The removal of 'free'

We've said before that the worst thing a company or government can do is to give people something for nothing. Not the kind advertised rather dubiously during commercial breaks on daytime TV, but a tangible freebie. The National Concessionary Bus Pass Scheme was one such deal. Cynics say that over-sixties pay for the free rides indirectly through their council tax, but the council tax charge did not rise by the identical sum per week that Mr & Mrs Taylor had hitherto spent on buses, so it's a psychological red herring.

Free Wi-Fi is something else that's slowly being unleashed upon the world. Most pubs have it. Buses even have it. Coaches have had it for ages. Planes don't, for obvious reasons, and roaming restrictions mean it's very tricky indeed for it to be available on boats and ships. Even London Underground aspires to have it (they have advanced plans to enable people to use their mobile phones at, say, Warren Street station soon).

Trains have had Wireless Fidelity available to passengers for a number of years. Many long-distance TOCs provide it free in First Class and ask those in Standard to pay for it. There is one exception: East Coast. Wi-Fi used to be chargeable in Standard Class, but one of the first moves made by National Express East Coast saw it become free to all. M'colleague and I have made many a trip aboard NXEC and now East Coast using their free Wi-Fi. Neither of us has a laptop, but connect through the wireless gizmo featured on our mobile phones.


We bring you news that as from next week, Standard Class travellers will only receive the first fifteen minutes' worth of Wi-Fi for free aboard East Coast trains, thereafter an hourly fee of £4.95 will be charged, capped at £9.95 per day. This really is a very poor decision - especially at a time when whatever savings likely to be made are to go on providing free meals in First. Clearly, those in charge at East Coast have made the conscious decision that to woe back First Class travellers at the expense of Standard is the way forward, and are now instigating a number of measures to ensure this objective is achieved.

East Coast's official explanation is that it has recently spent £600k improving its Wi-Fi technology, enabling faster download speeds. If only they'd asked their passengers whether they'd like to see this investment for improved speeds and then to be charged a tenner a day or to keep things the way they were, we strongly suspect the response would have ensured that this bad news story would never have happened. A serious point to consider for those wanting to make use of the first 15 minutes is whether they will be warned when they are soon to incur the hourly fee or if it will be down to them to make sure they do not surf for longer than 14:59.

Virgin Trains, the other Anglo-Scottish operator, has never permitted free Wi-Fi for Standard, only in First. You can't take from someone what they've never had, so Richard Branson's train HQ in Euston will almost certainly be smirking not only at the lamentable decision East Coast has made, but also at how the government-run TOC is effectively bringing itself into line with their service provision. The two companies have had many a SPAD ('spat', surely? - Ed.) in the past but now it could be East Coast will be operated in a similar fashion to its public sector West Coast counterpart.

If East Coast thinks the ensuing criticism over the removal of free Wi-Fi is likely to be a bit rough, its financial backers ought to take note of the Doomsday scenario like to play itself out come the Spending Review if a decision is taken to start charging those over 60 to use local bus services.

Three farewells

Two retirements and a resignation have caught our attention of late. One is the highest-paid civil servant, the other the highest-paid transport boss and the final being the head of the world's most secretive and insular country. We're not sure how much King Jom-il pays himself though.

So farewell then Iain Coucher, the head of Network Rail, who earned £1.2million through salary and bonuses during the last financial year. Coucher had been at the helm of NR for three years and chose not to link his departure to the furore surrounding his bonuses or those of his fellow board members. Nor did he link his departure to the allegations printed in Private Eye surrounding claims he made use of a £100k-a-day Coutts corporate gold card and that NR used offshore accounts in Guernsey and the Bahamas to pay-off women making claims of sexual harassment against the head of HR.

What Coucher did, though, was to turn around NR's fortunes following the dark period in the railway's history, post-Hatfield, which was the catalyst to the effective re-nationalisation of railway infrastructure. Critics say that the railway was at such a low ebb during the early-naughties that a trained chimp couldn't have made matters worse; others, fewer, clearly believed that turning around the railway's fortunes was such a Herculean task that only the very best pay was to be offered, to attract the best man.

Often criticised for having the same mannerisms as Coucher is Sir Moir Lockhead, the £1m+ a year chief executive of FirstGroup, or First, the UK's largest transport operator. Both chaps were often remarked upon as being abrasive and too clinical for their respective areas of business. In particular, First's prognosis of how buses operating in its corporate 'Barbie' livery would ride out the recession differed wildly from its similarly-sized contemporaries, resulting in much negativity in the local presses. Coucher often lacked necessary interraction with the press and attempts to force a media black out over certain matters really set journos' fingers twitching. But Sir Moir is clearly a busman through and through, whereas Coucher was not a railwayman in the traditional sense, entering the industry with Tube Lines in 1999 - fourteen years after Sir Moir headed the company that was to form part of First's founding duo.

At that time Sir Moir was MD at Grampian Regional Transport and in January 1989 was successful at leading a management buyout following the government's intention to privatise the Scottish Bus Group. Just eight years later would see the merger of GRT and Badgerline to form the then-named FirstBus, which Sir Moir would lead. From the position of manager at Grampian Regional Transport in 1985 to the chief exec of the largest transport operator in the country within a decade-and-a-half is surely a more incredible feat than his oft-compared fellow Scottish busman, Brian Souter. Only one has a knighthood, too.

Iain Coucher is not retired so has plenty of opportunity to gain equally lucrative employment elsewhere, though we suspect it will be in the private sector from now on! Sir Moir, despite his recent gross annual pay, has worked in an industry that does not traditionally pay as well as Network Rail, which is a little unusual, since the reason given for why state-run top job salaries have ballooned in pay is that they continually try to keep apace with the private sector.

So far as we're aware, the pay grade of NR's new CE - likely to be a relative unknown - has yet to be decided. Expect public outcry if it rivals that given to Coucher. While Sir Moir's replacement, Tim O' Toole, will receive virtually no medial coverage should he be awarded the £1m+ salary commanded by his predecessor.

Black is the colour

Consider the humble colour black. It doesn't usually look good when covering every part of a bus' exterior. Yet despite this, it was the livery of choice for CT Plus, the commercial arm of Hackney Community Transport, who snatched the operation of a Hull-based park-and-ride contract from East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) just over a year ago. The decision made by Hull City Council to award the Priory Park & Ride contract to CT Plus, despite EYMS operating the contract without fault since its inception and providing a bid that offered better value for money for the local council, caused controversy locally.

CT Plus operate six BMC Condors on the 701 park-and-ride service

From 26 April, however, in a move seemingly unconnected with the above, EYMS re-branded its Service X55, operating between Hull and Gilberdyke via Brough. To mark Brough's link with its Roman settlers, the route has been branded with the name the Romans gave to Brough - Petuaria. The Petuaria Express uses two brand-new Volvo B7RLEs with Wrightbus Eclipse Urban bodies and operates to an hourly frequency. EYMS claim the Brough-Hull journey time rivals that of the train when walking times are included.

EYMS' Petuaria Express branding for its Hull-Brough-Gilberdyke service

What is not made known in the press release is that the route taken by the X55 Petuaria Express heading into Hull, is identical to that used by the park-and-ride service CT Plus now operate, and it won't have escaped your attention that the EYMS vehicles are sufficiently black enough (officially 'indigo') to be mistaken for a BMC Condor!

Complaining & Newspapers

There's a marked difference in the way passengers complain about different modes of public transport. Train companies see little in the way of negativity in local newspapers, through letters of complaint to editors. Instead, disgruntled travellers put pen to paper (or the more modern equivalents) and contact the operator directly. The airlines see virtually no negative press in local newspapers, instead feeling the wrath of consumer groups on a much broader scale through national medial.

Buses, however, see their dirty washing hung out in public through local media. The Grimsby Evening Telegraph's Viewpoint column was once a blank canvas for those who had something to say about the area's largest bus operator, Stagecoach. Perhaps many of the comments were valid and accurate, perhaps not. It's not just Grimsby's local rag that sees letters of complaint sent to the editor. Up and down the land, passengers send in tales of their dissatisfaction with bus operators.

Why the difference with buses? In 2001, so bad was Stagecoach's press in Grimsby, that the then commercial director at the company's Chesterfield HQ wrote a letter, printed in the self same paper, requesting complainants inform the company of the grievance first. I vividly remember the comparison being to someone dissatisfied with an item they purchased with their weekly shop from Asda and then complaining to the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, rather than contact Asda themselves. Shoppers instinctively complain to the supermarket in question and then, assuming the issue has not been resolved to their satisfaction, consider contacting the media. Many of Stagecoach Grimsby-Cleethorpes' complaints were news to management there, since at no point had they been aware of any such problems.

It is an interesting comparison: that of a passenger unhappy with a journey on their local bus service and a shopper dissatisfied with an item from their weekly shop. Perhaps one of the reasons why passengers do not follow the unwritten procedure is because they perceive their custom to be far more worthy to their local bus company than purchasing a tin of Asda's own baked beans. Also, towns that once had their own municipal bus companies haven't quite come to terms with their local bus company being sold off and now having absolutely no say whatsoever in the company's direction.

That's not to say residents of towns and cities in which National Bus operated weren't content knowing their taxes indirectly paid for the buses; but the revenue flow was far more convoluted than with municipal undertakings.

I'm sure many residents in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and its hinterland still feel that they 'own' the local buses, which hasn't been the case since 1993 - although a number of bus stop flags still bare the former company's logo!

Expanding the Grimsby issue, I've spoken with people who share my observation about the very local and public criticism that bus passengers subject their local operator to. I've yet to be given a water-tight explanation for this. There's plenty of 'council knocking' in local newspapers so perhaps for operators that were once owned and operated by the 'pen pushers at the town hall', it's merely an extension of this.

One of the largest assets ever owned by tax payers was the British Railway - sold off by 1997, yet largely escapes unscathed in the Viewpoint pages of local newspapers. Train companies publish compensation schemes offered, so passengers at least know whether it's worth their while complaining when a train delivers them to their destination 37 minutes late. Perhaps well-publicised similar systems ought to be considered by bus companies? Last year a commercial manager of a Midlands company wrote to us to comment that since his medium-sized company began issuing complainants vouchers for a week's free travel on his services, complaints had increased by 12%. Word was getting round. Perhaps this is not the way to handle it?

There are occasions when named individuals within the bus companies respond to specific complaints in the local press. This seems to be getting rarer, as it can see a deluge of more complaints aired in public if passengers know they'll get a response.

If passengers want action taken against a driver for the manner in which s/he's conducted him/herself, they really ought to consider the weight their (often anonymous) letter to the local paper will carry in a disciplinary hearing. Many companies have struck agreements with the trade unions that see no action taken against any letter other than one sent directly to the company. National Express introduced a number its coach passengers could text with comments about the driver. I know of two depots who don't even read these comments, with agreements being reached with local unions, because they are 'comments' and not anything more substantial. Put it in writing and send it directly to the company concerned and it will get noticed.

*UPDATE* From Stu, London - It would be fascinating to learn whether complaints across the bus industry are falling, as Passenger Focus claim is the case within the rail industry. Gathering the data would be a nightmare-I'm sure there's no legal requirement for any private bus company to disclose anything like this to anyone.

Thames Clipper

I'd never taken a trip along the River Thames before, through the heart of London. It seems a little odd, really, considering the many other (surely 'rather dubious'? - m'colleague) transport modes on which I've travelled. That was all to change on Wednesday, as part of the LEYTR's Jolly Boys' Outing to London (much of which is, regettably, totally un-bloggable).

I'd seen these Natwest-emblazoned skinny vessels chugging along the Thames on numerous occasions, but dismissed them as being part of the 'costly tourist' operations. As it turns out, they are anything but. Set up as recently as 1999, a partnership of two wanted to offer a reliable commuter service along the Thames, making the most of the relative linear operation vessels can provide here and, rather more obviously, the massive time savings to be had, especially for those wanting to travel between locations whose hinterland is the Thames.

There are a total of thirteen vessels in the Thames Clipper fleet, the newest being six catamarans working the main service, all built in 2007/8. They are each named: Cyclone, Monsoon, Tornado, Typhoon, Aurora and Meteor. Each seats 220 soles. They were purchased following the original partnership selling the business the year before to the company who now owns the Millennium Dome, or O2 Arena as it's now called, Anschutz Entertainment Group.

Our Thames Clipper catamaran prepares to dock at Tower Pier. It bares fleet number 6. We assume this to be the last of its 2007 order for 6 new vessels that now operates the main service

The catamarans are very spacious, with the vast majority of seating undercover with darkened windows. A small number of seats (about two dozen) are located to the rear of the craft, as too is a small bike storage area. With Wednesday's weather in central London being unseasonably warm, we all headed aft. Photography is also far better from this area as the darkened windows within the main seating area will affect the exposures.


We didn't sample the full route, however, which operates between Embankment and the O2 Arena (Embankment Pier and the QEII Pier) with nine intermediate calling points. During the morning peak and throughout the evening, services extend further east of the QEII Pier to/from Woolwich Arsenal. For the remainder of the day (0930-1750), services terminate at the QEII Pier. This proves very popular with commuters working in Woolwich and also from those in Woolwich needing to head further into the City. Favour has also been found with the on-board Wi-Fi that is currently offered on the six 'mainline' catamarans.

Three other limited services are provided by the Thames Clipper: the Tate to Tate service, which links Millbank Pier with Bankside Pier; The O2 Express, a direct Embankment-O2 Arena service, calling only at London Bridge; and the Hilton Ferry service, which connects Hilton Docklands Pier with the main service at Canary Wharf. The network map shares similar attributes to that of the diagrammatic London Underground map, with connecting Tube lines shown at each calling point.

I'm sure Harry Beck could have improved on the latest Thames Clipper map, but even so, its attempt to show integration with land-based public transport is very pleasing to see

There are a number of ticket options to consider. So vast and pointed are their products, it's probably best to simply direct you to their website. One-way tickets are catered for, with reductions for Oyster card, Travelcard and Freedom Pass Holders. Children receive discounts too. The same discounts/reductions apply to unlimited travel tickets and also tickets that permit cross-Thames travel since piers at which the service calls can be located on either side of the Thames and the Thames Clipper can be utilised as a handy way to cross the Thames where no other method exists.

We boarded at the Tower Bridge Pier and were initially delayed by a family in front of us who were struggling to receive a child fare for their youngster. The lady serving kept asking for his Oyster card, and seemed disinterested when told they were tourists who'd not travelled by public transport in London. Communication was very poor indeed. I even attempted to intervene, politely telling the lady serving that it was wrong to assume every child tourist is in possession of a visitor/PAYG Oyster card (which would confirm their age). Their child had no other form of ID since he was still at school. Besides, if he did, it wouldn't have been his immediate thought when visiting London to take his school library card (that's assuming it stated his DoB in any case). The lady selling tickets was actually going to call someone about it. Deary me. However, commonsense prevailed and she relented in the end, having seen the growing queue.

The average age aboard the Clipper on which we travelled would suggest few paid the full adult fare. Operating under licence to TfL, the Thames Clipper offers the full range of discounts available to all other passenger transport modes in London

The Thames Clipper service operates to a 20-minute frequency and our trip would take 26 minutes to the easternmost terminus. The frequencies are what you'd expect of a bus service in a moderately-sized town. A 30-min frequency from 0600 to 0730 and then every 20 minutes throughout the day until 1900 when the service reverts to half-hourly before a last departure from Woolwich Arsenal at 2300/Embankment at 2358.

We were all travelling with Travelcards, so received a 33% reduction and paid £3.55 for a single fare. One of our contingent had a staff Oyster card, but received the same reduction. As we left Tower Pier, progress was most definitely leisurely, though this was by no means a problem. But, once under Tower Bridge and past the next police pier, an announcement was made that the service would increase in speed and that those at the back should be aware of excess spray. With that we literally shot off and within second our GPS equipment recorded us travelling at 31mph.

We were soon to increase speed, about half-a-mile east of Tower Bridge

I was amazed by how responsive the catamarans were. They'd literally dart from one side of the Thames to the other, depending on which side the next pier was located. A fair few were using the service on a hop-on, hop-off basis, but the majority disembarked at Greenwich Pier (the penultimate stop at this time of day).

The amount of spray did make photography a little challenging. You had to time it right with the wind! That said, with temperatures forecast to be in the mid-20s today, it was a very nice place to be. I could imagine stood here being a little fraught in much poorer conditions. The iconic London Transport roundel was in evidence at all the piers, with the Thames Clipper operating under contract to Transport for London. It was only last year that they began offering payment through Oyster PAYG.

Braking, if such a thing is possible on board a vessel, seemed very strong indeed. We assumed the vehicles are simply put in reverse to slow them down. If this is the case, reverse is certainly engaged fully at very high speeds. It does make them very responsive. The disembarkation process at each pier differs slightly, with announcements made directing those leaving through which exit they can do so. A fair number of staff feature on each vessel, ensuring ropes are tightened upon docking and at less busy times when few are on board, we witnessed a couple on litter patrol.

The long-term aspiration by the Thames Clipper's owner is to expand services and to gain additional patronage so that prices can be reduced, making them cheaper than alternative modes of public transport. Those opposing this move cite the possible end to tailored tourist boats along the Thames as a result of the shrinking prices, and a 'free-for-all' on the river. The market is somewhat limited, though, surely. Even from my very limited experience, it's plain for all to see that growth will never rival what, say, Stagecoach has achieved in Cambridge. The Thames, for example, does not go to King's Cross!

Our Clipper was occupying this pier so a westbound service chose to tread water until we left and then reversed onto it. Very impressive. Even buses don't (usually) do this

It is precisely because of the perceived cost, that I've never, ever considered tourist boat tours of the Thames - the Thames Clipper included. Now I have, and seen that for £8 as a holder of a Travelcard I could have unlimited travel aboard the Thames Clipper all day, I'll most certainly bare it in mind for future visits. Tourist boat tours should surely improve their game. This is competition after all. Why should it be any different on water?

DfT Funding Agreed

Transport writer Christian Wolmar believes that the Department for Transport has already agreed its new budget, as a result of the forthcoming Spending Review and that it has been signed-off by Transport Secretary Phillip Hammond.

Being more a railway man, Wolmar's comments regarding what elements are likely to hit other transport modes are somewhat vague, though each can be elaborated:

Watch out for cuts in bus support – poss increasing the age of the pensioners’ pass – cutting back on roads investment, fuel tax rises and VED increases, disguised to fit along environmental lines.

While the Tories chose to guarantee the free bus pass during the election campaign, they did not state that elements concerning its validity would remain unaltered. Fuel tax rises will include the thorny issue of BSOG and the likely cost any alteration to its calculation being passed on to passengers, especially those in rural communities where Tory support is strongest. Vehicle excise duty increases will hit anything with wheels and a tax disc - buses and coaches obviously not being exempt here.

Why has the DfT's bag of cash - assumed to be in the region of £17 billion - been agreed so early? Wolmar muses: "Hammond never wanted to be Transport Secretary. He is a Treasury man through and through.." So, Hammond's done the quickest deal he can, to then enable him to "jump over the table" to "sit alongside Osbourne and Alexander pronouncing on the budgets of other departments."

Teething troubles

Work is currently underway to convert one of the lines that forms part of the London Underground (LU) network so that trains essentially operate by a computer programme, not by the drivers. This has already taken place on the Central Line and has been like it since year dot for the Victoria Line. The advantage is that human error is ruled out and accordingly, trains can be run closer together, increasing both frequency and capacity.

The Jubilee Line is the latest Tube route to be upgraded. It will perform a key role during the 2012 Olympic Games as one of the line's bases is at Stratford, which will be in the heart of the Olympic Village. Work on converting the line to automatic operation has not been as straightforward as Transport for London (TfL) would have hoped. Add to this the Tube Line's fiasco, which saw the effective nationalisation of the infraco immediately after the Tory/LibDem coalition was formed, a letter from LU boss Mike Brown to TfL has been written in which Brown says he fears completion may overrun by more than a year. Work originally was to be complete by December 2009, though now a more vague '2011' date has been given.


Below is a list of dates when Jubilee Line trains will not be in operation on either the whole or certain sections of line, between mid-August and the end of the year:

14/15, 21/22, 29/30 August
4/5, 11/12, 18/19, 25/26 September
2/3, 23/24, 30 October
13/14, 20/21, 27/28 November
4/5, 11/12, 27/28/29 December

Save a couple in mid-October and one at the start of November, every weekend will passengers using the Tube hear the now infamous "The Jubilee Line is closed between..." announcement.

A Jubilee Line driver contacted the LEYTR to inform us of two interesting developments. On his first training session last month from Finchley Road, it took him and his instructor a total of four hours to travel to Green Park, approximately 1.5 milese. A 'highly illegal' reverse manoeuvre had to be undertaken, too. Complex safety-critical issues are blamed yet despite this we understand TfL is permitting passenger-carrying automated Jubilee Line trains. Notification of this is not openly made public.

Should the typical Tube passenger care, though? It's so rare the line is operational at weekends, many will surely have made alternate travel plans for the rest of the year that do not involve the route. During the week, automated journeys are taking off-peak, so that a stricken train in a tunnel doesn't grind the network to a halt. Trialing trains under normal circumstances surely needs to be done to test the effectiveness of the new system and what better way to do so than in 'live' conditions - off-peak, with passengers on board. However, our Jubilee Line correspondent told us that there have been multiple delays recorded, owing to the automation software failing on a train full of passengers in a tunnel.

So it would appear that if you're lucky enough to catch a Jubilee Line train, there is the possibility that you'll be an unwitting guinea pig.

Getting the job done

Increasingly, I'm finding that fewer and fewer workers within the transport industries are happy wearing ties. People I consider of sound mind and judgement take the view that "the addition of a tie to a person's uniform does not get the job done any better". That view in itself is not something easy to argue with.

While no longer in operation, the Percy Main-based Go Coastline operation had a substantial tie

As someone with around 1,000 bus, coach and rail-related ties in his collection, I'm naturally going to be a little biased towards the wearing of ties in the transport industries. I believe that all bases are covered nowadays: clip-on versions have been around for decades, satisfying workers that perceive violence towards them as a possibility. 'Elf & safety concerns on hot summer days have seen most of the large corporations allow employees to remove ties when the temperature rises above a pre-determined level or, more akin to the bus industry, from June through September.

Wellglade-owned Notts & Derby's tie is produced by the same company that supplies all its subsidiaries. Another substantial tie, nothing like the 'drainpipe' examples of the early-90s

Smaller, though by no means lesser, considerations are made by those with passenger facing roles that can see their tie hinder their work. Coach drivers that have a considerable amount of luggage to load could have a case for their tie getting in the way when doing this. In 2007 National Express informed its coach drivers that they were permitting tie removal all year round, which caused problems with many of its third-party contractors who have much stricter tie-wearing policies. NX relented and agreed that 3P rules must take preference here, but to the non-tie wearing brigade, this should come as comfort that some large companies understand the smaller considerations being voiced.

Another Go Ahead tie is this for London Central. It's a few years old now and I'm unsure whether or not it's been superseded, but it's a striking example of how modern ties are still very much in fashion

No, for me, wearing a tie in the transport industries reaffirms many positive images. Confidence, ability, trustworthiness, professionalism and smartness. The wearing of a tie, and indeed a uniform as a whole is not primarily for the employee's benefit, but that of the passenger, who much prefer someone who looks the part rather than one who looks as though he ought to be stood in a field scaring crows.

Since 2001, National Express has only ever issued employees with good quality ties. This is one of its latest Travel West Midlands examples (penultimate issue)

We all know of an operator whom we refer to as a 'cowboy outfit'. His/her employees likely as not don't even have a uniform. Dented bodywork and no destination equipment can also be the order of the day, yet it doesn't 'slow the job down'. No, but passengers often allow these vehicles to pass and wait for the smarter, image-conscious company, whose driver has been issued with a smart uniform, complete with a tie.

If there were to be a Tie Award, based on the quality and design of ties issued within the bus and coach industries, I'd give a 'highly commended' to Transdev, whose examples for a number of operations 'up north' are superb. This is for Harrogate & District - Keighley & District's is identical, but with updated wording. As to who'd win the coverted title, I'll leave that for another time

Modern tie design seems to be reverting to those of yesteryear: wider, longer, thicker - significantly accentuating the garment and the impact it has when hanging around an employee's neck.

My tie collection (a work in progress)

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone with ties to sell or donate to my collection. With so many ties, I've developed a network of people who use me as a broker for their collections. Please feel free to consider me before placing your bus/coach ties for sale online or on stalls at rallies. I pay the market rate and can almost guarantee to take any bus/coach examples off your hands, provided they are in at least reasonable condition - even if you see those you have for sale in my collection already. I also consider the purchase of whole collections, too. Contact via the Editorial email address.

Giving wheelchairs preference

Regardless of the Disabled Discrimination Act (DDA), it's surely common sense to offer every assistance to someone less able than ourselves when using public transport. At train stations, porters are often on hand to ensure those in wheelchairs can be loaded/alighted in a safe, dignified manner (guards are also trained to use station/train ramps) and one-to-one assistance is given at airports by staff therein.

Travelling by bus is a little less prescriptive for a number of reasons. Few operators provide a pre-book system, where a wheelchair user can call ahead and make an operator aware of their presence. In many companies, drivers are cautious of leaving their cabs due to the potential for assault or the theft of their takings. Ramps on some of the older low-floor buses tend to be cumbersome and awkward to both assemble and stow - this process needing to be done twice per wheelchair user. An old friend of mine used to say of the first-generation of Dart SLFs: "Like a deckchair on Brighton beach, you need an A Level to assemble one of those bloody things!"

And finally, owing to the upsurge of buggies that occupy the wheelchair area, parents can be unwilling to fold their buggy to make way for a wheelchair user. Some bus operators openly advertise this as a 'buggy zone' or similar.

Can you blame them? So infrequent are wheelchair users aboard buses that many parents with buggies may have travelled for years without ever coming into contact with one. Then, two years on, a wheelchair user boards and they need the dedicated space vacating. The bus is particularly busy and the limited luggage storage area (usually above one of the front wheel arches) is already in use with a couple of suitcases.

This is a scenario most bus drivers will find familiar. In an unusual move by one of the 'big boys', I spotted a bespoke buggy notice affixed to the front windscreen of a Stagecoach Yorkshire ADL Trident/Enviro400, attending the Meadowhall Bus Rally today.

Mr Stenning will surely have a duck-fit - not a corporate 'swoop' in sight!

We know what the sign is getting at but it is misleading. Rather than something along the lines of "Buggies may need folding, should a wheelchair user board" the sign implies that the inanimate wheelchair itself has preference over all other human passengers. It does not. Nor does a wheelchair user have any greater right to travel than his/her able-bodied counterparts. The DDA instructs companies to ensure adequate provision is made to accommodate people with disabilities; they do not receive preference. It just feels like that to some.

Chatting to a couple of contacts in the Barnsley area, where the Enviro400 operates, it appears "single mothers" have become very vociferous towards drivers and even the people in wheelchairs, when faced with the task of collapsing their buggies to make way for someone less able than themselves. They believe that, with a child and a collection of Asda shopping bags, they are less able than someone with no/limited use of their legs.

It's not Stagecoach policy to affix notices like this to the windscreens of its newest 'deckers, though I hope as a result of this post it won't be outlawed immediately. Operators need to show that they are enforcing the DDA accordingly, which includes ensuring its workforce is aware of their obligation towards wheelchair users - and this can include having to make awkward decisions regarding buggies. If nothing else, this notice sends a very clear message to intending passengers and illustrates company policy in line with current legislation. If offers drivers immediate clarification and can help diffuse an awkward situation, with any greviences being taken up with the company's office at a later date.

Worst-ever Performance

Perhaps a good reason not to re-nationalise the operation of the country's rail network is provided in the latest punctuality data, compiled and released by Network Rail. It shows the best-ever punctuality recorded by a franchised train operator, 98.8%, achieved over the period covering 25 July - 21 August.

Put simply, this means 98.8% of the journeys operated by the train operating company (TOC) in question ran to time. The company? National Express c2c.

c2c has always been a high-flier in the performance leagues, along with Chiltern. Both benefit from relatively closed systems that see little interaction with other lines and TOCs. That's not to say both do not have their own challenges! Chiltern has to negotiate the bottleneck that is central Birmingham, for example.

Towards the foot of the recent data are two inter-city TOCs. The first is Arriva-owned CrossCountry, which criss-crosses the UK and thus has a plethora of potential delays through no fault of its own. This TOC, however, does not reside at the bottom. The least-punctual TOC in the UK for the period 25 July - 21 August is state-owned East Coast.

Quite why East Coast should have dropped to bottom place during its nationalised tenure is quite a mystery. This is a sentiment shared by the Office of Rail Regulation, who is effectively chairing talks and an action plan to be provided by both East Coast and Network Rail in order to improve punctuality.

And lest we forget that 'punctual' on the nation's rail network means anything but! Long distance services are considered punctual provided they reach their terminus (and only their terminus) up to and including 9 minutes and 59 seconds after their timetabled arrival. Shorter, regional services can arrive at their terminus up to and including 4 minutes and 59 seconds beyond that published in the passenger timetable, and still be considered punctual.

So, effectively, East Coast's punctuality figures for the first part of the high season show that 86.2% of its services arrived within the 9:59 window, or more pointedly, that 13.8% of its services were in excess of 10 minutes reaching their destinations.

If you discount the bizarre fleet repainting scheme and the tens of thousands of pounds this is likely to cost, significant sums of money have yet to be thrown at East Coast, by its government paymasters. In the scheme of things, introducing Virgin Trains-style free food doesn't cost that much either. Why the drop in punctuality, then? The age old one-liners simply do not stack up - "electrification north of Newcastle was done on the cheap and pantograph issues occur frequently" - since both predecessors GNER and NXEC had this to contend with and under the latter the East Coast franchise had its most punctual day since privatisation last year.

Unlike CrossCountry, East Coast is a relatively closed network, only sharing its metals with other TOCs and not having to generally criss-cross others. This should be one of the most punctual inter-city lines in the UK and the first year of nationalisation has seen matters get worse. With next May's intensive clock-face timetable being introduced, additional operational pressures will be placed on East Coast.

Those firmly in favour of the state running our trains point to the other high-fliers in the latest punctuality data: Merseyrail and London Overground. Both are long-term concessions rather than franchises, let by their nationalised owners - the first being Merseyside PTE and the second being Transport for London. Give the state greater control on what can and cannot be undertaken by contractors and a heap of cash and others could be performing as well as Overground and Merseyrail. Both also benefit from relatively closed networks, too.

Passenger watchdogs are likely to be a little less critical of East Coast's recent data, pointing out that punctuality is but one aspect of the 'passenger experience'. Some passengers are willing to run the risk of being 12 minutes late arriving in Aberdeen provided their ticket costs less than a benchmark figure in their mind. It could be argued that the very well-kept stations East Coast maintains are warm and inviting and far superior to the dour affairs offered by other TOCs while awaiting a late-running London service.

Some of the examples given by Network Rail for c2c's best-ever performance included the route's modernisation during the 1990s by British Rail, new, modern trains and a 40-seconds-before-departure dispatch of trains from central London. The East Coast Main Line saw similar improvements, with electrification and the introduction of Class 91s. All you ever read in railway mags is how reliable the stalwart HSTs are, and NXEC introduced the policy at King's Cross to both close the platform off up to 2 minutes before departure and remove each train departure from the departure screen 10 mins before it actually leaves.

easySquat

Admittedly, the airline which was founded by Stelios was not directly linked to the latest design of aircraft seating; instead it was Ryainair's top man, Michael O' Leary that could be visualised rubbing his hands together at news of a revolutionary new seating design for aircraft that could increase capacity and therefore revenue.

The new oxymoron 'standing seats' offer 7cm less leg room than standard economy class seating and have been designed solely to cram as many people into aircraft as it is legally possible. The new design is expected to be unveiled at the Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas Conference in Long Beach.

Could standing reduce the likelihood of deep vein thrombosis during air travel, though?

Italian-based designer Aviointeriors has said most interest is being shown by USA airlines, which seems a little odd since Americans are a considerable larger race than the world average. The USA is also where a very large proportion of airlines are based, so it's probably to be assumed most interest is likely to be found here. Ryanair, as we intimated, is also interested in order to maximise profits.

We'll not knock it until we've tried it, but the designers themselves refer to it as being like astride a horse, which is not an experience I'd like to consider for a two-hour flight to Europe! Director General of Aviointeriors said that the seats could become uncomfortable for flights in excess of three hours.

LEYTR Comment: Budget airlines might be salivating like a dog that's just heard Pavlov's bell, but you can be assured none will adopt this new seat design en mass. Plane travellers already undergo considerable stresses that do not apply to other modes of transport and for them to then have to effectively squat while cruising at 30,000 feet for 2 hours may be a stress too far.

The comfort of seats on buses, coaches and trains differ dramatically. The extreme bounce felt in the Mk1 carriages offer a different level of comfort to the Mallard refurbishment undertaken on the high-speed trains operating along the ECML. Both are comfortable, but for a long journey, the newer, firmer seating seems more appropriate. Modern bus seats are generally less comfortable than they used to be, although our memories aren't long enough to remember pre-war wooden slatted seating!!

The average duration aboard a bus is far shorter than other modes of public transport, so understandably comfort can be slightly compromised. Would Meagbus consider the new squatting seats for its services under 3 hours? Equipping a coach with leather seating that sees the average price per seat at under a tenner is not as cost-effective as it could be. We suspect seat belt legislation and how effective a lap belt is likely to be in this situation is why such 'advances' will not make it to road transport.

**UPDATE** From Steve, West Midlands. Like your latest post - it reminds me of my early days travelling with West Mids PTE at Coventry. I went upstairs on a Fleetline and dropped down into what I thought was a padded seat - it wasn't and it hurt. Faced with vandalism and in the days before fibreglass moulded seats, Coventry made its own. It shaped metal panels and covered them in rexine - at a glance it looked like any other seat!!

Nottingham's lack of car dependency

Yesterday, Nottingham was named as the city least-dependent on the car of 19 surveyed in the UK, while Milton Keynes was at the opposing end of the same scale. The latter doesn't surprise me, not least because 50 years ago it didn't exist and was built with the private motorist in mind. Older - ancient, even - cities suffer from this lack of foresight(!) and have to adapt accordingly.

If one of the UK's largest New Towns is the most dependent on car usage, perhaps the narrow, meandering streets of our country's city centres positively encourage public transport usage through a form of natural congestion that the motor car faces.

There does seem to be something of an irony here. If Nottingham is least-dependent on the private car then how does it hope to gain the most from the proposed Workplace Parking Levy (WPL)? Surely something of this type ought best be applied to Milton Keynes, or indeed any city that has a very high car usage. The Campaign for Better Transport, who produced the findings quote Milton Keynes as being: "...designed for the car. Those with cars can get to work in under 10 minutes, but those without a car struggle to get around."

Apply the fruits of the WPL's labour to improving transport in Milton Keynes, then.

We've skirted round the main issue though. Nottingham's lack of car addiction comes from the excellent alternatives on offer. Not just the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) light rail network, which now carries in excess of 10 million people annually, but both major bus operators have won the Bus Operator of the Year Award on more than one occasion over the past decade or so. Council-owned Nottingham City Transport (NCT) and Wellglade-owned Trent Barton ensure Nottingham's streets are patrolled by very frequent buses, all very well turned out. Services along the relatively new Robin Hood Line, operated by East Midlands Trains operate reliably and to a regular pattern, as do the TOC's other services into the LEYTR area and further afield to London and Birmingham.

And who knows how many more cars could be left at home if NCT chose to drop its exact fare policy!!

We'll find out next month when the Spending Review is made known whether NET's extensions will be given the go-ahead (the clever money is on this being dropped, but we hope not). The forthcoming WPL was to part-pay for these additions to the existing network, in addition to many bus-priority measures in and around the city.

If Nottingham's projected revenue from the WPL is so high, despite the city now being named as the least-dependent on the private car, imagine the comparative revenues to be generated by cities that rely heavily on motorists being able to access and park in the central business districts.

Matlock, here we come!

A great news story made it onto the BBC News website yesterday, that permission has been granted for the Peak Rail of Rowsley to extend its heritage train service into Matlock station, where it will effectively share the lengthy platform with East Midlands Trains' services to/from Derby and Nottingham.

Once completed next spring, it will be the first time passenger trains have departed north from Matlock station since the line to Manchester Central was closed to all services in 1968, a casualty of Dr. Beeching's "reshaping" of British Railways.

While the extension to services provided by Peak Rail will be just one mile south of the business' current southern terminus, it will make the link considerably easier to those wanting to board within the centre of Matlock. Many arrive by train from Derby and a walk of just under a mile to the heritage railway's Matlock Riverside station does put the more 'fair weather' steam loco appreciators off.

Matlock Riverside station is a small, narrow affair. It can be spotted on this photo, to the far right. Sharing the concrete with EMT in Matlock will be a massive improvement to all concerned

What took us both by surprise is that a one-mile stretch of line can be built in under 6 months. Surely Network Rail cannot be involved!

The section of line between Derby - Matlock - Bakewell - Buxton - Manchester formed part of the Midland Railway, which extended south of Derby to London along what is now called the Midland Main Line. Most of the trackbed north of Bakewell station is now cycle path, save a number of lengthy tunnels, to just south of Buxton - the whole line passing through the Peak District National Park.

Reinstatement of railway lines and train service along the whole section is floated from time to time but has never come to serious consideration. That said, Derbyshire County Council has pledged to keep the track bed free of development.

Peak Rail website

**UPDATE** From John, Derbyshire. I recently visited Matlock station and Peak Rail's metals actually overlap those of Network Rail, so there is no extension of such required, just slewing to do at that end. From an aerial photo, I'd say the walking distance between stations is not the mile stated, more 0.3 miles (500m). It would appear Peak Rail's PR man got a little carried away.

Ding! Ding!

Those wishing to become a bus driver must pass a number of tests. One is the Driving Standards Agency's Theory Test. It obviously differs from that for cars owing to the many different aspects of driving a bus and coach. One question posed to candidates concerns the number of bell pushes a driver hears and the associated meaning for each.

1 - next stop
2 - ready to leave
3 - omit next stop/bus full
4 - emergency

With its routes firmly set in the days when conductors were prevalent on all buses, the number of bell pushes heard by the driver/made by the conductor went a long way to ensure the efficient operation of all services. Today, however, conductors have all but vanished, yet contained within the pages of a DSA Theory Test book for PCV/HGVs that I looked through a while ago, PCV wannabes were expected to know this information.

With passengers now the sole bell-pushers, the question ought to have changed to 'How many passengers know how many times to press the bell?'


Drivers need to be a lot more observant of their vehicle's saloon and will be able to spot when it's safe to leave and when their bus is full far better in one of today's driver-only operates single deckers than in a Routemaster or an RT. Emergency situations are soon relayed to drivers by those on board so there's very little need for the bell sequence questions.

This differs in the rail industry, where it could be argued there's more need now than ever. Guard to driver communication is made in an almost identical manner to that between conductor and bus driver of yesteryear: Bell/buzzer pushes.

1 - stop
2 - ready to start
3 - set back
4 - slow down
6 - draw forward
9 - police assistance required
2-2 - do not open doors (driver to conductor)
3-2-1 - testing doors
3-3 - driver or conductor requires contact by phone

With those in charge of the train and its passengers categorised as 'safety critical', continual testing is undertaken to make sure both driver and guard's knowledge is sufficient in this and all areas of their employ. Train passengers are not and have never been expected to be aware of this information, since it is impossible for them to communicate between the saloon and the driver in this manner. They have what used to be referred to as the 'communications chord' or in nowadays speak, 'two-way communications system'.

Ask a bus driver what three pushes of the bell means and he'll probably reply: "a load of kids messing about at the back." Ask a train guard and he or she will immediately reply: "set back".

During April, a LEYTR member became a train guard for one of the UK's train operating companies and we serialised the whole process of his training on this blog. Click below for the articles.

Part 1 - The Application
Part 2 - The Training

Misleading & Petty?

National Express has cornered the market in transport between central London and Stansted Airport, operating the only trains and the vast majority of coach services. Initially the regulator placed a price cap on the fares charged by both modes to save any unnecessary price fixing, but that has since been relaxed.

Not that the cost of a journey between both terminals is what prompted the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) to take action against the company's Stansted Express trains. The company has been ordered to remove all posters at Standsted Airport that "strongly implied" its trains would "reach [central] London in 35 minutes", when the end-to-end journey time takes 10 minutes longer.


National Express said the time shown actually referred to Tottenham Hale station, on the outskirts of London, where onward connections to non-central localities can be made using any of the local buses or the Victoria Line Tube trains. What did not do them any favours, then, was the depiction of the London Eye and it is for this reasons that the ASA has banned the posters which it says: "..the simplicity of the message could potentially confuse visitors about where in the city they would get to in 35 minutes."

NX have legitimate room for manoeuvre here but they've agreed to move the posters. They offer evidence that 58% of people using the airport are visitors and may not speak English. This surely falls apart by then offering a journey time to some completely obscure station on the outskirts of a city, the centre of which is surely the vast majority of tourists' destinations.

There was, however, only 1 complaint made to the ASA about the posters.

Two complaints were made to the national media over an excess fare that was charged by South West Trains last week, which has seen more than double the level of media coverage! Both Emma Clark and Davyd Winter-Bates have caused a stir over being fined excess fares totalling £144 when they alighted a SWT Southampton-bound train at Eastleigh.

The couple were travelling using Advance tickets, costing £6 each. Their treatment appears to have split the enthusiast fraternity in two: those who regularly purchase this ticket type believe ticket barrier staff were right to charge them and those who think a £72 per-person fine when the original tickets cost just £6 is completely outrageous.

We travelled with SWT when bidding a fond farewell to the company's 3CIGs and paid £9 each way between London Victoria and Brockenhurst. The cost of the tickets was so low essentially because the risk was so high. If - for any reason whatsoever, other than the fault lying with SWT - we missed either outward or return trains on which we were booked, we knew another Anytime (full fare) ticket would need to be purchased. This is clearly written in the ticket description.

Also contained in the ticket description, under the Validity section is the following:

You must travel on the date, time and trains specified. You may not start, break and resume, or end your journey at any intermediate station except to change to/from connecting trains as shown on the ticket(s) or other valid travel itinerary.

National Express introduced this policy on its coach services offering cheap Funfare tickets to/from London Victoria that additionally call at Heathrow Airport. Essentially, passengers were purchasing return tickets to London Victoria from, say, Exeter but alighting at Heathrow - their intended destination. Returning after their holiday caused the biggest problem as drivers were rightly refusing travel. NX does not offer Funfare tickets to any of the airports it serves. As a Scotrail guard wrote last week, enforcing the Funfare ban on NX coaches is a lot easier than on the railway since bus/coach drivers check tickets before travel.

Trains have guards, true, but how often do guards confirm travellers' destinations when clipping their tickets? NX coach drivers generally need to load luggage for Heathrow-bound passengers and in so doing will inadvertently root out those who've deliberately purchased Funfares to London Victoria instead.

While SWT's officials upheld their excess fare policy (to charge twice the Standard Single fare), it did nothing to foster good customer relations. We suspect £6 singles were only available to Southampton, not Eastleigh and that barrier staff will be all too aware of those undertaking the same slight of hand (or ticket) as coach travellers to/from Heathrow.

If nothing else, the complainants' gripe being published in The Sun will ensure decent coverage of what is and isn't acceptable with these Advance ticket, irrespective of what readers may think of the couple's treatment. Others planning on doing the same now know what to be faced with - and this level of publicity SWT could not buy.

French invasion

It hardly seems five minutes since news was continually denied by First that it planned to sell its only rail freight company, First GBRf, only for this to happen a number of days afterwards. If you remember rightly, the company sold to Europorte France, whose parent company is Groupe Eurotunnel.

With this in mind, the photo below will be familiar to those who've crossed the Channel by rail - the Eurotunnel logo. But where was this photo taken?

Photo: Gareth Evans

Dover? Calais?

No, the GBRf depot off Maskew Avenue in Peterborough. A sign of things to come - and with more haste than Deutsche Bahn's been replacing the EWS name. For once, perhaps French efficiency will outshine that of the Germans.

No such thing as a 'free' breakfast

When it comes to gratuities availed to those travelling First Class aboard train services in Britain, m'colleague and I can happily say we're 'up there' with the likes of Barry Doe. Or at least we used to be. Time was when First Class passengers were guaranteed to receive at least some morsel of food - from a three-course meal with chocolates and unlimited alcohol to a cookie or piece of fruit - but in researching today's blog entry, the recession has been biting for some train operators.

Elevenses aboard First Class Virgin Trains (a Coronation Chargrilled Chicken roll, chocolate cake, mini Pretzels, fruit and a hot drink or any item from the drinks trolley)

Essentially, Virgin Trains is the only TOC who now offers a full, free dining service aboard its West Coast Trains franchise. There continues to be three different menus on offer throughout the day and last autumn I sampled the Breakfast and Evening Meal variants on my London-Glasgow return trip. Not a single penny did I spend while I munched my way through a full English breakfast on the outward journey, unlimited quaffing of the drinks trolley, baguettes for lunch and pie and mash with a selection of cheese and oatcakes for the evening meal - with a choice of wines. All completely gratis.

Currently, only tea/coffee, mineral water, fruit and a solitary biscuit are offered for free aboard East Coast services, but could all that be about to change?

Compare this with the other Anglo-Scottish express train franchise - East Coast - and the gaping hole becomes more a chasm. Nothing is free and virtually all dining cars have been removed from all services. This took place under National Express tenure, when anything and everything was being considered to save money. That said, freebies for First Class passengers under GNER tenure was woeful by comparison to Virgin Trains. During our 2005 LEYTR Railrover, we travelled a number of times with GNER and could only receive tea/coffee, mineral water, fruit, biscuits or individually-packed slices of cake for free. It's not quite Highland-reared Beef Bourguignon with all the Fairtrade trimmings and as many G&Ts as you can legally consume!

Passengers were not sorry to wave goodbye to National Express East Coast, who removed all but single figures of trains offering a full restaurant service. The limited freebies in First Class remained as limited as ever, too

But, things are to change, or so we're lead to believe, as East Coast - now under the control of the UK government (via the specially set-up parent Directly Operated Railways), with a free breakfast offered to all First Class passengers who boarded their 0800 King's Cross to Edinburgh service last Thursday.

This was, we believe, essentially a 'dry run' for the press launch which will take place tomorrow. Quite what those down the road at Virgin HQ in Euston will think is anyone's guess. First they pinch a Pendolino for 9 months and then they steal their thunder with free food for First Class passengers.

Unlike Virgin, the free food enticement for East Coast passengers won't commence until the Eureka! timetable's introduction from May next year and it could well spell the end of the company's restaurant cars. First Class customers using East Coast must now be wondering how much their fares will increase to pay for the ‘free’ food, unless of course government-run East Coast absorbs the cost and sees it as a passenger benefit, but given the current Spending Review, will this be allowed?

GNER operated a similar number of services will full restaurant service to that offered today by Virgin Trains, except GNER made all its passengers pay for the food.

One certainty is that the increased financial outlay for free breakfasts will come at a cost and the balance sheet will need justifying.

Bendy fire

Has Boris been spotted with a box of matches?

A European Jaunt - Part 4

It's been a while in coming, so if you've forgotten exactly why we were travelling around Europe by coach, here are the first three parts: 1 - 2 - 3. As with the first three, the following account contains numerous Australianisms.

Day 4 was Sunday 15 August and did not dawn well. The weather was dull, dank and wet. It was that "fine rain that gets you really wet" and photographing even the now customary adjacent sex shop to our accommodation seemed like a chore as neither of us had bothered to bring an umbrella.

Nil desperandum - today's sex shop photo comes courtesy of that opposite our hotel in Stuttgart

Over the past two days aboard Busabout coaches, we'd travelled exclusively with the same driver and guide and aboard the same vehicle. Part 1 details the vehicle's make and model. Of the batch of VDL/Marcopolos, ours had been 2505 (BR-BX-39). Simon, our driver, told us that the batch is numbered: 2501-10 (BR-BX-35-44). The fleet number's second digit belies the year of manufacture. The existing Busabout fleet is numbered 250x, with the '5' standing for 2005. This morning, three coaches were parked outside Wombats youth hostel in Senefelderstraße - ours, which would again be 2505, 2508 (BR-BX-42) and a newer Berkhof Axial-bodied VDL coach in the base livery of sister company Contiki, but with Busabout vinyls. This was numbered 2807 (BT-XT-58), and was only 2 years old.

It was pouring down as this shot was taken, showing the Busabout line-up for the morning. The first and last coaches were bound for Venice, while the middle one was for Paris via Stuttgart

While there were three coaches, only two routes would be operated: ours to Paris via Stuttgart and the other to Venice. The Venice route was proving so popular that 2807 was operating a duplicate service to the main coach, 2508. Our service would be far less populated, departing at 0800 with just 17 people on board. While the coach and driver remained the same, our guide did not. We bid farewell to Dave, who'd provided sterling service from Nice, through Milan, Lauterbrunnen, Lucerne and Neuschwanstein, and welcomed Amy - another Australian.

With the safety spiel completed, most Aussies fell asleep, the manner in which found both driver and guide chuckling as legs and other body parts lay strewn across the aisle. Being British and made of stronger stuff, both m'colleague and I stayed awake throughout our relatively short distance to Stuttgart. Simon told us that on a good day, the non-stop journey along the A8/E52 can be completed in less than 3 hours. And today must have been a good day as we rocked on in at a shade before 1100.

We were the only two alighting at Stuttgart, with both driver and guide warning us that the town was closed on Sundays. Simon, our driver, knew this especially well since he was also alighting and would be here for 48 hours before taking over the next coach in the same direction on Tuesday morning. There were none to board, but the coach, with its new driver, awaited its departure time, before continuing to Paris. A very long day lay ahead for the passengers, as the Munich-Paris journey is one of the longest on the Busabout network and ends with a mini tour of the city. "It's very rare you finish at the scheduled time," Simon told us, "and the following morning is when departure at 8am can be delayed by the delay incurred arriving the night before".

Stuttgart drop-off/pick-up point, adjacent to Olgaeck U-Bahn station

The Hotel Espenlaub was to be our accommodation for this last night in mainland Europe, and it was the most reasonably priced of the lot. £21 for a double, en suite room each with breakfast the following morning? Ripper, mate!

Busabout tries to situate its pick-up and drop-off points as near to the associated accommodaton as is practically possible, which is a massive bonus since everyone has luggage. Seen here nestled behind the grey building is the coach we just left - which brought is all the way from Nice two days ago, as a passing tram comes into shot

The Busabout guides, while all singing from the same song sheet, add different elements to your experience on board their coaches. While Dave had been very good indeed, his mannerisms and general aura was different to that of Amy. With the Australians always able to laugh at themselves, engaging in English-Aussie banter was always very easy to do. During the 3-hour journey this morning, Simon, Amy and I discussed at what point a bridge becomes a tunnel and what the first letter of the word pterodactyl is (okay, the latter doesn't work when written down). It would appear the Australians didn't do dinosaurs at school!

Back to Stuttgart (or should that be Pstuttgart?) and the rain had now stopped and the sun was shining. M'colleague and I headed into the town centre to have a look at all the closed shops. We made use of the U-Bahn tram network, a stop on which was located immediately outside the hotel. We had a very nice meal in the Bier Garten, with live English language music sung by a German band. There was a bit of a breeze, but not enough to cause problems with crockery disappearing. It was a nice time to reflect the different places we'd briefly visited.

With so little to do in central Stuttgart on a Sunday, we headed to the tourist information centre (which was open) and enquired whether or not there was a cinema showing movies in English near by. We were pointed in the direction of a U-Bahn tram to Vaihingen Schillerplatz, where 100m north there'd be a cinema. Neither of us had seen the recently released The A-Team movie, so we thought we'd give that a go.

It's a tram but it's also underground. The Stuttgart U-Bahn network is more intensive and far-reaching than any location in the UK of similar size benefits from. We made five trips by tram in Stuttgart and one by faster S-Bahn train

The U-Bahn light rail network was very frequent indeed, with trams on most lines operating at least every 10 minutes and with many different routes sharing the same metals, there seemed at times to be a continual stream of spacious trams - all this on a Sunday when everything is closed. Ticket options appeared a little limited when compared to those available on the London Underground, though their value wasn't too bad. The biggest problem was identifying which zone your destination was in as the network map did not show this. Tickets were purchased from the ticket machines located on each platform and then validated on board. Minus the validation requirement, the nearest UK system I would liken it to is Manchester's Metrolink.

We caught the U1 service from Staatsgalerie and were most impressed with the acceleration and lack of noise made by the tram. A feature existed where the doors opened before the tram came to a complete standstill; it was by the same fraction of a second each time, so we assumed that health and safety hadn't been overlooked when the door mechanisms were fitted and that this was just the way they operated. Seating within the trams was 2+2 throughout (Nottingham Express Transit should taken note!) and while minimalist in design, wasn't very comfortable. The ride quality was okay, just the lack of padding beneath the moquette made you numb.


With the exception of riding aboard a Netherland-registered coach, driven by a Brit working for a company based in Switzerland and administered in Guernsey, this had been our first sample of European transport during the jaunt. The trams were all spotless and bore no signs of graffiti or vandalism. They arrived when the screens said they would, were incredibly frequent, reasonably affordable and did not come with gangs of 'disaffected yoof'. In fact, spotting anyone aged between 10-25 years was very unusual indeed.

My father has a 'special adjective' for Germany: civilised. I completely agree.

There were only two screens within this cinema and ours was Kino 2, that seated up to 120 people.

The movie was a hoot and at a cost of €7,50 represented excellent value for money when compared to UK prices. There were no subtitles or voiceovers, the movie was shown in its original sound track and I'm pretty sure we were the only English people in kino 2. Everyone we dealt with in Germany spoke very good English indeed. Subway, the sandwich shop, was just round the corner from the hotel and while the opening hours and health & safety signage was in German, the full menu was in English and this included phrases like "make it a footlong for €1,50 extra" and "Sub of the Day". It seemed almost wrong for a Brit to ask, in English, for a meal that was advertised in English within a German establishment, surrounded by Germans, in Germany, who, incidentally, were all speaking German.

Consequently, I do not now agree with people who bemoan us Brits for not speaking the same plethora of languages as our continental counterparts. We're just fortunate to speak a truly global language. Anyone into global pop and rock music, fashion and football simply has to deal with the English language whether they like it or not. Imagine the world's major brands suddenly abandoning English for German and it being impossible to walk into a McDonalds and reading the menu in English. We'd soon all start to learn German, and this is essentially what's been happening for years and years in non-English speaking countries.

Day 5 was to be our last, as we were booked aboard the 1020 Flybe plane to Birmingham International. On the day we were to return, this was the only UK destination from Stuttgart. Getting to the airport involved getting a U-Bahn tram from opposite the hotel to the central station, and then a S-Bahn train to the airport itself. A single Zone 1-3 ticket sufficed and at 0820 we were stood at the Olgaeck tram stop awaiting the first of our transport modes back to Blighty.

Our U7 tram, comprised of two, two-car units approaches Olgaeck

We actually arrived at Stuttgart Airport over 5 minutes late. The S-Bahn train arrived at Hauptbahnhof behind schedule and never made the time up. However, we'd allowed plenty of time before the gate closed and so weren't constantly clock-watching.

Stuttgart Airport might look a small affair from outside, but it was quite a bustling place indeed. Security was as arduous - but necessary - as ever and then we were twiddling our thumbs until the departure gate was shown. A good hour before departure saw this be revealed, but unlike UK airports, you have passport control to go through literally at the departure gate. The queue for both booths was very long indeed and it took a good 20 minutes to negotiate. The departure gate we'd been sent to wasn't where our plane would be and we were bussed to it - located at one of the far-flung corners of the terminal.

Inside the bus

The buses - Cobus 3000s - reverse to the departure gate doors and have ambulance-style rear doors that are the same width as those of the terminal. They both open and passengers board. Once the quota is on board, you're driven to your plane. There really was a lot of activity at Stuttgart Airport, with these transfer buses darting about all over.


Our plane - a Bombardier-built Q400 Dash 8 - was the smallest aircraft I've ever been in. We knew it would be a small plane as Flybe don't go in for jumbo jets on account of their business model being to link the smaller, regional airports around Europe. A total of 26 soles were confirmed as being on board and our two cabin crew made the necessary safety announcements. Flybe offers, for €8,00, the facility to book your seat on the plane. We didn't bother as looking at the plan saw that no one up to one week before departure had bothered. Due to the size of the aircraft, you're allocated seemingly random seat numbers when you check-in. In the event, the allocations are anything but random. They allocate seats on quieter flights like this one to ensure passengers are as spread around as possible, to aid buoyancy.


I hadn't realised that Flybe stands for Fly British European. Anyway, a little behind schedule, our twin-PW150A engines fired up and we taxied to the runway. This took an eternity - worse than Heathrow T4.

Take-off felt a little more intimate than before, on account of this being a much smaller 70-seater aircraft and the smallest plane either of us has flown aboard being an Airbus A319/320. Cruising altitude was reduced to a maximum of 27,000ft, but the captain announced that we'd not exceed 25,000ft. This was a bummer because we were firmly located within cloud. Of Bombarier's Dash range of aircraft, ours - the Q400 - was the newest to enter service, with the first being built in 2000. It was also the middle-sized plane used by Flybe. It had grey leather seating and offered a level of comfort that was deceptive as you entered.

We touched down over 20 minutes ahead of our 1145 local time arrival and as we were sat in the first two seats by the front door, were first off. We'd never landed in Birmingham International Airport before and managed to tick another box through doing so. The journey was also the loudest we'd partaken, both during this journey and since we've been flying. The first video below shows the view from our window, where unusually in our experience, the wings are higher than the cabin. The second shows touch down in Brum.

From here, we'd travel to New Street station and connect onto our respective trains to differing parts of Lincolnshire. M'colleague was to be bound for Skegness via Lincoln, while I was to end the journey aboard the same service that had commenced it four days ago - a CrossCountry Class 170, though bound for Stamford rather than our Peterborough (so a full round trip was cut short by 10 miles). The XC trains departed New Street at xx22 and with an 1145 arrival, I knew the 1222 would be a very tall order, not least due to the journey in from the airport takes a minimum of 10 minutes.

Despite the location of the rail-air link being a closely guarded secret, I like Birmingham International. It's a small affair and with only two terminals nothing's too far away. Except the train station. And Birmingham!

Now for the biggest headache of the entire journey: finding the train station from Terminal 2. Unusually we'd not researched the transfer beforehand, after learning there were just two terminals. As Clarkson would say, how hard can it be? I defy anyone of sound body and mind to find the station from Terminal 2 arrivals in under 10 minutes. The standard signage at Birmingham is all ceiling mounted and in a uniform font. This details everything but 'trains' or 'rail link'. Separate, stand-alone boards that are left on the floor state TRAINS and guide you out of T2 and left towards T1. They then direct you to the most easterly extremity of T1 before pointing within the terminal and them completely ending.

We didn't know it at the time, but we'd need to make use of this: the rail-air link

We'd travelled through five countries in five days and had no issued of any kind - much of which being down to the planning made by Busabout, but now we were on home turf and lost. I refused to ask anyone. I was now a Brit back in Britain and typically refused to ask for help! The indignity of it all. It was causing a little concern for me rather than m'colleague, since our 1125 arrival made the 1222 XC train from New Street now a real possibility, but here we were lost in Terminal 1.

Good old dependable NX West Midlands came to the rescue. Popping to the opposing bus station shone light on the matter - excellent publicity at each of the shelters not only showed departure times of local bus services, but maps of the airport and we soon spotted a rail-air link to the east. It became clear that we needed to go up a storey within T1 and this we did - despite no sign telling us to - and hey presto signage resumed. The rail-air link was similar in design to that at Stansted Airport, but far more user-friendly.

We were the only two people in the front car of our two-car vehicle as it departed within 30 seconds of us boarding. We were elevated and travelled for perhaps just under a mile to the train station, passing over the main entrance and exit for road traffic and seemed to weave between hotels and business units. Music was played while travel took place but this reminded me of being on hold to BT. It was, however, a seamless transition 'twixt air and rail terminals and was clearly a very efficient way of moving large numbers of people with minimal effort.

At Birmingham International train station, we had to wait for a London Midland train to New Street, which would depart at 1204 and this was performed by a very punctual Class 350 Desiro. We arrived in the soon-to-be revamped New Street station at 1218 and I shot across to Platform 10 for the XC service to Stanstead via Stamford. I'll not be sorry to see the current interior at New Street go. Like its former coach station counterpart, the platforms themselves are just awful - dark, dingy and depressing.

Summary

While Busabout describes itself as the provider of European bus travel for independent travellers, in effect most people who travel with the operator appear to be anything but independent. They take full advantage of the associated accommodation rather than simply use Busabout as a stepping stone between two cities and this is because Busabout's big problem is that you need to commit to more than just one single journey with them to be able to travel. They prefer you to undertake at least one of their three loops or purchase a Flexiride ticket for one-way trips that take in numerous locations along the way. You can't, for example, use Busabout to travel solely between Stuttgart and Paris or solely between Nice and Barcelona. Adopting a truly flexible ticketing policy would surely open up their network to more people.

However, since Australians and Kiwis are the company's staple diet, they are at least tailoring their product to their current clients' needs. No Kiwi backpacker just wants to visit one city in Europe. Guides appear to be backpackers themselves, who love it so much in Europe they don't want to go home. Their love for the outdoors is truly infectious and the enthusiasm is just what Busabout's very active clientele wants to hear. Busabout's lack of amendment fee for on-the-spot changes to people's itineraries is very commendable and is an aspect that could be promoted more.

Their coaches are spotless and the extensive cleaning policy ensures they'll be an excellent purchase for whoever they are sold to by parent company Atlas Reizen next year. The training process for new drivers and guides was described to us by all we spoke with as 'epic' - six weeks, covering all routes, rules and regulations. Drivers tend to be British, though a number of global nationalities are on their books. We both felt the lifestyle Busabout's drivers have is very privileged, but weren't sure if we could stick it for six months. We weren't given even an inkling of their wage as they all, apparently, 'don't do it for the money'. Turnover - based solely on our observations - seems to be high so driving one of these VDL/Marcopolos is clearly not everyone's cup of tea, though Simon seemed to enjoy it, telling us on more than one occasion, he's only ever wanted to drive coaches throughout Europe - most certainly a dream come true.

We believe you'll most appreciate what Busabout has to offer if you're either Aussie or Kiwi. You'll not cringe at all the references to brain farts, fair dinkum, blitzing everything, rocking on in to everywhere and all sentences being spoken as if they're questions. It's all good fun though and we soon learned our guides were more than willing for a bit of mutual mickey-taking. We'd never heard of Busabout before our LEYTR associate mentioned it to us. We're very glad we sampled their wares and look forward to returning next year to brand new Berkhof Axial coaches. They're certainly doing a ripper job promoting Europe to non-Europeans.

The LEYTR Jaunts standalone blog will house this whole European Jaunt in full as from tomorrow.