Tuesday 1st April 2025 Answer: Both places saw a bus route denoted by the letter R withdrawn over the weekend. In TfL's continuing drive for efficiencies to save a few vehicles here and there (it all helps with Superloop expansion), from Saturday, it rerouted the already circuitous half-hourly route B14 (Bexleyheath-Sidcup-St Mary Cray-Orpington) to take... Continue Reading →
Saturday 29th March 2025 It's been on the cards for months, if not a couple of years; it’s the sad demise of Hulleys of Baslow (“Proudly serving the Peak District since 1921”) which finally came to pass on Wednesday. Emergency short term contracts were awarded by Derbyshire County Council commencing on Thursday, just in the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 27th March 2025 The latest issue of Passenger Transport fortnightly magazine is leading on a story originally covered in The Times newspaper that "Ministers saw how Greater Manchester’s Bee Network rebrand changed public perceptions almost overnight – and want the same bounce for rail". It goes on to report "the government is set to... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 25th March 2025 Many inter-urban bus routes have seen booming passenger demand in recent years as bus companies invest in new vehicles, improved frequencies and attractive branding to encourage growth along key corridors. But on the border of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire it’s a different story. Specifically the Aylesbury to Hemel Hempstead corridor along what... Continue Reading →
Saturday 22nd March 2025 I first became familiar with Wakefield’s two railway stations, Westgate and Kirkgate, 50 years ago when embarking on my full time bus industry career in 1975 with the National Bus Company’s West Riding subsidiary based in the city. I recall arriving, carrying a heavy suitcase (no wheeled suitcases in those days),... Continue Reading →
Thursday 20th March 2025 Oh no! I hear you cry. “Not another blog about DRT”. “He’s obsessed with it”. It’s just I’m trying to find one that works and it’s not my fault, nine years on, that search continues. Beginning on 27th January, this latest offering is from Telford & Wrekin Council being particularly aimed... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 18th March 2025 The much anticipated autonomous bus trial on public roads in Sunderland city centre began earlier this month. I took a ride last Tuesday, interested to see how it compares with other trials I’ve experienced in Didcot, Edinburgh, Milton Keynes and Harwell campus over the last few years. It was the Aurrigo... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th March 2025 This year's monthly blog series is counting down Britain's quirky bus routes. Following last month's wander through Windsor Great Park using roads out-of-bounds to ordinary traffic on White Bus route 01, this month we're heading north for a ride on a route where the bus timetable is determined by the tide... Continue Reading →
Thursday 13th March 2025 The long awaited smart new Class 555 trains for the Tyne & Wear Metro are slowly entering service and I was fortunate to have a guided tour of one of the new fleet on a visit kindly hosted by Nexus as part of the Young Bus Professionals conference held recently in... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 11th March 2025 The latest addition to the DRT scene ‘soft launched’ last week. Funded by Hampshire County Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan the service involves two vehicles serving a rural area centred on Andover in the Northern Test Valley. The operation uses Padam software with on the road operations in the hands of... Continue Reading →
Saturday 8th March 2025 1849 was a good year for railways in Windsor. It was the year when both the town's termini opened. What's now called Windsor & Eton Central opened first, on 9th October, by the Great Western Railway and what is now, South Western Railway's station in Datchet Road (now called Windsor &... Continue Reading →
Thursday 6th March 2025 It’s been quite a few years since Reading and Maidenhead were linked with a regular direct bus route. The connection was once a mainstay inter-urban route operated by the old Thames Valley Traction Company Ltd (inevitably numbered 1 in its extensive network across Berkshire) but excellent rail links between the two... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th March 2025 I had the pleasure and privilege of co-hosting another fascinating conference for young professionals working in the bus industry on Wednesday and Thursday last week in Newcastle. It was one of the twice-a-year conferences held at various locations around the country to encourage and inspire young managers as well as share... Continue Reading →
Saturday 1st March 2025 It's not just Eastenders and Comic Relief's Red Nose Day celebrating a 40th anniversary this year. I am too, and more pertinently, today. 1st March 1985 saw the mighty Southdown bus company, whose buses and coaches had reigned supreme across Sussex and East Hampshire since formation in 1915, reorganised into six... Continue Reading →
Thursday 27th February 2025 Another month end and another potpourri mix of miscellany spotted as I've travelled around. Hydrogen blockage eases to power more buses in Surrey At long last it seems Metrobus has been able to start using the permanent Hydrogen storage facility at its Crawley bus garage albeit not yet to the extent... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 25th February 2025 Lanarkshire based JMB Travel reintroduced route X1 last month (13th January), reinstating a fast motorway link between Hillhouse, Hamilton and Glasgow that was abandoned by First Bus in 2020. Flashback to happy days when smiling children adorned printed timetables for First Bus Although First Bus cut the route during the early... Continue Reading →
Saturday 22nd February 2025 Neither of Dorchester's two railway stations are particularly busy when compared to the six stations featured so far in this fortnightly series (Hertford, Canterbury and Wigan) but Dorchester South, which arrived on the scene first, in 1847, beats its near neighbour, Dorchester West, by virtue of hosting South Western Railway's twice-an-hour... Continue Reading →
Thursday 20th February 2025 Hello A new bus station opened in Gosport last October and I finally got round to paying a visit last Friday to take a look. It's been built alongside the old site which, after 52 years, had definitely seen better days, and, like its predecessor, is conveniently located next to the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 18th February 2025 The DfT got round to publishing a report evaluating “the first 10 months of the £2 bus fare cap” (£2BFC) last week. It had been handed over to the DfT last November being compiled by consultants SYSTRA and Frontier Economics. But it only evaluates the first 10 months of the scheme... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th February 2025 Welcome to a new series of monthly blog posts for 2025 where, over the next 10 months, I’ll be counting down Britain's Top 10 Quirky Bus Routes each with an increasing quirkiness factor as we head towards No 1 in November. Appropriately enough the countdown kicks off with a bus service... Continue Reading →
Thursday 13th February 2025 Blog reader Geoff kindly drew my attention to a recent online news story in which Derbyshire Live, part of the Reach news group, used a clickbait headline implying all was not well for “a new Derby bus hub”. It's not yet been built and is linked to the huge residential development... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 11th February 2025 There was an understandable backlash in December 2024 when Transport for Wales reduced the timetable on the iconic Heart of Wales line between Swansea and Shrewsbury via Llandrindod Wells. Passengers had got used to having an improved five return journeys a day as well as evening journeys at each end of... Continue Reading →
Saturday 8th February 2025 Wigan’s two stations are both located on Wallgate just 100 metres apart. Tessa Sanderson could easily throw a javelin from one entrance to the other (assuming no pedestrians were about for obvious Health & Safety issues). Wigan North Western came first, opening in 1838 as plain Wigan with a renaming to... Continue Reading →
Thursday 6th February 2025 Southampton gained a new bus hub at the end of last year, and I got round to paying a visit early on Sunday morning to see what the £3.9 million spent has delivered. It's located on Castle Way by Albion Place south of the popular West Quay Shopping Centre and close... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th February 2025 As identified in a recent blog, the future of route 84B between Potters Bar and Barnet is far from secure with confirmed funding in place only until April. Hertsmere Borough Council stumped up the initial £183,600 to fund the service for its first 12 months in September 2023 after which Hertfordshire... Continue Reading →
Saturday 1st February 2025 Photo courtesy Inside Croydon Bus shelters in Croydon have been in the news again this week with online media reporting TfL is to "install, maintain and clean new bus shelters across more than 100 locations”. In fact 114 brand new shelters are destined for the Borough. Why the big news story?... Continue Reading →
Thursday 30th January 2025 Another month end; another round up of things I've 'seen around' but not blogged about. STP takes over KGX First up this month is my journey from London to Newcastle last Saturday which coincided with the closure of Kings Cross and the East Coast Main Line between London and Peterborough to... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 28th January 2025 It's not often a brand new motorway service area opens for business and even more rare for there to be a new bus route laid on to serve it, but that's exactly what happened on Friday before last when the new £40 million (some reports quote £55 million) Welcome Break services... Continue Reading →
Saturday 25th January 2025 Many thanks for all the positive feedback and comments about the first in this new fortnightly blog series featuring Hertford. I was enthralled to read the fascinating back stories and history about Hertford’s stations many of you kindly provided as well as making suggestions for future places to include as the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 23rd January 2025 The latest Hidden London tour from the London Transport Museum launched yesterday and I went along to see what's on offer. This one features a behind the scenes look at Green Park Underground station, or to give it its original name, Dover Street, with passageways, ventilation shafts and lift landings long... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 21st January 2025 They say the railway's byzantine fare structure is going to be sorted when Great British Railways (GBR) finally gets up and running. But that promise is like Billy Bunter's never arriving postal order. Every incoming Minister in the DfT over the last couple of decades has promised to sort the complex... Continue Reading →
Saturday 18th January 2025 Leicestershire County Council introduced a raft of changes to its subsidised bus network in the Melton Mowbray area from 5th January including major renumbering of bus routes and a new DRT scheme which joins its original FoxConnect branded scheme introduced in August 2022 in the south west of the county which... Continue Reading →
Thursday 16th January 2025 Today's blog is dedicated to Adam Trimingham, probably the most superb journalist who's ever worked in the regional newspaper industry and a truly wonderful, kind, generous and lovely man. Adam sadly died on Saturday aged 82. Photo courtesy The Argus Adam moved to Brighton from London, where he'd cut his teeth... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 14th January 2024 It's good to see Merseyside's Mayor Steve Rotheram provided funding for the reintroduction of the limited stop bus route between Runcorn, Widnes and Liverpool just before Christmas, from 16th December. The new look route X4 is operated by Arriva running hourly on Mondays to Saturdays over an extended day between 05:00... Continue Reading →
Saturday 11th January 2025 Welcome to a new blog series featuring towns and cities around Britain which, by a quirk of history, are blessed with having two railway stations on different lines serving completely different destinations. To kick things off I've been to Hertford and had a look at that town's contrasting pair of stations:... Continue Reading →
Thursday 9th January 2025 In the current era of BSIP funding for exciting new developments you don't find many brand new bus routes being introduced on a purely commercial basis these days, but Milton Keynes is getting a nice helping thanks to the Arriva commercial team’s continued much welcome policy of seeking out new markets... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 7th January 2025 Biggest news on the Changing Hands front this week is of course the start of the third and final tranche of Greater Manchester's Bee Network from Sunday when Metroline took over routes and bus garages previously operated by Stagecoach together with Go North West and Diamond Bus also gaining smaller chunks... Continue Reading →
Saturday 4th January 2025 There are quite a few recent developments on the DRT front to catch up on so here’s an update to keep blog readers informed. ting begets TIGER As reported in my year end review, at the end of November the West Huntingdonshire based scheme funded by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority... Continue Reading →
Thursday 2nd January 2025 Welcome to the first blog of the New Year which is my monthly look back at things that caught my eye during the past month's travels not previously covered in posts. And we begin with a shout out to Alex Nelson at NationalRail.com for his latest.... National Rail Network Map It's... Continue Reading →
Thursday 26th December 2024 Here's a link to BusAndTrainUser's Annual video of 100 bus and train developments from 2024. All in just 10 minutes viewing. Something to while away those Boxing Day blues. Blogging returns next Thursday, 2nd January 2025. Roger French
Tuesday 24th December 2024 A warm Christmas Eve welcome to the not to be missed Annual BusAndTrainUser Awards. Don't believe the hype from all those other award ceremonies which dominate the bus and rail industry social calendars at this time of year telling you how they're the most important. These are THE one-and-only, genuine, life-changing,... Continue Reading →
Saturday 21st December 2024 Welcome to another end of year nostalgic look back over the last twelve months of bus and train activity in Britain. For those who are 'time-scarce' here's the customary word cloud summing up 2024 in one easy glance. But for those with bags of time, we begin with the usual BusAndTrainUser... Continue Reading →
Thursday 19th December 2024 The final bus route numbered 100 to feature in this blog series is the newest, the least frequent and the least used of all the 26. The route between Devizes and Marlborough only began in October 2023 and was initially part of Wiltshire Council’s semi-flex DRT initiative. It's operated by Go... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 17th December 2024 Over the last ten years we’ve welcomed Tweedbank in 2015, Okehampton in 2021, then Levenmouth earlier this year and now this week, after a 60 year break, passenger trains are running again on the 18 mile Northumberland line between Ashington and Newcastle and all the signs are it’ll be another successful... Continue Reading →
Saturday 14th December 2024 Sometimes it's just nice to take a leisurely three bus excursion around a lovely rural part of the country with no tight connections and some attractive scenery to enjoy on an unhurried itinerary. Norman Kemp, part owner and top man at Aylesford based Nu-Venture bus company, recently gave me a set... Continue Reading →
Thursday 12th December 2024 1. Another connecting bus that doesn't connect Residents in the village of Downe just inside the Greater London boundary with Kent have had their usual seamless bus journey into Bromley disrupted these past few weeks due to Southern Gas Networks closing Rockery Road; the main access road from Keston, used by... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 10th December 2024 It's been a bumper year for bus station rebuilds and Transport Hubs. Already featured in blogs this year have been Belfast, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Crewe, Durham, Halifax, Inverness and Stockport and just in the last few weeks there's been two more - Kingston-upon-Thames and Porthcawl with another 'frozen-in-time' rebuild in Porth. So... Continue Reading →
Saturday 7th December 2024 As this fortnightly series moves ever closer towards its terminus today’s penultimate route 100 to be featured is Cheltenham’s Park and Ride operation. And if that sounds familiar, you’ve got good recall as I half featured the route back in June while on my 7-day All Line Rail Rover and stopped... Continue Reading →
Thursday 5th December 2024 It’s something that’s happened since I retired so it’s a bit baffling and a struggle to keep up with, especially the tech side, but although the Bus Open Data Service has been a huge thing in the industry for some years it's still having many ‘settling in’ issues. It’s important, as... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Tomorrow is the last day for most Megabus coach services operating in England and Wales. Stagecoach launched its low-cost inter-city megabus coach network 21 years ago in 2003 challenging National Express's monopoly for much of the express coach travel market in England and Wales. At the time the company predicted megabus.com,... Continue Reading →
BusAndTrainUser 