In my Inbox

Thursday 13th August 2026

It’s been a while since I’ve shared emails kindly sent to me by blog readers at busandtrainuser@gmail.com so here are some more from recent weeks…

The most out of date information on public display?

First up is an email from Peter last week who suggested “a competition to find the most out of date information on display”.

“My offering is attached”, Peter wrote. “Located at Brookley Road, Brockenhurst. The road markings are still in place for the stop as well”.

Can anyone beat 23 years?

Why are the results of LNER fares “trial” a State Secret?

Paul sent me his recent correspondence with the Department of Transport in which he attempted to find the evidence behind Lord Hendy’s recent public claim (at Rail Live in June) that “LNER’s long-distance ticketing trial had been deemed a success and he expected Great British Railways ‘long-distance ticketing offering’ to be similar”.

Noting this, Paul submitted a freedom of information request for “any ministerial briefings, submissions or advice provided to Lord Hendy relating to the outcome of the LNER long-distance ticketing trial prior to those remarks, together with any reports, analyses, evaluations or other documents referred to in or supporting those briefings. If the assessment relied on specific performance metrics or success criteria, please also provide those together with the data or analysis used to assess them.”

Guess what? Paul received a response giving a number of reasons why such information won’t be provided in the public domain at this time including one which Paul describes “seems to come from an alternative universe considering all the TOCs are being nationalised”.

The response stated “train operating companies would be reluctant to provide their free and frank advice and views in future confidential consultations if they felt that this information would be routinely placed into the public domain ahead of any final decisions and announcements.”

So, Lord Hendy states what he expects GBR’s “long distance ticketing offering” will be but evidence from the current (publicly funded) “trial” at Government owned LNER is “confidential”.

Preston’s bus battle intensifies

David emailed with an update on the battle between Preston Bus and Stagecoach with details of changes being introduced by Preston Bus at the end of this month.

“Firstly, Preston Bus are withdrawing service 19A, the Lea leg of service 19, and running all of them as simple 19s via Larches. It will be a shame for the people of Lea to lose their link to the railway station, but clearly, Preston Bus don’t feel enough people are using that service to justify it, and the 31 still runs the exact same route and goes into town via another route. That has the effect of removing the main competition to the Stagecoach 61 and 68 on the couple of stops that they share on the way into town, but probably does prop up the seriously struggling 31.

“Much more interestingly though, Preston Bus are extending their service 6 at both ends. It will now run Longridge to Penwortham. The route from Longridge mirrors Stagecoach service 1 until it turns off at Gamel Lane, where it runs into town via Deepdale Road. It will then run via the railway station, and Middleforth, to Penwortham, thus competing with service 111. I’m not sure where the exact terminus in Penwortham will be yet, but all will become clear on Bustimes soon enough.

This looks like a clear message to Stagecoach, you play that game with us, and we can play back just as hard.”

Only if there’s a hole in one

Richard recently spotted this unusual display at Newcastle station referring to Lumo’s service to Edinburgh. He explained “I know they have strict luggage limits on their trains but I wonder if the reference to golf clubs is just part of their quirky marketing?”

He was also puzzled by another display at Manchester Piccadilly wondering how many coaches would be on the TfW train he was catching to Cardiff Central.

Would it be five or maybe it would be seven?

Bus Information draws a blank

Stuart sent me the photo below from outside Cambridge railway station showing a bus stop flag proclaiming it offers a “Bus Information Point”.

There’s not much room in the display in any event.

Woodhall Spa’s hidden gem

Keith picked up on my recent comment in the blog on Brylaine’s route B617 about making a return visit to Woodhall Spa recommending “their cinema is an absolute hidden gem and about a 10 minute walk away from the main street.”

Keith continued “it’s in 1920’s condition, still complete with an organ in screen 1 that’s still used and a fascinating entrance area full of film memorabilia. It’s well worth a visit to Woodhall for the cinema alone!”

Stop Board UK

Justin has been in touch a few times to update me on his project to produce “a free live bus arrivals tool covering every bus stop. No app download, no login, no ads. You pull up a stop page and see what’s coming next, like a digital departure board.”

Justin began his project covering North West England but has recently added every bus stop in England with scheduled timetable coverage included for bus stops in Scotland and Wales “for now, with real-time to follow as the data becomes available”. You can check it out at stopboard.uk. Well done, Justin.

What might have been for First Kernow

Clay has just graduated with a well deserved first class honours degree after studying the graphic design course at Falmouth University. As part of this, seeing the slow deterioration in the way First Kernow’s image and branding was going he “began working on a (hypothetical) project to refresh the branding, marketing and positioning of the company within the local market as part of my degree.”

Clay kindly sent me the ideas he included in his project for his degree explaining the rationale that “because Kernow had 15 or so routes before it closed as opposed to Go-Ahead’s 150 or so, and because Kernow’s fleet was largely composed of modern MMC’s at that time, the thought was to reposition Kernow as a bit more of a specialised, premium service. Sort of like if Stagecoach Gold was on a tight budget.”

Congratulations and very well done to Clay and I’m sure a successful career in design for the transport industry lies ahead of you with your obvious talents.

Refreshed Thameslink

Duncan emailed to let me know “the exterior of one of the ‘refreshed’ Thameslink trains looks brand new. Although I’m not sure why a train washer cannot do the same thing. The diagonal white line on the exterior trains is also not on the the refreshed ones.”

I hadn’t realised the livery was being ‘refreshed’ especially with the impending roll out of GBR’s patriotic red, white and blue colours. Duncan enclosed the above photo of a refreshed train as well as a non-refreshed one (which features the diagonal line) – “it’s not until you see a shiny one you realise how filthy the existing ones are.”

He’s right; now I can’t stop spotting how filthy Thameslink trains have become – they do need a timely refresh.

Refreshed Lowestoft

And there”s more good news on the refresh front from Simon who writes following my critical comments about Lowestoft bus station when taking a ride on route 99 to Southwold and Halesworth. There’s now been a much welcome makeover meaning out with the 15 year old branding and in with “new First Bus branding across the building’s windows giving the bus station a much more up-to–date look”, Drivers were overheard saying “how good it was to see these improvements being made at their local depot” confirming it’s not just passengers who notice these things but morale of front line staff is impacted too. The wonky timetable displays I photographed have also all been sorted. That’s so good to see – well done to the First Bus marketing team that sorted it.

Shetland gets a decker

Trevor emailed to say “some years ago you did a blog on Shetland. We have just been there for 10 days. A double decker has now arrived on Shetland – for Lerwick cruise shuttle duties. Photos attached.” It’s an ADL E400MMC with R Robertson.

Ye Olde Stagecoach stopped here

Steven sent me the following message and photos… “your comment about old bus stops, not sure if this one seen from the Faresaver bus between Melksham and Chippenham was served by Ye Olde Stagecoach……

… also I think you have highlighted this one before, but good to see BR parcels traffic still alive in Guildford..“

Thanks Steven. I read an article recently about parcel traffic coming back to the railways in some areas.

East Yorkshire’s running time gaffe

Following my observation about new route 567 in Glastonbury needing its running time sorted came an email this week from Richard who travelled on East Yorkshire’s 31X from Helmsley to York after a day out on the Moorsbus network when he “was very surprised to find the bus arriving in York 14 minutes early”. Richard spotted an error in the timetable between Shipton and York. He emailed East Yorkshire back in June but hasn’t received a reply. Looking on line last Saturday evening Richard observed “tonight, tracking shows it a whopping 21 minutes early at the final stop, after right time (give or take a minute) all the way to Shipton.” Clearly something needs sorting before DVSA’s monitoring team catches us with this. Hopefully someone from East Yorkshire will read this and correct the error.

Oh! What’s occurring in Barry

Richard had also been in South Wales recently (on an All Line Rover) and spotted these two posters which caught his attention.

Not sure what Bryn would think of the lack of toilets.

Matlock’s oddities

John contacted to let me know of a few oddities to watch out for when I’m next taking a journey from Derby to Matlock. “At Derby, note the Arrivals section of the Departures Board on which I spotted an idiocy a couple of months back, and told EMR, who acknowledged my email, but appear to have done nothing (no followup, and the same problem still evident when I was through Derby a couple of weeks back): It’s the Arrival from Nottingham via Birmingham New Street???”

The same oddity is shown for the arrivals from Newcastle as well as Bristol Temple Meads (which has arrived via Leeds!).

John continued with more … “at Ambergate… the Flanders and Swan got it wrong by including Ambergate in their song about lost stations ‘The Slow Train’. Apparently they used the Beeching list of stations slated for closure – and Ambergate got reprieved. And it still has a token instrument in use! At Matlock Bath, the station was closed for five years (1967-1972): seemingly a rare example for the era of realising a mistake and correcting it and at Matlock, note how the train stops right at the Darley Dale end of the platform. This is because several years back, the platform canopy at the Derby end was dangerous and trains were moved away as a precaution. Years later, the canopy has been fixed, but depsite repeated pleas to EMR staff to report the problem, the “S” stop board remains in the wrong place and passengers have a needless walk.”

John continued with an observation “recent timetables for Matlock leave a 5 minute turnaround time – very unrobust given the length of the route from Lincoln/Cleethorpes and the potential for delay at the Newark flat crossing. But if your train was on time and you were going back to Derby, there might just be time to jog around the corner to see the glory that is the Information Screen.”

John observes: “this appears to be a wonder of compromise. Is it to provide information for rail passengers, or to inspire visitors who have come by car into realising that there are trains and buses in Matlock? Not sure? Why not site it somewhere that isn’t terribly effective for either group?  Not sure whether the (single-faced) screen should face those arriving in Matlock or those departing? Why not face it parallel to the footpath so that nobody really notices it at all?”

“And what if you can’t decide whether it is a promotional tool for attractions in the Peak District or a serious tool for live information about Public Transport? Why not alternate the two so that even if someone does know where the sign is and thinks that knowing the next train time might be useful when they are already 80% of the way to the station, there is a 50% chance that the screen will be telling them how nice it would be to visit Chatsworth House instead.”

Which way does the 38 go in Braintree?

Adam was looking at one of the (usually very) helpful route maps on the bustimes.org website and stumbled across the map for Stephensons route 38 between Halstead and Witham via Braintree explaining “I can’t help but wonder how anyone in Braintree makes sense of it given this bustimes/BODS map!”

In my Post Box

And finally, hot off the press as it dropped through my post box yesterday lunch time – the Omnibus Society have done it again. After the success of its Powys timetable book, prolific author, Keith Shayshutt has produced a comprehensive timetable book published by the Omnibus Society containing timetables, maps and photographs of every bus route in Dumfries and Galloway.

Keith explains “inspired by the Powys timetable booklet, and having spent a few days in Dumfries & Galloway in May, I took it upon myself to produce a complete D&G timetable booklet for August 2026.”

It really is something when a member of the public does better than a Transport Authority at promoting the bus routes it funds. As Keith observes “bus information in D&G is awful to say the least and I hope this finds a niche in the market”.

Keith also adds “there is now a working group at the OS to see if we can produce more of these for counties and bus operators who are poor like Powys and D&G”. Good for the OS. This latest booklet is excellent. Well done Keith. Where’s your next holiday?

More from my In-box another time.

Thanks for all the messages.

Roger French

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