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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 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 →
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 →
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 5th October 2024 Hello blog readers. I need your help. In the coming weeks and months I've been invited to make a couple of online presentations about the state of bus and rail integration in Britain and what can be done to improve things. I’m enormously grateful to Britain’s renowned rail fares expert Barry... Continue Reading →
Saturday 28th September 2024 Another month is reaching its last knockings so it's time for another round up of miscellany that's caught my eye over the last few weeks. And first this month is First and it's brand new brand.... First launches new brand and vision It's been four years since Janette Bell arrived as... Continue Reading →
Thursday 19th September 2024 Over fifty keen, energetic, enthusiastic young bus professionals working in the bus industry met up for just over 24 hours in Cambridge on Thursday and Friday last week for the network’s latest conference. Over the the last 13 years I've had the pleasure of jointly hosting these proceedings and, as always,... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 17th September 2024 1. Penny pinching over Railcard discounts Holders of Railcards will notice their discounted rail ticket has increased in price this week. That's because the discount reduced marginally on Sunday from 34% to 33.4% making it closer to the actual "one third" discount included in all marketing and advertising literature for Railcards.... Continue Reading →
Thursday 12th September 2024 What is going on with the Isle of Wight's railway? The Island Line’s first closure of recent times was between 4th January and 1st November 2021. Originally billed to last three months with a March reopening, it dragged on through the summer season and lasted for a total of 10 months.... Continue Reading →
Saturday 31st August 2024 (Non subscribing readers using smartphones to land on this webpage may have missed yesterday's unscheduled extra blog. If so, here's a link.) And here's another month's round up of items spotted on my travels but not blogged about. New Travel Information Centre opens And first up this month it's good news... Continue Reading →
Sunday 18th August 2024 Enticed by the attractive bus timetable booklet I mentioned in a recent blog, I took a day trip over to the Isle of Wight a few weeks ago and was quickly reminded why Southern Vectis is a well deserved award winning bus company. I highlighted how the company exudes quality in... Continue Reading →
Thursday 15th August 2024 A decision on the future of the UK Government’s £2 fare cap scheme on bus routes in England needs to be taken in the next few weeks. When it ends in December the scheme will have been in place for two years, having being introduced in January 2023. That’s eight times... Continue Reading →
Thursday 1st August 2024 Welcome to another month's miscellaneous matters. Those little things I spotted while travelling around during July but not so far blogged about ....... and first up a quick report on a journey I took from Tring to Chesham on Red Eagle operated route 199 at the beginning of the month.... The... Continue Reading →
Thursday 25th July 2024 Here's what King Charles III read out in his speech to both Houses of Parliament last Wednesday: "A Bill will be introduced to allow local leaders to take control of their local bus services. My ministers will bring forward legislation to improve the railways by reforming rail franchising, establishing Great British... Continue Reading →
Thursday 18th July 2024 A commenter recently suggested I publish a blog outlining the logistics of last month's Rail Rover. On that very theme here’s one I prepared earlier … (it’s been sitting in the pending folder since March) … explaining what happened on a day trip to Weston and Wells. 07:05 Arrive Hassocks station.... Continue Reading →
Sunday 7th July 2024 Ian Budd, the enthusiastic knowledgable convenor of the Friends of the Far North Line (FoFNL) kindly invited me to speak at the organisation's Annual Conference last month in Inverness. It was wonderful to see and hear the passion and enthusiasm of everyone attending; all committed to making the Far North Line... Continue Reading →
Thursday 4th July 2024 It's just over three weeks until Arriva's exit from High Wycombe (along with Aylesbury) so I decided to pay a visit to see what the company will be leaving behind. Despite imminent abandonment of the town Arriva's website continues to extol its virtues..... "High Wycombe is a thriving market town situated... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 25th June 2024 Highland Council issued a press release a few weeks ago promoting the opening of its first every "Mobility Hub". The story was picked up by the Highland Times at the end of last month... ... and by the trade press at the weekend. As you can see from the press coverage,... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th June 2024 Bradford city centre is in a bit of mess at the moment. The city's large multi-level Transport Interchange closed overnight back in January due to structural safety concerns leading to dozens of terminating buses per hour being dispersed to surrounding streets... ... then in April work began on a major pedestrianisation... Continue Reading →
Thursday 30th May 2024 Welcome to another end-of-the-month round up of miscellany that’s caught my eye during travels in May which haven't made it into a full blown blog, but nevertheless might be of interest. First up, a visit to Oxford, after checking out that frozen-in-time Park & Ride site at Eynsham to see ...... Continue Reading →
Saturday 4th May 2024 A brand new 850 space Park and Ride site in Oxfordshire has recently been constructed at a cost of £51 million but it won’t be used for "a number of years" because, according to media reports, there’s no funding for its access road and roundabout on the adjacent A40. Sounds bizarre?... Continue Reading →
Thursday 25th April 2024 Mid Cornwall Metro is a £56.8 million project providing a new hourly Coast to Coast link with direct trains running between Newquay, Par, St Austell, Truro, Penryn (for the Exeter University campus) and Falmouth. The aim is to upgrade the Newquay to Par branch line first, facilitating a doubling of the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 23rd April 2024 Welcome to another investigation into a sensational public transport headline from the mainstream media. Way back on 11th October last year BBC News carried a story stating "more than 500 people have signed a petition to save a bus stop in Cornwall set to be removed due to safety concerns". It... Continue Reading →
Saturday 16th March 2024 This month sees three high profile public transport networks change hands. Firstly in Northampton, unō withdrew from its operations last weekend (9th March) after 11 and a half years in the town to be replaced by Stagecoach. Secondly next Thursday (21st March) Stagecoach ends its 27 year tenure operating the Sheffield... Continue Reading →
Saturday 9th March 2024 Contextual Alert: The following blog was written prior to Lambeth Borough Council's dramatic decision on Thursday afternoon to suspend the Streatham Wells Low Traffic Neighbourhood with immediate effect. Teaser Alert: I paid a return visit to Streatham yesterday afteroon to see what impact this suspension was having. Read on for the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 8th February 2024 BBC London News carried an all too familiar negative bus story at the end of last month featuring one of its own journalists (Paul Moss) alleging buses on his local TfL route 18, despite not being full, are not stopping at a bus stop in Kensal Town leaving passengers frustrated. Apparently... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 23rd January 2024 Technology company Prospective and First Bus are seemingly very keen to promote and publicise the use of AI in schedules and timetable compilation. Following the article in trade magazine Coach & Bus Week last month, the story appeared on the BBC News website last Thursday repeating the claim about "20% more... Continue Reading →
Sunday 21st January 2023 “Our Simpler Fares pilot aims to make buying tickets even easier and give customers a better experience with just three ticket types.” That’s the pitch LNER’s marketing people are using to justify the new “70min Flex Ticket” announced on Tuesday that starts on Monday 5th February. But what the PR and... Continue Reading →
Thursday 4th January 2024 My very first work experience as a fresh faced management trainee almost fifty years ago was a placement in the schedules office at Belle Isle bus depot in Wakefield where four members of staff, including the long experienced Harry and Ted, compiled vehicle workings and staff duties for West Riding and... Continue Reading →
Sunday 31st December 2023 To round off this series of special blogs for the festive period here's a timely look forward to what promises to be another action packed transport year ahead in 2024. Among the much delayed and long awaited projects which absolutely must happen in 2024 are the introduction into service of the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 26th December 2023 I'm transitioning from a blogger to a vlogger. But for one day only. Click on this link for a visual reminder of 100 things that happened in the world of buses and trains in 2023. It's my one and only YouTube upload of the year. And it's all over in 10... Continue Reading →
Sunday 24th December 2023 The wait is finally over. After twelve long months of anticipation that's seen entries flood in for the bus and rail industries' most coveted and prestigous awards, the winners can now be exclusively revealed in this Christmas Eve Blog Special. These really are the accolades to proudly display for all to... Continue Reading →
Saturday 23rd December 2023 Welcome to another end of year nostalgic look back over the last twelve months of frenzied bus and train activity in the UK with BusAndTrainUser's Review of the Year along with the ever popular Quiz of the Year testing your knowledge and memory recall of the year's quirkier happenings. And if... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 19th December 2023 Welcome back to my occasional blog series which fact checks the veracity of headline grabbing negative claims about buses and trains so beloved of modern main stream and social media channels. This time I'm investigating a story that appeared across most newspapers back in August reporting a new car park had... 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 →
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 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 →
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 →
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 →
BusAndTrainUser 