Seen Around

Thursday 30th July 2026

More miscellany from the past month….

A ride on the 77

It’s been a few years since I’d travelled on Stagecoach’s spectacular scenic circular route 77/77A in the Lake District so was pleased to make another journey while in the area earlier this month.

This delightful route links Keswick with Derwent Water and Fells, Seatoller, Buttermere and Whinlatter Forest Park as well as Low Lorton and Braithwaite and is always very popular with visitors and walkers.

The scenery is simply splendid which photos taken through a bus window on a phone…

… just can’t do justice to.

The route has to be travelled to be appreciated…

… as many passengers do, especially around the north and western arcs of the route between Buttermere and Keswick. As you can see in the above photo, that section of route on a late afternoon journey back into Keswick was popular with returning walkers and tourists.

Settle’s outstanding Friends

We should all be grateful for the wonderful work put in by the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line (FoSCL).

They do a magnificent job keeping the stations in tip top condition, complete with fantastic heritage signs and paraphernalia…

… as well as a shop selling books and memorabilia at Settle station itself and informative poster displays in the waiting room (and guided tours of the adjacent signal box)…

… and also guided tours along the line itself, often with coach parties who travel between Settle and Appleby which can make for busy trains.

It’s almost impossible to believe the line was once almost closed for lack of passengers (which was never really the case, it was more a cost saving proposal).

Even at the Carlisle end of the route there’s a nice ‘green area’ where passengers can wait for their train, with nice signage.

I always enjoy a journey on the line and this month was no exception.

Was it Bill or was it Ben?

As my brother and I travelled down the line from Carlisle we were intrigued by many ‘characters’ we noticed on the platforms…

… and trying to work out what they were all about was quite puzzling.

Walking from the station to Settle’s Market Place there were many more but on arrival there we spotted an explanation…

…with the Town Crier letting everyone know the Flowerpot Festival was back in business.

Running from mid July to 6th September the Festival encourages visitors to “stroll around Settle during the summer months and be amazed, amused, astounded & astonished  by the quirky flowerpot displays decorating the town“…

…as well as buy a flower pot or two from the Market itself.

Luton’s accessible bonus

At last it’s good to see work is now well in hand to make Luton’s railway station accessible with lifts and a new footbridge being installed across its five platforms.

It must be one of the busiest stations in the Home Counties which until now has only been accessible by using stairs between the platforms and the entrance/exit.

It’s a big job and is not expected to be completed until the New Year, but I’m sure when its finished it will be welcomed not just by those who find stairs difficult or impossible but anyone who struggles in any way to travel with luggage, prams and other disabling issues.

A new lift is already in operation taking passengers to and from the existing ticket office and gateline which sit above the tracks and this was proving popular when I passed through the station earlier this month.

Just to add … the two large tower cranes you can see in the first photo are not to do with the footbridge installation but are part of the redevelopment of the adjacent site to the station and Interchange which has laid barren and empty for so long. So good to see some development taking place at last.

While in Luton I spotted this well turned out new Arriva ADL Enviro400 on route 321which I have included to balance up the photo of a rather tatty Arriva bus in the blog about routes X6/X60 last month, and just to show Arriva is now investing in new vehicles giving improved quality and presentation which is very welcome to see.

The Met goes grey

I was puzzled to see the ‘line diagrams’ above the doors on a Metropolitan line train include the name of the line – Metropolitan – in Jubilee line grey rather than Metropolitan line purple.

Someone I was travelling with observed it might have faded, but I doubt it, as they all seemed to be the same.

Arnos Grove’s sidings revamp

Passing through Arnos Grove the other day I was struck by all the work going on to modify the sidings which I assume is in connection with the upcoming introduction of the much delayed new trains by the end of this year (originally due in 2025). I know there’ve been many teething problems with the trains necessitating a delayed introduction and testing is now well underway, but it would seem infrastructure work is also running late.

Don’t pee after three

I’m always pleased to see a toilet provided at an Underground station, especially in the outer suburbs after making a long journey, but arriving in Oakwood…

… your bladder has to know the right time to avail itself of the facility.

I didn’t look to see if the Ladies is similarly affected but either way that apostrophe ‘S’ is proving to be an “inconvenience” as well as the toilet vandalism. I do hope it’s not my old school (Southgate School in nearby Sussex Way) where the culprits originate. If so, I’m ashamed.

Are you waiting comfortably?

Passing through the village of Stainton (between Keswick and Penrith) on a Stagecoach route X5 it was lovely to see the steps taken to make the wait in the bus shelter nice and convenient with not only a couple of kitchen chairs inscribed with the village name, but a timetable book on each one too.

I’d alighted from the bus here as the driver had spotted an elderly woman in distress on the other side of the road having had a bad fall on the pavement. The driver asked me (and my brother) to accompany him and see what we could do to help but sadly it was too risky to lift her up with a suspected broken hip and being in considerable pain. Daniel, the Stagecoach driver, called an ambulance and lent the woman his phone so she could talk directly to the control room about her condition only to be told the wait for an ambulance would be two and a half hours. Luckily residents also then came to help so we left them to comfort the poor woman, but all credit and praise to Daniel for his excellent care. I made sure his managing director, Tom, was briefed about his efforts so they could be properly recognised.

Blackburn’s nice bus station

It had been a while since I’d passed through Blackburn and had time to take a good look at the town’s bus station. This opened opened as along as 10 years ago as part of a redevelopment of the Cathedral Quarter.

The outside is all glass whereas internally the 14 stands each have a departure list display..

… and a short row of seats but passengers also make use of the huge struts coming down from the roof…

… which offer a small place to sit at the bottom which I saw a number of people taking advantage of.

… including in some cases making for a very comfortable wait. I was also impressed to see a network map on display…

… with an explanation of which operator runs which service…

… as well as an information window open and staffed with a display of printed timetables too. Fantastic.

The only disappointment was the toilets were closed off by some rather imposing barriers…

… but it may have just been for cleaning as when I left they were back open again and fortunately the turnstiles weren’t in operation.

More toilet news

Meanwhile over in the toilet on a Northern train I was pleased to see a message advising passengers to “Support Rail”.

Of course we all should …. by making as many journeys as possible. I reckon that’d be a good slogan and logo for GBR.

Back in Blackburn

Back in Blackburn I was intrigued to see the bus priority arrangements outside the railway station whereby the passing general traffic is routed either side of the main roadway with that being devoted exclusively to buses which have priority to enter and leave that section of road.

It does mean pedestrians exiting the station have to cross the lane with general traffic before reaching the bus stops…

… but I thought it was a novel way of managing traffic and indicating buses really are important.

The station itself is famed for its accessible access with its very long ramp to and from platform 4…

… which leads to and from a further, more gentle ramp from the ticket barriers towards the main entrance/exit foyer…

…where there’s a relatively new bank of large size ticket machines.

Over at Clitheroe

Meanwhile, over in Clitheroe the entrance to the station from the town’s ‘Interchange’ is a more modest affair but nevertheless still welcoming..

… with a nice coffee shop and floral display.

News of four timetables

My thanks to blog readers Simon, John and Brian who’ve kindly sent me copies of timetable books that have caught their eye this month. Simon sent this wonderful booklet produced by the Somerset Bus Partnership containing details of bus services in Wellington and Wiveliscombe…

… which he tells me “is available from outlets in the town and on display at bus stops.”

It also contains details of coach services as well as a reference to the Slinky branded DRT and Wivey Link community transport. Well done to the Somerset Bus Partnership.

Then over in Bedford, John kindly sent me a copy of a recently produced timetable book from Stagecoach – yes, I know, very uncharacteristic.

There’s a helpful introduction page letting you know the services included and a very helpful and colourful network map…

… but there aren’t any actual timetables in the booklet.

Each service is shown separately in a table with the time of the first and last bus and “up to” frequency along with photographs of Stagecoach buses at work…

…but you really need to know whether departure times vary during the day (especially when the first and last bus are shown at different ‘minutes past the hour’ – see MK1 above) especially for rural routes…

… as well as needing to know timings for your journey from your home bus stop rather than just the town centre as well as intermediate points along the line of route if alighting there. So, although it’s great to see Stagecoach investing in printed information again, I’m a bit confused what this is trying to do.

It even includes details of competitive route SB12 over in Stevenage.

Then Brian kindly sent me the latest Bus Times from Transport for Cornwall the amazing 104 page A4 size “complete guide to bus times across Cornwall”. I hesitate to make any criticism of such a wonderful publication (and long may it continue) but thought it odd that for the first time the descriptor “complete guide” is somewhat questionable.

That’s because details of the summer uplift in a number of services (following the ousting of First Bus from the county by Go Cornwall Bus back in February) are only available in separate printed leaflets as explained on page three (above) which rather negates the idea of producing a“complete guide”.

However on relevant pages in the timetable book QR codes have been included which take you to a pdf of the leaflet showing the summer uplifted service.

It’s an odd decision to present information this way especially as the timetable book contains five full and five half pages promoting the Go-Ahead Group’s generic (and pretty useless) “it’s better by bus” campaign (which it’s centralised Group Marketing team are increasingly sucking out more funding from its supposed autonomous subsidiaries to pay for) and there are also two full pages devoted to GWR’s generic “ride Cornwall by train and bus” campaign advert.

I’d have thought it would have been more useful to include details of the summer uplifted bus routes.

And the fourth observation comes courtesy of a reader who was puzzled by the new timetable produced by First Bus for its former Jurassic Coaster services along the south coast, sadly now devoid of that attractive branding and the name itself (even though it’s a World Heritage Site) in favour of plain ‘Explore Dorset’.

Never mind, I’m sure First’s centralised marketing team know what they’re doing but do the timetable compilers for what looks like a classic AI generated piece of nonsense to make it harder for potential passengers to understand? As you can see from the extract of the X52/X53 timetable below, departure times vary from Bridport by a few minutes and at intermediate points along the route the open-top X52 is given different timings to the closed-top X53. For example. take a look at Burton Bradstock Anchor Inn with departures during the day at 09:54, 10:51, 11:54, 12:49, 13:54, 14:49, 15:52, 16:56 etc.

Most strange. Still, at least there is an attractive printed leaflet which actually includes the timetable rather than just a QR code as per the former Exmoor Coaster (and look what happened to that).

Lincoln’s Transport Hub – the good and the bad

Passing through Lincoln I was reminded how much improved the bus station environment is since the new building opened in 2018 right opposite the railway station.

But, whoever designed the access to the adjacent multi storey car park clearly didn’t appreciate the impact queuing traffic (alongOxford Street and Norman Street) to get into the car park will have on buses entering the bus station.

I was on a Stagecoach bus which took five minutes to travel the short distance (about 10 yards) from the junction of Oxford Street and Norman Street to the entrance to the bus station on a Saturday lunch time because the car park was full with cars queuing to enter. And this wasn’t even pre-Christmas.

Meanwhile inside the bus station, sadly the optimistic timetable leaflet holder for Stagecoach information looked rather forlorn…

… with just a leaflet from the Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum available…

… which looks an interesting place to visit…

… and to the right of the telephone box image is another display from PC Coaches of Lincoln actually containing a timetable for its Medi-Link service…

…as well as information for its holidays and day trips and a timetable leaflet for its route 44 and the shuttle bus to the Cathedral.

Nuneaton here

And finally for this month, a new brand name on me was seeing the “Elephant & Bear Line” promoted on the station signs at Nuneaton. It’s for the 17 mile line between Nuneaton and Coventry.

It was so named in 2023 following a public vote, and honours the historic symbols of Coventry (the elephant) and Warwickshire (the bear). You learn something new on every trip.

More miscellany next month but before signing off, just a quick shout out to Jeff Morss at his Fareline company who is operating his quirky once-a-week route 170 on Mondays during the summer school holidays again between Stuston/Diss and Felixstowe.

Regular readers may recall I featured this amazing route in a blog back in August 2024. Hope it goes well again, Jeff.

Roger French

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