Recent content by 158756

Though this raises the question of why councils in deregulated areas don't often take this approach. West Yorkshire for example could have put all their tenders in one big package the likes of Squarepeg wouldn't have been able to compete for. What is special about franchising that needs the...

Something I think TfGM could improve around the 575/576/615 changes is I can't see any publicity for the improved frequency on the shared sections of route in Bolton and Wigan. The 615 is still being published as a separate timetable, rather than a combined timetable being produced to show the...

This round of changes around Middlebrook look like the first real attempt for the Bee Network to change the route network they inherited. New timetables for the 575 and 576 are now up on TfGMs site. The 575 is increased to every 15 minutes between Bolton and Blackrod, but reduced to every 30...

The buses might all be out by 8am, but it is a very fair point that bus services in many parts of the country are not designed to cater to commuters. How many major employment sites have no or very poor bus service? You look at timetables, how many routes have reduced frequencies at peak times...

Going by the government's definition of SME (fewer than 250 staff and either turnover less than £44m or balance sheet total less than £38m), Diamond Bus North West has too many staff (341 as of their latest published accounts). Rossendale, Warrington, Huyton and First Manchester all meet those...

Whether it is legal or not, the Scottish Government effectively funding a bus war is bizarre. And history tells us that when all is said and done, Scottish coach passengers may well be the losers.

Behind the scenes maybe this should be how the fares system works (though I still think there are issues with that - it would tend to penalise journeys involving a change, where the railway already struggles to compete with driving). But giving everyone multiple tickets, regardless of whether...

Looks like 1E24 has terminated at York so that'll free up a platform to clear the queue. Trains that were stuck at Grantham/Newark/Retford (except 1E22) do seem to be moving towards Peterborough now.

Looks like all southbound trains are at a standstill all the way back to York, where 1E25 and 1E26 appear to be queuing north of the station. 3 LNER and 1 GC already in the platforms. Similar at Doncaster, three platforms blocked and a HT service stuck outside presumably because it'll block the...

This is a common issue across the country which councils do not seem to appreciate, but in this case in particular this is the city council doing roadworks which have impacted their own bus company.

Today TfL are reporting the service between Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction is suspended "due to train cancellations". Looking at RTT this doesn't appear to be strictly true, but there are 5 consecutive trains missing on the Clapham Jn- Stratford circuit. Last night, of 21 Mildmay...

Not sure exactly where the 8.6% figure comes from, but the latest statistics from the ORR show Avanti's "passenger train kilometres" are still below pre-Covid. The latest full year (to March 2025) was down 15% from 2018-19. The quarterly statistics show an improvement later in 2025, but...

Companies are reflecting people's preferences in part because planning policy over the last 50 years has been based around car dependency. Sprawling suburbs and out of town business and retail parks have left most people no choice but to own a car and poor access to public transport, which in...

The other problem with this being that the stopper cannot run on the opposite half hour to the one XC that stops, and the stopper by necessity takes longer, so when it does run it tends to arrive/depart Oxford quite close to the XC service, making it far less useful than an even 2tph for Banbury...

The problem I see with a street running route to Salford Crescent is how slow it would be. The number 50 bus is timed for 15 minutes between St Peter's Square and Salford Crescent at peak times, and on a bad day it can be a lot longer than that. There isn't much room to give the tram any more...