Thursday 13th February 2025 Blog reader Geoff kindly drew my attention to a recent online news story in which Derbyshire Live, part of the Reach news group, used a clickbait headline implying all was not well for “a new Derby bus hub”. It's not yet been built and is linked to the huge residential development... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 11th February 2025 There was an understandable backlash in December 2024 when Transport for Wales reduced the timetable on the iconic Heart of Wales line between Swansea and Shrewsbury via Llandrindod Wells. Passengers had got used to having an improved five return journeys a day as well as evening journeys at each end of... Continue Reading →
Saturday 8th February 2025 Wigan’s two stations are both located on Wallgate just 100 metres apart. Tessa Sanderson could easily throw a javelin from one entrance to the other (assuming no pedestrians were about for obvious Health & Safety issues). Wigan North Western came first, opening in 1838 as plain Wigan with a renaming to... Continue Reading →
Thursday 6th February 2025 Southampton gained a new bus hub at the end of last year, and I got round to paying a visit early on Sunday morning to see what the £3.9 million spent has delivered. It's located on Castle Way by Albion Place south of the popular West Quay Shopping Centre and close... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th February 2025 As identified in a recent blog, the future of route 84B between Potters Bar and Barnet is far from secure with confirmed funding in place only until April. Hertsmere Borough Council stumped up the initial £183,600 to fund the service for its first 12 months in September 2023 after which Hertfordshire... Continue Reading →
Saturday 1st February 2025 Photo courtesy Inside Croydon Bus shelters in Croydon have been in the news again this week with online media reporting TfL is to "install, maintain and clean new bus shelters across more than 100 locations”. In fact 114 brand new shelters are destined for the Borough. Why the big news story?... Continue Reading →
Thursday 30th January 2025 Another month end; another round up of things I've 'seen around' but not blogged about. STP takes over KGX First up this month is my journey from London to Newcastle last Saturday which coincided with the closure of Kings Cross and the East Coast Main Line between London and Peterborough to... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 28th January 2025 It's not often a brand new motorway service area opens for business and even more rare for there to be a new bus route laid on to serve it, but that's exactly what happened on Friday before last when the new £40 million (some reports quote £55 million) Welcome Break services... Continue Reading →
Saturday 25th January 2025 Many thanks for all the positive feedback and comments about the first in this new fortnightly blog series featuring Hertford. I was enthralled to read the fascinating back stories and history about Hertford’s stations many of you kindly provided as well as making suggestions for future places to include as the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 23rd January 2025 The latest Hidden London tour from the London Transport Museum launched yesterday and I went along to see what's on offer. This one features a behind the scenes look at Green Park Underground station, or to give it its original name, Dover Street, with passageways, ventilation shafts and lift landings long... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 21st January 2025 They say the railway's byzantine fare structure is going to be sorted when Great British Railways (GBR) finally gets up and running. But that promise is like Billy Bunter's never arriving postal order. Every incoming Minister in the DfT over the last couple of decades has promised to sort the complex... Continue Reading →
Saturday 18th January 2025 Leicestershire County Council introduced a raft of changes to its subsidised bus network in the Melton Mowbray area from 5th January including major renumbering of bus routes and a new DRT scheme which joins its original FoxConnect branded scheme introduced in August 2022 in the south west of the county which... Continue Reading →
Thursday 16th January 2025 Today's blog is dedicated to Adam Trimingham, probably the most superb journalist who's ever worked in the regional newspaper industry and a truly wonderful, kind, generous and lovely man. Adam sadly died on Saturday aged 82. Photo courtesy The Argus Adam moved to Brighton from London, where he'd cut his teeth... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 14th January 2024 It's good to see Merseyside's Mayor Steve Rotheram provided funding for the reintroduction of the limited stop bus route between Runcorn, Widnes and Liverpool just before Christmas, from 16th December. The new look route X4 is operated by Arriva running hourly on Mondays to Saturdays over an extended day between 05:00... Continue Reading →
Saturday 11th January 2025 Welcome to a new blog series featuring towns and cities around Britain which, by a quirk of history, are blessed with having two railway stations on different lines serving completely different destinations. To kick things off I've been to Hertford and had a look at that town's contrasting pair of stations:... Continue Reading →
Thursday 9th January 2025 In the current era of BSIP funding for exciting new developments you don't find many brand new bus routes being introduced on a purely commercial basis these days, but Milton Keynes is getting a nice helping thanks to the Arriva commercial team’s continued much welcome policy of seeking out new markets... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 7th January 2025 Biggest news on the Changing Hands front this week is of course the start of the third and final tranche of Greater Manchester's Bee Network from Sunday when Metroline took over routes and bus garages previously operated by Stagecoach together with Go North West and Diamond Bus also gaining smaller chunks... Continue Reading →
Saturday 4th January 2025 There are quite a few recent developments on the DRT front to catch up on so here’s an update to keep blog readers informed. ting begets TIGER As reported in my year end review, at the end of November the West Huntingdonshire based scheme funded by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority... Continue Reading →
Thursday 2nd January 2025 Welcome to the first blog of the New Year which is my monthly look back at things that caught my eye during the past month's travels not previously covered in posts. And we begin with a shout out to Alex Nelson at NationalRail.com for his latest.... National Rail Network Map It's... Continue Reading →
Thursday 26th December 2024 Here's a link to BusAndTrainUser's Annual video of 100 bus and train developments from 2024. All in just 10 minutes viewing. Something to while away those Boxing Day blues. Blogging returns next Thursday, 2nd January 2025. Roger French
Tuesday 24th December 2024 A warm Christmas Eve welcome to the not to be missed Annual BusAndTrainUser Awards. Don't believe the hype from all those other award ceremonies which dominate the bus and rail industry social calendars at this time of year telling you how they're the most important. These are THE one-and-only, genuine, life-changing,... Continue Reading →
Saturday 21st December 2024 Welcome to another end of year nostalgic look back over the last twelve months of bus and train activity in Britain. For those who are 'time-scarce' here's the customary word cloud summing up 2024 in one easy glance. But for those with bags of time, we begin with the usual BusAndTrainUser... Continue Reading →
Thursday 19th December 2024 The final bus route numbered 100 to feature in this blog series is the newest, the least frequent and the least used of all the 26. The route between Devizes and Marlborough only began in October 2023 and was initially part of Wiltshire Council’s semi-flex DRT initiative. It's operated by Go... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 17th December 2024 Over the last ten years we’ve welcomed Tweedbank in 2015, Okehampton in 2021, then Levenmouth earlier this year and now this week, after a 60 year break, passenger trains are running again on the 18 mile Northumberland line between Ashington and Newcastle and all the signs are it’ll be another successful... Continue Reading →
Saturday 14th December 2024 Sometimes it's just nice to take a leisurely three bus excursion around a lovely rural part of the country with no tight connections and some attractive scenery to enjoy on an unhurried itinerary. Norman Kemp, part owner and top man at Aylesford based Nu-Venture bus company, recently gave me a set... Continue Reading →
Thursday 12th December 2024 1. Another connecting bus that doesn't connect Residents in the village of Downe just inside the Greater London boundary with Kent have had their usual seamless bus journey into Bromley disrupted these past few weeks due to Southern Gas Networks closing Rockery Road; the main access road from Keston, used by... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 10th December 2024 It's been a bumper year for bus station rebuilds and Transport Hubs. Already featured in blogs this year have been Belfast, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Crewe, Durham, Halifax, Inverness and Stockport and just in the last few weeks there's been two more - Kingston-upon-Thames and Porthcawl with another 'frozen-in-time' rebuild in Porth. So... Continue Reading →
Saturday 7th December 2024 As this fortnightly series moves ever closer towards its terminus today’s penultimate route 100 to be featured is Cheltenham’s Park and Ride operation. And if that sounds familiar, you’ve got good recall as I half featured the route back in June while on my 7-day All Line Rail Rover and stopped... Continue Reading →
Thursday 5th December 2024 It’s something that’s happened since I retired so it’s a bit baffling and a struggle to keep up with, especially the tech side, but although the Bus Open Data Service has been a huge thing in the industry for some years it's still having many ‘settling in’ issues. It’s important, as... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Tomorrow is the last day for most Megabus coach services operating in England and Wales. Stagecoach launched its low-cost inter-city megabus coach network 21 years ago in 2003 challenging National Express's monopoly for much of the express coach travel market in England and Wales. At the time the company predicted megabus.com,... Continue Reading →
Saturday 30th November 2024 Overground gets named We begin November's month end miscellany round up in London checking out how the orange coloured Overground has spawned six new individual identities to make it easier for passengers to work out which line they need. As you can see it’s a work in progress with some new... Continue Reading →
Thursday 28th November 2024 Readers may recall a blog in August describing an unusual situation north of Bedford where competition had broken out between Grant Palmer and Stagecoach on a bus route between Bedford and the village of Harrold. The pre August 2024 route 25 all operated by Grant Palmer On the face of it... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 26th November 2024 Photo courtesy: Mark Lyons This antepenultimate entry in my fortnightly travels on all Britain’s 26 bus routes numbered 100 series is one of the city of Oxford’s bus routes primarily aimed at students travelling to and from Brookes University, but open for anyone to use. Photo courtesy: Mark Lyons Oxford Bus... Continue Reading →
Saturday 23rd November 2024 Passengers on TfL’s route 358 between Crystal Palace and Orpington finally got to travel on the much anticipated Irizar electric ‘tram style’ buses on Wednesday when seven of the 17 vehicles allocated to the route, operated by Go-Ahead London from its Green Street Green bus garage, hit the road. Readers may... Continue Reading →
Thursday 21st November 2024 Earlier this month media outlets in London and Surrey ran a story about an "isolated Surrey village" "urgently needing" a bus service. The village is Netherne-on-the-Hill. I'd never heard of it so decided to investigate and verify claims elderly residents may be "forced to leave" for the lack of a bus.... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 19th November 2024 I was back in Kent yesterday for a ride on the brand new Dover Fastrack service which began on Sunday. It's been designed to provide a quick link from the expanding Whitfield area, north of the town, with the town centre and Dover Priory railway station where route D (as it's... Continue Reading →
Saturday 16th November 2024 As the Office of Rail & Road is soon to announce updated numbers of passengers using every railway station in Britain for the year ended March 2024, this monthly blog series counting down the previous year's top ten busiest stations finally reaches number 1 - which, for the first time, is... Continue Reading →
Thursday 14th November 2024 It’s Bus and Coach Show time again. Since Tuesday the NEC is playing host to the biennial exhibition that showcases shiny new buses, coaches, minibuses and mini coaches and a whole host of suppliers to the industry. There’s around 200 exhibitors to see so it would be impossible to cover all... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 12th November 2024 Whichever way you look at it, from a passenger’s perspective, this week’s takeover of the Kent County Council funded Fastrack branded network in Dartford, Bluewater, Ebbsfleet and Gravesend is an unwelcome downgrade. I know there’s the promise of new electric powered Irizar built ieTram buses to come and note these are... Continue Reading →
Saturday 9th November 2024 This route 100 is the only one operated by First Bus as well as the only one of that number in the whole of East Anglia now the summer only Wherry Line 100 in Great Yarmouth has ended. It’s actually mainly in the Thurrock local authority area with less than 20%... Continue Reading →
Thursday 7th November 2024 It's taken me a while, but my travels finally enabled a catch up with two public transport infrastructure developments. The £27 million rebuild of Sunderland station's southern entrance which opened last December and Halifax's newly rebuilt £20.5 million bus station which fully opened in July after a partial opening a year... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 5th November 2024 Please be advised today’s blog has been cancelled. This is due to .…. … a national shortage of blog writers. … unusually high levels of sickness among blog writers. … more than the usual number of blog writers reporting sick this morning. … an operational reason. … severe congestion in blog... Continue Reading →
Saturday 2nd November (No 999) This week has seen big Bee news in Greater Manchester. Mayor Burnham has been trumpeting the first new bus route added to the network since he took back control in September 2023. Except it’s not really a new route, more the reinstatement of a route withdrawn in 2020. I’ve not... Continue Reading →
Thursday 31st October 2024 (No 998) Another month end means it's time once again to look back on things I've spotted on my travels which haven't made it into a full blown blog. First up some good news from Padstow. Padstow extends eviction deadline to April 2025 Further to last Thursday's blog a lively meeting... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 29th October 2024 Today marks an important milestone in BusAndTrainUser blogging. This is blog number 997. And by a happy coincidence, ignoring Stagecoach's contrived route number 1066 (Hastings to Tunbridge Wells), 997 just happens to be the highest number taken by any of Britain’s scheduled daily bus routes (numbers 998 and 999 are school... Continue Reading →
Sunday 27th October 2024 Hot off the press, this latest book published last week and written by renowned industry expert Chris Cheek is a must read for anyone with a serious interest in the future of the bus industry. As its title (which adds the strap line "The Opportunities and Threats") conveys, the book provides... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th October 2024 Three of Britain's bus routes numbered 100 serve airports. We've already ridden Metrobus's Crawley to Redhill via Gatwick Airport and Arriva's Stevenage to Luton via Luton Airport, and this latest review features the third - and one aimed specifically at serving the airport market; in Edinburgh. Lothian Buses operates three routes... Continue Reading →
Thursday 24th October 2024 A row has broken out between Padstow Town Council and Cornwall Council/Transport for Cornwall/Go Cornwall Bus over buses terminating on the Town Council's land in the car park by the former railway station in the town. It sounded an ideal job for BusAndTrainUser Verify to investigate, especially as the Town Council... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 22nd October 2024 A ride on route 310 I finally managed to take a ride on TfL's recently introduced route 310 which provides a direct link between the two Jewish communities in Golders Green and Stamford Hill, removing the need for a bus change in Finsbury Park between parallel routes 210 and 253/254 as... Continue Reading →
Saturday 19th October 2024 If you just look at Paddington's traditional platforms at ground level you would justifiably wonder how the station holds the title of second place Busiest Railway Station in Britain. It does so, of course, because of its two subterranean Platforms A and B for the Elizabeth Line. They make all the... Continue Reading →
BusAndTrainUser 