Thursday 8th October 2020 Following recent trips to Selsdon/Croydon and the Herts/Essex border I've continued my 'London Country 50th anniversary' inspired days out to the former London Transport red and green bus boundary territory by taking a look at how things are fairing in that prosperous corner of Surrey that includes Walton, Weybridge and Woking.... Continue Reading →
Thursday 24th September 2020 Fifty-one years ago it was all very straightforward. London’s red buses ventured north as far as Potters Bar, Cheshunt and Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire as well as Waltham Abbey, Epping and Debden in Essex (oh, and Ongar as well of course). London’s green buses ventured much further north to serve places... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 15th September 2020 When I checked out the new Uber Boat brand for Thames Clipper's service along the River Thames a few weeks ago, I noticed the journeys in the timetable specifically aimed at commuters and thought it would be a good idea to give them a try out during these 'capacity constrained peak... Continue Reading →
Saturday 29th August 2020 Readers may recall my ride on route 404 earlier this month highlighting TfL’s penchant for circuitous bus routes wandering around the back streets of London's suburbs making sure everyone lives within 400 metres of a bus stop. But up in Barnet, it's all change for circuitous route 384. From today it's... Continue Reading →
Thursday 27th August 2020 It only takes 44 minutes on the train. But that’s far too easy a way to make the journey. How about taking the bus instead? I set off yesterday on the 08:13 route 270 from Brighton to East Grinstead operated by Metrobus. I joined the bus by Preston Park with two... Continue Reading →
Saturday 8th August 2020 Thames Clippers’ six year partnership with credit card company MBNA came to an end on Monday when the naming rights of the company’s twenty boats was taken over by Uber, a company that's no stranger to transport in the Capital. Unsurprisingly details of the deal are not public but Uber gets... Continue Reading →
Thursday 6th August 2020 London's bus route 404 is interesting for a number of reasons. It’s one of TfL's short meandering routes that doesn’t really go anywhere. It wanders around well-heeled leafy residential roads lying either side of Coulsdon Road which links Coulsdon (in the London Borough of Croydon) with Caterham-on-the-Hill (just over the border... Continue Reading →
Thursday 12th March 2020 London’s so called ‘integrated transport system’ with its much lauded ‘seamless ticketing’ didn’t work for me on Monday. TfL’s ticket machines at stations on the Metropolitan Line also served by Chiltern Railways (ie Harrow-on-the-Hill, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Chalfont & Latimer and Amersham) are unable to sell tickets with a Senior Railcard discount.... Continue Reading →
Thursday 5th March 2020 TfL's hydrogen powered single deck buses reach their final terminus tomorrow so I took a couple of rides on board for one last time today. TfL first trialled hydrogen propulsion for a couple of years from 2004 as part of an EU wide trial in ten cities to test the technology. TfL used... Continue Reading →
Saturday 25th January 2020 Bus route 497 linking unserved parts of Harold Hill in the London Borough of Havering with Harold Wood Station was first identified as a good idea by TfL bus planners in their 'Review of bus services in Harold Hill' report back in September 2016. This report took a look at new... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 21st January 2020 It's interesting to compare three recent launches of buses and brands in the last couple of weeks. Highest profile was Blackburn Bus Company's launch last weekend of 13 new ADL Enviro200 buses for route 1 running between Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton. This route runs at an impressive 7/8 minute frequency between... Continue Reading →
Saturday 7th December 2019 It's quite a day for fans of new bus routes in London. Christmas has come early for those who love new route numbers added to an already comprehensive bus network - I can't remember the last time four new routes were added all on the same day. The Mayor has been... Continue Reading →
Thursday 28th November 2019 The rail industry's fond of slipping in new developments before they're officially due to start; they call it a 'preview service'. It's just happened again on the stopping service between Reading and Paddington currently operated by GWR and where most of the service is to be handed over to TfL Rail... Continue Reading →
Thursday 21st November 2019 Following last Friday's try out of TfL's latest Demand Responsive Transport trial in Ealing, I found myself back in the Borough with two bus industry colleague friends to give it another try yesterday afternoon. There was a Slide vehicle parked up waiting for custom as we came out of Ealing Broadway... Continue Reading →
Friday 15th November 2019 It's all change in the world of Bus Demand Responsive Transport (DRT). This week sees the final foray for Arriva Click's pioneering 'pilot' in Sittingbourne and Zeelo's scheme for pilots (and others) living in Crawley and working at Gatwick Airport. The former ends tomorrow having been launched with much fanfare back... Continue Reading →
Saturday 26th October 2019 TfL's policy of redeploying buses from Zone 1 routes into the suburbs moved forward a couple more centimetres today with the launch of brand new route 335 linking the expanding residential development at Kidbrooke with Blackheath and North Greenwich for its 'Millennium Leisure Park' (basically posh looking sheds with retail, restaurants,... Continue Reading →
Friday 11th October 2019 TfL's next round of reductions to bus routes servIng central London begins tomorrow. This one is much less extensive than in June, involving changes to just a handful of routes, most significant of which is the complete withdrawal of route 48 between London Bridge and Walthamstow Central station. Introduced as part of... Continue Reading →
Thursday 11th October 2019 I spent an enjoyable couple of days this week helping to run the twice-a-year Young Bus Managers Network conference. It's always an inspiring event to attend with such encouraging positive energy and enthusiasm emenating from around 80 to 100 young people in their twenties and thirties; some fresh faced into the... Continue Reading →
Friday 20th September 2019 Well done UNO Bus, operator of TfL bus route 383 between Woodside Park and Barnet, for today's community led launch of the first decent route branding on a London bus route for a few decades. The 383 may be a backwater north London bus route which takes a circuitous route east... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 13th August 2019 TfL's first foray into the new fangled world of App based Dial-A-Ride (aka Demand Responsive Transport) in Sutton is now in its twelfth week and yesterday a rather impersonal email popped into my inbox announcing an exciting extension of the area served by the swish exec style wishy-washy liveried Mercedes Sprinter... Continue Reading →
Monday 29th July 2019 A much needed new service began carrying passengers over Hammersmith Bridge from this morning. With the Bridge closed to all motor traffic including buses since 10th April this new service is provided by a lovely man called Frederick peddling a smart electric Pedi-Cab. And very efficient it is too. I only... Continue Reading →
Monday 22nd July 2019 You have to hand it to Stagecoach. Whenever they give a new commercial service a go, they don't hold back. Their South West Falcon introduced in 2016 linking Bristol with Plymouth was a massive investment involving a fleet of brand new coaches running hourly during the day as well as night... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th June 2019 Today saw the much heralded cuts to a large number of central London bus routes including many changes to termini and amended routes. I previewed the changes in a post on 5th June foreseeing a major challenge as getting bus stop plates, timetables and spider maps updated. Having had a good... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 5th June 2019 The countdown has begun. It's ten days until TfL introduce a swathe of bus cuts across central London beginning on Saturday 15th June 2019. Twenty-five bus routes are changing with withdrawals, frequency reductions and many altered termini. And this is only Part 1; Part 2 is promised for later in the... Continue Reading →
While I was giving GoSutton a try between the Royal Marsden and St Helier Hospitals in Sutton on Tuesday my friend James tweeted suggesting I also give the H1 inter-hospital bus route a ride. That was a new one on me, so I couldn't resist giving it a go. The H1 is sponsored by the... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 29th May 2019 It's all happening in Colindale. That's the area in north west London with a station almost at the end of the Edgware branch of the Northern Line; the one before Burnt Oak, before you get to Edgware itself. Colindale's in the London Borough of Barnet and is one of the largest... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 28th May 2019 TfL jumped on the digital DRT bandwagon today launching its own version of Arriva Click and Oxford Pick Me Up. This latest app-based Demand Responsive Transport has landed in upmarket car dominated Sutton and Carshalton using six minibuses out of a fleet of eight between 06:30 and 21:30, seven days a... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 15th May 2019 'Winding your way down on Baker Street' the late great Gerry Rafferty sang; and since February, if he'd still been with us, he would be able to wind his way back up it once again. The road (and nearby parallel running Gloucester Place) has changed back to two-way traffic including an... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 9th April 2019 Transport for London's bus service 969 is the last route standing of a once substantial 'Mobility Bus' network of routes operating one or two days a week to a local shopping centre from relatively low-density neighbourhoods where no alternative mainstream route in the main bus network served the area. In the... Continue Reading →
Monday 28th January 2019 You've got to feel sorry for the growing number of passengers who rely on the GOspel Oak to Barking orbital railway line in north east London, known affectionately as GOBLIN for short. The former down-at-heel and unloved Silverlink Metro line transferred to TfL back in 2006 when the future was bright,... Continue Reading →
Kings Cross St Pancras Underground station is renowned for its deliberate policy of directing unfamiliar passengers via strategically placed signs to take the longer circuitous route from Kings Cross National Rail station exit via the northern ticket hall and barriers to reach the deep level lines. Those in the know ignore the signs and within... Continue Reading →
BusAndTrainUser 