Recent content by Chris 76

Yesterday I travelled on the York University Open Day free shuttle contracted to York Pullman. A lad noticed one of the local buses. 'What's FirstBus doing in York?' he exclaimed to his friend. 'I thought FirstBus was just a Halifax thing.' What have you heard revealing people's limited...

From the posts above I see that Sheffield has complexities. But Leicester, Derby and Nottingham-really? Leicester has the London Road Bridge, but a similar situation in Cardiff was solved with voltage-ontrolled clearance...

The Conservative govts before 1997 would certainly have privatised the bus industry, with some element of deregulation even if more limited than the 'big bang' approach of 1986. The National Bus Company was easy to sell off in local and regional chunks as it was comprised of subsidiary...

There are reasons to be optimistic about future electrification from reading this https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/15124/pdf/ Peter Hendy and Alex Hynes mentioned the importance of a rolling programme to ensure cost effectiveness and a steady work stream for the supply chain and...

All MPs lobby for constituency projects and try to keep them on government radar, especially during spending reviews and negotiations. That doesn't mean Louise Haigh would have secured full MML electrification to Sheffield, but her influence may have had some effect. Interesting that coverage of...

Yes. I thought that with Louise Haigh being Transport Secretary and a Sheffield MP, the prospects were good for full electrification to Sheffield being at least underway by the next election. She's gone, but it must be done to Derby and Nottingham. There's great regional political interest and...

Cardiff to Swansea electrification is a priority for Transport for Wales/Wales Government https://tfw.wales/projects/metro/future-developments/south-wales

So glad it's not going to be another Parkway, which means nothing more than 'has big car park, near a trunk road or motorway'. 'Interchange' suggests connection opportunities with all kinds of transport, not just between train services. Bradford Interchange was developed by West Yorkshire PTE as...

And visit Transport Museum Wythall https://www.wythall.org.uk/

One depot is ok for now. The expansion has been by short extensions, and the new Dudley/Brierley Hill line is close to the Wednesbury Depot. If/when the Eastside line is planned beyond Curzon Street and Digbeth through East Birmingham to North Solihull (Chelmsley Wood/Airport/HS2 Interchange)...

Tram stop electronic displays inform that the service is only running between Wolverhampton and Wednesbury, and there are posters also. The extent of the shutdown is severe. I assume access to the Wednesbury depot is very restricted, but couldn't they have removed a few trams for a Birmingham...

The most impressive bus customer service I've seen was on Anglian Buses (pre-Go Ahead takeover and merging with Konectbus) 16 years ago. I was on holiday in Holton, near Halesworth, and boarded the Aldburgh service to do a walk back along the coast. A woman boarding in Holton just after me was...

I assume the answer is that the work for the Wednesbury delta junction restricts access to the tram depot, and that's why there will be no service between Wednesbury and through Birmingham City Centre to Edgbaston Village for more than two weeks. You wonder if a basic temporary service could be...

Interesting thread. I'm puzzled why anyone should feel any nostalgia or affection for 'Badgerline' as a brand. I grew up in Bristol Omnibus territory and thought the Badgerline name, livery and style of application was awful. The badger motif looks more like a platypus than a badger. Not sure...

Yes, the Snow Hill to Wolverhampton line was the easiest metro line to build, as the old Great Western route was there for fairly easy conversion. But it's not a major public transport commuting corridor, passing through post-industrial Black Country towns, not residential commuter suburbs. And...