Tuesday 12th December 2023 I knew there might be challenging peak hour traffic conditions on the North Circular Road on a Monday morning…….but never expected it to be as bad as it turned out yesterday. If TfL knew about the disruptive utility roadworks on the North Circular Road near Colney Hatch Lane (and presumably someone... Continue Reading →
Sunday 10th December 2023 Yesterday saw TfL introduce the Superloop route that heads up its new SL number sequence. Route SL1 covers the northern arc taking over where route SL10 ends in North Finchley thereby extending the loop via Arnos Grove, Palmers Green and Edmonton to Walthamstow, terminating in the bus station by Walthamstow Central... Continue Reading →
Saturday 9th December 2023 It’s not only Leicester City Council running a free circular bus service around the city centre with electric buses; Hereford also started giving it a go a couple of weeks ago, on 24th November, with its new City Zipper. Operated on the City Council’s behalf by Yeomans Travel, the 15 minute... Continue Reading →
Thursday 7th December 2023 By the 1820s the River Thames at Rotherhithe was so congested it had become the M25 of its day. The nearest river crossing for merchants and citizens was London Bridge but that was over two miles away as well as being busy and expensive to use. It's said the river was... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 5th December 2023 It’s not just Hertfordshire rolling out new bus routes as Bus Service Improvement Plan funds flow through local authority finances. Oxfordshire’s councillors have also had their crayons out adding country roads long devoid of buses back to the County's bus network. Three new Monday to Saturday bus routes with fairly limited... Continue Reading →
Saturday 2nd December 2023 And so to Z. Z&S Transport is one of several small bus companies in the Buckinghamshire area around Aylesbury which have prospered from gaining bus tenders as well as contracts for school tansport and bus and coach hire. It's typical of a whole genus of bus company that's the backbone of... Continue Reading →
Thursday 30th November 2023 The end of another month so time for a round up of observations garnered as I've travelled around over these past few weeks that may have merited an X but haven't been worthy of a full blown blog. Elizabeth in Control One of the benefits membership of the Chartered Institute of... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 28th November 2023 The autonomous vehicle industry is certainly booming as more trials get underway on the UK's public roads including this latest one in Milton Keynes involving a rather strange looking bus. It follows both the Didcot trial involving funding from the DfT's Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) operated by First... Continue Reading →
Sunday 26th November 2023 We’ve had the SL6. SL7, SL8 and SL9 but they were just aperitifs and starters, being reheated routes X68, X26, 607 and X140, and two of them aren’t even part of a loop so shouldn’t even have been on the menu. But now comes the main course in the form of... Continue Reading →
Saturday 25th November 2023 As highlighted in my recent blog about Hertfordshire’s new bus route 908, two further new routes began in the County on Monday this week so I took a ride on that first day to see what they bring to the network. Route numbers used are 721 and 725 rather than in... Continue Reading →
Thursday 23rd November 2023 The new arrivals concourse with passageways to the airport terminal marked with an arrow. After three years of intensive work it’s very welcome to see the £250 million upgrade to Gatwick Airport’s railway station finally finished and opened for passengers on Tuesday. The new arrivals concourse can be seen above the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 21st November 2023 2023 hasn't exactly been a bumper year for new train introductions. Until now we've only had Stadler built Class 777s for Merseyrail and Class 231s for Transport for Wales back in January/February followed by c2c getting a few Class 720s for peak hour journeys, but on Monday last week West Midlands... Continue Reading →
Saturday 18th November 2023 The current use of the York Pullman name began as recently as 2007. That’s when haulage firm K&J Logistics which had a small fleet of buses and coaches resurrected the York Pullman brand, it being unregistered having been abandoned five years earlier by First York which in turn had acquired the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 16th November 2023 When I wrote about Wiltshire Council's launch of Wiltshire Connect three months ago I mentioned the Council would be expanding the geographic area covered by its semi-flex DRT scheme in two more phases; in September and at the end of October. Sure enough the full operation is now up and running... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 14th November 2023 Cardiff may be struggling to get its Transport Hub completed (as featured in Saturday’s blog) but up in the North East North Tyneside Council opened a sparkly new facility in North Shields at the beginning of September having only finalised plans for its construction as recently as February 2022. North Shields... Continue Reading →
Saturday 11th November 2023 How do you move a railway station 80 yards further along the tracks? I've been to Morley to find out. Morley's new platforms, footbridge and lifts can be seen in the distance. Located in West Yorkshire, Morley lies six miles south west of Leeds and 13 miles north east of Huddersfield.... Continue Reading →
Thursday 9th November 2023 If the pre-launch photo-call is anything to go by everyone at Shropshire Council is very excited about the County's introduction of DRT. Shropshire Council officers and councillors with their new electric Mellor Sigma. Photo courtesy Shropshire Council. After much anticipation and about two years in the planning, Shropshire Council's Connect On-Demand... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 7th November 2023 Readers across the detail of former Green Line routes may recall in a blog in August about retracing route 705 between Sevenoaks and Windsor I made reference to the inability of doing the same for sister route 704 (Tunbridge Wells to Windsor) due to the lack of a daytime bus route... Continue Reading →
Saturday 4th November 2023 The newest of my fortnightly AtoZ of bus and train companies, Xelabus was only formed as recently as November 2010 by Gareth Blair. Based in Eastleigh on an adjacent unit to Bluestar on the Barton Park Industrial Estate, I recall an enjoyable visit there back in 2019 as part of the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 2nd November 2023 Hot on the heels of last Thursday's blog catching up with the six month old route 907 between Stevenage and Cheshunt comes another Hertfordshire County Council inspired new bus route introduced this week. It's numbered 908 and runs between Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City. Like the 907 it falls under the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 31st October 2023 It's the end of another month so time for a recap of those things that caught my eye as I travelled around that may have made it into an X but didn't make it into a full blown blog. Travelcard reprieve Let's start with the excellent news that a compromise was... Continue Reading →
Saturday 28th October 2023 Welcome to BusAndTrainUser Verify a new occasional media monitoring service which aims to fact check the veracity of headline grabbing negative claims about buses and trains so beloved of modern main stream and social media channels. To kick off here’s a story that appeared across many media outlets earlier this month... Continue Reading →
Thursday 26th October 2023 A ride on the Waverley paddle steamer Earlier this month the famous Waverley - the world's last seagoing paddle steamer - was in London operating a series of daily tours along the Thames estuary as part of its Summer seasonal programme of trips around the coast of Britain. The paddle steamer... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 24th October 2023 The Young Bus Managers Network Autumn Conference took place last Wednesday and Thursday and once again had a great positive buzz among the delegates attending from a variety of bus companies from all over the country. It’s always a pleasure to host the event and, along with my co host Martijn... Continue Reading →
Sunday 22nd October 2023 This new book by Matthew Keyte gives a fascinating insight into life working for London Country Bus Services (LCBS) and the privatised London Country Bus North West Ltd during a period that saw seismic change including converting routes to driver only operation, revitalising the Green Line network and deregulation and privatisation.... Continue Reading →
Saturday 21st October 2023 My fortnightly A to Z of bus and train companies is now in the home straight (just three more after today’s blog) and once again I had a dilemma of what to feature for W. White Bus was my plan but then I heard from Richard Wood, Secretary of the Cambridge... Continue Reading →
Thursday 19th October 2023 In last Thursday's blog about the upcoming demise of the Day Travelcard in London I added the caveat to my analysis of how the new regime come January would impact passengers, TfL and Train Operating Companies (TOCs) that I "may have got all my assumptions wrong including what Apportionment Factors are... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 17th October 2023 Photo courtesy First Bus First Beeline’s new route RA3 running hourly between Watford Junction railway station and Heathrow Airport is now in its 13th week so I thought it was high time I gave it a try to see how it’s settled in. It recreates a link offered many years ago... Continue Reading →
Saturday 14th October 2023 Poole based Morebus recently put 28 brand new ADL Enviro400 MMC buses into service on its busy high frequency route m1 which crosses the conurbation linking Poole, Bournemouth and the Royal Bournemouth Hospital as well as its 15 minutely route 5/5A between Bournemouth and Kinson. The company kindly invited me along... Continue Reading →
Thursday 12th October 2023 This blog is a collaboration with my friend Geoff Marshall and his highly respected and much watched YouTube channel. We teamed up last week to test out what will happen in January when time runs out for London’s popular one-day Travelcard. Click here to see Geoff’s video setting out our findings... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 10th October 2023 A ride on the historic Volk’s railway along the seafront is a must for every Brighton visitor. The mile long railway is “the world’s oldest working electric railway” having begun in 1883 by the pioneer inventor and electrical wizard Magnus Volk. It’s been running from the Aquarium east of Brighton Pier... Continue Reading →
Sunday 8th October 2023 Surrey County Council greatly expanded its DRT operations at the beginning of last month vying with neighbours East Sussex to be the second placed local authority wasting the most public funds on these money draining schemes (West of England Combined Authority is firmly in the top spot with its multi vehicle... Continue Reading →
Saturday 7th October 2023 Headbolt Lane, Britain’s latest newest railway station, opened for business on Thursday taking many people by surprise including, it would seem, Merseyrail and Northern Rail which both operate trains there. The £80 million station (you read that right, £80 million) is located a mile east of the previous terminus at Kirkby... Continue Reading →
Thursday 5th October 2023 Readers with good memories may recall in September 2022 I took a ride on Transport for Cornwall’s about to be withdrawn (at that time) four-journeys-a-day route 235 which linked Launceston with Callington along some of the county’s narrowest roads I’ve ever travelled by bus along. Flashback pre September 2022 showing routes... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 3rd October 2023 Transport Focus has just published its interim report on this year’s ongoing research into bus passenger satisfaction while the report by the University of the West of England commissioned by the DfT into DRT schemes funded by the Rural Mobility Fund is also now available. I’ve had a read of both... Continue Reading →
Saturday 30th September 2023 Another month's miscellaneous musings not worthy of a full blown blog from my travels in September including the lovely Helsby Junction signal box and still very much in use (above). Oxted delight I made an "integrated public transport journey" from train to bus in Oxted earlier in the month and was... Continue Reading →
Thursday 28th September 2023 Clapton Pond The London Bus Museum held another of its Heritage Running Days a couple of weeks ago on Saturday 16th September. This time RTs and Routemasters could be found providing free rides on route 38 between Victoria and Clapton Pond with a few journeys extended to Leyton Bakers Arms. As... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 26th September 2023 It was back in 1986 the 56 year old system of bus route licensing and regulation outside London came to an end heralding in a new market led deregulated era of bus provision. GM Buses was sold to the private sector eight years later. The new deregulated system immediately attracted vocal... Continue Reading →
Sunday 24th September 2023 Cheshire West and Chester Council was awarded £1.075 million from the DfT’s Rural Mobility Fund as long ago as March 2021 for a DRT scheme in the Borough. You’d hope in the two and a quarter years since then it would have learnt lessons from the many DRT schemes introduced and... Continue Reading →
Saturday 23rd September 2023 This is possibly the most unusual bus company to be featured in this fortnightly AtoZ series in that it’s in the public sector but not a municipal. Owned by the University of Hertfordshire it was originally called UnuversityBus when first established in 1992 when it would be fair to say operations... Continue Reading →
Thursday 21st September 2023 It may be four years late, missed last year’s Commonwealth Games and cost £50 million, but the 600 yards extension to the West Midlands Metro tram route to a new terminus at Wolverhampton railway station finally opened to passengers on Sunday. Although it’s not too far to walk between the two,... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 19th September 2023 First Group has had a sizeable Aircoach operation in Ireland for many years but yesterday it launched its inaugural route in the UK comprising an hourly service between Leicester and Birmingham Airport running 24/7. Four five-year old Mercedes Sprinter 16-seat minibuses have been shipped over from Ireland to run the new... Continue Reading →
Saturday 16th September 2023 The Public Transport North 2023 conference held in Manchester on Tuesday and Wednesday included some fascinating presentations. Tuesday was devoted to rail with bus on Wednesday for this second joint conference initiative from Modern Railways and Buses magazines published by Key Publishing. The first conference of this kind was held in... Continue Reading →
Thursday 14th September 2023 I’ve been in Manchester over the last couple of days attending the Public Transport in the North of England conference organised by Modern Railways and Buses magazines both part of Key Publishing and before that, Ian Allan. I’ll write about the conference itself on Saturday but for now I just want... Continue Reading →
Thursday 14th September 2023 Leisure travel is booming, so it's good to see enterprising entrepreneurs promoting bus and train travel on the internet to encouraging people to forgo their cars and use public transport to enjoy some amazing journeys as well as reach visitor attractions without the hassle of parking by going car-free. Here are... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 12th September 2023 London Transport Museum's Hidden London added a new behind-the-scenes tour last week to its programme at Baker Street Underground station. As we were "winding our way" beneath ground level to begin the tour I couldn't get the lyrics of Gerry Rafferty's famous hit of the same name out of my mind.... Continue Reading →
Saturday 9th September 2023 It’s the only former National Bus Company to still be owned by its original management buy-out team. It’s the pioneering and original trend setter of a whole host of marketing ideas in the bus industry that have stood the test of time and been much copied elsewhere including individual route branding... Continue Reading →
Thursday 7th September 2023 End of the line: Uckfield We must keep investing in our railway infrastructure to stand a chance of meeting net zero targets. Motorists aren't going to be persuaded to leave the car at home if rail isn't offering capacity and convenience and an effective alternative to driving. Despite the Governments recently... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 5th September 2023 That part of the famous 84 bus route between Potters Bar and Barnet, withdrawn in April 2022 when Metroline threw in the towel and Sullivan Buses was only prepared to replace the northern section between St Albans and Potters Bar, is back on the bus map again. Yesterday saw a new... Continue Reading →
Sunday 3rd September 2023 West Sussex County Council’s Book-A-Bus DRT gained a second zone three weeks ago covering villages north of Petworth. It’s been given route number ‘98 Flex’ to compliment route 99 (south of Petworth) which I blogged about at the beginning of last month. 98 Flex is a fully flexible DRT funded by... Continue Reading →
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