Thursday 14th March 2024 The sub title of this 'hot off the press' voluminous book, coming in at 420 pages, 'In shades of brown & cream' adds 'South Yorkshire PTE - the bus operating years' clarifying it's a comprehensive study of that renowned bus operator in what was dubbed at the time 'The People's Republic... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 12th March 2024 I paid a visit to Somerset last Wednesday to investigate an interesting development in that county’s bus scene. Both Somerset and North Somerset Councils have used some of their BSIP funds to reinstate route 126 between Weston-Super-Mare and Wells. Regular readers may recall I took a ride on the route just... 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 7th March 2024 The £56 million project to greatly increase the capacity of the West Midlands railway station called simply University has been completed with the new station opening at the end of January. It’s an impressive transformation. There’s no comparison to the cramped conditions of the old station with two newly constructed massive... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 5th March 2024 I’ve recently caught up with the three latest additions to Britain’s burgeoning DRT landscape. They’re in West Berkshire, West Sussex and Derbyshire. West Berkshire’s scheme was launched on 15th January. There’s a rather cute home made video on YouTube explaining the background to it here featuring West Berkshire's Councillor Denis Gaines,... Continue Reading →
Sunday 3rd March It was a big day for buses in London yesterday. As well as the final orbital segment of Superloop taking to the road with new route SL2 running every 12 minutes between Walthamstow and North Woolwich, completing the 1pm to 3pm clock face... Map courtesy of Geoff Marshall ... a raft of... Continue Reading →
Saturday 2nd March I’m back in Scotland for this fifth journey exploring all Britain’s 26 bus routes numbered 100, and it's another short one Or should I use the plural, as it’s really two mini town routes for the price of one, and in my case just £1.65 for a complete five mile rounder covering... Continue Reading →
Thursday 29th February 2024 Welcome to the BusAndTrainUser month end round up of noteworthy sitings spotted on my travels over the last few weeks. Sign language signs I was interested to see the replies and comments I received on X after posting photographs of the departures boards at Doncaster station where LNER are carrying out... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 27th February 2024 A fortnight ago I explained in the blog about Flitwick's Transport Interchange that Stagecoach was withdrawing its hourly route 2 between Bedford and Flitwick after 17th February. The two buses saved from that cut were redeployed on an extension to the company's half hourly route 9A/9B which perviously ran from Bedford... Continue Reading →
Sunday 25th February 2024 It's the London Borough of Bexley's residents’ turn to enjoy the delights of TfL's Superloop limited stop 'express' buses now traversing their home patch. New route SL3 began yesterday linking Bromley, Sidcup and Bexleyheath with Thamesmead (just over the border in the Borough of Greenwich). It brings the metaphorical clockface Superloop... Continue Reading →
Saturday 24th February 2024 Dates into service for new trains along with openings of new stations are notorious for seriously slipping beyond original expectations. Deliveries of new buses also have a reputation for delays which can sometimes impact new bus route introductions, especially if they’re supposed to be operated with electric powered vehicles with associated... Continue Reading →
Thursday 22nd February 2024 I'm counting down Britain's (aka London's) top ten busiest railway stations according to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), and after last month's entry, taking a look at Euston (at No 10), it's the turn of Farringdon. The station has stormed into the top ten thanks to the Elizabeth line... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 20th February 2024 Department for Transport funded Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) have helped launch a number of new bus route initiatives around the country. I’ve recently caught up with Hertfordshire’s latest addition to the network as well as a new arrival in West Sussex. As reported in recent blogs, Hertfordshire has been introducing... Continue Reading →
Saturday 17th February 2024 Having featured three fairly strategic route 100s so far in this year’s meander around the country ticking off all 26 similar numerically defined bus services, this latest route 100 journey experience is much more of a quirky oddball kind of a route. It’s one of four route 100s to be found... Continue Reading →
Thursday 15th February 2024 Reading Buses is no stranger to investing in smart new buses and following the introduction of seven pristine Enviro400s on the newly branded Windsor Express routes 702 (London Line) and 703 (Flightline) last year, it’s now the turn of Lion branded routes 4/X4 between Reading and Bracknell to receive an upgrade.... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 13th February 2024 Barry Docks isn’t the only location with a troubled Transport Interchange. Just before Christmas, the Central Bedfordshire town of Flitwick finally saw buses begin using its new £4.8 million three-bus-stop Transport Interchange, built close to the entrance to the railway station (on the Midland Main Line, one stop south of Bedford).... Continue Reading →
Saturday 10th February 2024 A quirky TfL bus route has started running on the southern fringe of its operating area. It's not often you come across a 16 seat minibus on a TfL bus route. The 464 Connector is being run by Swanley based Go Coach Hire, famous for running bus routes in the Sevenoaks... 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 6th February 2024 Durham's new bus station opened for business on Sunday 7th January. At a cost of £10.4 million (£6.8 million from the County Council and £3.6 million from the Government's Transforming Cities Fund approved by the Combined Authority's Joint Transport Committee for the North East), it offers greatly improved facilities for passengers... Continue Reading →
Sunday 4th February 2024 The latest segment of TfL's Superloop network launched yesterday. Route SL5 is the shortest section of the loop-round-London-that-isn't-really-a-loop, lying roughly between five o'clock and six o'clock on a clock face analogy. In geographic terms that's from Bromley to Croydon. It has the fewest number of bus stops of the Superloop network... Continue Reading →
Saturday 3rd February 2024 Third in this year’s fortnightly route 100 odyssey is another cross-county-border inter-urban bus route but, unlike the first two already featured (Stevenage/Hitchin and Crawley/Redhill), this one really is pure inter-urban. No wandering around residential estates in the urban centres for this double deck operated 35 mile route across some of England’s... Continue Reading →
Thursday 1st February 2024 The infamous £3 million Barry Docks Transport Interchange, which opened last year without any buses, can now proudly boast it has at least one bus route enabling passengers to interchange with trains. Commencing on 8th January, Vale of Glamorgan Council introduced a new timetable on local town route B3 so it... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 30th January 2024 This month's Seen Around is a special miscellany garnered on a recent couple of days I spent in Glasgow where I was delighted to make a presentation to the McGills Group 'management team talk' Awayday held at Hampden Park Stadium, as you can see above. As usual, while in the City... Continue Reading →
Saturday 27th January 2024 A new monthly blog series for 2024 kicks off today, taking a look at Britain's Top Ten Busiest Railway Stations. Except without giving away any spoilers, as well as being 'Britain's Top Ten' they're also 'London's Top Ten', as perhaps not surprisingly, that's where they're all located. So let's begin the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 25th January 2024 I know I’m late to the “let’s finally welcome SWR’s new Arterio trains into service” party with lots of online coverage already available following SWR's 'soft launch' a fortnight ago of one train running a limited service, but 14 days is nothing compared to the four year wait to see these... 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 →
Saturday 20th January 2024 Metrobus 100 between Crawley and Redhill Second in this years fortnightly series featuring all Britain’s 26 bus routes numbered 100 brings us to another busy cross county border, inter-urban route in the shape of the Metrobus operated service between Crawley’s Maidenbower residential area and Redhill’s Park 25 development. It has similar... Continue Reading →
Thursday 18th January 2024 Sneaking into service just before Christmas with no first journey fanfare, ribbon cutting ceremony or any prior notice at all was the first of Glasgow Subway’s new Stadler built four coach trains. The 17 trains were ordered by SPT way back in 2016 with the first being delivered in 2019 but... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 16th January 2024 It's timely to have a DRT update. Firstly to Hertfordshire where the HertsLynx service based on Buntingford in 'North & East Herts' introduced in September 2021 and operated by UNO has been expanding across Hertfordshire. The scheme was extended from 4th December to include Hertford and Ware, making for quite a... Continue Reading →
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