Friday 12th July 2019 Kent County Council's fourth 'Rural Transport Initiative' gets underway on Monday next week so earlier today I took a ride on the last weekday operation of the old order to get a sense of what this one's all about. (My write up of the first three pilot schemes can be read... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 10th July 2019 It was a pleasure to travel on Northern Rail's new CAF Civity trains yesterday afternoon and this morning. They come in two flavours - a diesel version known as Class 195 and an electric version known as Class 331 - but otherwise they're exactly the same train with only a pantograph... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 9th July 2019 Welcome to a fourth day of travelling to tick off various 'to do' routes, destinations, new buses and trains which began with an early start from Llandrindod Wells on the first 06:18 journey which starts its journey at this lovely station and continues beyond Shrewsbury as a stopping train through to... Continue Reading →
Sunday 7th July 2019 Here's a great way to spend five hours on a summer Sunday: enjoy one of the best circular journeys in Devon, if not the whole of Britain. It takes in three top rail lines and a brilliant bus route skirting a National Park. The circular route can be based on either... Continue Reading →
Saturday 6th July 2019 I thought it was high time I ticked off more bus routes on my lengthy 'to do' list compiled from the many suggestions kindly passed on from various sources, not least Twitter, which qualify for the accolade of being the Best of British Bus Routes. So for the next few days... Continue Reading →
Friday 5th July 2019 There are over 150 standard and narrow gauge 'heritage' railways operating in Great Britain. Most are run by enthusiastic volunteers who put in many hours of dedicated service. I try and visit one or two every few weeks on my travels and have managed to tick off a long list, but... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 3rd July 2019 Bus and coach routes serving airports have expanded greatly over the last few decades with a seemingly constant stream of new initiatives. I wrote about the recent upgrade to First Glasgow's route 500 between Glasgow Airport and the city centre last month while over at Edinburgh Airport, Xplore Dundee have started... Continue Reading →
Saturday 29th June 2019 Back in April I took a ride on the bus route formerly known as the 'Wiltshire Wigglybus' between Pewsey and Devizes - a traditional rural bus route combined with a Dial-a-Ride flexible option and wrote about it here. Yesterday I thought it might be interesting to sample a similar type of... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 25th June 2019 There's something seriously amiss with Caledonian Sleeper's train service. I've blogged about the new Mark 5 coaches a couple of times recently (here and here) highlighting the teething problems I encountered, in particular no water in the en-suite shower in my supposedly swanky new 'Club' room on two of the three... Continue Reading →
This is the story of how a journey on the Longest Day of the year from Lands End to John O'Groats by ground public transport (that's bus and train) unfolded in real time. The original plan, as described in Wednesday's (19th June) blog was to complete the end-to-end journey in just under 24 hours. Except,... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 19th June 2019 To celebrate a year of blogging and the upcoming Longest Day of the year I'm heading down to Cornwall on GWR's Night Riviera sleeper train tonight to begin an epic 24-hour Lands End to John O'Groats trip by bus and train beginning tomorrow, Thursday, afternoon. On most weekdays, this famous journey... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 18th June 2019 Kent County Council's 'Rural Transport Initiative' using 'Taxi Buses' has begun so I thought I'd take a look to see how it's going. It's early days but there are already signs of interest building in the rural communities now enjoying public transport either for the first time or after quite a... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th June 2019 Today saw the much heralded cuts to a large number of central London bus routes including many changes to termini and amended routes. I previewed the changes in a post on 5th June foreseeing a major challenge as getting bus stop plates, timetables and spider maps updated. Having had a good... Continue Reading →
Friday 14th June 2019 Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous? At a time when airports should be doing all they can to enhance their environmental credentials by encouraging passengers to use public transport you'd think a new bus route introduced in the dead of night entirely at the commercial risk of a bus company... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 11th June 2019 Yesterday was the final time routes 293 and 294 connected various Kent villages with Tenterden. The routes' withdrawal are a consequence of Kent County Council's slimmed down funding cut to uncommercial bus services following its 'Big Conversation' consultation about rural transport last year. I'd been alerted to the withdrawals on social... Continue Reading →
Sunday 9th June 2019 The Epping Ongar Railway is having one of its popular steam weekends this weekend and I took a ride to the end of the Central Line to have a look. Thanks to Roger Wright's ownership interests, you can always count on decent bus connections from right outside Epping Station to North... Continue Reading →
Friday 7th June 2019It's been a long time waiting but finally First Bus have allocated much needed double deck buses on their high profile Glasgow Airport Express route 500. Ten smart new buses began operating the 24/7 shuttle link between the airport and city centre from the middle of April so I was pleased to... Continue Reading →
Thursday 6th June 2019 It may not rank as high as the West Highland Line, the Kyle of Lochalsh Line or the Far North Line in the great Scottish Scenic Rail Lines stakes but ScotRail have rightly designated the line down to Stranraer as a Scenic Rail Journey and very justifiably so too. While I... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 5th June 2019 The countdown has begun. It's ten days until TfL introduce a swathe of bus cuts across central London beginning on Saturday 15th June 2019. Twenty-five bus routes are changing with withdrawals, frequency reductions and many altered termini. And this is only Part 1; Part 2 is promised for later in the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th June 2019 Sometimes it's instructive to turn up at the launch of a new rail station a day late. Opening ceremonies can be tedious affairs with dignitaries descending the scene, wooden speeches, congratulatory words, smiles all round for the cameras, pats on backs, then back to their offices. The second day often has... Continue Reading →
Monday 3rd June 2019 It was meant to be the grand launch night, last night. Serco owned Caledonian Sleeper had planned to begin running their much delayed smart new Mark 5 trains on the Lowland route between London's Euston station and Edinburgh and Glasgow from Sunday 2nd June so I bought a ticket to Glasgow... Continue Reading →
Sunday 2nd June 2019 A totally biased book review for a Sunday evening. Ribble. Celebrating the centenary of an iconic bus company Roger Davies, the book's author, is a good mate; I've known him for over forty years; our paths first crossed when we both worked in Kent in the 1970s with Maidstone & District/East... Continue Reading →
Saturday 1st June 2019 There's a lovely railway branch line which heads in a north/south direction across the centre of Kent where Southeastern trains shuttle up and down all day between Tonbridge in the Weald and Strood in the more industrial north of the county. It's a quiet backwater line weaving its way between the... Continue Reading →
Friday 31st May 2019 There's been a welcome resurgence in the traditional open top bus market (as opposed to high profile City Sightseeing) over the last few years with long withdrawn routes returning to their once regular haunts. Yellow Buses resurrected their seafront service in Bournemouth and Boscombe a couple of years ago, as did... Continue Reading →
While I was giving GoSutton a try between the Royal Marsden and St Helier Hospitals in Sutton on Tuesday my friend James tweeted suggesting I also give the H1 inter-hospital bus route a ride. That was a new one on me, so I couldn't resist giving it a go. The H1 is sponsored by the... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 29th May 2019 It's all happening in Colindale. That's the area in north west London with a station almost at the end of the Edgware branch of the Northern Line; the one before Burnt Oak, before you get to Edgware itself. Colindale's in the London Borough of Barnet and is one of the largest... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 28th May 2019 TfL jumped on the digital DRT bandwagon today launching its own version of Arriva Click and Oxford Pick Me Up. This latest app-based Demand Responsive Transport has landed in upmarket car dominated Sutton and Carshalton using six minibuses out of a fleet of eight between 06:30 and 21:30, seven days a... Continue Reading →
Bank Holiday Monday 27th May 2019 The ever professional conductor James gets ready to take up his duty Southern Transit run a once a week bus route between Horsham and Shoreham-by-Sea following as closely as possible the Adur Valley railway line between those towns which closed in 1966 and the more recently established Downs Link... Continue Reading →
Sunday 26th May 2019 Train manufacturer Bombardier has at last finally sorted the software issues on the new Class 710 trains for London Overground’s Gospel Oak to Barking route and the much delayed trains entered public service for the first time last Thursday. As operator Arriva Trains London organise more drivers fully trained to drive... Continue Reading →
Saturday 25th May 2019 The city of Kingston upon Hull got its share of fame in 2017 with its designation as UK City of Culture leading to all kinds of whacky artistic displays and events. Aside from its infamous autonomous telephone exchange and unique cream telephone boxes, for me, Hull has always been famous for... Continue Reading →
Friday 24th May 2019 There was a time if you fancied running a coach travel business you'd get yourself a coach or two (probably decent second-hand stock to begin with), pick up a school contract to run, get known among well-to-do local clubs and societies for those lucrative private hires and maybe run a small... Continue Reading →
Thursday 23rd May 2019 I headed north from Newcastle to Edinburgh with Cross Country first thing yesterday. It's always a pleasure to travel on this stretch of the East Coast Main Line (No 17 in my Hundred Best Train Journeys) especially with the late Spring early morning sun shining across the bays and coves as... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 22nd May 2019 I left you yesterday morning in Sheffield about to head west on the delightful Hope Valley line (No 12 in My 100 Best Train Journeys) with Trans Pennine Express. It's a beautiful scenic ride through the Peak District made all the better by a gorgeous sunny day. I changed trains in... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 21st May 2019 First improvement in the May 2019 rail timetable I experienced yesterday on my tour around was from my own local station, Hassocks where our disjointed two an hour trains to the Thameslink Core stations and on to Bedford or Cambridge (one an hour to each but to a 40/20 pattern) have... Continue Reading →
Monday 20th May 2019 Mid May's always a good month to buy an All Line Rover and have a wander around Britain's rail network taking a look at new initiatives introduced by various Train Operating Companies in the May timetable change. This year's changes are bound to be much smoother than last year's collective meltdown... Continue Reading →
Saturday 18th May 2019 Today's a poignant day on the Great Western. The much loved HST trains are running their last journeys across the network to and from London as new Hitachi IET Class 800 and 802 trains now reign supreme. Whereas last week's LNER Azuma launch was met with much excitement for the future,... Continue Reading →
Friday 17th May 2019 Let's get the usual bit out of the way first .... "at last, after many delays" etc etc. Same old story, of course, and in the Azuma's case it still hasn't quite been sorted with onboard technical issues to do with electrical and signal compatibility north of Darlington still to be... Continue Reading →
Thursday 16th May 2019 We're fast approaching the anniversary this weekend of that fateful day in May last year when the Thameslink (and Northern Rail) train networks went into meltdown. Changes to the GoVia Thameslink Railway (GTR) operated Thameslink network had been billed as the culmination of years of investment and preparatory work including millions... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 15th May 2019 'Winding your way down on Baker Street' the late great Gerry Rafferty sang; and since February, if he'd still been with us, he would be able to wind his way back up it once again. The road (and nearby parallel running Gloucester Place) has changed back to two-way traffic including an... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 14th May 2019 Exactly thirty-five years ago today British Rail began the first non-stop train service between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport marketed as Gatwick Express. Class 73 locomotives hauled Mark 2 carriages providing a 30 minute journey time. Since 1984 GX's history has been in three almost equal parts: the British Rail era... Continue Reading →
Sunday 12th May 2019 The Guardian newspaper ran a high profile series of articles last week comparing London with the rest of England across various quality of life parameters under the theme "London versus...". "The price of a standard pint of Carling lager in Wetherspoon's pubs across England varies by more than £2, depending on... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 8th May 2019 I spent last weekend’s Bank Holiday break on beautiful Alderney, one of the Channel Islands. Alderney’s not renowned for its public transport - there are no buses - they’re not really needed on an island that measures just three miles long and 1.5 miles wide with a population of 2,000. It... Continue Reading →
Friday 3rd May 2019 Finding myself in Glasgow at 7.30am yesterday morning (after my inaugural Caledonian Sleeper Mark 5 journey) I thought it would be an opportunity to continue the first-time experiences by taking a ride on the recently completed electrified ScotRail line to Edinburgh via Shotts and then catch a Borders Buses X62 down... Continue Reading →
Thursday 2nd May 2019 The long awaited Caledonian Sleeper CAF built Mark 5 coaches began running on the Lowland route last Sunday night. I booked myself a ticket and travelled from Euston to Glasgow last night/this morning to see whether the salivating I'd been reading on social media from high profile commentators blessed with their... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 1st May 2019 It's day three of Arriva's latest Click venture introduced in Leicester on Monday, so I thought it was worth a trip to see how it's panning out. Corporates love to boast about being the first to do something; they salivate over 'ground-breaking initiatives' and associated hype reckoning it makes for a... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 30th April 2019 My Funday in Furness yesterday exploring three small islands off England's north west coast came sandwiched between two other great travelling days. I travelled up the East Coast Main Line from Kings Cross to Newcastle on Saturday with LNER (always a favourite journey) to meet the lovely members of the Northern... Continue Reading →
Monday 29th April 2019 Today's been a fascinating day visiting three tiny islands off England's north west coast alongside Barrow in Furness. Until a few months ago when planning this adventure I had no idea they even existed! The Borough of Barrow, including neighbouring Dalton, has a population of around 57,000 and is Cumbria's second... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 24th April 2019 It's been a long wait with some well over a year late, but finally an avalanche of new trains is entering service; well one train has. First off the blocks is the much anticipated Class 230 train which began running on the Marston Vale line between Bedford and Bletchley yesterday. Not... Continue Reading →
Sunday 21st April 2019Let's get the vinyl-over-windows frustration out of the way first. It's never a good idea to ask the public to vote on branding; it's bad enough letting them decide on EU membership or naming a research vessel for the British Antarctic Survey so when CT Plus Jersey (an HCT Group company) celebrated... Continue Reading →
Friday 19th April 2019 It's not often a completely new bus route starts up. Usually changes to bus services see variations to long standing routes featuring improvements or reductions to frequencies and journey times or diversions to routes to serve new developments. The last new route launch I can recall was Stagecoach's brave investment decision... Continue Reading →
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