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You’ve got to love First and their ability to screw every last penny out of us. In amongst the news about the £2 fares, they’ve managed to hide some increases to the FirstDay and First Week tickets – City FirstDay goes up to £6.60 and the City FirstWeek is £28 – most other tickets are up as...

I have to go to Gartnavel Hospital every few months and back in May I noticed a 156 running slowly through Hyndland just after 9 in the morning. Checking RTT there seemed to be two return workings between Eastfield and Dumbarton via the Low Level with 3XXX headcodes. Perhaps there is a longer...

I’m still fascinated by how this works for both WCM and Stagecoach. Presumably the X19 does OK, but West Coast will be looking to hit a certain margin and Stagecoach will want to make something out of it too – is it making enough to keep both happy? The City-QE Hospital section can be pretty...

I reckon First will either completely pull or at least scale back the 243 by the end of the year. 8 buses an hour to Lanark is madness. JMB will probably take a hit, but I’d imagine a lot of passengers will stay loyal to them. First won’t want to sustain the losses for long.

I still can’t believe that someone at First has thought that having another go at serving Lanark isn’t going to end up with the same result as before. JMB do a decent job and a lot of people will stick with them. The concessions will just take the first bus to turn up – and would you bet against...

For the first time since the post-Covid driver shortages First Glasgow has bid for, and won, some SPT tenders. These will require something small – especially the 141 in Thornwood – so *perhaps* a couple of Sprinters could end up here. I think these are very recent wins, so plans may have changed.

I think if Stagecoach came off the X19 First would have another go. Even if just to stop a competitor getting a foothold in Easterhouse. Not convinced First would want to go out to the hospital as that might take away some of the 77's business.

Yes, once First get some real passenger data I’m sure they’ll be quick to match resources to demand – and put in an unwieldly AI timetable to bamboozle folk with too. I wonder if concentrating on the X25A variant, but also serving Condorrat all day would work at a lower frequency? My one and...

Bet First would love to get their hands on the Easterhouse leg of the X19 – always busy. Not sure they would want to run to the QE Hospital – maybe leave it to McGills. It’ll be interesting to see what – if anything – happens with the X19. How many buses will First need for the X25? Don’t think...

That makes sense. I was wondering about Western, but their decent operations around Glasgow and Inverclyde were balanced by all the rural stuff in Dumfries & Galloway. I was too young to witness deregulation, but I’ve often wondered about how the various SBG companies around Glasgow seemed to...

Glasgow must be short of double-deckers. Saw an E300 on the X87 with a full standing load heading up Cathedral St the other day – not the most pleasant journey considering its basically first stop Lenzie. Are the repowers the solution? Seems odd to be withdrawing buses before the replacements...

If anyone lives near Kew and has some spare time there is *a lot* of NBC material in the National Archives. Unfortunately, I don't think any of it has been digitised.

Nothing wrong with a bit of ambition, but 300 coaches is a lot of coaches. What on earth would they be doing? Is there that much work to win from competitors, or can the West of Scotland market grow that much? Feels like the McGills PR machine has gone into overdrive. I know SPT have started...

I’m sure that Dumfries & Galloway Council will come to regret losing Stagecoach. Not just losing another contractor (who were obviously capable of putting in competitive bids), but losing an operator with the resources to step in when other companies folded at short notice. The new timetables...

Has anyone registered Stagecoach's commercial services around Dumfries? That could be a big problem for the council is no-one steps up.

Think that's Lanark station. No idea what Stonehouse Coaches would be operating there

Yes, I’ve seen it leaving EK bus station with very decent loads – but probably almost all heading to destinations within the town. Seems crazy that the 395 is the only bus to Lindsayfield. The area has only grown since First gave up on it – can’t help but think a more forward-thinking company...

I tend to agree with this - got family in the area who all work in North London. This probably needs a separate thread, but I wonder if a possible solution for Cheshunt’s woes might be some form of tap on, tap off on cross-border services where TFL can start charging higher fares outside...

For whatever reason there didn’t appear to be any replacement buses between Glasgow & Carlisle – or if there were it was very limited. TPE certainly advised there was no alternative transport arranged. I know sourcing coaches can be problematic these days, but the Scottish schools are on holiday...

Yesterdays message about the letter to employees and route losses has vanished, but it only mentioned Galloway routes – Stranraer/Whithorn depots. Are we sure that Stagecoach are pulling out of Dumfries? The X74 only makes sense if run from Dumfries and they mentioned they wanted to keep...