Sunday 28th November 2021 Life is tough at the top, they say, and it’s never more true for bus company managers wrestling with continuing pandemic pressures of running a bus … Continue Reading I’m a Bus Manager, Get Me Out of Here!
Friday 12th November 2021 Tomorrow sees TfL’s route 414 cut back from its current terminus at Maida Hill (that’s close to Maida Vale in the Edgware Road area) meaning it … Continue Reading “London-style” bus cuts continue
Wednesday 10th November 2021 It’s been almost four weeks since the team completed our four part tour around the outer edge of the Polo mint shaped operating area served by … Continue Reading LCBS reflections 51 years on
Sunday 31st October 2021 While I was in Scotland on Monday and Tuesday after my Lumo journey north to Edinburgh I took a ride over to Glasgow to see how … Continue Reading It’s a fair COP
Thursday 21st October 2021 Eighty-five enthusiastic and energised young managers from across the bus industry gathered in the Royal Beach Hotel on Southsea’s sunny seafront for around 24 hours last … Continue Reading Young bus managers take on BSIPs
Wednesday 13th October 2021 As promised last month, a further quick update on my recent experiences with customer service teams in the public transport sector. In my Sunday 19th September … Continue Reading Three refunds and a bouquet for TfL
Monday 27th September 2021 It was inevitable. As soon as Ministers appeared in the media on Thursday afternoon telling us “there’s no need to panic buy petrol as there’s no … Continue Reading You can’t panic buy bus journeys
Sunday 19th September 2021 I thought I should provide a few updates after my post a month ago about unsatisfactory experiences at the hands of various rail companies and their … Continue Reading Customer service resolutions (or not).
How that campaign should have looked Friday 3rd September 2021 Instead of this…. This…. This week’s controversy over Channel 4’s national advertising campaign for Naked Attraction using T shape bus … Continue Reading The Naked Truth about bus advertising
Saturday 28th August 2021 Sooner or later the bubble had to burst. For years London’s buses have been hailed as an exemplar for how bus networks should be across the … Continue Reading TfL’s downward spiral continues
Wednesday 23rd June 2021 Following the recent post describing my travels between Cannock and Telford with D&G Bus’s new Chaserider branded route X14, I received some feedback from Centrebus/D&G Bus … Continue Reading A Cannock update
Monday 24th May 2021 Avanti West Coast’s latest wheeze to squeeze a bit more money from passengers is their new “Standard Premium” Class pitched between Standard Class and First Class. … Continue Reading What’s the Standard for a Premium?
Thursday 20th May 2021 It’s definitely not a return to British Railways, Grant Shapps was at pains to point out on this morning’s media circuit. This is going to be … Continue Reading Great British Railspin
Wednesday 28th April 2021 It’s all happening in Barking. And it’s looking pretty good for the potential 26,000 public transport using residents the development known as Barking Riverside is hoping … Continue Reading Barking up the right tree
Saturday 24th April 2021 It’s uncertain times for buses in Greater Manchester. Assuming Stagecoach and Rotala’s legal challenge against the Mayor and Combined Authorities’ decision to introduce franchising fails, the … Continue Reading Manchester DisUnited
Saturday 27th March This week’s decision by Mayor Burnham to introduce bus franchising in Greater Manchester came as no surprise. After spending over £11 million in preparatory work over the … Continue Reading Week 12: Flagging
Saturday 20th March 2021 ‘Better’ is definitely the word of the week, and I’m not referring to the continued much welcome news of improving Covid infection, death and hospitalisation levels … Continue Reading Week 11: Better
Saturday 13th March 2021 Did anyone notice any particular story dominating media headlines this week, or did I miss something? The world of buses and trains has also been a … Continue Reading Week 10: Mega
Saturday 6th March 2021 First up this week a shout out to long standing family owned Bourne based bus company Delaine Buses, who proudly put their new ADL E200MMC single … Continue Reading Week 9: Still frozen
Saturday 27th February 2021 The Government’s new-look-cautious irreversible-one-way-road approach to unlocking means the ‘stay-at-home’ message will be eased, subject to data, “data not dates”, in four weeks (at the earliest) … Continue Reading Week 8: Irreversible
Saturday 20th February 2021 A few quick postscripts to last week’s blogpost. Firstly, I got my Grand Centrals mixed up with my Grand Unions when reporting on the ORR’s decision … Continue Reading Week 7: Road map ahead.
Saturday 13th February 2021 I was uncertain whether this week’s ‘word of the week’ is ‘Darcy’ or ‘uncertain’. I plumped for the former as there seems to be so much … Continue Reading Week 6: Darcy.
Saturday 6th February 2021 A truly amazing inoculation milestone was passed on Wednesday. What a remarkable achievement. Ten million people vaccinated within twelve months of news of a “new novel … Continue Reading Week 5: 10 million
Saturday 30th January 2021 Worcester or … Lincoln or … Wakefield or …. Preston …. completely wiped out. In ten months. Haywards Heath …… just since Christmas. Five missed COBRA … Continue Reading Week 4: 100,000.
Saturday 23rd January 2021 We’ve heard a lot about “at pace” over the last ten months. I’m old enough to remember when PPE was being sourced “at pace”; when PPE … Continue Reading Week 3: At pace.
Saturday 16th January 2021 I should have guessed. Just as we were reassured on a Sunday morning primary schools were perfectly safe to open yet by Monday evening they’d become … Continue Reading Week 2: Demonised.
Saturday 9th January 2021 There’s nothing like a pandemic taking a serious turn for the worse (numbers infected, numbers in hospital, numbers dying all rising exponentially); the alert level rising … Continue Reading Week 1: Alas.
Sunday 3rd January 2021 Today marks the end of a train era on the Isle of Wight as the Island Line’s infamous former Underground stock dating from 1938 is finally … Continue Reading Could buses have replaced the 1938 stock?
Sunday 20th December 2020 A very warm welcome to this socially distanced, Covid secure venue for our annual event in which we celebrate the ‘World of Buses and Trains’ with … Continue Reading Annual Review, Awards and Quiz of the Year 2020
Wednesday 16th December 2020 No they won’t be; only joking. But the latest edition of TfL’s Tube map has been updated and published both online and in print today. After … Continue Reading Bus routes to be added to Tube map
Saturday 28th November 2020 Hi”‘Tis the season to be jolly; but ’tis also the season to be jolly careful” our jolly jape Johnson jested in Monday’s Downing Street press briefing … Continue Reading Week 4: Be jolly careful
Saturday 21st November 2020 One big upside of this week’s so called Government ‘reset’ after Dom’s Downing Street departure was Monday’s welcome return of the Morgan-v-Hancock…Jenrick…Sharma…(et al) head-to-head on ITV’s … Continue Reading Week 3: Reset
Saturday 14th November 2020 Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, has obviously suffered a bad train experience some time in his past. He dampened down Monday’s euphoria over the … Continue Reading Week 2: Two miles down the track
Wednesday 21st October 2020 As the all too predictable battle for control of TfL rages amid the desperate need for further Covid funding from Government to keep the Capital’s transport … Continue Reading Bus changes for Croydon and Sutton
Monday 5th October 2020 Transport Secretary Grant Shapps rolled out the usual sound bites when launching the Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (replacing Emergency Measures Agreements) on the breakfast media round … Continue Reading Rail rhetoric -v- rail reality
Saturday 4th July 2020 It’s been another week of mixed message muddles, inconsistencies and questionable priorities. No, I’m not referring to today’s reopening of pubs while schools pretty much remain … Continue Reading Week 15. Avoid avoid public transport.
Saturday 27th June 2020 If you’re a believer in public transport, spent your whole career in it, use it extensively, love everything about it, feel passionate about it, you know … Continue Reading Week 14. Shifty about modal shift
Saturday 20th June 2020 Week 13 was to be a milestone week. Remember this from 19th March? “I do think, looking at it all, that we can turn the tide within … Continue Reading Week 13. £100 per passenger.
Saturday 13th June 2020 Good news this week for those convinced social distancing and public transport don’t mix. Trouble is it’s 11,000 miles away in Auckland where everything returned to … Continue Reading Week 12. Bus Full.
Tuesday 9th June 2020 Network Rail have launched its second consultation into the extensive plans to sort out the Croydon bottleneck on the Brighton Main Line as well as enable … Continue Reading Unblocking the Croydon blockage
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