going onto the rebranded Dartline website https://www.dartline.co.uk/, where the operator seems to want to deny running any buses at the moment and giving any information out. The main menu at the top has no mention of local buses, and scrolling down to where there is a ‘Local Buses’ box just takes you to Traveline. While I know there are some smaller independents out there who run tendered routes with minimal/no presence online and just get by with locals knowing about the service, I found this quite surprising coming from a Go-Ahead owned operation!”

Little Reds hit the road

And finally thanks to Stuart who emailed me a photo of one of the nine new Mellor Strata Ultra Mercedes minibuses just delivered and branded as Little Reds for use on routes rural routes in Wiltshire and Dorset including the 25, 26, 27, 29 and 37. They certainly look smart.

Roger French

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