Thursday 2nd October 2025 There’s never a dull moment in Cornwall’s ever changing bus scene. In recent times we’ve seen……First Bus show no interest in its Cornish operations, running ageing second hand vehicles in a dreadful state transferred from other parts of the country... ... allowing the rising star that was Western Greyhound... ...to steal... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 30th September 2025 Another month end so here's more miscellany I've spotted on my travels over the last few weeks but not blogged about. Gatwick Express takes over Eastbourne I've featured the mess that is GTR's train branding in previous roundups, but, noticing Gatwick Express liveried trains out in force in Eastbourne station (above... Continue Reading →
Saturday 27th September 2025 The London Transport Museum Friends held another country bus route recreating day on Tuesday and I was lucky enough to get a sought after ticket and take a ride on board. It follows the wonderful day in June 2024 when route 386 was recreated between Bishops Stortford and Hitchin and another,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 25th September 2025 Welcome to another blog about another bus route numbered 11 and where we head to Nottingham. Interesting developments at award winning bus company Nottingham City Transport (NCT) this month saw managing director David Astill warn staff of tough times ahead following disappointing financial results for year ended March 2025. “The company... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 23rd September 2025 I topped off last week’s epic ride on ember’s route E11 by sampling two very contrasting bus routes also numbered 11. One in the glorious Cotswolds and the other in Nottingham Today's blog describes the former with Thursday's featuring the latter. Image courtesy Troopers Lodge Motor Services And this is not... Continue Reading →
Saturday 20th September 2025 Worcester Shrub Hill looking north I didn’t originally have Worcester on my list for this series by dint of the 2020 opening of Worcestershire Parkway making it a three station city. However, after lobbying from my Worcester based friend and former bus industry colleague, Iain Macbriar, who quite rightly pointed out... Continue Reading →
Thursday 18th September 2025 Scotland has two National Parks: Loch Lomond & The Trossachs and The Cairngorms. I enjoyed an absolutely brilliant day on Tuesday sampling two of Britain’s most scenic journeys - one across each National Park. If you enjoy a scenic bus and coach ride, I heartily recommend adding these two to any... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 16th September 2025 This post was going to be about my journey last Thursday on bus route LC6 which runs four times a day between Coalville and Hinckley Operated by Centrebus with one bus on behalf of Leicestershire County Council, the route was introduced on 26th August providing a north-south link between these communities... Continue Reading →
Saturday 13th September 2025 Imberbus 2024 Photo credit Steve Hutchings Obviously it just had to be in the Top 10 and very much deserves the coveted top three billing as an absolute sure fire example of Britain's Quirky Bus Routes. It is of course the annual outing for Wiltshire's very special bus route, the 23A,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 11th September 2925 Catching up on last week’s developments with a look at three more new bus routes which began on 31st August/1st September…. First up is a new link between Leigh-on-Sea and Southend Airport and its adjacent Business Park funded by Southend City Council. Stephensons are operating the two year contract with an... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 9th September 2025 As mentioned in recent blogs, last week saw a number of changes to bus routes in Powys, not least significant surgery to the TrawsCymru network through the county. Whereas TrawsCymru had been expanding across mid and south east Wales over the last six years by swallowing up traditionally run local bus... Continue Reading →
Sunday 7th September 2025 Blog reader Natasha recently got in touch to suggest I visit Chartwell House in Kent and sample the options to travel there by bus. Situated down a country lane (called Mapleton Road) off the B2026, Hosey Hill, south of Westerham, the National Trust property, famous for being the home of Sir... Continue Reading →
Saturday 6th September 2025 For this continuing fortnightly exploration of places with two stations I've visited Bicester in Oxfordshire famous for one of its two stations unusually being renamed from Bicester Town to Bicester Village in 2015 in recognition of the huge draw from the adjacent retail attraction of that name. One might normally assume... Continue Reading →
Thursday 4th September 2025 Before today's blog - thanks to blog reader and avid Metro reader, John, here's a quick "you're not going to believe this" from TfL and the appalling handling of route 375's temporary withdrawal between Romford station and Chase Cross and its secret amended timetable. On Monday the usual PR hype page... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 2nd September 2025 This week sees a raft of bus services improvements with new Bus Service Improvement Plan funded routes in many areas as well as major changes to the TrawsCymru network and other services in Powys. I hope to sample many of these changed routes over the next few weeks but first up... Continue Reading →
Sunday 31st August 2025 Sorry readers, it's another one of those blogposts containing pure personal nostalgia. But, don't worry, more normal topics return this coming week with lots happening to report on. But this coming week .... 60 years ago in September 1965 .... also saw a major milestone in my life as I started... Continue Reading →
Saturday 30th August 2025 Welcome to another potpourri of miscellany not yet blogged about from the past month's travels .... Andover's no longer connected to Newbury I'd hoped to kick off this month's round up with a report hot off the computer keyboard from yesterday about the penultimate day for route 7 between Newbury and... Continue Reading →
Friday 29th August 2025 Welcome to a Friday bonus BusAndTrainUser Verify blog special checking out unbelievable incompetence in the Romford area this week. The much respected and popular Diamond Geezer (DG) blog first exposed the lunacy on Wednesday. It’s not that I don’t believe his description of how awful TfL has acted - DG’s blog... Continue Reading →
Thursday 28th August 2025 I recently experienced an enjoyable round trip through the Derbyshire Dales and Peaks which I thought I'd share. Alighting from the train at Derby's railway station a smart new '25' plate Kinchbus operated Enviro200 soon arrived on the Skylink branded route from Leicester and Loughborough to whisk me over to the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 26th August 2025 Photo courtesy London Transport Museum collection Go-bus held an open day and bus rally on Saturday to mark the 100th anniversary of the former London Transport Country bus garage it now occupies in the town. Photo courtesy London Transport Museum collection And yes, that is a new name for what was... Continue Reading →
Sunday 24th August 2025 Richard Delahoy has kindly sent me a copy of his recently published book about the famous route X1 which plied between Southend and London in the 1980s. It's sub-title ‘The rise and fall of a deregulated phenomenon’ neatly encapsulates the book's substantial content. Richard has not only put together a truly... Continue Reading →
Saturday 23rd August 2025 Welcome to the western fringe of Kent for this latest review of a town with two stations, and another fairly small town too with Edenbridge containing around 10,000 population. Both Edenbridge's stations are run by Southern and both have an hourly off peak service with some additional journeys in the peaks.... Continue Reading →
Thursday 21st August 2025 The end of this month sees changes to two bus routes that cross London’s border with Hertfordshire so a small group of bus industry veterans recently joined me for an enjoyable wander cross-crossing the border four times to sample routes 84B and 610 for one last time. We began our travels... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 19th August 2025 Kent's Thameside Fastrack quietly expanded at the weekend with the opening of a new section of bus only road extending westwards from the new Whitecliife development by Castle Hill to the Bluewater Retail Park. It's definitely a case of getting buses installed before residents move in. Other than a few houses... Continue Reading →
Sunday 17th August 2025 The third review in this weekly trilogy of recently purchased books is a must read for anyone interested in the minutia of how bus networks develop to serve an expanding New Town over a period of three decades. Anyone who has devoured one of Laurie Akehurst’s previous books on London Transport... Continue Reading →
Saturday 16th August 2025 Regular readers may recall I blogged about this quirky bus route three years ago. It’s the one where security personnel remove you from the bus six miles before it reaches the advertised terminus because it's out of bounds other than for a few residents who live there. It’s this unique characteristic... Continue Reading →
A Friday bonus blog for 15th August 2025 Government controlled LNER is further restricting passenger choice and in some cases increasing fares again from 7th September as part of its Great Railway Ticket Rip Off on the East Coast Main Line. In the next phase of its "Simpler Fares pilot" LNER is withdrawing the availability... Continue Reading →
Thursday 14th August 2025 An open letter to Martijn Gilbert, Managing Director Arriva UK Bus As you begin your exciting new role next Monday I thought I'd drop you a line with a few thoughts based on impressions I've gained from extensive travel experiences with Arriva over the last few years. Let me say from... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 12th August 2025 Chiltern did it in January 2003. Greater Anglia did it (except Norwich/London) in January 2020. c2c did it in July 2021. Southeastern did it in December 2022. London NorthWestern did it in May 2023. The Overground has never had it. The Elizabeth Line has never had it. It's about time GTR... Continue Reading →
Sunday 10th August 2025 The second of the three books I bought recently is this wonderful Southdown photo album featuring prints from the Peter Mitchell collection of over 500 negatives of photographs he took in the heyday of that much loved bus company in the 1950s and 1960s and which Capital Transport arranged to have... Continue Reading →
Saturday 9th August 2025 The most conveniently sited of Gainsborough’s two railway stations is Gainsborough Central. As its name implies, it’s located right bang in the centre of town, next to a large shopping complex and massive Tesco and a short walk from the bus station. The only snag is the station sees just two... Continue Reading →
Thursday 7th August 2025 Photo credit: Emma West A much welcome upgrade to the bus route between Reading and Oxford launched this week. Not only has the timetable for Thames Travel’s River Rapids branded route X40 been improved from half hourly to every 20 minutes with new late night journeys added on Fridays and Saturdays... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 5th August 2025 I thought it was about time I gave the recently introduced FlixBus express coach service between Brighton and London a try out. It began on 13th June providing two journeys from the south coast city to Cambridge via Gatwick Airport and, intriguingly, Stratford, as the coach stop in London rather than... Continue Reading →
Sunday 3rd August 2025 While passing through Covent Garden recently I naturally called by London Transport Museum’s slimmed down, sad-shadow-of-it’s-former-glory bookshop, but still managed to splash the cash (or more accurately, tap the card) and buy three books, each with a personal connection. Here’s the first: it’s the sad tale of the London Merlins told... Continue Reading →
Saturday 2nd August 2025 Before today’s blog a quick update on the mystery of the missing route 15 on 16th July and non replies from AtoB Bus and Coach. Following publication of Thursday’s blog I was contacted by AtoB’s owner Brian who apologised for the silence in response to my emails/phone calls explaining the company... Continue Reading →
Thursday 31st July 2025 Welcome to Part Two of this month's miscellany round up, with Part One being an all London version having appeared on Tuesday. And we begin with some rather misleading announcements from Train Companies... Urgent repairs or not? Something very odd happened on the Brighton Main Line earlier this month. A major... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 29th July 2025 July's month end round up is over brimming with items not previously blogged about so I'm splitting it into two bites with today's installment covering a few items ‘seen around’ London and Thursday's post will be devoted to matters spotted outside London. Welcome to an extended route 241 I got round... Continue Reading →
Sunday 27th July 2025 Having tried out new route 714 and the soon-to-be-amended 'almost quirky' route 555 to one of Britain's best served villages, I can also report on a few other enjoyable journeys I made in the north of Surrey earlier this month. As previously explained on my first abortive attempt to visit Wisley,... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th July 2025 Welcome to another blog featuring the fourth station pair to be found within a town or city on precisely the same line of longitude but on completely different rail lines (see Canterbury, Yeovil and New Mills, previously featured in this fortnightly series) But, as you can see from the above map,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 24th July 2025 Two more new bus routes launched this week and, once again, they're pure commercial ventures and come from one of Britain's newest bus companies. Who said deregulation and entrepreneurialism in the bus industry was dead? New ‘express’ routes X22 and X43 began on Monday linking Chester-le-Street (X22) and Stanley (X43) directly... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 24th July 2025 A new bus route for 2025 has been introduced for the summer season by Southern Vectis on the Isle of Wight. It’s a purely commercial venture with no public support through Bus Service Improvement Plan funding. And it’s not so much a bus route, more an open-top leisure travel experience. Called... Continue Reading →
Sunday 20th July 2025 I’m writing this blog on Saturday morning (yesterday) sitting in the shadow of Scafell Pike at Wasdale Head, in the Cumbrian Mountains, having arrived on one of Britain’s most scenic and quirkiest bus routes, and as the blogpost title confirms, it’s free for all passengers too. Sounds too good to be... Continue Reading →
Saturday 19th July 2025 Brothers Kevin, Ian and Anthony Delaine-Smith Longer term readers may recall the D is for Delaine blog I wrote a couple of years ago for 2023's A-to-Z of bus and train companies series. It coincided with Anthony Delaine-Smith's tenure as Omnibus Society President that year including his fascinating talk to members... Continue Reading →
Thursday 17th July 2025 Regular blog readers will appreciate I couldn’t resist giving last week’s media reports about the bus route costing a £180 subsidy per passenger journey in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority area the BusAndTrainUser Verify treatment. Not that I disbelieved for one moment the veracity of the claim as it came... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 15th July 2025 It's the middle of the month, so time for another Quirky Bus Route. Cumbria Classic Coaches is based in Ravenstonedale, Cumbria about four miles south east of Kirkby Stephen. The company has a small collection of vintage vehicles for use on private hires, especially weddings. It also has a few more... Continue Reading →
Sunday 13th July 2025 I'd never been to Whiteley Village prior to my bus wanderings around Surrey last week. I'd known it from seeing the destination emblazoned on the front of buses serving Heathrow Airport on route 555.... ....Whiteley Village being the southern terminus of the meandering route operated by White Bus which connects the... Continue Reading →
Saturday 12th July 2025 Today's blog features the two separate stations located closest together in this fortnightly series. They're in the south London suburb of Catford in the London Borough of Lewisham. Frankly, if it wasn’t for the fact they’re named differently and the railway lines don't connect, they could be marketed as one station,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 10th July 2025 New bus links to RHS Wisley have been in operation for a few weeks so I thought it was time to give them the BusAndTrainUser once over. Woking Community Transport had been providing a shuttle bus on behalf of RHS between Woking and the Gardens and there was also a bus... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 8th July 2025 The end of an era for two odd ball tendered bus routes beckons in a few weeks time. I took a ride on both routes last week to experience the passing of the old guard. Both upcoming changes are as a consequence of a county council re-tender exercise resulting in a... Continue Reading →
Sunday 6th July 2025 Back in April readers may recall I blogged about a raft of changes to bus routes in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead involving tendered services passing between Thames Valley and Carousel while in March, after many years absence, the latter introduced a new commercial route (127) between Maidenhead and... Continue Reading →
BusAndTrainUser 