Saturday 10th February 2024 A quirky TfL bus route has started running on the southern fringe of its operating area. It's not often you come across a 16 seat minibus on a TfL bus route. The 464 Connector is being run by Swanley based Go Coach Hire, famous for running bus routes in the Sevenoaks... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 7th November 2023 Readers across the detail of former Green Line routes may recall in a blog in August about retracing route 705 between Sevenoaks and Windsor I made reference to the inability of doing the same for sister route 704 (Tunbridge Wells to Windsor) due to the lack of a daytime bus route... 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 →
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 →
Thursday 9th February 2023 Tuesday's newspapers gave a strong sense of déjà-vu with reports of yet another impending bus cuts cliff edge as post Covid funding for bus services comes to an end on 31st March with registrations for any service withdrawals/amendments from that date due within the next week. We’ve been here twice before,... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 20th December 2022 It's one of those weeks for end of year reviews and news round ups so I thought a few updates on how Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) is going would be in order particularly as the DfT and so many local authorities have such high hopes for it. 2022 has seen nine... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th October 2022 Tunbridge Wells is situated on the south western fringes of Kent just over the border from East Sussex. The town has a population of around 56,000 which is roughly half the number living in the wider Tunbridge Wells Borough Council area including Paddock Wood, Goudhurst, Cranbrook and Benenden. Like Leamington Spa,... Continue Reading →
Monday 30th August 2021 ‘Back in the day’ (I’m thinking the fifties and sixties) when the UK had a sizeable manufacturing industry and car ownership was much lower bus companies ran networks of routes to serve factories on industrial estates often sited on the edge of towns with journeys timed specifically to cater for workers’... Continue Reading →
Thursday 4th June 2020 I reported back on 3 April Sevenoaks based Go-Coach Hire were replacing from Easter all its fixed timetable local town routes as well as rural routes in the surrounding area, including Hildenborough, Edenbridge and nearby villages, with a demand responsive bus service branded as go2. Knowing my fascination with DRT schemes,... Continue Reading →
Friday 3rd April 2020 A couple of weeks ago I suggested these unprecedented times might be a good opportunity to give Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) a really good try out to see if its unproven business model would work in the current corona circumstances. With demand for traditional bus services plummeting to around 10% (or even... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 23rd October 2019 Small independently owned bus companies are a vital part of the industry. They serve small size towns and rural areas which other plc group companies cannot reach. They're becoming increasingly important as the Groups try and reverse falling margins. These small businesses are usually run by dedicated passionate individuals working very... Continue Reading →
Friday 5th April 2019 It's that time of year when local authorities begin a fresh financial twelve months which with dindling Government funding often means less money to spend than the year just ended. For subsidised bus routes that can only mean one thing ... another round of cuts and withdrawals. I've been out over... Continue Reading →
Sunday 10th March 2019 It's always a pleasure to visit the Garden of England. My journeys on two days last week included visits to both ends of Kent - to Dover and Deal on the Channel coast in the south east and to Sevenoaks close to the County’s western border with Greater London. Both Stagecoach South... Continue Reading →
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