Sunday 30th July 2023 For this week's DRT travel experience I returned to Hertfordshire to give the Herts Lynx service another try. Along with High Wycombe's Pick-Me-Up and South Forest of Dean's Robin, both of which I've recently reviewed, Herts Lynx, introduced in September 2021, really is being held up as a massive DRT success... Continue Reading →
Saturday 29th July 2023 Preston Bus had a consistent pedigree from its initial municipal ownership in 1922, when the Council inherited the fledgling tram operation that had begun in 1904, right through until the management buy-out in 1993. Marking the 100th anniversary of municipal ownership last year with this heritage livery. However in the mid... Continue Reading →
Thursday 27th July 2023 Following the good news story in Tuesday’s blog discussing the bus boom in East Sussex I’d intended to keep the good news rolling today with another blog about an exciting new service connecting Oxfordshire with neighbouring West Berkshire but yesterday's travel plans were thwarted by a signalling problem disrupting trains out... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 25th July 2023 When it comes to DfT's funding allocations to local authorities for Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) the difference between the Winners and the Losers is certainly starting to show around the country. The Guardian - Wednesday 19th July 2023 As those that lost out in the postcode funding lottery struggle to... Continue Reading →
Sunday 23rd July 2023 DRT aficionado blog readers will recall my ride on Gloucestershire’s Robin branded scheme soon after it was introduced last October - the one when I was only the third passenger after two weeks of operation and took a trip from the village of Windrush to the Cotswolds’ tourist favourite of Bourton-on-the-Water,... Continue Reading →
Saturday 22nd July 2023 It's another new rail station - one of seven opening this year (we've had Inverness Airport, Reading Green Park and Marsh Barton and have got Thanet Parkway later this month with Headbolt Lane on Merseyside and Brent Cross West in the Autumn ... and not forgetting East Linton and White Rose... Continue Reading →
Thursday 20th July 2023 TfL began the roll out of its Superloop brand on Saturday so I thought I'd take a look and see how it's bedding in. The first thing that bugs me about this whole Superloop business is over the last couple of months TfL have spent £30,000 of its own scarce funds... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 18th July 2023 Go-Ahead Group's Metrobus is the latest bus company to roll out a small fleet of hydrogen powered buses. It follows First Bus in Aberdeen, National Express West Midlands, Metroline in London and Translink in Belfast introducing small fleets of Wrightbus StreetDeck Hydroliner double decks and Merseytravel introducing ADL buses powered by... Continue Reading →
Sunday 16th July 2023 This week’s Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) journey experience comes courtesy of Surrey County Council (which pays for it) and Mole Valley District Council (which operates it). The ‘Connect’ branded DRT drifted into service as a trial in four micro areas close to Leatherhead in 2021 with a public launch in November... Continue Reading →
15th July 2023 It's a true 'rags to riches' story. What at one time were run down unloved, and in some cases unknown, obscure railway lines skirting around London's suburbs with ageing, unreliable rolling stock serving uncared for stations susceptible to vandalism and graffiti, have been transformed into an attractive cohesive "joined up" (literally) railway... Continue Reading →
Thursday 13th July 2023 Along with some bus industry colleagues I recently paid a visit to Belfast hosted by the team at Translink which included a look at three interesting public transport developments in the city. Translink employs 4,000 staff making it one of Northern Ireland's largest employers. It runs 1,400 buses and trains across... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 11th July 2023 OK, let's clear one thing up from the start. Walthamstow is NOT a village and no amount of village-washing and slick branding is going to change that. It's a busy suburb of north east London in the London Borough of Waltham Forest served by the Victoria Line, two Overground lines and... Continue Reading →
Sunday 9th July 2023 You lose some you win some. In the world of DRT trials we see schemes ending as failures after a shoal of public funding has been expended just as others get going thanks to another shedload of money and renewed optimism this really will be the one to succeed because “it... Continue Reading →
Saturday 8th July 2023 The delusional Rail Delivery Group reckon it'll be better than ever. Moving staff from somewhere everyone knows where to find them (ie something called a 'ticket office') to "out of ticket offices and onto station platforms and concourses to support better, face-to-face interactions" is not only plain daft, it's illogical. New... Continue Reading →
Thursday 6th July 2023 Marsh Barton is not the most exciting new station to open on the network in recent years. Located just under two-and-a-half miles due south of central Exeter, not far from Exeter St Thomas station on the main line west towards Plymouth, the station was officially opened on Monday by Secretary of... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th July 2023 Today marks exactly eleven months since the demise of Bournemouth’s Yellow Buses on 4th August 2022 and Go-Ahead’s morebus stepping in to provide continuity of service. Aside from Eastleigh based Xelabus taking a trio of tendered services for six months, morebus became the only show in town providing an integrated network... Continue Reading →
Sunday 2nd July 2023 And another one bites the dust. Introduced in September 2021 for "an initial period of three years" the East Leeds FlexiBus scheme was "the first trial of digital DRT within West Yorkshire" to be "used to evaluate the impact, effectiveness and commercial viability of the DRT service for the wider roll... Continue Reading →
Saturday 1st July 2023 We’re now passed the alphabetical halfway mark so what better way to celebrate than visit Britain’s most capped bus company for industry awards and accolades. And all deservedly so. Nottingham City Transport (NCT) simply exudes quality in every aspect of its operation. Wherever you look you’ll find an excellent exemplar of... Continue Reading →
Thursday 29th June 2023 As another month has the finishing line within sight it's time for a recap on some of the things that have caught my eye while travelling around over the last few weeks which are not worthy of a full blown blog (with apologies to Twitter followers who may already have seen... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 27th June 2023 Phase two of the Mi-Link autonomous bus trial in Oxfordshire got underway a couple of weeks ago. It builds on phase one in May which saw the bus circumnavigate roads within Milton Park which I blogged about at the time. After a fortnight's break the bus returned on Monday 12th June,... Continue Reading →
Saturday 24th June 2023 There are currently 1,183 parkrun events taking place on Saturday mornings across the country. This got me wondering how many bus routes ‘run’ inside parks? I know of two. I’ve previously featured Richmond Park’s route RP1 but today’s blog is about another delightful park bus route - one which has been... Continue Reading →
Friday 23rd June 2023 To round off this week's daily blogs featuring Isle of Man Transport and its unique and varied modal offerings I'm going slightly off topic to feature one of two other railways you can visit on the Island which don't come under the purview of the Government but are nonetheless great tourist... Continue Reading →
Thursday 22nd June 2023 We’ve reached the penultimate daily blog reviewing Isle of Man Transport’s operations and I couldn’t finish this series without referring to Bus Vannin’s dalliance with Demand Responsive Transport (DRT). It operates using a Flex branding and provides connections from communities in the far north of the Island to the bus station... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 21st June 2023 It's definitely in my top ten favourite public transport journeys and should be on everyone's bucket list. There aren't many places in the world you can still ride on a horse drawn tram, but one still operates along the promenade road around Douglas Bay and it's well worth a visit. Indeed... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 20th June 2023 Welcome to the Snaefell Mountain Railway. Your ride is almost certain to begin in Laxey, the southern terminus of the railway and where it meets, but doesn't connect on the same tracks with, the Manx Electric Railway as featured in yesterday's blog in this daily series on the Isle of Man... Continue Reading →
Monday 19th June 2023 Continuing this special daily blog series on the variety of modes run by Isle of Man Transport brings us to the Manx Electric Railway. It's the "oldest electric tram line in the world whose original rolling stock is still in service". And it's a double celebration this year as while the... Continue Reading →
Sunday 18th June 2023 Welcome to the second part of this week long daily blog special featuring Isle of Man Transport. Today we take a ride on the Island's Steam Railway. It's celebrating its 150th Anniversary this year. The railway runs 15 and a half miles from Douglas south to Port Erin with a journey... Continue Reading →
Saturday 17th June 2023 The Isle of Man must certainly be the top destination to easily visit from the UK and enjoy a huge variety of public transport. In fact within five hours of landing at Ronaldsway Airport on my long weekend visit last month I'd taken a ride on a bus, a steam train,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 15th June 2023 I blogged about the West Ealing to West Ruislip ‘ghost bus’ when it began back in January. Readers may recall Arriva owned Chiltern Railways' rail replacement division awarded the contract to operate this useless single bus journey a week on a Wednesday morning to Diamond South East for an initial three... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 13th June 2023 When London Transport’s network of Green Line coach routes was in its prime you could glide across London on a limited stop bus, often on the top deck of a souped up Routemaster linking such delightful Home Counties’ locations as Woking and Chertsey with Stevenage and Hitchin or Tunbridge Wells with... Continue Reading →
Sunday 11th June 2023 After my Exmoor Coaster bus ride last Monday, described in yesterday’s blog, I turned my attention to East Devon for three more interesting bus journeys on Tuesday. First up was new route X30 introduced on 3rd April thanks to Devon County Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan funded by the DfT. Operated... Continue Reading →
Saturday 10th June 2023 I'd been looking forward to another ride on First Bus's wonderful Exmoor Coaster open top bus route and in particular its newly extended route from Lynmouth via Lynton and Combe Martin to Ilfracombe. First Bus tentatively dipped its toe in the water with a separate service between Lynmouth and Ilfracombe last... Continue Reading →
Thursday 8th June 2023 It's been a strange few weeks for bus and train passengers using Oxford's railway station. Not only has a long planned closure of busy Botley Road necessitated bus passengers from west of the city alighting short of the station and enduring a seven to ten minute walk under the railway bridge... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 6th June 2023 The long awaited 4.7km extension of Edinburgh’s trams from the city centre via Leith to Ocean Terminal and Newhaven begins carrying passengers from midday tomorrow. It’s only 24 years since first proposed and ten years since Newhaven would have got its trams had the original project not gone pear shaped in... Continue Reading →
Sunday 4th June 2023 I’ve been out DRT riding again. This time in High Wycombe. Carousel’s PickMeUp, introduced last September as a three year scheme with £736,000 from the DfT’s Rural Mobility Fund and Section 106 funding, is being hailed as a DRT that’s working well and "going from strength to strength". A series of... Continue Reading →
Saturday 3rd June 2023 It's only been operating in north west Norfolk for eight years but its owner directors have a wealth of bus industry experience, making Lynx one of Britain's top quality independently owned bus companies and always a pleasure to travel with. The company is run by Julian Patterson who, together with Andy... Continue Reading →
Thursday 1st June 2023 It’s been a long time coming - plans were first announced in 2007 - but Reading Green Park station finally opened for business on Saturday. Located on the southern edge of the town close to the town's Green Park business area and sewage works, the station is served by half hourly... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 30th May 2023 Last Wednesday and Thursday saw another successful Young Bus Managers’ conference which once again I had the pleasure to jointly host with Martijn Gilbert and imbibe the energy, enthusiasm and positivity not only of the attendees who came from a wide range of different size companies from all over the country... Continue Reading →
Saturday 27th May 2023 Good customer service from First and Southern Firstly a couple of follow ups from last month's round up and bouquets and praise for both First Bus and Southern Rail's customer service teams. On that long wait at Crewe rail station on a route 3 due to what looked like an error... Continue Reading →
Thursday 25th May 2023 While in Edinburgh enjoying autonomous bus riding last week I took the opportunity to take a look at some of the routes McGills inherited with last September's purchase of First Scotland East. First Scotland East ended its days as a business in two halves. Livingston based routes providing a network around... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 23rd May 2023 As well as travelling on fflecsi to explore the Dale Peninsular as described a couple of weeks ago I also used the TrawsCymru network while in the area on a more extensive itinerary to enjoy more of the glorious scenery across south west Wales. Some time ago the TrawsCymru network was... Continue Reading →
Sunday 21st May 2023 Readers nay recall a gloom laden blog I posted back in January 2022 warning that London Mayor Sadiq Khan was drawing up proposals to end Day Travelcards as part of funding negotiations at that time for continued financial support from Government. Sure enough, 16 months later on 18th April, TfL launched... Continue Reading →
Saturday 20th May 2023 It would have been another family owned small bus company on the back of a coach hire business to tell you about as my alphabetical ramblings continue, but the Sutton family who’d owned Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire Ltd since it was formed in 1991 sold it on to a company called... Continue Reading →
Thursday 18th May 2023 I’m sorry to be reporting on yet another new DRT scheme so soon after last week’s East Sussex FlexiBus write up, but this is the reality of the bus industry at the moment with more DRT operations slowly but surely taking over. This latest scheme in West Rushcliffe began on Monday... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 16th May 2023 In what's describe as a “world first”, Stagecoach began operating the much hyped and long awaited autonomous bus trial across the Forth Road Bridge yesterday. And if you’re thinking that “world first” claim rings a bell - you're not mistaken as it was just over two months ago I reported on... Continue Reading →
Saturday 13th May 2023 I thought it would be nice to report on a positive Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) development so took a trip to Leighton Buzzard on Thursday to sample Arriva’s brand new bus network introduced on Tuesday in partnership with Central Bedfordshire Council. Central Beds got awarded £3.7 million for its BSIP;... Continue Reading →
Thursday 11th May 2023 Not to be left out of the firmly rolling bandwagon of local authorities expending vast sums of public money from Government on Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), East Sussex County Council joined in the fun on Tuesday with a “soft launch” of five of ten designated zones covering the entire county. The... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 9th May 2023 “Fflecsi is the perfect way to enjoy fun days out and explore the beauty of this part of Pembrokeshire” encourages a colourful Transport for Wales (TfW) leaflet extolling the virtues of its fflecsi DRT service and the scenic county of Pembrokeshire and the Coastal National Park. I didn’t need convincing about... Continue Reading →
Saturday 6th May 2023 It may not be among the most well known bus companies in Britain, or even Scotland where it’s based (Wishaw just south of Motherwell) but now in its fifteenth year of operations, JMB Travel has carved out an impressive presence amid the otherwise domination of First Bus across Lanarkshire. JMB Travel... Continue Reading →
Thursday 4th May 2023 Moves are in hand to refresh and regenerate the area outside Aldershot railway station. But in a move that's described as "access improvements to Aldershot station and town centre" the adjacent bus station is about to close. I know, I was puzzled too, so took a wander over to the town... Continue Reading →
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