Tuesday 30th December 2025
Not just another month end, but another year end, so here’s another round up of things that have caught my eye during December’s travels but not yet blogged about.
Welsh Government Transport’s Boxing Day Boob
And first up, a very late BusAndTrainUser Award for the Social Media Gaffe of 2025 awarded to the Welsh Government for posting on X on Boxing Day an encouragement to “get out and about this Boxing Day” with its “Go straight from rail to trail” campaign of linking rail journeys with scenic “walks from train stations”.
It’s just a pity no-one running the Welsh Government Transport social media account knew the Welsh Government operated Transport for Wales wasn’t operating any trains on Boxing Day. Other than that, it was a great thought for Boxing Day.
What a brilliant map
Hot on the heels of my recommendation to buy the new ‘The Rise and Demise of the Bus Map’ book in Saturday’s blog comes another map treat for you all – a website called ‘Brilliant Maps – Making Sense of the World, One Map at a Time‘ which features this fantastic zoomable map showing ‘The Colour of Buses In The UK & Ireland’.
It’s taken from the wonderful bustimes.org website which I’m sure blog readers will know is the ‘go to’ website for vehicle tracking and as it features the livery of each bus out on the road at any particular time, by zooming out you get to see the colours of all the buses in the country – try it on this link – and zoom in and out. Fantastic.
By the way, John Davies and publisher Matthew Shaw (of the book ‘The Rise and Demise of the Bus Map’) are grateful for the positive response to Saturday’s blog and all the orders they’ve received meaning the current stock of the book to hand has been exhausted and Matthew cannot gain access to the Timetable World storage unit to top-up supplies for dispatch until 2nd January, so if you’ve ordered a copy please be patient. You won’t be disappointed when it arrives in the post, hopefully next week.
Multi-coloured GTR
And talking of multi coloured fleet liveries, it presumably won’t be long before passengers using Gatwick Express and Southern will be getting used to all the trains being painted in the new GBR red, white and blue colours, so in the meantime, just to get them ready for the confusion that lies ahead (especially with Thameslink trains presumably also succumbing to the same patriotism) GTR are now running a former GWR green coloured train attached to a red Gatwick Express train on Southern journeys to Eastbourne, as seen here at Haywards Heath earlier this month.
Classy 376 class
Luckily Southeastern are getting in ahead of the compulsory one-size-boringly-fits-all GBR livery with its newly refurbished and newly painted Class 376 rolling stock now in service in increasing numbers – and very classy they look too.
Core disruption
On too many days to recall now, my travels using Thameslink during December were disrupted by “a recurring signalling fault” at City Thameslink where trains switch power from third rail to overhead. It got so bad that Jenny Saunders and Lucy McAuliffe (of GTR and Network Rail respectively) sent out a joint apology to passengers for “your patience”.
And I can assure them patience was being tried to the ultimate with the most annoying thing for me and fellow travellers one morning, being a well loaded northbound train from Brighton to Cambridge in the morning peak curtailed as far south as Haywards Heath at 07:30 where everyone was turfed off and had to catch the next, already well loaded, Brighton to Bedford train. The standard procedure being to axe all Brighton to Cambridge trains when disruption like this occurs to thin out the service, but I do wonder if that makes sense to do when the train is already pretty full and well on its way.
The problem is the passengers don’t thin themselves out, but I’ll spare you the photos of the inside of the train once we left East Croydon – it wasn’t a pretty sight.
Cardiff Bus Interchange hots up
It was good to see one of the three retail units in Cardfiff’s Bus Interchange has been taken by Starbucks (the other two remain empty), but I was surprised to see the rather primitive heating arrangements on the concourse involve portable electric heaters.
I wonder it they’ve passed a Risk Assessment?
£140 million revamp for Cardiff Central
Meanwhile, over at Cardiff Central station it was interesting to see the long queues of passengers waiting to pass through the gateline to exit the station every time a train came in from the Valley lines. The recently announced £140 million revamp to improve facilities and create more space can’t come soon enough.
Neither can the increased frequencies on the Valley lines with trains as photographed below from Treherbert already full and standing well before arriving into Cardiff as they pick up large numbers at the stations down the lines.
I’m wondering if the new Class 398 tram-trains are going to be able to cope even with the enhanced frequency. I can sense another Elizabeth line success story coming on.
Class 377 from Cardiff to Paddington
I was initially horrified when a GWR class 387 turned up at Cardiff Central for my journey back to Paddington after I’d been to Ynyswen at the beginning of December. But then we kept well to time and I found the seats, although too upright for the back, were at least comfortable on the bottom – something that can’t be said for the Class 800 family of trains where the seat cushions have worn badly.
I noticed the map diagram above the doors indicates the route is regularly operated with this class of train in addition to Newbury to Paddington.
Another Anniversary
While passing through Carnforth I noticed it’s 80 years since the famous Brief Encounter film was made. It certainly put that station on the map and it’s been well exploited with a museum and exhibition.
Brief Encounter with Bus Vannin
And talking of brief encounters I’d hoped to bring you a blog about the Isle of Man’s Bus Vannin operation during December as it’s been a couple of years since I last reported on the operator and the varied heritage transport on the island.
Sadly easyJet were not having one of its better weekends when I travelled so my travels around the island had to be severely curtailed. Instead here are a few photos to show the information on display at the main bus stops in Douglas is to a high standard…
… and numbers travelling on a cold and windy pre-Christmas Saturday were impressive.
Autonomous disappointment
Another blog that never made it this month was after an abortive visit to Cambridge to check out the latest extension to the autonomous bus trials taking place in the city. The Greater Cambridge Partnership had been promoting the fact Whippet was running an ADL Enviro100 in fully autonomous mode linking Park and Ride sites at Trumpington and Babraham Road with the Biomedical Campus. Sadly the autonomous technology had been switched off on the day I visited with the bus being driven in normal manual mode which didn’t make much of a story to report. Hopefully the software will be fixed and the automated service back in the New Year when two more buses are set to join in the fun.
AI cleaning at Charing Cross
Charing Cross railway station may not have had a Christmas tree again this year but it does have an automatic floor cleaner that wanders around the concourse except when it comes up to someone taking a photograph of it when it comes to a stop until the person taking the photograph moves out of the way.
An up to date timetable at a TfL bus stop
I was so surprised and impressed to see that an up to date timetable (including the new Sunday service) for route 477, operated by Go-Ahead’s Kent Country, had been installed at the Orpington War Memorial TfL controlled bus stop I took a photo of it and thought I’d include it in the month end round up.
Timetable books too
More good news is the continued availability of timetable books in Surrey with one dated from October 2025 for the Guildford/Godlming/Haslemere area available to pick up in Guildford bus station when I passed through on Saturday. Except it was only a stoke of luck I spotted another passenger pick one from a small pile on top of a red box by a departure stand.
Not an ideal way to distribute these endangered books.
Crawley variety
I was in Guildford as part of a post Christmas circular tour by bus made with my good friend Ray Stenning which saw us start our wanderings in Crawley bus station and noted the team at Metrobus had done a great job in amassing a variety of buses to step in…
… following the precautionary withdrawal of single deck hydrogen powered buses following the recent fire.
It certainly adds to the colour variety although a shame the stand-in buses are unable to use the Busway due to not having guide wheels.
Double deck hydrogen powered buses aren’t affected by the withdrawal and continue in service as normal.
It was also good to see the Travel Shop open on Saturday…
… and a comprehensive display of timetable leaflets…
… as well as maps…
… and somewhere to sit down.
No piles of timetables on random red boxes in the bus station here.
Although the company could do with sorting out missing vinyls.
Trust Flitwick to Bee Friendly
Passing through Flitwick railway station (just south of Bedford) I was impressed to see the northbound platform on the fast lines by the ticket office entrance/exit has a Bee Friendly section of garden. Well done to the Bee Friendly Trust and Thameslink for facilitating this.
A graffiti free Thameslink toilet
And another plaudit for Thameslink as I actually found a graffiti free toilet on a Class 700 train during the month. I made a note of its fleet number and will look out for it in the coming weeks to see how long that lasts.
Meanwhile over at Southeastern I do like the 3D image effect of the decorations on their toilet walls – all of which are always graffiti free.
What about Rainham (and East Grinstead … and Orpington)?
This sign letting passengers at Farringdon know where Thameslink trains travel south from Platform 3 could usefully be updated to show the extra destinations added since the timetable enhancements of 2018 including stations to Rainham as well as peak hour trains to East Grinsted and Orpington.
Clear signage at the Bush but not Hammersmith Bridge
I’m always impressed when passing through TfL’s Overground station at Shepherd’s Bush to see the very clear departure board but over at Hammersmith Bridge which has been closed to buses since April 2019…
… making for a very pleasant quiet walk across the River…
… there’s an unserved bus stop for the last almost seven years which still remains in situ with an out of date map in the shelter …
…but a rather appropriate cover for the bus stop flag making this perhaps holding the record for the longest closed bus stop.
GWR’s appalling customer service continues
Sadly easyJet don’t do Delay Repay so no compensation for my delayed arrival in the Isle of Man mentioned earlier, but back on the tracks I wonder if GWR are aiming to mimic Ryanair’s notorious approach to poor customer service with its continued hassle-as-standard ‘built in’ for any Delay Repay claim that’s just slightly more complicated than a straight A to B one operator journey claim.
Readers will recall me reporting GWR cancelled my intended train from Paddington to Castle Cary on 20th November with passengers having to travel by another train to Reading where we boarded the curtailed train that left Reading over half an hour late.
I duly submitted my Delay Repay claim that same evening specifying the train I caught from Hassocks to Farringdon, the Elizabeth line train to Paddington and then the cancelled/delayed GWR journey to Castle Cary.
Back came the reply 13 days later on 3rd December inevitably telling me the claim is “Unsuccessful” but oddly because “we have checked the journey you have claimed for and we are unable to find a timetabled journey that matches your claim. Therefore, your claim has been rejected on this occasion.”
Obviously that same day I submitted an online appeal which came back six days later on 9th December as “Unsuccessful” this time with the usual “as we would need further supporting information to proceed with this claim, please contact our customer relations team who will be able to discuss this further”.
I rang Customer Relations that same day and inevitably they didn’t have a clue what “supporting information” was needed (as the Delay Repay people never tell them) so as usual I’m put on hold for an eternity while they speak to colleagues “dealing with” Delay Repay and eventually come back to tell me they want to know whether I caught the Elizabeth line or the Hammersmith & City line between Farringdon and Paddington.
This is just complete obfuscation as the journey planner GWR uses to enable passengers to submit a claim in the first place defaults to the Elizabeth line, which is obvious as it takes a fraction of the time compared to the H&C. They might as well have asked ‘did I walk from Farringdon to Paddington?’.
They then wanted to know what train I took to Reading which I couldn’t precisely remember as it was either a Cardiff or Bristol bound train – I just rushed on board the next departure on seeing the train marked cancelled and was pleased to get to Reading in time to catch the train to Castle Cary, not knowing then it wouldn’t leave Reading for another half an hour.
Having answered these questions I left it with Customer Relations they’d tell the Delay Repay team and expected to hear back confirmation my claim was successful and would be settled.
Nothing was heard by 18th December so I sent an email to Customer Relations asking why the ongoing Delay to my Delay Repay claim which was met with an automated acknowledgment stating I can expect to hear back “as soon as we can … but it may be up to 4 weeks before you receive a full response from us”.
How much longer is Mark Hopwood going to let this shambles of customer service continue at his company? It really is a disgrace. Not only is GWR’s inability to run trains on time annoying (I’ve been checking since 20 November and that 10:36 from Paddington hasn’t once reached Castle Cary on time since then) but the company’s inability to deal with Delay Repay claims is the final straw of ineptness. It’s as if the staff revel in delaying customers then deliberately annoy them again by coming up with any reason to turn a claim down.
It keeps happening – and yes, exactly the same thing happened when I claimed for my next delay returning from Ynyswen on 6th December – guess why? Yup, “we have checked the journey you have claimed for and we are unable to find a timetabled journey that matches your claim. Therefore, your claim has been rejected on this occasion” but at least it was settled on appeal after I referred them to the blog entry I wrote on 9th December.
But I shouldn’t need to bore readers with this long diatribe just so I can escalate my claims by reference to it each time.
When are you finally going to get this ineptitude sorted Mark? Can I suggest you have a chat with colleagues at Northern who have a far superior system – and in house too rather than outsourced, and passengers can actually speak direct to staff dealing with Delay Repay. Revolutionary eh? You can read more about it here.
Happy New Year.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
Those Metrobus Streetlites are currently undergoing a repaint and (I think) internal refurbishment, which will see the end of that (in my opinion) awful branding they’ve had since new. Hence no money is presumably being spent on replacing those vinyls.
Darryl in Dorset.
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Passenger numbers on the revamped Valley Lines services are interesting. The downside of this is that the trunk bus services down the valleys and on to Cardiff are the profitable services from Stagecoach’s Porth depot and if large numbers of passengers transfer to rail the whole Rhondda area bus network will be destabilised. Note that TFW increased passengers by nearly 20% last year , fare revenue by less, but the subsidy requirement increased. I wonder when the cost of running all these extra trains hits the cost line wether there will be a further rise in subsidy, as Valley lines fares are very cheap.
Note that the Exeter to Okehampton bus service, previously commercial, has been deregistered and transferred under tender to Dartline, hopefully at a similar frequency.
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The economics of TfW, more broader than TfW Rail, are being ignored. Real head in the sand stuff so the wheels will come off. One wonders if the tram-trains will turn a wheel before that.
If you look at the ORR stats the usage is interesting. The Coryton line is down 2% but gained a Sunday service recently – work that out….
The revenue, as noted, from fares has not kept pace with the extra usage because the fares are gain further discounted. A whiff of anti-competitive pricing but for what reason?
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I’m not from the area, so I don’t know the local details, but the commercial bus-man’s logic of ‘passenger journeys are down, so cut the service’ might not be appropriate, particularly as the main core Valley Lines being used more in response to the perception that services are better chimes in with the data from e.g. the Elizabeth line, the DLR, the Croydon trams etc. – i.e. the way to get more passengers is to run more frequent trains, and if you provide Sunday and late evening services, people who would rather not drive, will not need to.
There have been commercial operators who understood this: back in the 1920s Underground Electric Railways of London created the first tube network – consistent, frequent services with well-signed interchanges and a good route-map. That has been a recipe for success for over a century now, but it’s a lesson which many bus operators – including TfL themselves – have still to take on board, if they really want to act out their glowing mission statements and ‘Put the Passenger First’. Here’s hoping for better in 2026 ….
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When you just view it as spending your budget than generating revenue, you can take that view. The ‘build it a they will come’ approach can work in urban areas, but the South Wales Valleys is not that. There has to be a levelling off of throwing good money after bad when all the other outcomes in Wales, NHS, Education etc. are in a right mess.
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Hope Metrobus have more success with there Hydrogen buses than Arriva & Stagecoach have had in Merseyside, all 20 have gone back to ADL to be converted to battery electric buses [the 10 delivered to Stagecoach never entered service], that’s money well spent.
SM
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Metrobus have performed wonders keeping the show on the road over Christmas enabling me to travel across Sussex assisted by the replacement buses tracking on Bustimes and on real time screens.
The brilliant ex Brighton Scanias you pictured still going strong after 20 years have allowed me to travel many miles on country routes like the 271, 273, 291 and 400 evoking memories from when they used to operate to Eastbourne on the 12s.
Metrobus drivers have remained cheerful despite having to drive unfamiliar buses without assault screens in some cases past their prime and I haven’t heard any complaints from customers either.
Full marks to the driver last night who ably navigated the twists and turns of the 271 in a 12 metre Scania only to get stuck in a Crawley estate caused by badly parked football traffic.
When I commented on the bus size after safely backing him out, he replied I’ve never driven one of these before but they are they fine.
Thanks to the Travel Centre for replacing my corrupt Keycard. I now have a hydrogen bus in my pocket that I can’t mistake for a hotel room key either.
Only one journey has failed and I got an apology from the customer service centre within an hour.
Well done to everybody at Metrobus keep up the good work.
John Nicholas
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‘Is that a hydrogen bus in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me’
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The 07.12 Paddington to Cardiff and 09.50 return (times slightly altered in the new timetable) have long been operated by Class 387s. The inbound service hardly ever runs to time though – and once there was a power failure and we sat for 20 minutes within yards of the terminus while Class 80x trains swept past on diesel!
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I currently have two Delay Repay claims outstanding which Avanti are trying to palm off to ScotRail. In both cases the train from my local station arrived 2 minutes late at Glasgow Central – so 2 minutes under the (generous) published minimum connection time. This feels barely relevant when my booked Avanti service to London was cancelled.
I’m now trying to get ScotRail to acknowledge that they’ve received the claims from Avanti, but that’s also proving something of a challenge.
(I think the lesson here is that when I put in my claim it should show I took an earlier train from my local station, which in reality I probably did, rather than entering what’s on my reservation)
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I CANNOT HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR. FALCON AND WHITE BUS, SERVING THE WALTON ON THAMES AREA, SHALL NOT BE RUNNING ON NEW YEAR’S DAY. I HAVE ALREADY SENT A PROTEST TO SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL. THE FEAR I HAVE, IS THAT THERE SHALL BE NO BUS SERICES AT ALL FOR ME ON ANY PUBLIC HOLIDAY IN 2026. GLADLY I LIVE VERY CLOSE TO HERSHAM STATION SO SHALL HAVE TO STUMP UP A RAILWAY FARE – JUST TO GET INTO GREATER LONDON. LUCKY PEOPLE IN THE EAST OF THE COUNTY – METROBUS SHALL RUN A SUNDAY SERVICE!
ANGRY, ANGRY, ANGRY. COUNCILLORS AND MP TO BE CONTACTED AT A LATER JUNCTURE.
JMG, 12,KT12 3EZ.
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Very disappointed in the reduction in New Years Day bus services over the past few years. In Herts I always remember it being a Sunday service and now there is nothing! Up here in MK there are no buses but in High Wycombe there is a comprehensive network.
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Blimey, that’s over dramatic. The vast majority of the country has no bus service on New Year’s Day, and it’s certainly not something high on most people’s priority list. When the local County insisted we ran contracted routes on that day, the numbers travelling were absolutely miniscule – it took many moons before they accepted that in times of financial stringency, their operation could be abandoned.
And as you have pointed out, there is still a train service running….
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On the subject of out of date TfL timetables an appalling example is that for the N9 at Heathrow Central bus station which I spotted on Christmas Day. Thanks to Carousel for getting me there for £2 on their excellent Christmas Day operation on the 111. Also impressive was publicity for the bus network operating on the day TfL abandons tourists and workers. Well done Carousel
Martin W
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I have been to the Isle of Man this year and last year and sadly my experience was not as positive.
Yes the timetable booklet is an amazing feature but working out exactly which stops are served by which route at which time is almost impossible.
Last year the timetables were on bustimes.org but there was no live tracking, you had to use the IoM’s own tracker.
This year the buses tracked ok but the timetables are not on the website.
The issue is where there is no information of exact routes between timing points which these days people would use Bustimes or Traveline for! And of course no journey planning via Google Maps as the data was missing or incorrect.
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I too almost got caught out a few weeks ago by the use of “suburban” stock on GWR to Cardiff. Boarding at Reading around 0730, I initially stood back, assuming the platform indicators were wrong! But found the ride, comfort and the ability to see more from the train than is normal, not an imposition.
I suspect the up-to-date 477 timetables (surprised me too!) are more as a result of the operation by a “London” operator, regardless of the fancy “Kent Country” name. Had Go-Bus been operating that section, as with service 3 in the Greater London area, it would have taken year or more to correct stop information and I believe the wrong timetables are still displayed at some.
Would we expect anything more from Wales?
I notice in the photograph of Hammersmith Bridge, some very stout bollards presumably preventing any vehicles access. This is probably as a result of a rouge bus, an RML on a private hire working one Sunday morning (I dare not divulge company name or vehicle identity as they are probably still looking for us!) and on which I was the unfortunate Conductor. It was long after the bridge had been closed to all traffic, and I had already mentioned to my Driver just for that day, a somewhat boorish individual, that it was inaccessible, but he knew best.
In spite of my warnings, he charged at the bridge with an almost full load, ignored the frantic Marshalls trying to stop us, and drove across at a quite reasonable speed. To this day I have never understood how he got away with it and indeed, why the poor old bridge didn’t collapse considering our weight.
Terence Uden
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