Tuesday 5th April 2022 A shorter than usual and unashamedly self indulgent post today following the wonderful bus rally based on Lewes organised by David Mulpeter and the team at Seven Sisters Bus & Coach I was pleased to attend on Sunday. The rally was arranged at short notice to raise funds for Ukraine and... Continue Reading →
Saturday 2nd April 2022 Palestra Twitter followers will know I was privileged to be asked into TfL Towers (Palestra in Southwark) on Tuesday afternoon to share ideas on how to improve revenue and grow the number of passengers using its bus network based on best practice pursued by the country’s leading bus companies in the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 31st March 2022 Bluewater's bus station is next to Marks& Spencer in the south east apex of the complex. Out-of-town shopping centres can be extremely difficult to serve by bus. Only the very large ones like Bluewater have anything like a decent service. But they're a mecca for car users. Bluewater opened its swanky... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 29th March 2022 It's not often a bus company opens a brand new travel shop these days. Many bus companies have been only too pleased to save costs and close down any ‘High Street’ vestiges they once had which provided helpful face to face contact with the travelling public. Arriva's former travel shop in... Continue Reading →
Sunday 27th March 2022 Photo published with kind permission of The Bus Archive. I finally got round to paying a long overdue visit to The Bus Archive on Thursday. What a treasure trove it is. The above atmospheric photograph is taken from The Bus Archive's Facebook update for March. It's one of over a million... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th March 2022 Continuing my fortnightly alphabetical wander around Britain brings me to the south coast. Folkestone’s population is 47,000. A further 15,000 people live in neighbouring Hythe, while the total population of the Folkestone & Hythe District Council area (renamed from Shepway Borough Council in 2018) is 113,000. Being a coastal town, and... Continue Reading →
Thursday 24th March 2022 March is free bus travel month in Newport but shhh, don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret. This latest month’s worth of free bus fares follows a similar arrangement in December last year up to Christmas Eve and arises following what’s known as the Burns Commission report (named after its chairman Lord... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 22nd March 2022 Photo courtesy Network Rail Aside from the shiny new mega-size stations about to open in the Crossrail core there are quite a few other brand new stations currently under construction on the national network which are due to open during 2022. It’s a bit of a sweepstake to see which will... Continue Reading →
Sunday 20th March 2022 There was a time when jointly operated inter-urban bus routes were quite common not least between adjacent subsidiaries of the National Bus Company. It made for an efficient way to operate a route which linked towns many miles apart which were located in different bus companies’ territories’. One of the most... Continue Reading →
Saturday 19th March 2022 Kent County Council launched a consultation last month seeking views on a raft of cuts to bus services it funds across the county which will be introduced this summer. Notwithstanding Bus Recovery Grant 2 and Bus Back Better’s vision of a wonderful utopian future for bus provision the reality in Kent... Continue Reading →
Thursday 17th March 2022 TfL launched a"long-term plan for buses" last week. The press release headlined it "TfL sets out bold vision for buses in the capital" with the new Bus Action Plan aiming for a "modern bus network to attract more customers and help the capital become net zero by 2030". The 94-page Bus... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 15th March 2022 I’ve been ‘off the road’ for operational reasons since last Monday (otherwise known as testing positive for Covid) which has given me an opportunity to reflect on the rail industry’s policy on ticket refunds. It’s all very simple if you’re a Marks & Spencer customer. Famous for its no quibble policy,... Continue Reading →
Sunday 13th March 2022 Evesham is the smallest town I’ve visited so far in my fortnightly A to Z exploration of the state of public transport in small to mid size towns. It’s got a population around 26,000 so is about half the size of Andover and Durham and a third the size of Bracknell... Continue Reading →
Saturday 12th March 2022 I was in Harrogate last week. You can't help but notice the bus service operated by Transdev Blazefield in the town exudes quality. Harrogate Bus Company is definitely in the bus industry’s Premier League. It's not that all the initiatives highlighted below are revolutionary; indeed some are small fry in the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 10th March 2022 A new sister company for Stagecoach - Belgium's Hansea. Forget that proposed merger-come-takeover between Stagecoach and National Express. That was last week’s news. It turns out while those board room discussions had been going on including a deal with Comfort DelGro to offload Stagecoach's share of Citylink as well as handing... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 8th March 2022 I’ve been visiting friends in Dublin over a weekend in early March for many years and after missing out in 2021 due to Covid was back on the Emerald Isle once again on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a great city to visit and I always look forward to my annual trip... Continue Reading →
Sunday 6th March 2022 Following the demise of Maidstone's Park & Ride last month comes news part of Canterbury's scheme is under threat. Launched in 1990, the city's Park & Ride is currently being subsidised by more than £57,000 a month and has seen the number of users halve since the Covid hiatus. There are... Continue Reading →
Saturday 5th March 2022 Last autumn I took a ride across Aberdeenshire on most of Stagecoach's route 35 between Elgin and Aberdeen, and thought it was high time I told you about it. Elgin (which lies 38 miles east of Inverness) and Aberdeen ... .... are connected by ScotRail trains running eight times a day... Continue Reading →
Thursday 3rd March 2022 Cambridgeshire Guided Busway Looking south I was in Cambridge briefly over the weekend so took the opportunity to take a look at the interim safety measures now installed between the public footpath/bridleway and the northbound guided busway on the one-and-a-quarter mile stretch between Addenbrooke's Hospital and Cambridge railway station. It had... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 1st March 2022 It's just over ten weeks since Arriva pulled out of Surrey so I took a ride over to Guildford last Wednesday to see how things were going. Bus networks in Crawley and Burton-on-Trent as well as Cannock have prospered since Arriva gave up on those towns so I wondered if the... Continue Reading →
Sunday 27th February 2022 In last Tuesday's blog about the Brighton Main Line blockade I mentioned a rail replacement bus was providing a direct journey between Seaford and Uckfield. As that seemed an unusual link - something not normally possible either by bus or train without changes and extended journey times - I thought I'd... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th February 2022 It's time for my fortnightly visit to a small to mid sized town and for D I selected one of England's most beautiful and iconic cities which I hadn't explored for many months. The city of Durham's population is around 50,000. It's the administrative centre of its namesake Durham County Council... Continue Reading →
Thursday 24th February 2022 A fascinating exhibition opened at the beginning of this year in Elstree & Borehamwood Museum. I paid a visit a few weeks ago and thought I'd share the highlights with you. Elstree & Borehamwood Museum is a small one room affair on the second floor of Elstree & Borehamwood library located... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 22nd February 2022 A deserted Hassocks at 07:30 I was up bright and early yesterday morning taking a few rail replacement rides to see how Brighton Main Line commuters were faring on their first weekday of the blockade without trains. It was soon apparent, as in 2019, extensive pre-blockade publicity had done its job... Continue Reading →
Sunday 20th February 2022 It's a bit déjà vu on the Brighton Main Line this week. Flushed with a successful nine day blockade south of Three Bridges to Brighton and Lewes during half term in February 2019 which at the time was billed as a one-off efficient way of completing a whole host of upgrade... Continue Reading →
Saturday 19th February 2022 I'd planned to use this blog to write about the fourth funding settlement agreed between DfT and TfL yesterday including the controversial stuff like Travelcards ending. But I guessed a settlement wouldn't be agreed. And instead there'd be a further extension from last night's midnight expiry of the already twice extended... Continue Reading →
Thursday 17th February 2022 I’ve been meaning to enjoy the freedom offered by a Waterside Wanderer Day Ranger ticket since November when Nigel at the Image Team kindly contacted me to let me know about its "soft launch" that month. Last Saturday I finally found time to travel over to Southampton and give it a... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 15th February 2022 As a Brighton Main Line regular I’ve long been used to playing the ‘Thameslink only’ ticket game to save myself money on travels to and from London, not least during the current hiatus when my local station Hassocks is only blessed with trains to London Bridge and at that a Southern... Continue Reading →
Sunday 13th February 2022 Having explored a couple of southern towns to kick off this year's A to Z of public transport provision in small to mid sized English towns last month I thought I’d better level up and select this month’s two contenders in the north. And what’s more they’re both cities rather than... Continue Reading →
Saturday 12th February 2022 There's been much consternation among bus passengers living in Potters Bar and the surrounding area over the last week. Long standing route 84 between St Albans and New Barnet has been deregistered by Metroline. The 84 is one of those iconic routes with a long history stretching back over a century... Continue Reading →
Thursday 10th February 2022 Passengers using Edinburgh’s trams to travel into the city centre face a few weeks of inconvenience from today with the closure of track between West End through Princes Street and St Andrew Square to the (now, former) terminus at York Place. It’s so that the track can be joined up at... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 8th February 2022 It’s getting on for eighteen months since the start up company called ember (“the UK’s first scheduled electric coach company”) charged on to the Scottish express coach scene with its eight journey a day route between Dundee and Edinburgh. I took anther ride last Friday to see how it’s glowing. Bearing... Continue Reading →
Sunday 6th February 2022 Readers will have seen my recent news update about Essex County Council promoting its "spring clean" of Harlow's notorious bus station “with help from Arriva and Harlow Council”. It was good news that "public transport posters and timetables have been updated, alongside a deep clean" so as I was passing through... Continue Reading →
Saturday 5th February 2022 Cardiff Bus publicly launched its fleet of 36 Yutong E12 EV buses in the middle of last month. They looked very smart and inviting from the photographs on social media so I popped over to the Welsh capital on Wednesday to give them the once over. They’re being used on three... Continue Reading →
Thursday 3rd February 2022 I’d been hearing encouraging news about the way the business and technology park known as Milton Park, near Didcot, is embracing public transport so took a ride out there one day last month to see what’s happening. Situated two-and-a-half miles west of Didcot Parkway railway station, Milton Park is one of... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 1st February 2022 As expected the southern section of Cambridgeshire's guided busway between the railway station and Addenbrooke's Hospital and Trumpington closed yesterday for an indefinite "temporary period" pending the outcome of an independent safety review expected to conclude this month. I wrote about the background to this last week which led to a... Continue Reading →
Sunday 30th January 2022 Flashback to those innocent days in summer 2018 when all was ready for the December opening. Following yesterday's blog when I explored how Crossrail is set to change the travel landscape between Abbey Wood and Liverpool Street, it's now time to continue westwards through the new central core towards Paddington from... Continue Reading →
Saturday 29th January 2022 The sign says Crossrail, so it must be. With Crossrail construction finally in sight of the finishing line and the network's long awaited opening now expected within a matter of weeks I took a ride along the new stretch of line last week so I can appreciate first hand the significantly... Continue Reading →
Thursday 27th January 2022 Continuing my 2022 odyssey around England’s mid sized towns to check out their public transport offering brought me to the post war new town of Bracknell in the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire. It's surrounded by (clockwise) Maidenhead, Slough, Windsor, Egham, Woking, Camberley, Wokingham and Reading. 1998 saw a local government... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 25th January 2022 A one and a third mile section of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway will close next Monday due to safety concerns. It follows two fatal accidents, one in September 2018 and another in October last year. Following October's incident an independent safety review was established and after consultations with the Health &... Continue Reading →
Sunday 23rd January 2022 I recently took a ride up to Luton to check out progress on the new £225 million DART (Direct Air Rail Transit) shuttle which will link Luton Airport Parkway station on the Midland Main Line and the Airport terminal building. Ever since Luton Airport Parkway station opened in 1999 a bespoke... Continue Reading →
Saturday 22nd January 2022 One of the proposals London Mayor Sadiq Khan has put forward to help shore up TfL’s finances in ongoing funding negotiations with Government to replace the current arrangements ending on 4th February is the end of the Travelcard. If this goes ahead it will confirm without doubt the wheels have well... Continue Reading →
Thursday 20th January 2022 The pandemic hasn't been kind to Maidstone's Park & Ride service. Rewind to those carefree pre-Covid July 2019 days and there was much celebration as Maidstone Borough Council officially handed over the running of the town's Park & Ride operation to Arriva with a six year contract committing the company to... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 18th January 2022 The last time I used "London's newest bus route" as a title for a blogpost was on 29th March 2021 heralding the arrival of new route 456 in north London. Almost ten months on I’ve taken another ride on the route to see how it’s getting on but before that another... Continue Reading →
Sunday 16th January 2022 Join me during 2022 as I check out the state of public transport provision in a variety of small to medium sized towns across England. And as I like to bring a bit of order to such meanderings, let's start with the letter A and take a visit to Andover in... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th January 2022 As bus and train companies make service cuts to cater for reduced staff availability due to the continued impact of Covid's Omicron variant I can’t help wondering whether the consequential slimmed down networks will become the "new normal" as passenger levels continue trailing 25-30% below pre-pandemic times and the Treasury plays... Continue Reading →
Thursday 13th January 2022 This Saturday sees the closure of London Underground Northern Line's city branch between Moorgate and Kennington for the next four months**. This will allow the £655 million 'Bank Station Capacity Upgrade Programme' to enter its final stages. Specifically it will allow for a new southbound platform and 570 metre tunnel, which... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 11th January 2022 First of all a reminisce about how Braintree's Bus Park (to use its former official term) used to look until its closure for a full rebuild in March 2020. In particular its 'back-in-time' original 1930s glorious waiting room complete with boarded up authentic fire place and wonderful wooden bench seating all... Continue Reading →
Sunday 9th January 2022 Today's the last day to submit comments in response to TfL's consultation on the proposed withdrawal of routes 168 and 271. Regular readers will be aware I've been chronicling the relentless reductions in London's bus routes since August last year and uncharacteristically for TfL noted none of these have been subject... Continue Reading →
Saturday 8th January 2022 This week has seen further rationalisation between Go-Ahead owned Oxford Bus and Stagecoach Oxford simplifying which bus company operates which routes. Long gone are the days of intense head-to-head competition between the two operators, now there’s sensible cooperation and coordinated timetables making for an attractive bus network to entice passengers. Following... Continue Reading →
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