Saturday 9th July 2022 I took a ride with my friend Ray on Stephensons’ bus route 14 between Southend-on-Sea and Foulness recently. But we needed special permission to travel on it. That’s because it serves Foulness Island which is owned by the Ministry of Defence with a foreboding checkpoint and barrier manned by security personnel... Continue Reading →
Chelmsford contrasts
Thursday 16th June 2022 Readers may recall when I tried the DigiGo DRT operation from Chelmsford’s Chelmer Valley Park & Ride site at Easter I spotted the temporary 'dealer stock' buses being used by Vectare on that route into the city pending delivery of a new fleet of buses as part of the company winning... Continue Reading →
Have a Good Easter. I did. I went there (by DRT).
Thursday 14th April 2022 There’s a lovely hamlet in Essex called Good Easter. Located in rural Essex between Chelmsford and Braintree it just happens to fall into one of the two areas covered by Essex County Council’s brand new DigiGo branded DRT scheme which began this month and was officially launched yesterday. It seemed like... Continue Reading →
Harlow’s spring clean up
Sunday 6th February 2022 Readers will have seen my recent news update about Essex County Council promoting its "spring clean" of Harlow's notorious bus station “with help from Arriva and Harlow Council”. It was good news that "public transport posters and timetables have been updated, alongside a deep clean" so as I was passing through... Continue Reading →
Braintree’s new bus interchange opens
Tuesday 11th January 2022 First of all a reminisce about how Braintree's Bus Park (to use its former official term) used to look until its closure for a full rebuild in March 2020. In particular its 'back-in-time' original 1930s glorious waiting room complete with boarded up authentic fire place and wonderful wooden bench seating all... Continue Reading →
Another way is Essex
Saturday 6th November 2021 I’m conscious there’ve been a few blogs recently about bus routes in Essex; well, sorry folks, here’s another one. The issue is, each time I visit I spot something that attracts my attention justifying a return visit to investigate further. I did the same a year ago when I took a... Continue Reading →
On the Essex-Herts-London border: part 2
Friday 25th September 2020 Bus provision in the Harlow area has been challenging for many years. Not helped by a myriad of small bus companies of dubious quality coming and going into the market causing inevitable instability to the network, nor the town being seemingly left out on a limb in Arriva's various management reorganisations... Continue Reading →
DaRT about in Dengie
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 →