Friday 2nd April 2021 It’s good to see Bournemouth’s Yellow Buses running open-top bus services again after a Covid enforced absence last year. My friend Ray Stenning and I took … Continue Reading Yellow Buses open-tops are back
Wednesday 31st March 2021 It’s all change for Milton Keynes Council’s funded bus routes tomorrow as the local authority sweeps away the low frequency services which compliment Arriva’s cross town … Continue Reading Milton Keynes tries Connecting
Monday 29th March 2021 TfL’s newest bus route numbered 456 began a couple of weeks ago on Saturday 13th March. As I remarked in my 6th March blog, introducing a … Continue Reading TfL’s newest bus route
Saturday 27th March This week’s decision by Mayor Burnham to introduce bus franchising in Greater Manchester came as no surprise. After spending over £11 million in preparatory work over the … Continue Reading Week 12: Flagging
Saturday 20th March 2021 ‘Better’ is definitely the word of the week, and I’m not referring to the continued much welcome news of improving Covid infection, death and hospitalisation levels … Continue Reading Week 11: Better
Saturday 13th March 2021 Did anyone notice any particular story dominating media headlines this week, or did I miss something? The world of buses and trains has also been a … Continue Reading Week 10: Mega
Saturday 6th March 2021 First up this week a shout out to long standing family owned Bourne based bus company Delaine Buses, who proudly put their new ADL E200MMC single … Continue Reading Week 9: Still frozen
Saturday 27th February 2021 The Government’s new-look-cautious irreversible-one-way-road approach to unlocking means the ‘stay-at-home’ message will be eased, subject to data, “data not dates”, in four weeks (at the earliest) … Continue Reading Week 8: Irreversible
Saturday 20th February 2021 A few quick postscripts to last week’s blogpost. Firstly, I got my Grand Centrals mixed up with my Grand Unions when reporting on the ORR’s decision … Continue Reading Week 7: Road map ahead.
Saturday 13th February 2021 I was uncertain whether this week’s ‘word of the week’ is ‘Darcy’ or ‘uncertain’. I plumped for the former as there seems to be so much … Continue Reading Week 6: Darcy.
Saturday 6th February 2021 A truly amazing inoculation milestone was passed on Wednesday. What a remarkable achievement. Ten million people vaccinated within twelve months of news of a “new novel … Continue Reading Week 5: 10 million
Saturday 30th January 2021 Worcester or … Lincoln or … Wakefield or …. Preston …. completely wiped out. In ten months. Haywards Heath …… just since Christmas. Five missed COBRA … Continue Reading Week 4: 100,000.
Saturday 23rd January 2021 We’ve heard a lot about “at pace” over the last ten months. I’m old enough to remember when PPE was being sourced “at pace”; when PPE … Continue Reading Week 3: At pace.
Saturday 16th January 2021 I should have guessed. Just as we were reassured on a Sunday morning primary schools were perfectly safe to open yet by Monday evening they’d become … Continue Reading Week 2: Demonised.
Saturday 9th January 2021 There’s nothing like a pandemic taking a serious turn for the worse (numbers infected, numbers in hospital, numbers dying all rising exponentially); the alert level rising … Continue Reading Week 1: Alas.
Sunday 3rd January 2021 Today marks the end of a train era on the Isle of Wight as the Island Line’s infamous former Underground stock dating from 1938 is finally … Continue Reading Could buses have replaced the 1938 stock?
Sunday 20th December 2020 A very warm welcome to this socially distanced, Covid secure venue for our annual event in which we celebrate the ‘World of Buses and Trains’ with … Continue Reading Annual Review, Awards and Quiz of the Year 2020
Saturday 19th December 2020 How appropriate that aside from my usual “Annual Review, Quiz and Awards of the year” which will post tomorrow, for the penultimate blog of 2020 I … Continue Reading Reach for the sky class
Wednesday 16th December 2020 No they won’t be; only joking. But the latest edition of TfL’s Tube map has been updated and published both online and in print today. After … Continue Reading Bus routes to be added to Tube map
Saturday 12th December 2020 If you’re thinking nothing quite matches the lengthy delays between new trains being ordered and when they finally enter service, you’re ignoring the world of bus … Continue Reading Richmond change around
Thursday 10th December 2020 Have you heard of ‘Seatfrog’? It’s been LNER’s way of offering upgrades from standard class to first class on its trains since 2017. More recently it’s … Continue Reading A first class scam?
Tuesday 8th December 2020 Greater Anglia’s fleet of 33 five-car Bombardier Class 720 ‘Aventra’ trains have finally entered service after many months of delays caused by software issues and more … Continue Reading An Aventra full of seats
Monday 7th December 2020 The order was announced in a fanfare of publicity on 4th March: “Europe’s most frequent coach service set to get even better with 34 new coaches … Continue Reading £13 million down the tube
Sunday 6th December 2020 I always know something serious is happening when a new initiative is upgraded from being described as “ground breaking” in the media release to “game changer” … Continue Reading Switch to switched on Voltra
Friday 4th December 2020 I’ve had a look in a bit more detail at the fifteen ideas for Restoring Your Railways recently awarded up to £50,000 each to investigate whether … Continue Reading 15 more rail restorations reviewed
Wednesday 2nd December 2020 Arriva Click began a new DRT (Demand Responsive Transport) venture on Monday thanks to funding provided by house builders Redrow and Henley Camsland who, along with … Continue Reading Ebbsfleet Garden Clickity
Saturday 28th November 2020 Hi”‘Tis the season to be jolly; but ’tis also the season to be jolly careful” our jolly jape Johnson jested in Monday’s Downing Street press briefing … Continue Reading Week 4: Be jolly careful
Saturday 21st November 2020 One big upside of this week’s so called Government ‘reset’ after Dom’s Downing Street departure was Monday’s welcome return of the Morgan-v-Hancock…Jenrick…Sharma…(et al) head-to-head on ITV’s … Continue Reading Week 3: Reset
Saturday 14th November 2020 Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, has obviously suffered a bad train experience some time in his past. He dampened down Monday’s euphoria over the … Continue Reading Week 2: Two miles down the track
Saturday 7th November 2020 Welcome back to another series of weekly updates of bus and train developments during lockdown. Now, where were we before that “Stay at home” regime was … Continue Reading Week 1: Here we don’t go again
Thursday 5th November 2020 I thought I’d take my last trip out before ‘Lockdown 2.0’ to an area of the country that’s seen excellent positive bus developments in recent months. … Continue Reading A few lines on X-lines
Tuesday 3rd November 2020 First Bus in Leeds have just introduced a fleet of nine electric buses manufactured by the Chinese company, Yutong. They’re becoming a popular purchase choice with … Continue Reading Leeds leads in West Yorkshire
Saturday 31st October 2020 A long awaited extension of TfL bus route 383 from its southern terminus outside Woodside Park Underground Station to serve Finchley Memorial Hospital began today. It’s … Continue Reading Route 383 finally gets its £120K extension
Thursday 29th October 2020 This week sees the start of a trial of BYD’s electric EMV200 single deck demonstrator bus in Slough. But this isn’t one of those short visit … Continue Reading Slough’s Bath Road gets a plug
Tuesday 27th October 2020 I recently had the pleasure of exploring the Abbey Line with my friend Geoff Marshall. Geoff’s a professional and brilliant YouTube Creator producing engaging videos about … Continue Reading Eploring the Abbey Line
Monday 26th October 2020 Today’s date, 26th October, will for ever resonate for those of us involved in the bus industry back in 1986 as the anniversary of the birth … Continue Reading I used my pass over Snake Pass
Friday 23rd October 2020 Continuing my exploration of the former red and green bus territorial boundary around London to mark this year’s fiftieth anniversary of London Country’s formation brings me … Continue Reading Epsom border territory
Wednesday 21st October 2020 As the all too predictable battle for control of TfL rages amid the desperate need for further Covid funding from Government to keep the Capital’s transport … Continue Reading Bus changes for Croydon and Sutton
Wednesday 14th October 2020 The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t completely scotched new initiatives launching into the bus and coach market. Recent blogposts have highlighted the Bracknell Express, Flixbus entering the UK … Continue Reading Will ember keep glowing?
Monday 12th October 2020 Woking lies five and a half miles north of Guildford. You’re spoilt for choice when travelling by public transport between the towns – there are seven … Continue Reading Seven ways to Woking (from Guildford)
