Saturday 28th October 2023 Welcome to BusAndTrainUser Verify a new occasional media monitoring service which aims to fact check the veracity of headline grabbing negative claims about buses and trains so beloved of modern main stream and social media channels. To kick off here’s a story that appeared across many media outlets earlier this month... Continue Reading →
Thursday 26th October 2023 A ride on the Waverley paddle steamer Earlier this month the famous Waverley - the world's last seagoing paddle steamer - was in London operating a series of daily tours along the Thames estuary as part of its Summer seasonal programme of trips around the coast of Britain. The paddle steamer... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 24th October 2023 The Young Bus Managers Network Autumn Conference took place last Wednesday and Thursday and once again had a great positive buzz among the delegates attending from a variety of bus companies from all over the country. It’s always a pleasure to host the event and, along with my co host Martijn... Continue Reading →
Sunday 22nd October 2023 This new book by Matthew Keyte gives a fascinating insight into life working for London Country Bus Services (LCBS) and the privatised London Country Bus North West Ltd during a period that saw seismic change including converting routes to driver only operation, revitalising the Green Line network and deregulation and privatisation.... Continue Reading →
Saturday 21st October 2023 My fortnightly A to Z of bus and train companies is now in the home straight (just three more after today’s blog) and once again I had a dilemma of what to feature for W. White Bus was my plan but then I heard from Richard Wood, Secretary of the Cambridge... Continue Reading →
Thursday 19th October 2023 In last Thursday's blog about the upcoming demise of the Day Travelcard in London I added the caveat to my analysis of how the new regime come January would impact passengers, TfL and Train Operating Companies (TOCs) that I "may have got all my assumptions wrong including what Apportionment Factors are... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 17th October 2023 Photo courtesy First Bus First Beeline’s new route RA3 running hourly between Watford Junction railway station and Heathrow Airport is now in its 13th week so I thought it was high time I gave it a try to see how it’s settled in. It recreates a link offered many years ago... Continue Reading →
Saturday 14th October 2023 Poole based Morebus recently put 28 brand new ADL Enviro400 MMC buses into service on its busy high frequency route m1 which crosses the conurbation linking Poole, Bournemouth and the Royal Bournemouth Hospital as well as its 15 minutely route 5/5A between Bournemouth and Kinson. The company kindly invited me along... Continue Reading →
Thursday 12th October 2023 This blog is a collaboration with my friend Geoff Marshall and his highly respected and much watched YouTube channel. We teamed up last week to test out what will happen in January when time runs out for London’s popular one-day Travelcard. Click here to see Geoff’s video setting out our findings... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 10th October 2023 A ride on the historic Volk’s railway along the seafront is a must for every Brighton visitor. The mile long railway is “the world’s oldest working electric railway” having begun in 1883 by the pioneer inventor and electrical wizard Magnus Volk. It’s been running from the Aquarium east of Brighton Pier... Continue Reading →
Sunday 8th October 2023 Surrey County Council greatly expanded its DRT operations at the beginning of last month vying with neighbours East Sussex to be the second placed local authority wasting the most public funds on these money draining schemes (West of England Combined Authority is firmly in the top spot with its multi vehicle... Continue Reading →
Saturday 7th October 2023 Headbolt Lane, Britain’s latest newest railway station, opened for business on Thursday taking many people by surprise including, it would seem, Merseyrail and Northern Rail which both operate trains there. The £80 million station (you read that right, £80 million) is located a mile east of the previous terminus at Kirkby... Continue Reading →
Thursday 5th October 2023 Readers with good memories may recall in September 2022 I took a ride on Transport for Cornwall’s about to be withdrawn (at that time) four-journeys-a-day route 235 which linked Launceston with Callington along some of the county’s narrowest roads I’ve ever travelled by bus along. Flashback pre September 2022 showing routes... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 3rd October 2023 Transport Focus has just published its interim report on this year’s ongoing research into bus passenger satisfaction while the report by the University of the West of England commissioned by the DfT into DRT schemes funded by the Rural Mobility Fund is also now available. I’ve had a read of both... Continue Reading →
Saturday 30th September 2023 Another month's miscellaneous musings not worthy of a full blown blog from my travels in September including the lovely Helsby Junction signal box and still very much in use (above). Oxted delight I made an "integrated public transport journey" from train to bus in Oxted earlier in the month and was... Continue Reading →
Thursday 28th September 2023 Clapton Pond The London Bus Museum held another of its Heritage Running Days a couple of weeks ago on Saturday 16th September. This time RTs and Routemasters could be found providing free rides on route 38 between Victoria and Clapton Pond with a few journeys extended to Leyton Bakers Arms. As... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 26th September 2023 It was back in 1986 the 56 year old system of bus route licensing and regulation outside London came to an end heralding in a new market led deregulated era of bus provision. GM Buses was sold to the private sector eight years later. The new deregulated system immediately attracted vocal... Continue Reading →
Sunday 24th September 2023 Cheshire West and Chester Council was awarded £1.075 million from the DfT’s Rural Mobility Fund as long ago as March 2021 for a DRT scheme in the Borough. You’d hope in the two and a quarter years since then it would have learnt lessons from the many DRT schemes introduced and... Continue Reading →
Saturday 23rd September 2023 This is possibly the most unusual bus company to be featured in this fortnightly AtoZ series in that it’s in the public sector but not a municipal. Owned by the University of Hertfordshire it was originally called UnuversityBus when first established in 1992 when it would be fair to say operations... Continue Reading →
Thursday 21st September 2023 It may be four years late, missed last year’s Commonwealth Games and cost £50 million, but the 600 yards extension to the West Midlands Metro tram route to a new terminus at Wolverhampton railway station finally opened to passengers on Sunday. Although it’s not too far to walk between the two,... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 19th September 2023 First Group has had a sizeable Aircoach operation in Ireland for many years but yesterday it launched its inaugural route in the UK comprising an hourly service between Leicester and Birmingham Airport running 24/7. Four five-year old Mercedes Sprinter 16-seat minibuses have been shipped over from Ireland to run the new... Continue Reading →
Saturday 16th September 2023 The Public Transport North 2023 conference held in Manchester on Tuesday and Wednesday included some fascinating presentations. Tuesday was devoted to rail with bus on Wednesday for this second joint conference initiative from Modern Railways and Buses magazines published by Key Publishing. The first conference of this kind was held in... Continue Reading →
Thursday 14th September 2023 I’ve been in Manchester over the last couple of days attending the Public Transport in the North of England conference organised by Modern Railways and Buses magazines both part of Key Publishing and before that, Ian Allan. I’ll write about the conference itself on Saturday but for now I just want... Continue Reading →
Thursday 14th September 2023 Leisure travel is booming, so it's good to see enterprising entrepreneurs promoting bus and train travel on the internet to encouraging people to forgo their cars and use public transport to enjoy some amazing journeys as well as reach visitor attractions without the hassle of parking by going car-free. Here are... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 12th September 2023 London Transport Museum's Hidden London added a new behind-the-scenes tour last week to its programme at Baker Street Underground station. As we were "winding our way" beneath ground level to begin the tour I couldn't get the lyrics of Gerry Rafferty's famous hit of the same name out of my mind.... Continue Reading →
Saturday 9th September 2023 It’s the only former National Bus Company to still be owned by its original management buy-out team. It’s the pioneering and original trend setter of a whole host of marketing ideas in the bus industry that have stood the test of time and been much copied elsewhere including individual route branding... Continue Reading →
Thursday 7th September 2023 End of the line: Uckfield We must keep investing in our railway infrastructure to stand a chance of meeting net zero targets. Motorists aren't going to be persuaded to leave the car at home if rail isn't offering capacity and convenience and an effective alternative to driving. Despite the Governments recently... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 5th September 2023 That part of the famous 84 bus route between Potters Bar and Barnet, withdrawn in April 2022 when Metroline threw in the towel and Sullivan Buses was only prepared to replace the northern section between St Albans and Potters Bar, is back on the bus map again. Yesterday saw a new... Continue Reading →
Sunday 3rd September 2023 West Sussex County Council’s Book-A-Bus DRT gained a second zone three weeks ago covering villages north of Petworth. It’s been given route number ‘98 Flex’ to compliment route 99 (south of Petworth) which I blogged about at the beginning of last month. 98 Flex is a fully flexible DRT funded by... Continue Reading →
Saturday 2nd September 2023 1. Tickets “not available“ Passengers using LNER’s website to book rail tickets will be familiar with the “not available” indicator on certain journeys when tickets have allegedly sold out. You might be forgiven for wondering how can that be, on what is supposed to be a walk-up-and-travel railway? Because it’s not... Continue Reading →
Thursday 31st August 2023 Welcome to August’s potpourri of miscellany that's caught my eye during the month and hasn't warranted a full blown blog. Flying visit to the Bluebell It had been a long time coming - tickets went on sale in May 2022 for an originally planned visit in August that year, with mechanical... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 30th August 2023 I left yesterday's blog somewhat disappointed at missing out on a Breezer open-top bus ride from Baslow over to Castleton, but the upside was it gave me more time to explore the other open-top bus route introduced this summer for Peak District tourists - Stagecoach Yorkshire's Peak Sightseer. This came about... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 29th August 2023 This summer has seen not just one new open top bus route in the glorious Derbyshire Peak District but two: Hulleys of Baslow’s Breezer and Stagecoach’s Peak Sightseer. These initiatives come thanks to Derbyshire County Council inviting tenders earlier this year for a Bus Service Improvement Plan funded open-top operation aimed... Continue Reading →
Monday 28th August 2023 As the summer season draws to a close here’s the first of three consecutive daily blogs featuring open top bus rides I enjoyed taking last week including three brand new operations for 2023. First up …. the Southsea Coaster operated by First Bus. Building on last year’s foray along the seafront,... Continue Reading →
Sunday 27th August 2023 This week’s DRT experience samples yet another model of operation following recent examples I’ve covered of semi-flexible and Taxibus schemes in West Sussex, Wiltshire and Sevenoaks. It’s the new Go2Gate branded operation operated by Thames Valley (part of Reading Buses) and introduced last Sunday with funding from Heathrow Airport. It’s a... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th August 2023 Until now I've avoided featuring bus companies owned by large transport groups for this series, preferring to write about some of the smaller ‘unsung hero’ bus companies, and while Stephensons and Safeguard are two obvious candidates for S, I decided to break my own self imposed rule because Southern Vectis is... Continue Reading →
Thursday 24th August 2023 After an understandable Covid inspired lull, Heathrow Airport is back on a bus route funding roll again on its mission to increase the modal split in favour of public transport among staff and passengers travelling to and from the airport. The latest initiative funded by the Airport is operated by Newbury... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 22nd August 2023 I stopped off on my recent return journey on Thames Travel’s new route X34 between Newbury and Didcot at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus to check out the Darwin Autonomous Shuttle (DAS) trial that's been running around the site for the past two years. Harwell is the UK’s leading science and... Continue Reading →
Sunday 20th August 2023 It depends what your definition of DRT is, but there's no doubting the go2 scheme in Sevenoaks operated by Go-Coach Hire Ltd is successfully fulfilling its objective of supplementing the rather limited urban bus routes serving this well-heeled town in north west Kent. go2 is a successful shared taxi service. Austin... Continue Reading →
Saturday 19th August 2023 I’ve previously blogged about visits to Jersey and Alderney so thought it was high time I spent a couple of days on Guernsey. After an aborted visit back in April when fog prevented any flights from landing I spent a very enjoyable couple of days exploring the Island in perfect summer... Continue Reading →
Thursday 17th August 2023 Readers will be aware of my penchant for quirky bus routes so I couldn't resist a recommendation to try out the M2 Motorway Replacement Bus Service that's running until the end of the year. I have to admit I never knew there was a footpath exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists built... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 15th August 2023 The UK’s highest earning bus gate reportedly responsible for a third of all the country’s bus lane fines brought in over £1.5 million in revenue for Brighton & Hove City Council last year. Around 38,500 fines were issued to motorists for violating the regulations working out at just over 100 infringements... Continue Reading →
Sunday 13th August 2023 As explained in last Sunday's blog about route 99 in West Sussex, the other stalwart of semi-flexible rural bus routes to succumb to a technology upgrade and expansion, including a fully flexible additional bus, is long standing route 101 between Pewsey and Devizes in Wiltshire. This was the original ‘Wiltshire Wigglybus’... Continue Reading →
Saturday 12th August 2023 It’s up there with Nottingham City Transport as one of the UK’s top bus companies. Reading Buses has long been admired for offering a high quality bus service with first class marketing with active support from a pro public transport Reading Borough Council, which also owns the business. It’s also benefitted... Continue Reading →
Thursday 10th August 2023 I last did the Wherryman Way walk between Great Yarmouth and Berney Arms in 2020 and with a lovely sunny day forecast a few weeks back decided to do a repeat visit, this time with my brother Jonathan. It's a five mile walk along the banks of the River Yare and... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 8th August 2023 Here’s some good news from Thames Travel, the sister company to Oxford Bus. Its bus routes between Didcot and Harwell Campus were rejigged from 23rd July to include a new hourly service X34 linking both locations with Newbury travelling non-stop down the A34. I took a ride last Tuesday to check... Continue Reading →
Sunday 6th August 2023 Readers will know I cite the semi-fixed arrangements on long standing bus route 99 between Chichester and Petworth and route 101/102 between Devizes and Pewsey as examples of best practice in combining a timetable with times at fixed points with flexibility to serve hamlets and villages on a semi-flexible route in... Continue Reading →
Saturday 5th August 2023 After our enjoyable trip from Hertford to Guildford the Retracing Green Line Routes Gang (RGLRG) recently reassembled for another cross London jaunt, this time reliving the wonderful RF, RC and RCL operated 705 which in the network’s heyday linked Sevenoaks in Kent with Windsor in Berkshire. The half-hourly 705 had a... Continue Reading →
Thursday 3rd August 2023 It's time for another round up of items I've come across over the last month which haven't merited a full blown blog. No pride in trains in Brighton There’s been much comment locally about GTR’s decision to run no trains at all into Brighton this Saturday when the annual Pride festivities... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 1st August 2023 Just beating Portway Park & Ride station (opening this morning) to Britain’s National Rail network is the all new Thanet Parkway station which unlocked its brand new high level platforms and adjacent car park for business first thing yesterday morning. Located by the village of Cliffsend proposals for the new station... Continue Reading →
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