Saturday 27th December 2025 Time to relax after the Christmas festivities with a sit down and a good book so especially for BusAndTrainUser blog readers here are three recommendations for your 2026 bookshelf. The Rise and Demise of the Bus Map First up and hot off the press is this just published and truly wonderful... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 23rd December 2025 This isn't just any awards ceremony. This is the BusAndTrainUser Awards ceremony ……. and you know what that means? No, not the most prestigious, coveted, sought after awards the others all lay claim to be. Forget Golden Spanners, National Rail Awards, UK Bus Awards, Route-One Awards, CILT Awards for Excellence, National... Continue Reading →
Saturday 20th December 2025 Welcome to another end of year nostalgic look back over the last twelve months of bus and train activity in Britain. As always, before revealing 2025's highs and lows here’s the chance to test your own recall and knowledge of the year's events with the BusAndTrainUser Annual Quiz of the Year.... Continue Reading →
Thursday 18th December 2025 To get in the mood for next week's festivities I've taken my annual wander around London's 12 main line termini having a look at their Christmas tree displays. Readers may recall last year I awarded joint first prize to King's Cross and Paddington for their truly splendid efforts complete with a... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 16th December 2025 I’ve been taking a look at three bus routes on which established bus companies are currently competing to see how things are working out. Morecambe-Carnforth: Routes 5 and 85 First up is in Lancashire where Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire began operating a couple of new hourly routes in the Morecambe area... Continue Reading →
Saturday 13th December 2025 Something a little different to conclude this year’s fortnightly series. I spent a couple of days this week visiting those London suburbs which are blessed with two stations located relatively close to each other but on completely different lines, offering a choice of destinations. Many of these have kindly been suggested... Continue Reading →
Thursday 11th December 2025 Has TfL given up on Putney High Street? Never mind Oxford Street, it's Putney High Street that's got the bigger problem of air quality from slow moving traffic. The south west London shopping street leads south from Putney Bridge and is notorious for almost round-the clock daytime congestion and just like... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 9th December 2025 Recent reports in some of the trade press quoting an eye watering cost of £650-£680 per passenger for a rail replacement bus service that's been running for almost two years cried out for a BusAndTrainUser Verify investigation. It was reported the 16 seat minibus providing a journey of less than three... Continue Reading →
Saturday 6th December 2025 Another month's round up of emails readers have kindly sent me.... ember shakes up the coach hire market Roy kindly drew my attention to further expansion by ember, the forward looking coach company in Scotland. Not only did the company launch two more inter-city routes between Glasgow and Inverness and Edinburgh... Continue Reading →
Thursday 4th December 2025 Like many towns and cities, London is plagued with roadworks often necessitating road closures and consequent diversion and disruption to bus routes. BBC London contacted last week inviting me to take a look with them at the impact of the current closure of Delancey Street in the heart of Camden Town.... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 2nd December 2025 We're nearly at the end of this year's fortnightly series, but have no fear the 25th place to be featured in a couple of weeks is a rather special one and next year I'm extending the series to cover more two station places thanks to all the suggestions readers have kindly... Continue Reading →
Saturday 29th November 2025 It's time for another round up of month end miscellany including items I've spotted during November's travels but not featured over the last month's blogging. The Bluebell Ice Queen And first up is a seasonal shout out to the Bluebell Railway which I visited with family last weekend to sample its... Continue Reading →
Thursday 27th November 2025 Castle Cary railway station has long been famous as the bridgehead for the annual Glastonbury Festival. Thousands of festival goers travel by GWR and SWR trains to and from this small Somerset station each June before completing their journey on a fleet of special shuttle buses laid on to move the... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 25th November 2025 Folkestone’s long standing Bouverie Square bus station is no more. After 50 years public service it closed at the end of September to be converted into a town centre community park (to be also known as a 'Green Heart') as part of Folkestone and Hythe District Council’s £20 million Brighter Future... Continue Reading →
Saturday 22nd November 2025 All this year, month by month, I've been counting down Britain's Top 10 Quirky Bus Routes and today I can finally reveal the prized holder of the coveted top slot - the one that's truly the country's Quirkiest Bus Route of all. Readers will have seen at No 10 the bus... Continue Reading →
Thursday 20th November 2025 You don’t have to spend long in Bury St Edmunds bus station to appreciate the variety of bus operators serving the town. Stephensons and Mulleys are frequent visitors... ... as well as Coach Services... ...Chambers and Simonds CountryLink... ... both now owned by... ...Transport Made Simple. For a town of around... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 18th November 2025 Oxfordshire County Council took the bold step of introducing a three month "Temporary Congestion Charge" for motorists who drive through six camera points in central Oxford at the end of October. I paid a visit to the city on Saturday to take a look. The six sites are shown on the... Continue Reading →
Saturday 15th November 2025 Farnborough's another station pair I hadn't included in my original list for this series, thinking that with North Camp close to Farnborough Main and Farnborough North, it made for a town with three stations, rather than two. But then I was contacted a few weeks ago by the wonderful Mike Knott... Continue Reading →
Thursday 13th November 2025 It's not just Great British Railways (GBR) "coming soon", so too is a "Gateway" scheme to improve access to York railway station. Whereas no-one is quite sure what the future GBR will look and feel like, anyone visiting York at the moment can't fail to notice extensive works taking place to... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 11th November 2025 It's been a while since I looked into the veracity of media reporting but recent positive headlines extolling the completion of a 'Bus Rapid Transit' scheme on the A33 caught my eye, so while I was in Reading last Thursday I took a ride to find out more. The Reading Chronicle... Continue Reading →
Saturday 8th November 2025 Earlier in the year I reported on interesting developments in the Thames Valley bus network some of which arose following tender contracts won by Go-Ahead owned Carousel Buses but also some commercial expansion by the company including the restoration of a link between Maidenhead and Reading via Twyford (route 127). Reading... Continue Reading →
Thursday 6th November 2025 Taking day trips by train north from London always brings home the huge inconsistency of rail ticket pricing, especially if you want to leave the capital around 09:00 to make the most of your day and enjoy reasonably priced fares. One of the worst culprits for setting unreasonable fares is East... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th November 2025 Welcome to a new blog feature where from time to time I'll share some messages and emails readers have kindly sent me so they benefit from a wider audience. Good news on the X1 in Glasgow and trains to East Kilbride Bryan got in touch following my reference to JMB Travel's... Continue Reading →
Saturday 1st November 2025 Runcorn's two stations have very different pedigrees and present quite a contrast. The town's long standing main station, called Runcorn, opened way back in April 1869 whereas its youthful compatriot, Runcorn East, is a much more contemporary addition to the network, opening as recently as October 1983. The town of Rucorn... Continue Reading →
Thursday 30th October 2025 Another end-of-the-month round up of unblogged observations from October’s travels. More from Kernow First up are a couple more observations from Cornwall. It was great to see network bus maps posted at key locations but this one at Falmouth was simply impossible to read due to the print size being so... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 28th October 2025 2025's been a fairly quiet year for new station openings - only Newsham and Blyth Bebside on the Northumberland line have been unwrapped for passengers - but one of the biggest investments in new station infrastructure, since the arrival of Brent Cross West two years ago, opened its gateline to passengers... Continue Reading →
Sunday 26th October 2025 Today's the day. Imagine the excitement exactly 39 years ago today, Sunday 26th October 1986, as the new deregulated regime for Britain's buses outside of London brought to an end 53 years of tight supply side regulation through the requirement for bus operators to hold a Road Service Licence for each... Continue Reading →
Saturday 25th October 2025 Tomorrow marks the exact day 39 years ago, Sunday 26th October 1986, when Britain’s buses were deregulated outside of London. To mark this anniversary - as by the time we get to the 40th next year, much of the country's buses in the large conurbations will be under a franchised regime... Continue Reading →
Thursday 23rd October 2025 West of England Combined Authority's WESTlink branded DRT was in the news again earlier this week after the local BBC news featured a locally based transport campaigner, David Redgewell of the South West Transport Network, who'd worked out it must be costing the Authority around £40-£50 per passenger to fund. It... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 21st October 2025 Transport for Wales (TfW) staff invited me to speak at the TrawsCymru Operator Forum held in Wrexham on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. It was the second year such an event had been held, bringing together TfW staff involved with TrawsCymru and the bus operators running the services along with some... Continue Reading →
Saturday 18th October 2025 Wrexham is another place with two stations that initially didn’t make it on to my list of intended visits for this fortnightly series. Along with Colchester, which also has its main station slightly off-centre from the town's focal point coupled with a small one platform second station in the town centre,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 16th October 2025 West of England Combined Authority’s (WECA) extensive WESTlink branded DRT scheme saw an interesting new development last month - the addition of a fixed bus route with a fixed timetable. Quite a novelty for a DRT obsessed Authority. Being on the WESTlink database from my previous rides, I was intrigued to... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 14th October 2025 Knowing the frustrations I’ve experienced claiming Delay Repay over the years with Avanti West Coast and GWR, when I met up with Alex Hornby during the summer he kindly offered a visit to see Northern’s Customer Contact Centre in Sheffield which deals with Delay Repay. As you can imagine, I jumped... Continue Reading →
Saturday 11th October 2025 Now, this route really is a Bucket List Must Do. Except it's probably one of Britain's most challenging bus routes to take a ride on. The service only runs in the summer and passengers need to first take a sporadically timed tiny passenger ferry boat run by one ferryman, Mr Morrison,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 9th October 2025 The two words "at last" have become all too familiar in a heading when it comes to blogging about new trains entering service in Britain, and these latest CAF built trains for London's DLR network are no different. The first of the 54 trains was unveiled to the media by Mayor... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 7th October 2025 Both TfL and Brighton & Hove Bus Company introduced a new high profile express bus route last week. It was interesting to take a ride on both to compare and contrast. TfL's much hyped route BL1 began on Saturday 27th September providing a quicker alternative for passengers travelling by bus between... Continue Reading →
Saturday 4th October 2025 Here's something a little different for this fortnightly series. A place which has two names with each enjoying the presence of two stations. As you can see from the map below, Epsom and neighbouring Ewell are one continuous urban sprawl in Surrey and famously resisted being included in Greater London on... Continue Reading →
Thursday 2nd October 2025 There’s never a dull moment in Cornwall’s ever changing bus scene. In recent times we’ve seen……First Bus show no interest in its Cornish operations, running ageing second hand vehicles in a dreadful state transferred from other parts of the country... ... allowing the rising star that was Western Greyhound... ...to steal... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 30th September 2025 Another month end so here's more miscellany I've spotted on my travels over the last few weeks but not blogged about. Gatwick Express takes over Eastbourne I've featured the mess that is GTR's train branding in previous roundups, but, noticing Gatwick Express liveried trains out in force in Eastbourne station (above... Continue Reading →
Saturday 27th September 2025 The London Transport Museum Friends held another country bus route recreating day on Tuesday and I was lucky enough to get a sought after ticket and take a ride on board. It follows the wonderful day in June 2024 when route 386 was recreated between Bishops Stortford and Hitchin and another,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 25th September 2025 Welcome to another blog about another bus route numbered 11 and where we head to Nottingham. Interesting developments at award winning bus company Nottingham City Transport (NCT) this month saw managing director David Astill warn staff of tough times ahead following disappointing financial results for year ended March 2025. “The company... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 23rd September 2025 I topped off last week’s epic ride on ember’s route E11 by sampling two very contrasting bus routes also numbered 11. One in the glorious Cotswolds and the other in Nottingham Today's blog describes the former with Thursday's featuring the latter. Image courtesy Troopers Lodge Motor Services And this is not... Continue Reading →
Saturday 20th September 2025 Worcester Shrub Hill looking north I didn’t originally have Worcester on my list for this series by dint of the 2020 opening of Worcestershire Parkway making it a three station city. However, after lobbying from my Worcester based friend and former bus industry colleague, Iain Macbriar, who quite rightly pointed out... Continue Reading →
Thursday 18th September 2025 Scotland has two National Parks: Loch Lomond & The Trossachs and The Cairngorms. I enjoyed an absolutely brilliant day on Tuesday sampling two of Britain’s most scenic journeys - one across each National Park. If you enjoy a scenic bus and coach ride, I heartily recommend adding these two to any... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 16th September 2025 This post was going to be about my journey last Thursday on bus route LC6 which runs four times a day between Coalville and Hinckley Operated by Centrebus with one bus on behalf of Leicestershire County Council, the route was introduced on 26th August providing a north-south link between these communities... Continue Reading →
Saturday 13th September 2025 Imberbus 2024 Photo credit Steve Hutchings Obviously it just had to be in the Top 10 and very much deserves the coveted top three billing as an absolute sure fire example of Britain's Quirky Bus Routes. It is of course the annual outing for Wiltshire's very special bus route, the 23A,... Continue Reading →
Thursday 11th September 2925 Catching up on last week’s developments with a look at three more new bus routes which began on 31st August/1st September…. First up is a new link between Leigh-on-Sea and Southend Airport and its adjacent Business Park funded by Southend City Council. Stephensons are operating the two year contract with an... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 9th September 2025 As mentioned in recent blogs, last week saw a number of changes to bus routes in Powys, not least significant surgery to the TrawsCymru network through the county. Whereas TrawsCymru had been expanding across mid and south east Wales over the last six years by swallowing up traditionally run local bus... Continue Reading →
Sunday 7th September 2025 Blog reader Natasha recently got in touch to suggest I visit Chartwell House in Kent and sample the options to travel there by bus. Situated down a country lane (called Mapleton Road) off the B2026, Hosey Hill, south of Westerham, the National Trust property, famous for being the home of Sir... Continue Reading →
Saturday 6th September 2025 For this continuing fortnightly exploration of places with two stations I've visited Bicester in Oxfordshire famous for one of its two stations unusually being renamed from Bicester Town to Bicester Village in 2015 in recognition of the huge draw from the adjacent retail attraction of that name. One might normally assume... Continue Reading →
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