Wonderful trip report from @Galactic142 and his visit to Northern Scotland. Would love to go to some of those places and travel on some of those routes. I have been to Fort William and Inverness but seen very little of the magnificent places around there and the Far North. Thank you for bringing this to life, very envious.
Then another interesting trip report from @TheGrandWazoo on his second day in East Anglia (although I think technically Essex is the South East). There is a big gulf in Essex between delightful rural places such as Great Dunmow, affluent suburbia such as Ongar and some less salubrious places like Basildon. Great Dunmow is a charming small town but I also fear that the massive housebuilding here, thanks to the good A120 road and proximity to employment, will rather destroy this. Chelmsford as a city has some qualities, not least the cathedral, but the bus station is not big enough. I agree that Basildon is pretty ghastly, the bus station certainly is gloomy outdated. I haven't been out that way since electric buses arrived and the 100 went to double deckers but it is a shame that the Chinese offerings are so much better quality than ADL. Not sure how Wrightbus and Volvo fit into the quality hierarchy. The Basildon local route extension to Harold Wood is interesting. I've never thought the C2C line is bad, relatively reliable thanks to being self-contained, but the Elizabeth line has a higher profile and better connections so it will be interesting to see if this attracts traffic. Brentwood is a sort of border town but up to Ongar is more old fashioned and then commuter suburbia. Not knocking Ongar, it has worked hard to preserve its charm and it is good around the old station. I remember Harlow in LCBS days with Atlanteans on frequent town services ruling the roost. It was good bus territory then but maybe it isn't now - or is it years of decay from Arriva have made it worse? I have stopped off at Old Harlow too, it is pleasant with genuine charm, but it is affluent people here now rather than 'real' villagers. Good to get your view that the quality of the fleet and the service is improving. Interesting on the E400s used on the Harlow-Epping-Ongar trunk routes, its sounds like they have built these routes up pretty well, lets hope this is indicative of the quality of the Transport Made Simple / Central Connect group going forward including the more troubled ex-Go Ahead East Anglian operations. NIBS looks quite an interesting operator, most of the fleet, especially the double deckers (all Scanias) are pretty old and the majority of the operations are school runs. I think they are connected with Stephensons, certainly some of the buses are cast-offs from Stephensons.
Finally @route101 visiting Cambridge, Peterborough and into Lincolnshire including some longer distance services. The regular Delaine routes from Peterborough out to Stamford and Bourne are examples of real good old-fashioned quality operations. There isn't actually much at Bourne but Stamford is a stunning small town, well worth a visit.
Thank you all for your interesting and well-illustrated reports.
Then another interesting trip report from @TheGrandWazoo on his second day in East Anglia (although I think technically Essex is the South East). There is a big gulf in Essex between delightful rural places such as Great Dunmow, affluent suburbia such as Ongar and some less salubrious places like Basildon. Great Dunmow is a charming small town but I also fear that the massive housebuilding here, thanks to the good A120 road and proximity to employment, will rather destroy this. Chelmsford as a city has some qualities, not least the cathedral, but the bus station is not big enough. I agree that Basildon is pretty ghastly, the bus station certainly is gloomy outdated. I haven't been out that way since electric buses arrived and the 100 went to double deckers but it is a shame that the Chinese offerings are so much better quality than ADL. Not sure how Wrightbus and Volvo fit into the quality hierarchy. The Basildon local route extension to Harold Wood is interesting. I've never thought the C2C line is bad, relatively reliable thanks to being self-contained, but the Elizabeth line has a higher profile and better connections so it will be interesting to see if this attracts traffic. Brentwood is a sort of border town but up to Ongar is more old fashioned and then commuter suburbia. Not knocking Ongar, it has worked hard to preserve its charm and it is good around the old station. I remember Harlow in LCBS days with Atlanteans on frequent town services ruling the roost. It was good bus territory then but maybe it isn't now - or is it years of decay from Arriva have made it worse? I have stopped off at Old Harlow too, it is pleasant with genuine charm, but it is affluent people here now rather than 'real' villagers. Good to get your view that the quality of the fleet and the service is improving. Interesting on the E400s used on the Harlow-Epping-Ongar trunk routes, its sounds like they have built these routes up pretty well, lets hope this is indicative of the quality of the Transport Made Simple / Central Connect group going forward including the more troubled ex-Go Ahead East Anglian operations. NIBS looks quite an interesting operator, most of the fleet, especially the double deckers (all Scanias) are pretty old and the majority of the operations are school runs. I think they are connected with Stephensons, certainly some of the buses are cast-offs from Stephensons.
Finally @route101 visiting Cambridge, Peterborough and into Lincolnshire including some longer distance services. The regular Delaine routes from Peterborough out to Stamford and Bourne are examples of real good old-fashioned quality operations. There isn't actually much at Bourne but Stamford is a stunning small town, well worth a visit.
Thank you all for your interesting and well-illustrated reports.
