Showbus, Duxford 2011

Despite the weather forecast to the contrary, a very warm and sun-filled day was had by all at this year's Showbus bus and coach rally, at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. It is the only rally I've been to other than the Easter Sunday gathering at the Road Transport Museum near Lincoln. I feel rather guilty that I've not attended more, but life is like that some times.

Midweek, the weather forecast was for prolonged rain, but by Saturday evening this had been moderated to heavy showers. As it happened, it stayed dry throughout my stay. A massive improvement on the washout that was last year. It was also a bumper year for additions to my tie collection, though that is another story.

As with other years' visits to Showbus, I have uploaded a selection of photos that took my fancy. Many of them are of operators local to the LEYTR area who attended. A full round up of all vehicles in attendance from our area will appear in the next edition (due out at the end of the first week in October).

The Dunn Family's Yourbus company has recently purchased some new Mercedes-Benz Citaros, one of which was in attendance, looking resplendent in its revised livery.

Uno is the rebranded UniversityBus operation, based around Hatfield. One of their Scania OmniCity single deckers was entered, with ties adorned from the windscreen wiper.

Completed just in time for Showbus, though having first meandered into the LEYTR area on 3 September on an enthusiast jaunt, is one of the original Megadekka-branded Leyland Olympians that Stagecoach pioneered in 1989. Wearing its original branding, the buses carried Stagecoach Holdings Ltd branding.

Normally an 05-reg Optare Solo wouldn't command pride of place at Showbus, but then this Solo, operating with Stagecoach in Lincolnshire, has recently undergone conversion to operate using biomethane gas.

This Bedford OB with Duple coachwork is based in Lincolnshire and entered by Stuart Jones, of Bus & Coach Buyer notoriety.

I made a pledge to myself not to get too hung up photographing RMs and RTs, so this is as close as I got to them: two RMs frame three RTs.

I've never photographed any bus in the Reading Buses fleet - something the LEYTR Stagecoach correspondent will grimace at. To make amends, here is my first attempt. Has Ray Stenning been let loose with their branding? It looks very striking.

Crowds galore. Most people were equipped with at least one camera. It is heartening to see so many people photographing buses. The recently preserved Megadekka was parked alongside a standard-length Leyland Olympian and branded for Hampshire Bus.

Quite a selection of vehicles were parked together. Areas of hitherto used runway were out of bounds this year, so vehicles were crammed together in other areas, though not too close to cause problems with photography.

A rear photo of the Megadekka-branded Leyland Olympian. It was new to Magicbus and operated at East Midland's Mansfield depot before ending up at Bedford - where it lost its branding.

I mused on Twitter that perhaps the most-travelled vehicle was one of Stagecoach in Caithness' Plaxton-bodied Volvo B9Rs, branded for Service X99 (Inverness-Thurso), but moments later I spotted this Leyland 420 all the way from Malta.

Someone has stolen/removed the Leyland badge from this ECW-bodied Olympian in Arriva livery.

Lawton's of Stickney entered this ex Lochs & Glens tri-axle Volvo/Jonckheere, which has been modified to accommodate wheelchairs.

Side-by-side, under common ownership, is Kimes' entrant and one of Centrebus' trio of vehicles (all Grantham based). Recently the 'an employee owned company' lettering has been removed from Kimes vehicles.

A large number of vehicles from the Maidstone & District fleet were grouped together. Of interest was this Invictaway-branded Leyland Olympian/ECW 'decker, dating back to 1983. Invictaway was the name given to commuter services between Kent and London.

Fowler's Travel of Holbeach Drove are regular entrants to Showbus. This year saw one of their ex Lochs & Glens tri-axle Volvo coaches with Jonckheere bodies attend.

EYMS send a vehicle every year. This time a standard Volvo/Wrightbus vehicle was entered. I'd have preferred to see one of their new hybrid Enviro400s.

Talking of Enviro400-bodied vehicles, many were grouped together, facing south, providing some excellent photo opportunities. The liveries of our privatised bus industry certainly can't be described as dull.

I've always been fond of the ex London DMS. Grimsby-Cleethorpes Transport purchased a number and I have vivid recollections of travelling on them in what I now feel able to refer to as 'back in the day'. This example dates back to 1973, when the LEYTR was a fledgling 10 years old.

Delaine Buses entered their oldest vehicle that they've owned from new and their newest. A staggering 51 years separates these two vehicles. Both won awards today, too.

Stagecoach is now introducing the Plaxton Elite to its own services, the first examples going to operate Service X7 between Aberdeen and Dundee, branded as Coast Rider. The branding font looks like Trent Barton's to me - Neuropolitical it's called.

There is plenty of every vehicle type at Showbus. Coaches galore this year, as with others. Many were parked facing south, capturing the sun for the best part of the day.

Given a more prominent position this year is one of Go-Ahead's Mercedes-Benz articulated Citaro buses, new to their London operation in 2002. The company has moved a number to its Brighton & Hove subsidiary. Many bendy buses struggle to find homes after becoming life-expired in London.

A&P Travel of Sleaford attend Showbus every year, providing a private hire for their regular travellers. This year they brought with them a new addition to their fleet - a tri-axle coach (right). Full details of which were contained in a recent LEYTR.

A different kind of Tornado

On this blog, when we refer to a Tornado, we mean the world's newest steam engine, built from scratch using original plans for the Peppercorn Class A1 that saw their heyday in the 1960s. A wonder to behold (though neither of us has yet to catch up with her - when we do, the video will be uploaded to our YouTube stream).

Elsewhere, a reference to a Tornado means something very different. The following video shows how a goods train in the USA is affected as it passes through one of these destructive winds. Keep with the video, though, as the action doesn't get going until after 1:05, but the fall-out is truly astonishing.

We are fortunate that we seldom suffer from winds of this strength here in the UK.

Keywords

We've recently installed Google Analytics to the blog and have just been looking through its interface (sorry!) compared to the others we use (Statcounter and Site Meter). Interesting to note are the varied most used keywords that direct users to our blog:

10 - Citylink Gold
9 - TM Travel
8 - Derbyshire Wayfarer price rise
7 - LEYTR Blog
6 - Your Bus Nottingham
5 - Inside a Citylink Gold coach
4 - Ryanair logo
3 - Greater London
2 - A Transport of Delight
1 - LEYTR

Not one is railway related. We are linked very highly on a number of railway websites and one blog in particular. We also get a lot of 'railway' traffic from links posted on forums (some of which we can't view as we're not memebers!). And when we cover rail issues, we don't delve as deep into traction types as we do vehicle types in the bus industry.

Perhaps the most surprising finding is that each web counter suggests different keyword analysis in their own top 10. Even during the same period selected. I'm personally shocked by the level of Citylink Gold enquiries. Perhaps we should book a trip to Glasgow to satisfy more of the readers? Until then, this is the best we can do:

CSOG withdrawal

Announced last year, following the Coalition Government's Comprehensive Spending Review, was that Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) would be reduced by 20% from April 2012, while at the same time CSOG would be abolished altogether. We mused as to what CSOG was, and unusually, didn't receive any response from our readership.

Things were made a little clearer last week, when we were sent two emails, both written by National Express. The first has been sent to anyone who has a registered email address with them and who is aged 60 or over; the second has been sent to its third party operators. The subject matter is identical, though appropriately worded in each case.

Seen in Victoria Coach Station Arrivals is a Transdev Levante from Bournemouth. NX Service 035 sees around 22 miles of its 113-mile London-Poole timetable registered as a local bus service (Poole-Ringwood & Hammersmith-Victoria)

Coach Service Operators Grant (CSOG) will be completely withdrawn from the end of October. Unlike BSOG, this offers coach operators recompense through providing a concessionary travel scheme, where 50% off the adult fare is offered. £17.5 million was awarded all qualifying operators during the last financial year, £15 million of it being claimed by National Express. The Oxford Tube (Stagecoach), Oxford Espress (Oxford City/Go Ahead), Bakers Dolphin and Berrys Coaches were the other recipients.

National Express suggests its passengers should lobby their MPs so that they write a letter to the Transport Minister in charge of this subsidy. But Theresa Villiers sounded resolute: "The coach industry may wish to continue this offer on a commercial basis, but the Government has decided that the limited funds the taxpayers can afford should be used to support schemes such as the statutory national concession [free bus pass]."

Turn the clock back a decade and the 50% reduction in coach travel for over-60s didn't exist. Taking National Express as an example, the company offered its Advantage 50 scheme, which paralleled that of a Senior Railcard on the railway. A one-off annual fee is paid and anyone aged 50 or over could receive a reduction of 33% in coach travel. Its complete removal in 2004 caused anger to those aged 50-59 who then received no reduction in travel at all.

While patronage for coach travel isn't rising to the tune of 6% being seen on the trains, growth is still there and clearly National Express is concerned this could cause stagnation or even decline. Be clear - OAPs account for a very sizeable proportion of its passenger base.

However, what neither NX's public nor in-house emails detail was the angle printed in this week's routeone magazine. Rather than CSOG be withdrawn with no alternative offer from the DfT, what is actually happening is that government is planning to withdraw *all* BSOG payments to coach operators who participate in the CSOG scheme.

NX Service 025 operates between Brighton and London and every single one of its 56 miles is registered as a local bus service, with 80% of the fuel duty reclaimed (64% from April 2012).

National Express et al are allowing their CSOG revenue to be withdrawn so that they can hang onto the greater subsidy - that of claiming 64% of the duty back on all the diesel they use to fuel their coaches from next April (80% today). The company registers all the sections it can that fall into the local bus service category (coach stopping points that are up to 15 miles apart see that section qualify as a 'local bus' and BSOG can be paid). Initially they also had to accept the free bus passes, but that was removed when the loophole was closed in 2008.

LEYTR Comment: The removal of half-fare coach travel is a blow and will see fewer journeys by coach. Not too many though. Over-60s have a fair amount of disposable income and many swear blind by coach travel. And let's not forget just how affordable coach travel is - never more so than when compared to the train!

To suggest it will offer nothing when its CSOG payments cease at the end of October is rather churlish, though NX will be hoping for some form of last-minute concession from the DfT if it can get those who will suffer financially to lobby effectively. It was discussed on Wednesday's Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2! We're not at all sure NX will get its own way, if Ms Villiers' comments are anything to go by. The wording in this week's routeone implies that all NX has to do is forgo its BSOG payments and it can continue to receive £15 million towards the half-fare scheme it offers over-60s.

But it won't do that - the awkward truth being that it values its duty rebate more than it does offering a reduction to over-60s. The company will rightly argue that BSOG helps it keep its fares at the level they are and by removing this element in favour of retaining half-fare for the over-60s would see everyone affected with fares increases across the board.

A very fast train!

My father sent me one of those multi-cc'd emails recently, which showed a video claiming to present the world's fastest train. A quick search online, shows it was undertaken in 2007, in a joint venture between French state railway SNCF and train builder Alstom. Sadly, the person who uploaded the video did not authorise it to be embedded elsewhere, so you will have to click on the link below to view it.

Click here.

The video lasts a little over 2:30 and shows a very speedy train indeed, reaching 357mph at its fastest.

But residents whose back gardens will look onto the proposed High Speed 2 line need not worry. Being British, our high-speed electric trains won't travel at anything like 357mph, so the additional noise generated won't affect residents as much, though they will take a little longer to pass.