A Transport of Delight

Getting Tough!

2012-02-14T21:23:00.004Z

A number of my friends despise everything the privatised bus industry stands for. As if that isn't bad enough, one found out that Stagecoach chief executive Sir Brian Souter had followed some of his literary works and even attended a speech he gave a number of years ago. To say my friend was horrified is an understatement. I'd initially missed the piece he forwarded me today. The email ended with a number of smiley faces and exclamation marks:

First Group's UK bus division has been having a rum old time of it lately. There have been numerous occasions when a depot has been summonsed before the local traffic commissioner over poor performance. The centralised structure was often seen as the problem, with reports claiming those at the top in their Aberdeen HQ had a say in fare increases in Barnstaple, for example. Last year's appointment of Giles Fearnley as the UK Bus managing director was seen as a step in the right direction. Fearnley was the man who split up West Yorkshire Road Car into four operating units at deregulation, so he is clearly someone keen on local identity.

Referred to as the 'Barbie' livery, First has used this scheme since 1998.

With an updated livery recently unveiled and local identities in the pipeline, things could be on the up for First. Sadly not. Well not yet anyway. There have been two public inquiries held into the company's operation recently. Scottish TC Joan Aitken issued the company with a written warning over maintenance issues at the company's East Scotland operation (which was even more embarrassing as this is where the transport giant is based) and most recently was North West TC Beverley Bell's inquiry into poor operational performance in Manchester.

During early 2011, VOSA officials recorded 26% of the company's bus services operating outside the permitted 'window of tolerance' (up to 1 minute early and up to 5 minutes late). First blamed the current economic environment and traffic delays. This did not wash with Mrs Bell.

My friend at this point underlined Mrs Bell's response (an entire paragraph) in red ink: "I don't think I would be saying it's difficult economic times if I made a profit of £14 million." She was speaking to the company's strategic development director, who she felt was in the wrong industry: "You are wasted in the bus industry. You should have gone into politics, but I don't do politics, I do evidence." The point was made to Mrs Bell that consistently unreliable services would not survive, to which she replied: “They damn well won’t survive because I will take them off you.”

To make the vein in Mrs Bell's forehead stand out even more, the company's service delivery director admitted that while £30 million is being invested in new buses nationally, he "hadn't got round to" addressing the punctuality issues concerning one particular bus service in the city. More triple red underlining then followed: "So when I go out and get a bus in the freezing fog, on my way to a doctor's appointment, it is in the knowledge that FirstGroup with £14m profits hasn't got round to it."

These are some of the strongest words I've heard a traffic commissioner use in many, many years. Bell is known as one of the more 'direct' TCs, but even by her standards, quite a sizeable strip has been ripped off the country's second largest bus operator.

The updated 'Barbie' livery, seen in Leeds, which was the location for the unveiling. Photo: Mark Smith

And that was it. My friend now refers to the North West TC as 'Sister Bell'. He isn't concerned about the ramifications that could follow. For example, Mrs Bell made it as clear as possible that she would be prepared to take commercially operated bus services from First Manchester. Whichever way you view this, the passenger will continue to lose out in the short term. Will the TC award the journeys to another operator to run commercially? Will they go completely? Uncertainty is never good for passengers and drivers alike.

But whatever you may think of First, they won't want another dressing down on this scale when the inquiry recommences in March. They've been given time to "get their act together" and report back to Mrs Bell. And report back they will. I can't see the company guaranteeing to maintain current service levels, though by hook or crook, passengers living in northern Manchester should see an eventual improvement by the summer.

Why train drivers get bad press

2012-02-05T12:22:00.005Z

A good friend of mine drives trains for a living, here in the UK. Understandably, he and his colleagues become a little perplexed when members of the public automatically criticise train drivers. Some colleagues of his believe this is jealousy - they can earn £60k a year with overtime, while others assume the travelling public somehow believes their train driver is personally responsible for their ever-rising fares or that he/she has deliberately caused their delay.

Occasionally, however, a story comes along that demonstrates a circumstance where train drivers don't help their image. The first story was featured on Channel 4's Confessions from the Underground, which (as I tweeted) was an hour-long show earlier this week based on petulance. Drivers, station managers and ticket barrier staff effectively moaning about aspects of their job that you'd expect when driving or dispatching trains and manning ticket barriers. The programme's producers managed to give the impression that their anonymous 'deep throats' were somehow implying safety is being compromised.

People who regularly use the Underground know all too well the problems the system faces. Again via twitter, there were 115,000 more people using the Tube each and every day last year compared with 2010, so capacity problems clearly exist. But these same people watching the programme won't fall for the views shown by London Underground staff. They just won't.

Take the example when one station dispatcher was moaning about a guy who had an epileptic fit on a train and how a doctor who had been sought and was attending to the person instructed him not to move the train. Cue a rant about dwell times and the knock-on effect that this will have with other trains for the next hour or so. An anonymous driver complained at having to leave his cab to look down the train before closing the doors and one employee manning ticket barriers said that she felt intimidated when large numbers of people approached the barriers she was manning.

The second story concerns Northern Rail's drivers, their union and health and safety. Overcrowding on the 0742 from Hexham to Newcastle was so bad that the Class 14x 'Pacer' had a second unit attached. However, prior to the journey commencing, the driver needs to walk from one end of the double-train to the other while in sidings (to allow a Glasgow-bound train to pass). Pacers units do not have interlocking corridors, so rather than walk between the join, drivers need to walk along the track and re-board at the other end. Just after 0700 hours, when the procedure takes place, it is dark and drivers union Aslef forbade the practice as it was deemed dangerous through insufficient light.

So dangerous that the second unit was removed just before Christmas and the single unit operated as per usual.

You can imagine the local furore that ensued. Trying to be fair, though, walking along the track is something that passengers are repeatedly told not to do as it is dangerous. Ballast is very uneven and a risk assessment would surely flag up the possibility of twisted ankles or worse, should the driver fall. But then drivers are required to walk along the track when they need to contact a signaller; they're also required to walk along the track when inspecting suspicious objects or to remove minor debris - which can all occur in the dark.

Local MP Guy Opperman soon sussed the public mood and offered to purchase each and every Northern driver a torch, with money from his own pocket. Opperman even raised the issue in Parliament, likening the Pacer with the Leyland National bus, though I'm unsure why as the hazards bus drivers face when leaving their cabs are altogether different. And although the Pacer was loosely based on certain exterior elements of the LN, it is absolutely nothing like a bus.

Aslef both agree in principle to longer trains yet cite H&S issues when this occurs. The local press claimed that this was rubbish and that Northern Rail was dealing with drivers who just wanted an argument, that it was industrial relations not the need for additional lighting that saw the agreement end. Can you believe that Northern managers even offered to walk with the drivers and shine the way with torches?

But, the month-long dispute ended suddenly on 23 January when, I assume, someone put a rocket under both sides, and an 'understanding' was agreed between Aslef and Northern, which permits drivers to walk along the track from end to end, though he/she must do so with all passenger lights on and carry his cab lamp.

Having a reasonable insight into the rail industry, I have tried to be as fair as possible, but there are some occasions when people are plainly wrong. They're wrong. They do not have the support of anyone other than their union.

The role of a train driver is massively overlooked by those they convey, it really is. You can't just walk into the job and be competent within 6 weeks like you can a bus driver or some guards. Training never ends. Route knowledge and emergency procedures are incredibly in-depth and all encompassing. They are paid their generous salaries because they come into their own when things go wrong. But for someone with this level of skill, knowledge and dedication to then go and have a moan at Channel 4 or to refuse to walk along the ballast when it's a bit dark is guaranteed to give their profession a bad name. They may think it somehow enhances how dangerous or difficult their basic conditions are, but it gives the opposite effect.

Luckily those offending drivers are tiny in number, but as we've seen it takes but a handful to sully the good name of an otherwise very professional and respected role.

For the sake of even greater balance, I put the above to a LEYTR subscriber who is a full-time train driver and his response is posted in full below:

On the whole I agree with you. I also appreciate you giving a balanced view. Trying to think about the issues: Re the Northern issue, I might be wrong here but I don't know of many passenger train diagrams where a driver is required to walk along ballast as part of their shift. Of course they may get down to use the signal post telephone or inspect the track but these usually out of course situations. All depots have authorised walking routes nowadays - a precedent has been set it seems.

Concerning the tube driver [having to rarely leave their cab to check down a platform] this is something closer to heart. It would be like a bus driver having to physically leave the bus at every stop to check if it was safe to depart. Driver Only Operated trains are usually CCTV equipped (internal or external) or 'look back'. Getting out of the cab is for emergencies only such as CCTV failure. In such an eventuality a dispatch person should be provided or if it's a faulty train it will soon be taken out of service. Remember the story of the Merseyrsil guard now being done for manslaughter because a drunken teenager fell between the train and platform. If it was found that degraded dispatch was taking place which lead to the accident there would be hell to pay.

In fact this very thing happened to a LOROL train where someone fell underneath it after it departed and the company was subsequently fined despite following all the correct procedures. We train drivers have to be particularly conscious about doing our jobs professionally. A bus driver in Newcastle on £8 an hour doing 50 hours could be excused from occasional bad driving or looking tired or not smiling etc. On the railways, staff - especially drivers - have no such excuse.

Official: Stagecoach is cheapest

2012-01-26T17:06:00.003Z

Independent transport consultants TAS has revealed that Stagecoach is the cheapest bus company in Britain for weekly travel. The headline-grabbing figure quoted is that on average the company is 17.5% cheaper than other operators, meaning those who buy Stagecoach's weekly Megarider tickets save an average of £150 each year.

A recent radio advert on Lincs FM would suggest HQ in Perth has given permission for this data to be given as much publicity as possible. And why not? Stagecoach's average weekly Megarider (or local equivalent) is £13.27; the average of all the others surveyed was £16.09. That's a marked reduction, in the range of 20%.

Yes, I know we could all give a number of fares charged by Stagecoach that are particularly expensive, but that is for another day. Stagecoach is patting itself on the back for offering the cheapest weekly tickets - and by a not inconsiderable amount, it would seem. My only observation is that Stagecoach is often the only operator to provide such an unlimited weekly ticket in a particular area/along a certain flow and so what other operators' ticket options do you compare it to, if one isn't offered?

But, it is these weekly tickets that have the greatest potential to entice motorists from their cars. Offering a ticket with as few strings as possible makes travelling by bus that little bit more straightforward. Coupled with a decent frequency and buses running when potential newcomers want them to, the cost of the weekly Megarider needs to be not slightly cheaper than a week's petrol, but considerably more, in order for the conversion to be seen as an almost 'no brainer'.

Stagecoach was compared against its contemporaries, including smaller groups such as Veolia Transdev, a host of independents and a number of municipals.

Where I would argue with the report is when it states: "Stagecoach consistently has the lowest weekly ticket price and gives the highest discount compared to single fares." The two ought not to be compared. No one - not even the bus novice - buys ten singles every week. Single fares are also jacked up artificially high in order to maximise the average adult fare paid on a route. Keep the singles higher than they would otherwise be and your average fare will be higher than it would otherwise be and that sees a higher concessionary bus pass reimbursement rate than you would otherwise receive.

I know I said I'd save it for another day, but while I'm flowing along this vein, single fares on a number of large operators' services can be extortionate - often due to the margins on the unlimited weeklies being so low. I recently travelled precisely 4.8 miles in an urban environment on a Stagecoach citi service and paid what I believed to be an expensive sum of £2.90. Ten of these (i.e. there and back, five times a day) is £29, so the £13.50 weekly Megarider ticket being sold by that depot is almost 60% cheaper.

Best compare like with like, not against singles.

Stagecoach won the accolade that last time TAS undertook their survey in 2009. Theoretically, the larger the company, the greater the benefit from efficiencies of scale and so the cheaper the day-to-day running costs. Provided this is passed onto the passenger, headline-grabbing awards such as this can be won.

Worrying!

2012-01-19T20:36:00.004Z

Occasionally I'll read something that concerns me. This is usually because the author knows his subject matter and outlines diligently a major flaw in a subject or highlights continued ignorance of the part of people who should know better. On this occasion Passenger Transport dedicated 5 pages for Go North East's former managing director Peter Huntley to write at length about the Competition Commission's Inquiry into the competitiveness of the bus industry.

If you follow the bus industry, it won't have escaped your attention that there's been a row brewing for over a year now as, in the midst of recession, the Office of Fair Trading said it was referring the industry to the Competition Commission as it believed there could be a case of the industry no longer operating in the competitive manner that was envisaged in the early 1980s.

Bus companies are of the opinion that the CC simply does not understand the industry. They point out that no official recognition has been made by the CC that the main competitor to the bus is the private car. Plenty of busmen have detailed their misgivings of the inquiry (LEYTR chairman Paul Hill is no exception) but in my opinion, none more so than Peter Huntley in his Passenger Transport piece.

His article centres on his two-day experience being grilled by the CC Inquiry. It is littered with phrases like "... I, once again, struggled to move us back from economic theory to reality"; "Go North East was apparently damned for competing but was equally damned for withdrawing from competition where this proved not to be profitable."

Free of the corporate shackles, Huntley is able to offer us an insight into the process from someone at MD level. Watered down theories such as: "Frustrated by past inability to actually identify collusion there was a determination to explore every contact made with anyone else in the bus industry over a full five-year period" are stated, questioning the Inquiry's raison d'etre.

Huntley's article set about answering seven hypothetical questions. The first of which gave a flavour to the article: 1. The Competition Commission had already decided that it was going to find 'evidence of collusion' before it started this project and was simply looking for the easiest background to 'sex up' the 'evidence' of this. Second was: Despite the evidence of substantial and growing direct and indirect competition between operators, the commission decided to ignore any evidence that did not accord with its predetermined view of collusion.

Huntley's Go North East had done a 'route swap' of sorts in the Tyne Valley (the official term is a 'back to back' parallel purchase) with neighbouring competitor Arriva, in a deal fully endorsed by the OFT who was satisfied that 90% of the competition between the operators would continue as a result. So unlike other bus company MDs, Huntley and his Arriva counterpart were quizzed more vigorously by the CC as two supposedly competing companies had sat down and orchestrated who would have what route.

This is not lost on Huntley who sets about wording his seventh and final question: The fear and concern of the North Tyneside Quality Partnership proposals that the commission expresses is in direct contrast with the similar initiative to co-ordinate and improve overall service to the public in Oxford, which has been praised by our public transport minister, Norman Baker.

That someone who held a position of managing director can be left with such an impression of the CC's inquiry genuinely worries me. Huntley left Go North East officially on New Year's Eve so is able to write without being parochial to his former employer. Yes, this is one man's view but it is not only representative of the industry as a whole, it goes beyond the misgivings bus companies have whom I've spoken to. I am genuinely concerned that we have a Competition Commission that does not adequately know what competition is.

The final word to Huntley: "An independent evaluation commissioned by Stagecoach, Nexus and ourselves showed that Nexus [Tyne & Wear PTE] could save money, the public could have better services and longer term sustainability could be delivered. But my colleagues at Stagecoach, who have more than enough experience of the Competition Commission, wisely assessed the risk as too great".

The CC is so impenetrable that trend-setting maverick Stagecoach is running scared!

Passenger Transport website

Handed on a plate

2012-01-16T18:21:00.003Z

They'd never admit it publicly, but the closure of the A4 Hammersmith Flyover immediately before the Christmas was an early present for First Great Western and London Underground. Commuters will only sit in effective gridlock for so long before they feel no alternative other than to leave the car at home and get the train. With the prospect of the Flyover being closed for much of January, long-term contingencies will have been forced upon regular travellers.

Forcing a die-hard petrol head to leave his/her motor vehicle at home and being forced to consider an alternative is the holy grail for the Department for Transport and transport operators - especially when public transport is the only real alternative (no point car sharing when road gridlock is the issue). Under any other circumstance, the car user's civil liberties would be infringed, under the Hammersmith situation this isn't an issue.

The M4/A4 route into London runs parallel with the Great Western Main Line and considerably higher than normal loadings have been recorded into/out of Paddington. First, who operates the Great Western franchise, already operates most of the country's top 10 most overcrowded trains, so the prospect of many thousand more to convey in the peak periods must be literally incomprehensible.

A Class 166 Turbo Express approaches London Paddington. Photo: AndrewHA

Although the Flyover is open to light vehicles today, just one lane presents itself in either direction and the area is still reportedly very busy indeed. It will be interesting to learn the retention levels seen by FGW and London Underground in the area when the route is open in full.

There may be some who are pleasantly surprised at the relative convenience of the train/Tube to the car, though I reckon you'd have to be someone working flexi-time in order to avoid the arm pit-to-nose conditions at the most popular time of the day. Others may see how much money they've saved by leaving the car at home and buying a season ticket of some description. We hear lots of complaints when regulated fares rose by 6%, but more often than not the fare paid is significantly cheaper than using a car to make an equivalent commute.

If only additional capacity had been in place to make the morning peak less barbaric on commuters, the retention levels will almost certainly be higher than they're likely to be. Almost 1,000 days had passed before the DfT made the announcement of an additional order for more carriages on Southern services.

The departure from London Paddington out west hasn't changed since the line was built in 1838. In his Bradshaws Guide of 1866, George Bradshaw wrote:

On departure of the train, it threads the sinuosities of the station at an easy rate, and we have time to notice the metamorphosis that has taken place in the environs of the line; walls have become green embankments, embankments diminished into hedges, and hedges have grown into avenues of trees, waving a leafy adieu as we are carried past. The increasing velocity of the train now conveys us rapidly into the suburbs of the metropolis - past Kensal Green Cemetery on the right, Wormwood Scrubs on the left, and a transient glimpse is obtained of the London and North-Western Railway winding its course towards the midland counties.

The route at first lies through the Thames Valley, then, after passing the elevated plains to the north of Marborough Downs, it gradually descends down into the fertile and picturesque valley of the Avon. Emerging from a slight excavation, we come to an embankment crossing Old Oak Common so named form its having been the site of a thick forest of oaks. The village of Acton, which lies to the left, is linked to the metropolis by one almost uninterrupted line of houses, through which the North-Western Junction Railway passes, connecting the North-Western Railway with those of the South-Western.

A very different view is seen from the carriage of a District Line train, of course!

Correct Change

2012-01-15T13:46:00.003Z

It's not really an issue on the trains as most tickets are purchased in advance and on occasions when guards do sell a ticket, they accept payment by card, but in the bus industry there still is an issue surrounding correct change.

Perhaps it's not as bad nowadays as it was. Bus operators now rather cheekily charge fares rounded to the nearest 5p or 10p and increase by this amount even when this is way in excess of inflation. There is now a sizeable proportion of travellers who do not pay at all to travel, though often it was those over-60s who kept a bus driver in a good supply of small change. The mass uptake of great value all-day tickets within urban areas, that can be purchased from the driver, has limited per person cash transactions each day. There are a few operators who've always opted for an exact fare system, offering no change. These operators haven't increased in number though.

The reason I've been pondering the whole 'giving change' thing came following a trip within the LEYTR area that a friend and I undertook. We caught a bus service where the fare was £1.85. We were only to make one journey on that operator's service that day so an adult single was all that we needed. I boarded first and gave the driver two £1 coins as I didn't have £1.85 exactly. The driver asked if I had the 5p - I did - and duly handed it over, to then receive a 20p coin as my change.

Unbeknown to me, when my friend boarded next, he too offered two £1 coins. Like myself, the driver asked him if he had the 5p. Sadly, he didn't, so the driver said he was unable to give him all his change and presented him with a 10p coin. My friend was unaware that seconds earlier I'd given this driver a 5p coin, as requested, and the driver chose not to give this back out.

I made my friend aware of this and he wasn't too bothered that he'd paid £1.90. I wouldn't have been too bothered either, had the fare been advertised as £1.90 (or £1.80!). We were both aware that no operator has any legal obligation to offer change, but virtually all do so in order to attract patronage, rather than turn it away - something Nottingham City Transport, Lothian Buses et al must surely do to some extent by no offering change.

So the driver was 5p in the black. He may have dutifully paid in that amount over at the end of his shift, but I bet he didn't. It was also pretty obvious that my friend and I were travelling together. The driver just didn't care that we would work out what he'd done: needlessly keeping the 5p.

This is a relatively minor story and while only 5p is involved here, there are occasions where 8 kids all want to buy £2.60 returns and each present the driver with a £10 note. If the driver doesn't have any £5 notes, a total of 48 coins need giving out in this batch of transactions. That's why the way forward is something I've only recently come across: the No Change Voucher.

Municipal Grimsby-Cleethorpes Transport never had anything like this when I was growing up, neither did NBC-operated RoadCar; that was until the latter acquired the Almex A90. A No Change ticket could then be issued to a passenger where the driver could not offer sufficient change. This ticket would then effectively be worth cash to any RoadCar driver and the passenger had the confidence that he/she wasn't 'being done' or had to make their way to the company's HQ with a hand-written IOU from the driver. The irony here is that sometimes this would mean paying to travel on one of the operator's buses.

That's not to say these vouchers don't have their pitfalls. I once caught the Oxford Tube at Marble Arch and every single one of the 6 passengers in front of me were given a No Change Voucher as they boarded. They were all headed to Oxford and the driver told them to approach any Stagecoach in Oxfordshire driver there for the change. This wouldn't have worked if they were London-bound, unless another Oxford Tube driver was able to oblige. That's assuming there was one there.

In a non-aggressive manner, the No Change Voucher does reinforce to passengers the onus they have of providing the correct change whenever possible. Like Peter Kay's Brian Potter (Phoenix Nights) said about garlic bread, "I've seen it. It's the future!"

Proverb

2012-01-11T06:00:00.001Z

Buses run for those who wait
They do not wait for those who run

Anon.

Brand Value

2012-01-10T21:58:00.006Z

An interesting point in one of the railway magazines was made recently, on the subject of why, perhaps, the government shouldn't let European state-owned railway companies operate UK rail franchises simply because they offer the best financial bid.

They have no real brand identity outside their own company and so have nothing to lose if things don't go as well as they'd hoped or as well as their predecessor had operated the franchise. The powerful flip-side is that with SNCF or Deutsche Bahn operating a UK franchise, their subsidiary is effectively guaranteed by the French/German state, so defaults such as those that have occurred with the East Coast franchise would be unthinkable.

Keolis is a French transport company in which SNCF (the state railway company) has a majority share. Keolis has a minority share in the Trans-Pennine franchise with First holding the majority share. Photo: GodsFavouriteAngel

Virgin Trains is making the case for retaining its West Coast franchise. Although an extension was awarded, it is fourth in line to be re-tendered and obviously Mr. Branson would like to retain his sole UK rail franchise (in which Mr Souter's company has a 49% stake). The Virgin brand means something to many UK rail travellers, whereas whatever name Abellio or Keolis or DB call the West Coast franchise should they win it will be meaningless at first.

The Chinese and the German states hold the concession to operate London Overground. MTR Corp (Hong Kong) and DB Regio (Germany). Initially, it was a venture between MTR and British firm Laing Rail, but Laing's parent (Irish) company chose to sell to the German state railway company at the end of 2007. Photo: Darlo2009

The desire and will to continually improve and innovate, some would argue, would be lower in the mindset of a parent company thousands of miles away, with no brand image to protect and improve upon. Virgin has a very strong brand indeed, a global super brand no less, that it wants to both protect and improve upon. This is a view its shareholders will agree with. There is no merit in allowing the Virgin brand to just stand still or stagnate. This translates into poor financial performance in a number of ways.

At the end of 2011, the decision to award the short Greater Anglia franchise to the Netherlands state railway, Abellio, was made by the DfT. Abellio Greater Anglia will commence operation from February. Ironically, Abellio's operation has a name that reflects the franchise better than the current operator chose a number of years ago, when National Express chose to name operations 'One'. Photo: SouthWesternRailways

Abellio or SNCF, for example, have no shareholders and some would argue they would simply operate the West Coast franchise as a box-ticking project, doing everything asked of it and nothing more. Branson argues that Virgin Trains (as a direct consequence of the Virgin brand) will do far more than the bare minimum and points to past successes as proof (they said they wanted to introduce tilting trains and followed through with the Pendolino; they said they wanted to run a 20-minute frequency to Manchester and Birmingham from London and this was introduced at the end of 2008).

Would Abellio et al go that extra mile to improve and enhance their image in a country where they are not known? Would they fight their corner as much when in discussions with the DfT, as Virgin, Stagecoach, First, Go-Ahead and National Express have done? It is an interesting question that I'd hitherto not considered. You could also ask whether Virgin Trains would be as vociferous had they another rail franchise to fall back on if they were to lose West Cost.

Northern Rail is a joint venture between UK-based Serco and the Netherlands state railway, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, or Abellio. Northern has seen considerable success, winning the 2007 Public Transport Operator of the Year Award, so perhaps allowing a European state-run transport company the opportunity to run a UK rail franchise could result in futher awards? Photo: Bubblin40

I think most people would agree that the best financial bid is not always the best overall bid. Value-added elements need taking into account. Home-grown brands are good examples of this. There is absolutely no merit in any British company devaluing its image through a lacklustre performance.

All free in Gibraltar

2012-01-09T22:27:00.006Z

28 May 2011 saw all bus services operated wholly by government-run Gibraltar City Buses cease charging passengers to travel. At the same time the network was redesigned different parts of the colony were linked. To coincide with this came the visible sight of virtually all bus stops in Gibraltar having a personalised flag, shelter and decent height kerb. Timetable information is now evident at all stops - something that had been woefully inadequate on previous trips.

There are numerous cities in the UK that don't conform to this level of provision and the buses operating there want to charge you to travel.

Is this one-in-the-eye for privatisation? After all, the only bus service in Gibraltar that is operated by a private company is the only route that charges a fare. A very low fare, admittedly. City Buses also operate on this route as well and charge the same low fares. It's no coincidence, though, that this is the route that links the airport with the centre. The main reason for the introduction of the free bus network is an attempt to improve traffic flow in the city and the reduce the number of car journeys being made. Gibraltar is rumoured to have more cars than there is space on its entire road network, and congestion is a serious issue - evident immediately upon leaving the airport!

Destination displays have deteriorated somewhat since I last visited. To the point that boards are needed to be put in the window.

Curiously, for every passenger that boards, a ticket needs to be issued. The 'pass' button is not pressed, as would probably be the case here. Consequently, there is a continual stream of tickets that leads from the Wayfarer TGX machine to a plastic bin in the driver's cab. Sadly, passengers are not given the ticket.

Another route where passengers aren't given a ticket is the plethora of bookable minibus tours 'up the rock'. The coach park is the place where the fleet of over 50 of these Toyota minibuses are parked overnight. They're owned and operated by Blands Travel - the parent company to Calypso Travel. A number of smaller people carriers are privately owned and operated on tours to the top of the rock and double up as taxis in the evenings.

In November of last year, akin with other tourist hot spots here in the UK, 'winter' timetables were introduced that saw a slight reduction in frequencies, but they are nonetheless favourable. It was during November that I made yet another trip to the city, this time with some friends, totally oblivious that we would have free rides throughout our stay.

There are four of these Mercedes-Benz/Unvi minibuses for use on Service 1 to Moorish Castle Estate and Willis's Road. They have wheelchair access to the rear. At one point the road is so bad that the back of the bus grounds on the tarmac.

No additional vehicles have been purchased, and the restructuring of routes last May saw shorter journeys, so higher frequencies could be introduced on the most popular ones. Owing to the narrow streets, low arches and tight bends, only midibuses can be used on the vast majority of routes. These take the form of 18 Dennis Darts with Caetano Nimbus bodies, seating 27 (new in April 2004). A smaller batch of 3 Mercedes-Benz/Unvi minibuses, seating 14, are used on the 'uphill' Moorish Castle services (new in 2010) . They're all impeccably well turned out, considering the terrain.

Tight, very tight. Hence why nothing larger than a midibus can be used on the vast majority of services in Gibraltar.

On Service 5 - the only route that charges a fare - Calypso Travel operates alternate departures in between City Buses' throughout the day. This runs from the Spanish border (Gibraltar Airport) to the city centre (Market Place) and then onto Reclamation Road. Additional 'shorts' operate between the Airport and Market Place. Fares on this route are a bargain - £1 single, £1.50 all-day ticket for the route and £6 for a ten-trip ticket that must be used within 7 days. No other service operates to/from the Airport so you can't cheat the system.

City Buses operates this nearly-new crew vehicle. The Toyota seems to be the most popular choice for the people carrier in Gibraltar.

To coincide with the revised network, a hitherto lesser-used couple of bus stops in the old Market Place have been revitalised, with five bays constructed and an information office. This now acts as the city centre bus station. Strangely, it is neither referred to as a 'bus station' or the 'market place' but 'West Place of Arms' in all the literature.

I do believe that this bus is something of a rarity - it once operated in Baghdad! Sadly it wasn't in service when we visited in November, but does see regular use during the summer months.

It'll take quite some time to 'bag' all the Darts, though. Even longer to bash all the 'deckers used by Calypso - they're the only 'deckers used in service. City Buses has a pair of 'deckers used for school contracts and a coach, that passed me before I could get my camera out, being driven by a driver under instruction.

Operation of services, while running to the frequencies advertised, only have one timing point - that of the start location. Even cross-city services do not have a departure time from the West Place of Arms (bus station). You just turn up and wait. Luckily never too long and, let's face it, getting a free ride means you're not going to be too put out having waited 30 mins.

A trip to Gilbratar will not disappoint anyone with an interest in buses and coaches. Provided you can get a cheap flight (meaning a requirement to book many months in advance) I can heartily recommend The Bristol Hotel (the city's longest established). We did flights, petrol to Gatwick, airport parking and three nights B&B for £180 each. You probably wouldn't want any longer than three nights there. A trip to Charlie's Steakhouse is also a must. Order a chocolate dessert and see why!

The scourge of modern society

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000Z

Interesting to read Barry Doe's column in the latest RAIL magazine, in which the Fare Dealer is clearly struggling to supply fare deals as he wrote almost solely about something very close to my heart: the problem with mobile phones ruining journeys on public transport.

While Barry's experiences covered trains (and were far less unpleasant than those I've experienced on the top decks of buses), I agree completely with his sentiment of the phone taking over the user's life. Loud conversations were the subject of Barry's ire; for me it is people - usually teens - choosing to play their music out loud. Those who've travelled by bus, regularly sitting in the upper saloon, will know what I mean.

I can cope with those who have headphones in but have the volume cranked up to damaging levels as at least they've bothered to consider others and plug them in. Where I intervene and usually cop a mouthful back for my trouble is when people think it acceptable to blurt out their playlist for all to hear, seemingly without regard for their fellow travellers.

I always politely ask them to plug some headphones in, rather than a blanket: "Can you turn that off please?" as it seems less harsh. Often you're greeted with a silent glare but they conform. They know it's unacceptable, that's why. Very occasionally they're apologetic - these are the minority who think that just because it is a double decker the sound gets lost somehow - and can immediately see this is not the case. Mostly, though, you get cocky remarks, but usually silence prevails.

Obviously I never say it to a gang, nor do I impose my wish on people who've been on the bus longer than I have.

On trains, I like Barry never travel in the Quiet Coach as I do not trust my fellow travellers to abide by the rules. And the guards understandably want a quiet life (if you'll pardon the pun) so loathe enforcing the rule. I once travelled from St. Pancras to Derby with Midland Mainline and a chav sat in the Quiet Coach and played his music out loud. He was politely asked, by myself, to put the music on headphones, and although the music was turned off, he opted to stare at me from Leicester onwards, eyes burning with hatred and rage.

I fear that in urban areas by bus, the battle is lost. Ideally the playing of music out loud on buses needed nipping in the bud 5 years ago, when music players became commonplace on mobile phones. Rural journeys fair better. It is a very brazen individual who dares play his/her music out loud on a single decker. There's also no way of knowing which journeys are likely to have these mobile disco lovers on board. As an example, three weeks ago myself and a LEYTR subscriber travelled to Hull and back using Stagecoach in Lincolnshire/Grimsby-Cleethorpes. We travelled on a 6 buses and not once did it happen. Yet last May I made one journey on the Stagecoach X3 from Newark-Lincoln direct (immediately prior to its withdrawal) and parents allowed their kids to have their music playing out loud.

While music blurring out loud may be a low point of travelling on public transport, an undisputed high is crossing the Forth Bridge by train. I've done it countless times, which made the same edition of RAIL a fascinating read as editor Nigel Harris captured a number of very rare shots from the bridge that can be viewed on the magazine's website. I'm very envious indeed!

Click to enlarge. For a further 29 images, click here.

D-Day = Deltic Day

2012-01-05T06:00:00.001Z

It suddenly occurred to me this afternoon that Monday marked a momentous occasion in the UK's transport calendar, for it was on 2 January 1981 that British Railways ran its last Deltic-hauled passenger train. It would be 15 years before a Deltic hauled another passenger train, through from this point on, charter services only.

The Deltics were ostensibly replaced by the High Speed Train, or InterCity 125, which while being record breakers themselves, haven't always found favour with rail enthusiasts. A friend of mine, for example, refuses to travel on them, referring to them as 'trams', while another (as I recently discovered) refuses to take a photo of one as "they replaced the Deltics!"

Just imagine!

In homage to the Deltic, below is a video I shot during August 2010, as 55022 Royal Scots Grey hauls a charter train north along the East Coast Main Line through Essendine, Rutland.

New York's High Line

2012-01-03T20:42:00.003Z

One of my favourite transport stories over the past few months is of the re-opening of a former freight railway line along the West Side of Manhattan. Just over a decade ago, the elevated line was pencilled in for demolition, but this was fought by the Friends of the High Line, who were formed in 1999.

If you're familiar with Manhattan, the High Line runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking district, through to West 34th Street (between 10/11 Avenues). It offers a fascinating view from above as it snakes through the high-rise buildings in New York's most famous borough.

Demolition was planned primarily to remove the eyesore of rusty struts and bridges from view, though with the nature of the route being as it is, replacing the structure with housing or retail outlets was always going to be problematic as they too would need to be elevated. I suspect very little persuasion was needed to twist the City of New York's arm to consider an alternative to its destruction.

There has been a long tradition in the UK of converting former track bed to cycle paths. It is relatively cheap to do and has the added benefit of allowing the track bed to once again carry trains in the future - something that those campaigning for the Oxford-Cambridge line (that received money for a partial re-opening last month) wish had occurred towards the Cambridge end of the route, where the track bed has been built on and so the partial re-opening is from Oxford to Bedford only. The Woodhead Line is another former (electrified!!) line that was closed but has remained untouched, save for one tunnel bore, could re-open to alleviate trans-Pennine congestion.

Back Stateside and the High Line would be considered a very new line by British standards, being constructed as late as the 1930s. Freight trains operated until 1980 and by 2002 the local authority officially offered its support. The entire route has been fully landscaped and offers a tranquil park setting where visitors can walk, cycle or just lay out on grass and catch the sun. The whole 13-mile High Line structure has been converted and is fully wheelchair accessible.

Construction on restoring the High Line began in 2006, with the first (southern) section opening in 2009. It wasn't until 2011 when all sections were open. Current estimates show that around 3 million people are expected to visit the High Line during 2012. For me, what it offers, while no longer being anything vaguely railway-like, is the area of calm amidst one of the world's most bustling metropolises.

We're back!

2012-01-03T20:37:00.003Z

I say 'we're back', it should say 'I'm back'. There has been a change to the composition of the LEYTR committee, which will be evident from the next magazine (due out at the start of February).

There have been many transport stories that I'd loved to have commented on since the last blog entry on 21 November, but sadly other issues have taken preference. Twitter is a very useful stop gap, which I've been making more use of recently. If you have recently converted to twitter, @LEYTR is our address.

British Aiways take-off at Gibraltar

2011-11-21T22:54:00.002Z

There are a number of different videos online that show the rather unusual arrangements at Gibraltar, with planes taking off across the main road into/out of the overseas territory. On our recent visit, we managed to locate another vantage point, less used to record take-offs. What is most impressive is the proximity of the canoist to the Airbus A320 as it fired off down the runway at 180mph.

Cardiff-London record

2011-10-26T20:26:00.002+01:00

Today a new record was broken by rail. First Great Western operated a 5-carriage HST between Cardiff and London in 1:36. While this was an improvement of just 1 minute on the current record, it was done to demonstrate the advantages that electrification would bring to Wales, as a similar end-to-end journey time would become the norm.

The train departed Cardiff Central at 1221 and arrived in London Paddington at 1357.

This is not the first record-breaking run that First Great Western has undertaken recently. A Plymouth-London record was broken a year ago.

Once again, another record was broken by a stalwart of Britain's railways, the High Speed Train, known to many outside the industry as the InterCity 125. These workhorses really have proved their worth, operating many years beyond their intended use. Some are being considered for their second mid-life refurbishments.

It is likely that once electrification comes to the Great Western Main Line, they will be all but retired, with new bi-modal trains considered as their replacement.

I've read reports that some may be retained for Penzance/Plymouth-London services.

The Class 43 High Speed Train should be congratulated in equal measure with the people at First Great Western and Network Rail for today's record run.

Both Sides of the Story

2011-10-23T17:15:00.003+01:00

I've not blogged for a while, so thought my long overdue contribution ought to be something very impressive. Well, to me, anyway. I suspect this may well be my favourite piece of journalism of the year.

In issue 673, railway magazine RAIL lead with a new service introduced by Chiltern Railways. It forms part of their Evergreen 3 project, to upgrade the main line between London Marylebone and Birmingham Snow Hill for it to enable running at 100mph, as well as seeing extensive remodelling at three main junctions.

As a consequence of the line speed increase, Chiltern is now able to operate certain London-Birmingham trains with an end-to-end journey time of 90 minutes. This rivals Virgin Trains' journey time between London Euston and Birmingham New Street. Chiltern's fares are significantly cheaper, too.

In addition to the upgrade, the increased line speed and the faster journey times, Chiltern has also re-branded everything on the route 'Mainline'. Most trains are the Class 168 Clubman units that have plied their trade along the route with Chiltern for many years. On top of this, there is now the Mainline Silver from which to choose. These trains are generally loco-hauled rakes of Mk3 coaches, which offer more legroom as standard than Virgin offers in any of its trains. The Mainline Silver trains additionally offer a special business class ('Premium Economy') section, which Chiltern goes out of its way to say is not 'first class' but a kind of business class area where travellers can get on with their work and for a fraction of the cost of upgrading to first class with Virgin. Chiltern does not currently offer any First Class travel.

£20 is the supplement for Premium Economy, for which travellers receive a larger seat, a table and at-seat, non-complimentary refreshments.

RAIL's article certainly wasn't gushing in praise, but did cover two pages, detailing the improvements, with quotes from all parties, including Virgin, who now charges £20 more for an equivalent business class anytime return between London-Birmingham than Chiltern (although Virgin's substantial menu in first class is all free - and this includes alcohol).

The new Mainline and Mainline Silver services certainly seem like a step in the right direction, offering choice to passengers who've otherwise only considered another train operating company for 'fast' travel between England's two largest cities. One operator's price is now less than the other's an a 'third way' is offered for those who want to travel in the ambiance afforded in First Class but who do not want to pay the (sometimes) eye-watering prices.

Then, in the following edition of RAIL, I read Barry Doe's thoughts on Chiltern's new Mainline and Mainline Silver services. He didn't pull any punches - even the headline stated: "Casual... vague... probably the worst rail timetable I have ever seen..."And, let's be fair, he has seen quite a few.

Hats off to RAIL for allowing one of their regular columnists to show both sides of the story - especially when the 'other' side is portrayed in such a negative light.

You're probably thinking that Barry's criticism centred around the new services' timetable: it's design, its layout and some small areas of ambiguity that could be straightened out at the next reprint. Sadly not. A summary of criticisms are below:

- The timetable is now in two books, which completely omit a number of train journeys altogether
- The standard Mainline trains offer only a catering trolley until 1437 ex London and until 1155 ex Birmingham
- The Mainline Silver timetable is "ambiguous - indeed contradictory as to whether the kitchen is open or not" for the at-seat, non-complimentary food served in Premium Economy
- Chiltern's website states "On morning trains we will serve freshly cooked... bacon rolls" - the implication that this is for all services (even the Class 168s)
- Business class is officially known as 'Premium Economy', Barry claims this is simply First Class, despite Chiltern's protestations: "You pay extra, have a First Class seat and First Class inter-available tickets and rovers are accepted"
- Upgrade to Premium Economy is £20, yet on two journeys it is only £10 and on two others it is free
- The 0005 Friday-only departure, shown in the timetable, is for a train that actually departs at 0005 on Saturday mornings

While you can easily criticise Barry's views on a number of railway (and bus/coach) related issues, when it comes to tickets, validity and timetables, you simply cannot. In the latest RAIL, Adrian Shooter, Chiltern's chairman, has written to the magazine to address Barry's claims. He addressed but two satisfactorily. One timetable book will replace the current two and the 0005 'FO' train is shown with Friday's late-night departures as passengers still consider this departure as a Friday night journey.

A cracking piece of journalism when you look at both pieces together; RAIL's first piece (by business editor Philip Haigh) was extensive and detailed the main improvements, which the second piece (by Barry Doe) highlighted the problems passengers are likely to encounter. The only disappointment is that both pieces were in one, much larger, article.

Crash Map

2011-10-06T21:03:00.004+01:00

My father now surfs the web on a mobile device and has been forwarding me anything vaguely transport related that he comes across on his virtual travels. He has yet to discover this blog! The most interesting to date is Crash Map. A fascinating, if slightly macarbre, interractive map that plots all road traffic collisions on Britain's roads.

It categorises road traffic collisions into Slight, Serious and Fatal and covers the period between 2005-10, with users able to highlight a particular or multiple year(s).

If it doesn't belittle the devastation that accompanies fatal road accidents, the map is fascinating. I think we all know the areas locally where bad accidents have occurred. Some involved buses and coaches, though mercifully few.

Click to enlarge.
This shows the picturesque Lincolnshire market town of Horncastle, virtually oblitterated by accident markers. Only 1 fatal, but there have been 183 collisions in this area since 2005.

The Lincolnshire Fens make for particularly grim viewing. Lincolnshire suffers from very high road collisions and fatalities, with motorists becoming too familiar with the county's relatively empty roads. The lack of motorways also means all motorists have to negotiate meandering minor roads to get from A to B. We have some very linear dual-carriageways and former Roman roads that make getting from, say, Stamford to Cleethorpes not as arduous as you'd think.

Crash Map

Showbus, Duxford 2011

2011-09-21T20:08:00.008+01:00

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

2011-09-04T16:53:00.002+01:00

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

2011-09-04T08:00:00.000+01:00

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

2011-09-02T15:07:00.007+01:00

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!

2011-09-01T07:00:00.000+01:00

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.

Catalyst for Conversation

2011-08-29T13:42:00.003+01:00

So often travelling on London's Underground network is described as 'emotionless'. Today, people have so much to say (and social media such as this help make this possible) yet when you're in a packed train, deep beneath the streets of one of the world's largest cities, it is very rare for spontaneous acts of conversation. Perhaps people would simply rather not be travelling or with such a multi-cultural society using the Tube, the language barrier is sometimes an issue.

We both enjoy light-hearted ways in which situations like this can be overcome and one such 'solution' has been designed by Chloe Lee Carson. Based on a free badge that was designer by Transport for London for pregnant women to wear (scroll to bottom of link page), a number of spoof designs have been produced. None, in our consideration, are offensive to other travellers; moreover they might just be the catalyst for conversation.

Reasonably priced at £1.50, they are what Duncan Bannatyne would describe as 'a punt'.

Anagram of the Week

2011-08-25T19:15:00.002+01:00

"National Rail Timetables" = "All trains aim to be late in"

With a bowler tip to 'Broomster-boyo'.

Pay-to-Park-and-Ride

2011-08-23T18:05:00.003+01:00

There are two types of Park-and-Ride (P&R) scheme here in the UK. The first sees free parking, while a per-person fare is charged for travel on the bus, tram or train to the town or city centre. Often, discounts for groups are available. The second sees a charge for parking and free travel on the bus into town. Usually, the latter is the cheapest option for users of the service.

Sadly, though, most schemes offered see free parking and a per-person payment on the mode of transport. The schemes still offer good value for money, often with patrolled and semi-secure parking and a swift and efficient journey to and from the centre of town.

A third option is likely to exist in Oxford, as both Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council have admitted with it is 'inevitable' they will have to charge motorists to park at three of their P&R sites, in addition to the bus fare.

Budget shortfalls are being blamed and the reason for planned parking charges at the Redbridge, Pear Tree and Seacourt sites. Hitherto, the sites were operated by the County Council, but their operation has since passed to the City Council. The annual cost of operating the sites is £700,000 and has recently been hit by a £250,000 deficit in this year's budget.

Two of the city's P&R sites are used additionally by many hundreds of commuters bound for London, who park at the Thornhill and Water Eaton sites and make journeys to London by the frequent coach services offered by Stagecoach and Oxford Bus Company. Plans are being considered to charge these London commuters to park here and leave the area, while maintaining free parking for those heading into Oxford city centre. How this would work has not yet been revealed.

One of the problems charging commuters to leave their cars at P&R sites is the knock-on effect this would have on bus revenues. Oxford is the only place in the UK, we understand, whose P&R network is operated on a fully commercial basis. The imposition of an additional charge could see revenues fall and have a similar effect on operators' profit. Could the bus companies consider asking for financial subsidy to run journeys outside the traditional operating hours if the effect is so detrimental?

It could be argued that applying the financial savings to the P&R sites is better than doing so to local bus services. The effect of having £250,000 slashed from the money used to provide much-needed rural services would be devastating. Better, then, to try and find the savings from a more manageable area.

A city council review is expected, which will reveal the likely cost to park at the three affected sites and what, if anything, is likely to be done to charge London commuters parking at Thornhill & Water Eaton.

Oxford P&R info

EXCLUSIVE: Delaine's New Gemini

2011-08-18T19:52:00.004+01:00

Taken at the Wrighbus factory in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, is the latest addition to the Delaine Buses fleet. The company has walked away from coachbuilder Optare and has made its first purchase of a Wrightbus-bodied double decker. The vehicle has a Volvo B9TL chassis on the standard wheelbase option. Allocated fleet number 150 and registered AD61 DBL, it is hoped the vehicle will enter service on Thursday 1 September, working the following diagram:

0730 Service 101 Morton-Peterborough
0900 Service 101 Peterborough-Morton
0950 Service 101 Morton-Peterborough
1100 Service 101 Peterborough-Morton
1150 Service 101 Morton-Bourne
------
1300 Service 101 Bourne-Peterborough
1400 Service 101 Peterborough-Morton
1450 Service 101 Morton-Peterborough
1600 Service 101 Peterborough-Morton
1650 Service 101 Morton-Peterborough
1800 Service 101 Peterborough-Morton

The vehicle is the first outside London to be fitted to the new EU specifications, mandatory from next year. Additional features include a suspension driver's seat, wider door and seat squabs, marker lights and two reverse lights, amongst others.

Fair warning?

2011-08-16T22:13:00.003+01:00

With news today on all media that rail fares will increase by 8% in January, the masses were not told why the current formula exists. One of the main reasons behind the 'July RPI figure + an agreed percentage point figure' was adopted is to redress the balance of who pays what for our national rail network. July's RPI figure was released today, 5%.

Agreed a number of years ago by the former Labour government, the traditional 50/50 split between fare payer and tax payer over who pays for the railway is being phased out and replaced by a 25/75 split in favour of the tax payer. The initial formula was RPI+1; it was altered by the Coalition to RPI+3. To pay for High Speed 1, Southeastern is able to increase its regulated fares by RPI+5. The Scotland Parliament has announced it will retain the original RPI+1 formula for regulated fares north of the border.

The broad thinking is that those who use the railway should pay for it, while the many million tax payers who seldom use the rails, should not. The down side is that those who do use (and rely heavily on) the railway will have to pay significantly more for the cost of their tickets.

While bringing the news of the increase to regulated fares to the fore many months ahead can help people plan for the rise, it does bring two bouts of very negative press for the railways each year, as a re-run will ensue from the start of 2012.

A further increase of up to 5% can be made by operators to non-regulated fares, but they have to demonstrate that others have reduced by the same amount. Fares for many unpopular journeys will go down, but at the expense of those which are frequently used. The lower, unregulated fares can be a boon to many people who do not use the railway for commuting, benefiting by the offset reductions, though very much at the expense of those who do.

Commuters are seen as an easy target as their season tickets represent excellent value for money. The cost of a weekly season ticket is generally calculated as the total cost of two full price return fares between the commuter's two nominated points. Each season ticket holder receives a week's worth of travel for the price of 2 returns. It is when you multiply this by 48 (weeks) that the annual cost becomes less palatable. £2,000 is seen as the average cost of an annual season ticket.

But what to do? Transport is, sadly, not at the top of the government's priorities. In the Coalition's eyes, the tax payer is getting a better deal with the planned 8% rise in rail fares from January as those who use the rails are paying for it, rather than everyone. As we mentioned last week, the industry is a victim of its own success, with 6% year-on-year growth. While people keep on coming, it will be a very long time before we hear the end of large fare increases.

Commute by Jag is Cheaper

2011-08-13T23:10:00.003+01:00

The Campaign for Better Transport has contacted us to say that Mrs LEYTR isn't always right - words I only utter at my peril. Converting cars to operate on a pay-as-you-go basis, with users not paying for fuel when they fill them up but in cash every time they use the vehicle to cover the cost of travel, can be cheaper than public transport. Well, trains, anyway.

Buried in their online archive, the CBT calculated that Transport Secretary Philip Hammond would be financially better off continuing to commute to Westminster from his home in Woking every day than travelling by train. The cost of an annual season ticket between Woking and Central London is £3,268, while annual fuel costs for a Jaguar would amount to £2,277. That's an annual saving of almost a grand.

In the train's favour is that it produces up to four times fewer carbon emissions and that travelling time can be both faster and more productive. Even if typing fiercely into a laptop isn't your cup of tea, having a little snooze is always an option, provided you find a seat.

The CBT has produced an online petition to force pressure on the government not to increase many regulated fares by 28% over the next four years. By 2015, for example, the cost of an annual season ticket between Ashford and Central London will be 28.6% of the forecast average salary for that year.

Sadly, Lord Adonis' comments to RAIL Editor Nigel Harris in the latest edition illustrates why rail fares are to rise to much in the coming years. The industry is seeing 6% year-on-year growth, despite the national economy being in the doldrums. For the first time in generations, tangible modal shift is being seen. For no matter how high rail fares are pumped each year, many save considerable sums by using the train.

Higher fares doesn't seem to be dampening demand, moreover they seem to be having little effect at all. While this is the case, we cannot see (sadly) how the government will be persuaded to change tack at all.

The PAYG Car

2011-08-08T07:00:00.000+01:00

Sharing a bottle of white over Sunday Lunch with Mrs LEYTR as I was today, she suddenly came forward with what could be done to make car drivers view the usage of their private motor vehicle as more costly than their local bus. I was staggered - she's never come forward with anything like this before - and it made sense!

"Drivers shouldn't have to pay to fill up their cars. Instead, they should owe the cost of the tank of fuel, which should be charged to them on a journey-by-journey basis and they're not allowed to leave the car until they've paid by coins in their dashboard".

Oh for such a world. Well, probably not as I use my car occasionally when a bus is not available and wouldn't want to have to be sure I had sufficient coinage to ensure I'd not be held prisoner in it when I arrived at my destination.

But her outburst shone a light (for me, at least) as to why some people begrudge travelling on buses: cost. They consider a £3.50 day ticket as 'extortionate', when they'd commute to work and pay double that in petrol. Charge them on a journey-by-journey basis and soon they'd realise that £3.50 on the bus is actually 'quite reasonable' or at least 'comparable'.

Not that this will ever happen. Woe betide any government that tries to inconvenience our use of the private motor car.

But it would be good to see dashboard computers display how much the journey undertaken had cost the driver, in pounds and pence. They technology is there, though the driver would need to state how much the fuel cost, then the car computer would do the rest.

Not to everyone's liking

2011-08-05T21:54:00.002+01:00

Last month, Passenger Focus gave the coach industry a clean bill of health after it looked in-depth at the services operated by four operators, National Express, Megabus, Oxford Tube & Oxford Espress. The coach industry was also described as the UK's best-kept secret, the implication being that the untapped potential for the uninitiated is significant.

At the same time, Britain's leading rail fares and service expert, Barry Doe, gave the impression that he does not concur with the findings of PF. In the latest RAIL he opines: "...but I have never travelled on a coach in my life and hope I never shall."

This from the man who maintains the very informative Doe's Directory of Bus Timetables (DDBT). Clearly, the word 'coach' is noticeable by its absence! This really has thrown me.

Barry is no stranger to controversy. One of my favourite quotes of his is when he referred to Arriva's CrossCountry company as a 'dog of an operator' - something anyone who's unwittingly tried to return at 1630 using an Off-Peak Return will agree with. His succinct criticism is especially effective when bringing to bare the errors contained in the National Rail Timetable or shining a light on the complexities of the ticketing system and associated restrictions.

But for the author of the online DDBT to hope he never has to travel by coach is very disappointing indeed.

In bed with Brian

2011-08-04T22:20:00.002+01:00

Would Sir Moir have ever posed like this? Or Giles Fearnley, David Martin, Keith Ludeman and Dean Finch?

Judging by the splattering of comments on newsgroups and other transport blogs, awarding Brian Souter a knighthood was considerably more controversial than when his counterpart at First was awarded one. No one can accuse Sir Brian of not leading by example and when he innovates others can take years to catch up.

We alluded to some coach-related gossip last week, that Stagecoach's Megabus.com subsidiary would soon be introducing overnight sleeper coach services between London and Glasgow and two days ago this was confirmed when the company issued a press release.

Each of the articulated coaches, specially converted, will house 24 sleeper berths that appear to be three stories high. They will be located in the front portion of the coach, with a selection of standard coach seats towards the rear of the vehicle, after the bendy bit. As with the established London-Glasgow rail sleeper service, a number of complimentary items will be provided: toothbrush, toothpaste, bottle of water, eye mask and a luggage label. Complimentary refreshments will also be available, though details of what this will include wasn't made known.

Having recently returned from travelling the length and breadth of the country by train - two overnight sleeper services included - we've accidentally stumbled across a subject we are reasonably equipped to compare and contrast.

The Megabus sleeper coaches will not come with a host but a second driver. The coaches, by design, are considerably more cramped than the trains, sharing with potentially 23 other people in what are effectively bunks. They are, however, considerably cheaper, with fares from the headline-grabbing £1 through to a maximum £40 being offered. We're pretty sure that a loss will almost certainly be made even at £40 a head. Free Wi-Fi is offered, which is not the case with the trains.

Will the sleeper coaches be operating in addition to the existing coach service? There are considerably fewer seats on board and Stagecoach cites the overnight London-Glasgow coach as one of their most popular. Stagecoach makes a point of stating that the coaches are VOSA-certified. While we had problems with the air-con on our first overnight sleeper recently, our second encounter had very nice chilled air which was most welcome during the summer evening. No mention of air-conditioning is made with the new sleeper coach.

I'm not someone who is able to sleep anywhere very easily. ScotRail's Caledonian Express isn't the most comfortable place to nod off, so, for me, I know a 13-year old Volvo B10MA will be less so.

But for £40 maximum, can you complain?

There are some who will not consider the coach to be safe enough, despite its legal certification. Others will welcome this as an addition to the Megabus brand. It's certainly something I'd consider to say I've done it, but I don't feel I could count on feeling as refreshed upon reaching Scotland as I could by train. But I suppose the train always wins on the comfort scale when compared to the coach. Where it loses is on value for money - something the new sleeper coach could excel.

Pictorial: Railrover Day 7

2011-08-03T19:21:00.007+01:00

Our final day did not start well. I was awoken by my complimentary breakfast being delivered and after opening the adjoining door to m'colleague's birth, was informed of our location. It was 0730 and we'd just departed Newtonmore, where we should have left at 0712. Our connection in Inverness was the tightest of the entire jaunt - just 14 minutes. Things were not looking good, although the scenery was sufficiently dramatic to take my mind off the problem that may lie ahead.

We then came to a standstill at around 0815. We were clearly being held in a loop for a southbound service from the single track that lay ahead to Inverness. I suspected this was East Coast's daily service to London, named the Highland Chieftain. Checking the time this service departed Inverness against the time it took to pass us, meant that we shouldn't arrive 18 minutes late, but a 'mere' 7 minutes behind schedule.

Following the HST's passage, the driver gave it the beans our final sleeper journey soon came to an end (I plan on ensuring it's not another 6 years before I travel on another!) and we were heading down towards Inverness at a shade over 80mph according to our GPS device. DB Schenker's 67030 was once again hauling us north of Edinburgh (it had been our motive traction on Tuesday morning).

I love this shot. To me it says: no matter what colours you adorn the exterior with and no matter which multi-national bus operator operates applies its franchise name to the side, some things were built to last and endure.

Our driver should be congratulated as we arrived in Inverness at 0839, just 8 minutes late. While Scotrail will legitimately class this journey as having arrived on time, it was the difference between a trip on the West Highland Line or heading back to Edinburgh with our tails between our legs for us. At a not inconsiderable pace, we made our way to the bus station where we saw our Service 919 Scottish Citylink coach awaiting its 0845 departure. As ever, Stagecoach was using one of its own liveried coaches on the service Volvo B7R/Plaxton Profile, 53209 (SV54 EKP). Our friendly English driver said we weren't leaving until his wingmirror was fixed and so feeling a little silly at the sight that must have greeted him as two unfit 30-something year old men came sweating to his vehicle, we took our seats inside and awaited a chap in overalls. The wingmirror was fixed by 0915 and we left with the same vigour displayed by our Class 67 driver.

I feel a little guilty about criticising the driver too much as he did completely ignore the overheating alarm for the last hour of the trip, despite visiting a petrol station at Invergarry to add cool water to the system. Other drivers would have pulled over to seek advice which, knowing our luck, would have been to stay where they were and send another bus out. This would have been worse than missing the connection in the first place as the frequency of trains from Loch Ness is nil. Once at Fort William, we headed to the local supermarket to purchase drinks and then to the station to take some photos. This is one of West Coast Railways' 37676 Loch Rannoch.

I'd planned on us catching the Fort William service from London last night, but two months before our jaunt commenced, ScotRail said the service was fully booked. This is the portion of last night's train that was hived off at Edinburgh, and hauled here using another of DB Schenker's Class 67s. I'm not too sure of when it is cleaned and prepared for its return journey to London as it appeared to be sitting idle.

We would now head back to the Lowlands aboard a ScotRail Class 156. Two of them, in fact. 156465 lead 156485 in from Mallaig, where upon the driver changed ends (actually, he probably handed over to another) and 156485 lead for the remainder of the journey. The number of reservations aboard this journey was very high indeed and a load boarded. Initially I didn't think we'd be able to sit together, though we did manage to find some seats together. It was a wonderful journey to Glasgow - some very impressive scenery and while not as dramatic as that to Mallaig, is certainly some of the best in the country. We waited at Tulloch for a northbound service and again at Ardlui, where a trio of two-car Class 156s were heading north. One would be hived off at Crianlarich for the Oban branch.

Our next train was 170428, working the 1545 ScotRail service to Edinburgh via Falkirk. It was a three-car unit that became very well loaded indeed. I think most of our train in from the Highlands occupied it. We, however, took solace in First Class, where we sat alone save a guard and his family. The '156' was very nice, but the air conditioning and complimentary refreshments with a much firmer suspension were a welcome addition. Sadly the scenery didn't live up to that which we'd experienced.

From Glasgow Queen Street to Doncaster sidings. We managed to board East Coast's 1700 departure from Edinburgh Waverley to London King's Cross, though it wasn't announced until 6 minutes to go before departure so there was a scrum to board and I didn't fancy missing it for the sake of a photo. We were served a very nice meal and with a crew change at Newcastle had the option for second helpings, too. As we departed Doncaster, I spotted Deltic - Royal Scots Grey stabled in some sidings, attached to a rake of heritage coaches that would presumably work a rail tour tomorrow. Initially numbered D9000 and then 55022 when British Rail introduced TOPS, this was quite a welcome addition to my photos during the jaunt. I took a video of Royal Scots Grey plying its trade along its old stomping ground and it can be seen by clicking here.

91102 propelled us from Edinburgh to London, driven from 82230 at the front.

The 2200 East Coast departure from London King's Cross to Newcastle was to be my last of the jaunt, with 43313 at the rear (above) and 43257 leading (below).

Hell, I could have had third helpings of the evening meal offering aboard the East Coast trains today. I turned it down though had some more gin and tonic. A very civilised finale to the 2011 LEYTR Railrover. As I needed to photograph the front HST I made my way through the train after Holme (one of the lowest points on the national rail network) and jumped out of the front carriage at Peterborough. Here the train sat for over 5 minutes as British Transport Police had been called to remove a trouble-maker. Listening to an officer allay the fears of a bystander, it appears the miscreant is known to them. The policeman showed his disdain for 'the system' as the guy who was arrested commits an offence in London and is issued a rail warrant to take him home to Peterborough where he then kicks off and has been banned from using the train. A vicious circle and what annoys me most is that he is given free travel on a service where a turn-up-and-go ticket costs almost £30.

Pictorial: Railrover Day 6

2011-08-02T07:00:00.000+01:00

We had a lie-in (of sorts) today. It was rather fortunate, following last night's delay. Our first train of the day didn't depart Glasgow Central until 1000. Before that, however, we thought we'd bag a circuit on the Glasgow Subway. I've travelled on this once before and very much enjoyed the experience. For the uninitiated, the Subway forms a loop around central Glasgow, with trains operating both anti- and clockwise circuits, though these are referred to as inner and outer circuits.

The Subway (known locally as the Clockwork Orange, owing to its colour scheme) offers a single fare of £1.20 and a return of double the single. Savings can be made with multi-journey tickets. The network is very involved in Twitter, having a very infectious feed.

We did an outer loop (I did an inner loop last time). Actually, we did a loop plus 1 stop, alighting at St. Enoch and walking to Central Station.

It was quite a tight connection in the end, though we made our Virgin Trains Super Voyager service, formed of 221104 Sir John Franklin. We left on time and were served complimentary breakfast. I opted for the bacon baguette, while m'colleague went for the 'airline-style English breakfast'. Actually, it looked a little more substantial than what is served in the skies.

We alighted at Carlisle and the weather started to take a turn for the worst. Very gloomy with rain in the air.

Typical. We were headed along the famous Settle-Carlisle line, once mothballed for closure. Here, the scenic line rises to one of the highest altitudes in England with some stunning scenery and iconic structures. Sod's Law, then, that it would be overcast throughout, with heavy mist in places, reducing visibility considerably. We had planned on getting out at Ribblehead to view to Ribblehead Viaduct and then head back to Carlisle before down to London with Virgin, but there was complete, utter and absolute cloud burst when we called here, so Plan B was put in action: we would stay on to Leeds. Our train was the 1155, operated by Northern and was formed of 153359+158855. We both opted to travel in the '158' as it was considerably quieter than the leading 'dogbox'.

At Leeds, we caught a Northern service to Bradford Interchange at 1453. 158757 was our train, working a York-Blackpool service. It was fairly busy but we managed to find two seats together for the short journey.

Bradford Interchange is tiny! I was staggered. Having never been here before, I will admit to having visions of some shiny mass of platforms covered in a huge canopy. There is a canopy, well two actually, but not a lot else. Adjacent to the station is what appears to be the coach layover area, with a number of National Express vehicles there. We were to catch Grand Central's new Bradford-London service and hoped it would be a Class 180 Adelante as we'd already bagged one of their HSTs.

We were in luck as 180114 was to be our chariot to London. We left on time at 1537 and in what was seemingly an empty train. Where were all the passengers? A few boarded en route for the very slow drag to the ECML at Pontefract. Dear me, as with our Sunderland Experience on Day 1, the going was mind-numbingly slow. The powers that be certainly put open access operators at the end of the queue for paths. This is something prospective operators do not make clear in their press releases when they detail aspirations to link new settlements with London and other major UK cities. How they can claim the headline journey times that they do is very misleading. Services like this must surely benefit on the 'direct' credentials of the journeys.

If more than 20 travelled on our five-car Adelante I will be staggered. Quite a difference from our HST being so full that First Class was declassified. The guard got so bored that he came round and served us all tea. The air conditioning also failed in our coach, south of Retford, but we were now travelling at 125mph along the East Coast Main Line, being slowed on occasions by an East Coast train in front. The First Class interior on the '180s' is very nice indeed.

We walked to Euston now and boarded our second and final sleeper service of the jaunt. It was hauled once again by DB Schenker's 90036. This time we were situated towards the rear of the train, being bound for Inverness.

We didn't receive the same level of attention as on Monday night. Also, none of the hosts this evening had a Scottish accent. We later learned that First Scotrail employs London-based crews. I don't want to give the impression we weren't well catered for, as this wouldn't be true, but it wasn't as good as Monday's northbound service.

We depart London Euston, punctually.

Overtaken by Overground.

Empty sleeper stock heading to Euston to work the later service to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

We headed to the Lounge Car for a bottle of white and some nibbles while we headed along the ECML and after arriving in Crewe at 2352, we headed to our cabins for our final sleep of the jaunt as tomorrow would be the last day.

Pictorial: Railrover Day 5

2011-07-31T10:51:00.005+01:00

After a very enjoyable breakfast at our B&B, we made the short walk to Penzance station, where out next service was boarding, the 0844 First Great Western service to London Paddington.

43139 was leading on Platform 1, with 43070 at the rear. Both trains were named, with 43139 named after the FGW driver, Stan Martin, who was killed when his train hit a car that had been deliberately left at a crossing at Ufton Nervet on 6 November 2004.

First's 'dynamic lines' livery looks very nice on all trains it is applied to. A testament to the iconic HST design that such a modern, vibrant livery can look so well on a train that is 30 years old.

It was such a bind! I had to endure yet another journey through Brunel's expertly built Great Western Main Line from the South West. From the confines of my favourite First Class interior, it's the sort of journey that I could never tire of. During the Top 'n' Tail jaunt of 2009, I captured a shot of the Royal Albert Bridge that I was so pleased of, it is hanging on a wall in my house on canvas. I tried to capture another shot from a different perspective this time. To think that once these mk3 coaches are withdrawn, sticking your head out of an open window to capture such a view will be impossible on a normal passenger service.

We alighted at Reading a couple of minutes after our scheduled 1315. It was a fast journey though, with Penzance linked with central London in just 5 hours. We had a relatively short connection here in Reading - a station undergoing extensive renovation to the track layout and later the station itself - with our next train departing at 1334. Bound for Gatwick Airport, one of First Great Western's Class 166 Turbo Express trains was loading.

I'm not a big fan on this type of train operating such busy journeys in one of the most densely populated areas of the UK. They are woefully inadequate in both their internal design and ventilation. I wrote an article for Buses last year, in which I compared the coach and rail services between Oxford and the Capital. Why anyone would choose to pay good money to commute on one of these hot, cramped and ageing units when both coach operators provide a 24/7 high-frequency, modern express service, far cheaper than the train and with proper climate control, is a mystery. This sign was located above every window on the train. 'Emergency ventilation' is very misleading. It should state 'For a draught of breeze or any description, please open this window'. Our train was 166209.

At Gatwick Airport there was our first (and, thankfully, last) crisis of the jaunt. Quite unbelievably, I managed to leave my back pack on the train. I was in such a rush to get to the front for a photo I managed to somehow leave it behind. As luck should have it (and I really do appreciate how fortunate I was), the train headed into a siding before working a journey back and I was able to be reunited with it. This really cut down our connection time at the station, and we were next to head into central London aboard a Gatwick Express service. I'd liked to have had my first-ever ride on a Class 460 Juniper, though sadly this was not to be. Now the service is part of the South Central franchise, Southern inter-work the service with other journeys and so two Class 442 Wessex Electrics had to suffice. It was my first journey aboard one of these trains, too, with 442421 at the front and 442410 at the rear. There is broadly a 15-minute frequency on the Gatwick Express service; we caught the 1505 departure, with a 30-min journey time to London Victoria.

We caught the Tube from Victoria to Euston. Despite spending a day in London on 23 May, videoing and photographing trains on the Victoria Line, this was to capture some of the 1967 Stock that were about to be eradicated from the network, I never managed to travel on their new replacement - 2009 Stock. That was until now.

Next it was a trip with Virgin Trains from London to Glasgow aboard their fastest train of the day (and of all time), linking both cities in just 4:08. Our train was 390052 Virgin Knight that also carried the name of Alison Waters on both ends (British Squash Champion, 2010). We didn't have seat reservations on this service and struggled to find two seats together as it was heavily loaded, even in First Class. We departed on time and were travelling at considerable speed when the brakes were applied and we came to a stand north of Milton Keynes. As we blogged at the time, we were held here for about 1 hour and the driver ended up driving back to Hanslope Junction before heading back via Northampton. Damage to the overhead catenary was to blame and two trains ahead of us were in dire straits. We were more fortunate than we imagined, albeit now 1:52 late.

1:52 late was soon to increase as we were told that our train would no terminate at Preston. An un-scheduled stop was made at Warrington Bank Quay so our driver could get back to London aboard another service. We arrived in Preston a little over 2 hours late, at 2032. We weren't waiting long before our next train arrived, the 1757 ex Euston, formed by 390005 City of Wolverhampton. We departed at 2047 and arrived into Glasgow Central precisely 2.5 hours late at 2308. Despite the delay, we were well catered for and kept informed throughout. We were additionally given forms to complete and give back to the guard and only yesterday did we receive some recompense. Certainly, the ambiance and free food/drink in First Class helped. I remember asking for a gin & tonic from the host who gave me two of each, adding "Have double, it's going to be one of those journeys!"

Further rail efficiency savings

2011-07-24T12:51:00.002+01:00

Stagecoach Group chief executive and founder, Sir Brian Souter, said in an interview for the Daily Telegraph at the start of the month, that applying bus industry working practices to the rail industry would make efficiency savings of 15%. It is interesting to see a figure of this kind being made. Traditional bus companies now own the majority of regional train operating companies in the UK and have made no secret (either directly or indirectly) of the costs involved in operating their franchises.

Sir Brian said that better rostering, scheduling and eliminating Spanish practices would improve rail efficiency. He went onto say, "There is a big productivity gap between the two [industries]. That's what McNulty is talking about. That's why Bob Crow is up in arms."

But we mustn't forget that if the rail industry was so inefficient and profit-starved, Stagecoach, First, Arriva, Go-Ahead and National Express wouldn't bid in the first place.

Pictorial: Railrover Day 4

2011-07-21T20:49:00.000+01:00

We awoke from our sleeper service the night before with breakfast brought to us by our sleeper host. After polishing that off we pulled into Aberdeen, a couple of minutes ahead of the booked arrival time of 0735.

DB Schenker's 67030 hauled us north from Edinburgh

We had just enough time to take some photos of the station entrance and to make use of ScotRail's First Class Lounge before we had a very particular train to catch: the longest journey in the UK, from Aberdeen to Penzance, covering a distance of 722.21 miles in 13 hours and 22 minutes. The journey is only possible in this direction as the northbound equivalent commences at Plymouth, not Penzance.

CrossCountry's Voyager 220024 was to be our home for the next thirteen hours and twenty-two minutes, seen here before departure from Aberdeen

And so with little else to do other than to muse on the world as it passed by, I planned a mini case study of the route, managing to stay awake throughout to photograph all stations served. Annotation is given, where appropriate.

Aberdeen 0820.
As we departed, the guard made a valliant effort to name all stations we'd call at up to and including Plymouth, thereafter he said "and other stations to Penzance".

Stonehaven 0836-0838

Montrose 0857-0859.
A feature we noted XC guards do is to give an estimation of the time to the next station.

Arbroath 0914-0915

Dundee 0931-0932.
First Class got very busy indeed here. There were only two seats remaining in this section - the busiest we'd seen throughout our journey thus far.

Leuchars 0946-0947

Cupar 0953-0954.
We travelled the furthest distance on the train today in First Class. Second place goes to a father and daughter who travelled from Dundee to Bristol Temple Meads, but alighted at Bristol Parkway.

Ladybank 1000-1001

Markinch 1008-1009

Kirkcaldy 1016-1017.
No sign of Gordon Brown.

Inverkeithing 1031-1032.
Just south of Inverkeithing, we crossed the iconic and very impressive Forth Bridge from 1037-1039:

Haymarket 1052-1054.
We'd been running a few minutes late south of Dundee, but managed to arrive into Haymarket a few minutes early and stood for 5 minutes.

Edinburgh Waverley 1058-1105.
Our first crew change took place here. A driver and guard swap and a Retail Manager and First Class Host boarded (the service had departed Aberdeen with refreshment unavailable).

Dunbar 1124-1125

Berwick-upon-Tweed 1147-1148

Alnmouth 1207-1208

Newcastle 1238-1241.
Here there was another guard change and the First Class Host changed.

Durham 1252-1253

Darlington 1310-1311

York 1341-1344.
A driver change took place here.

Leeds 1407-1411, where a change of guard took place.

Wakefield Westgate 1422-1423

Sheffield 1451-1454

Chesterfield 1505-1506.
Our half-way point was at 1510, between Clay Cross and Ambergate.

Derby 1526-1528

Burton-on-Trent 1539-1540

Birmingham New Street 1604-1612.
There was a major crew change here with all being relieved.

Between Birmingham and Cheltenham is the Lickey incline, one of the steepest mainline gradients, measured at 1-in-37. We started our descent at 1626.

Cheltenahm Spa 1651-1652

Bristol Parkway 1725-1727.
We noticed that XC guards do not open the train doors and rather than close them, signal to the driver to close them. Following this, the guard then signals the driver that the train is ready to depart. Other TOCs give guards more control on door operation.

Bristol Temple Meads 1740-1744.
Plenty of slack is added to the timetable between Bristol Parkway and Temple Meads. While travelling between the two, we passed the first of XC's two HSTs heading north at 1736.

Taunton 1816-1818

Tiverton Parkway 1829-1830.
After leaving here, we passed the second of XC's HST sets heading north at 1840.

Exter St. Davids 1844-1847.
A driver change took place here.

Newton Abbot 1906-1907

Totnes 1919-1920.
HSTs are not allowed to call here in this direction if they are operating with only one power car, owing to the immediate incline to the west of the station.

Plymouth 1945-1949.
We lost our First Class Host and retail manager here. Full marks to our host for politely ordering us to take more free food from her trolley as "it's a long way to Penzance and this is your last chance for food". The guard changed at Plymouth, too.

Liskeard 2011-2012

Bodmin Parkway 2023-2025

Par 2035-2036

St. Austell 2041-2044

Truro 2100-2102.
I know it is psychological, but it was very slow going from Plymouth. The scenery and the very high viaducts made the journey far less monotonous.

Redruth 2115-2116

Cambourne 2122-2123

St. Erth 2133-2134

Penzance 2142.
Daylight was fading fast now, though upon our punctual arrival, I spotted something on Platform 3 and shot to the top of that platform to set my camera to recording mode:

First Great Western's Cornish Riviera loco-hauled sleeper service departs Penzance, bound for London Paddington. If you listen carefully you'll hear my BlackBerry smartphone sound with one of many tweets of the day from our 60-strong Twitter followers who I'd been interracting with all day. Conversations ranged from the salary of a XC First Class Host to their HST diagrams. All very informative!

To end the day, I believe the service was crewed as follows:

Drivers
1 - Aberdeen-Edinburgh
2 - Edinburgh-York
3 - York-Birmingham
4 - Birmingham-Exeter
5 - Exeter-Penzance

Guards
1 - Aberdeen-Edinburgh
2 - Edinburgh-Newcastle
3 - Newcastle-Leeds
4 - Leeds-Birmingham
5 - Birmingham-Plymouth
6 - Plymouth-Penzance

Retail Manager
1 - Edinburgh-Leeds
2 - Leeds-Plymouth

First Class Host
1 - Edinburgh-Newcastle
2 - Newcastle-Birmingham
3 - Birmingham-Plymouth

Mega Sleeper?

2011-07-20T22:48:00.002+01:00

We've picked up on some gossip which seems to suggest that Megabus is to introduce a trio of articulated coaches, cascaded from its Scottish fleet, to work a new London-Glasgow overnight service. Nothing unusual so far, except half of the vehicle is reportedly being converted to offer beds, with the other half seating.

An interesting innovation, typically Stagecoach.

Pictorial: Railrover Day 3

2011-07-12T20:31:00.001+01:00

Today was our earliest start, catching the 0532 Arriva Trains Wales service from Holyhead to Cardiff Central. It is referred to as the WAG Express on account of the Welsh Assembly Government funding this special loco-hauled train's operation. A Class 57 leads a short rake of four mk2 coaches in a return trip each week day.

57313 has been loaned to ATW by Virgin Trains. The loco is painted in Arriva's green livery. We spotted the set stabled overnight at Holyhead station.

The train features a First Class section in the rear carriage, which is shared with the kitchen. The service is called the Premier Express by ATW and is one of just 4 journeys each weekday on the national rail network to offer a dining service.

It isn't immediately recognizable, but if you re-watch the above video and play close attention to the Anglesey station name sign as it flies past, you'll see why I recorded it.

A complimentary three-course breakfast is offered to those travelling in First Class, where reservations are compulsory. There is seating for 24 passengers in First, but on our Monday morning journey (the busiest of the week according to two guards we spoke with) no more than 13 travelled at the same time.

As far as I know, the Premier Service is the only service offered by ATW with First Class antimacassars - printed on in both English and Welsh, naturally.

We slow down, only briefly, to pass through Hereford at our scheduled passing time of 0858.

A First Great Western HST set heads to London Paddington from Newport.

We were held outside Cardiff Central while a platform became available. The curve in the track made this photo possible. If you look closely, you can see the HST driver acknowledging the driver of our '57'. A video of the train passing is below:

Once in Cardiff, the sun shone bright and made for a number of excellent photos - seen here is a Class 175 Coradia, operated exclusively by Arriva Trains Wales. Hitherto, the batch of 27 had been split between the erstwhile First North Western and TransPennine Express.

Time for a spot of bus photography, the sun lending itself well to some nice shots in the bus station outside the station. Cardiff Bus is one of a dwindling number of council-operated bus companies and as is becoming more and more common, turns its vehicles out to a very high standard. This Dennis Dart is 13 years old and looks as if it is new. Sadly, this is an area the larger multi-nationals don't concentrate on in my opinion. And this standard was consistent throughout the entire Cardiff Bus fleet that we saw in our hour here.

A very trim MAN 18.220/Enviro300, new to Stagecoach's Red & White subsidiary in 2009. Will this vehicle look as it does now in the year 2022?

Back to our jaunt and our next journey was aboard ATW's 1057 service to Fishguard Harbour, operated, to our dismay, by a Class 150. That said, it was well presented inside and its journey time was 1:32 with just 2 intermediate stops. Are there many other journeys that see an ageing Sprinter like this attain a relatively constant speed for such a duration? The train's maximum 75mph was reached on many occasions.

We arrived pretty early into Fishguard Harbour. Rather than the 5 minute turnaround we had over 15. The train emptied with people for the Stenna ferry to Ireland and loaded with people who'd recently disembarked from the same ferry. Fishguard Harbour is a good sailing point for people travelling to/from Cork.

We departed Fishguard Harbour at 1330 and alighted at the first stop, Whitland, where there is little to do in the time we had, so I tried out my camera's panoramic facility.

From our Class 150 to another of the Sprinter family, this time (as m'colleague calls them) a dogbox, 153303. It went very well indeed and was more than adequate for the numbers that used the ATW service at 1450 to Swansea.

I'd planned to catch the 1628 First Great Western service to London, but we arrived on time at 1522 so we were able to jump onto the 1528 departure. It was formed by 43026 leading and 43165 trailing.

My favourite First Class interior is that aboard FGW HSTs. Sumptuous. The benchmark to which all others must aspire. Sadly, FGW does not provide Wi-Fi of any description. They need to catch up here. Our carriage filled up due to one of the First Class carriages having a problem with its heating.

We arrived into London Paddington a couple of minutes behind schedule, after 'overtaking' a failed service from Newquay. We were incredibly lucky to be able to undertake this manoeuvre outside Didcot as there are only two tracks in this section. We headed to Praed Street and caught the 205 to Euston station, operated by Stagecoach in London.

An hour or so in the First Class Lounge at Euston passed the time - sleepers do not have 240V sockets in the cabins so we used the facility in the lounge - and headed to Platform 15. A DB Schenker-operated Class 90 hauls the rake of carriages in from where they're stabled throughout the day at Wembley depot. Today, 90029 The Institution of Civil Engineers had done the deed, though its involvement with our 2115 departure to Scotland had now ended.

Sixteen carriages form the Caledonian Sleeper services. The first 4 are for Fort William, the next 6 are for Aberdeen and the final 6 are for Inverness. First ScotRail's livery is applied to the rake and DB Schenker have the contract to haul the services, with a Class 90 providing the motive power between London-Edinburgh and a Class 67 between Edinburgh-Inverness/Fort William/Aberdeen. Tonight, 90036 was to haul is to Scotland.

The cabins have not altered since the 2005 LEYTR Railrover, which was our last time on board a sleeper service. A single bed, sink, movable work top, pull-down table, bin and fixed window (with blind) come as standard, along with additional bedding, a complimentary wash bag and breakfast the following morning. An adjoining door can be requested when booking.

Pictorial: Railrover Day 2

2011-07-11T11:48:00.007+01:00

Sunday dawned with a relatively early departure from London Euston - the 0810 Virgin Trains service to Manchester Piccadilly, which is the company's first train of the day, operated by 390041 today.

We had a leisurely run to Crewe, where we departed. An additional fifteen minutes is given to the running time of this journey on a Sunday, in case it is needed to operate via Northampton due to engineering works. This wasn't needed today and we ran early after Milton Keynes, being made to wait south of Stafford before being allowed to pass through that station. Our guard was a very jolly chap with a very strong Cockney accent.

390041 dpearts Crewe bound for Manchester Piccadilly.

We were told on Twitter that Virgin Trains' First Class Lounge at Crewe station is claimed to be haunted. The Cheshire Lounge features on the Strange at Crewe - Crewe Station Ghost Tour.

Virgin Trains names a great deal of its trains, both Class 390 Pendolinos and Class 221 Super Voyagers. We caught the 1042 service to Holyhead, worked by 221113 which is named Sir Walter Raleigh.

We alighted at Bangor, the last stop on mainland Wales, in glorious sunshine. The journey along the North Wales Coast was superb, with some excellent visibility. Today was the warmest day of the week-long Railrover jaunt.

Our train, 221113 departs as 221116 arrives with a train headed for Crewe.

221116 departs Bangor for Crewe.

We headed into the city centre where we had a fair amount of time to wait for our next service of the day - the first bus ride of the jaunt, operated by Lloyds Coaches. Service X32 is part of the TrawsCambria network of inter-urban bus services, with Lloyds Coaches providing one return journey on Sundays between Aberystwyth-Bangor. We caught the last departure of the day, leaving Bangor aboard LL09 WYN, an ADL Dart/Enviro200, at 1315.

1:10 minutes later we arrived in Porthmadog, alighting at the High Street stop. The Ffestiniog Railway can be seen due south of the bus stop and we headed in that direction in glorious sunshine. Before crossing the harbour on a road bridge (which has its own narrow gauge railway line heading towards Caernafon, which has only recently opened) we took this photo of one of the locomotives being watered.

Iarll Meirionnydd is seen here running around our train before working the 1500 departure.

We depart Porthmadog station on time at 1500.

Off The Cob

We caught a departure not in today's blue timetable. A lineside fire had temporarily closed the line for a short period earlier, so an additional 1500 departure was operated. We'd planned to catch their 1600, so cut our time short in Porthmadog and jumped aboard. You'll note the use of elecronic signals - very rare on a miniature railway used for tourism.

At the passing loop located in Minffordd station, Merddin Emrys arrives with a service to Porthmadog.

Much of the railway is single track, with trains passing at loops added to a number of stations en route. The first is at Minffordd, where at 1513 the Porthmadog-bound service interchanged and left before we did, changing onto our tracks at the end of the station.

The manner in which the single-track line meanders through the countryside is evident in this shot.

A couple of level crossings have employees of the company working gates, while the majority are not controlled in any way at all - here is one gate-less crossing close to our terminus at Blaenau Ffestiniog.

We draw into our terminus at Blaenau Ffestiniog and the national railway line can be seen to the right. It's worth pointing out that the first railway line to be built here was that of the Ffestiniog Railway, with the mainline gauge coming a number of years later.

The rear carriage in our train offered a panoramic view, which enabled us to take some excellent photos.

Our train, Iarll Meirionnydd, is watered at Blaenau Ffestiniog before running round the train and being coupled to the opposite end.

The train operated a 1630 departure, again, not advertised owing to the earlier gap in service due to the lineside fire. The turnaround time took just 10 minutes and the following video of the train's departure was so swift it took me by surprise:

We were fortunate to catch the Ffestiniog Railway's unscheduled departure as it gave us a 1:10 connection in Blaenau Ffestiniog, not what we'd planned, just 0:10. We hoped the Arriva Trains Wales departure at 1730 to Llandudno would await our departure, should it be late, but we saw no evidence that it would do so. Here 150262 arrives.

At 1724 Merddin Emrys arrives from Porthmadog, having worked the advertised 1600 departure. Getting across the platform to where the Arriva Trains Wales service departs is not as straightforward as it looks, and I'm sure that had we caught this train as planned, we'd have been rather anxious and enjoyed the end part of the journey less.

We left the ATW Sprinter at Llandudno Junction. It arrived earlier than scheduled, so we were able to catch a train we'd not planned - the 1827 Arriva Trains Wales service to Holyhead, worked by 158839. We had a lovely run along the North Wales Coast again, and over the Menai Bridge into Anglesey - a location I'd never been to before. We had an overnight stay here before heading south to Cardiff on the first train of the day in the morning.

Pictorial: Railrover Day 1

2011-07-10T11:57:00.007+01:00

First train of the Railrover, 365511 is seen here at Peterborough. It is coupled to 365528, which lead the 0546 to King's Cross, operated by First Capital Connect.

In London, we caught Grand Central's service to Sunderland, today formed of a HST set. 43465 is seen here leading the 0747 departure.

We depart a couple of minutes late from King's Cross. In the front coach I record our departure into Gassworks Tunnel.

Marilyn Monroe is seen at the vestibule ends of Grand Central's coaches, emulating the railroads of America.

Grand Central's Sunderland trains do not call at Doncaster, so I recorded our passing using the Down Fast line. Sadly, the maximum 100mph we were permitted to travel at was not attained as we'd been held outside the station previously.

Once in Sunderland, our HST returned to the Heaton depot to the east of Newcastle city centre. The rear loco, 43468 is seen here.

We caught the 1159 Tyne & Wear Metro service from Sunderland to central Newcastle. Sunderland station is a very convenient interchange between heavy and light rail, with both train types using the same infrastructure. 4054 is seen here, leading 4082 into the station.

At Central Station in Newcastle, I record our train departing. Sadly, the HD credentials of my camera do not cope well when recording anything moving up close.

We headed to the surface and a few minutes ahead of schedule, East Coast's 1240 train to Edinburgh arrived, with 91126 leading it in.

Seen here immediately prior to crossing is the Royal Border Bridge, just south of Berwick.

In Edinburgh Waverley I managed to properly photograph our Class 91 that hauled us from Newcastle, 91126. The DVT on the rear was 82231.

My first trip on a Class 334, which wears a livery reflecting the corporate colours of Strathclye Passenger Transport authority. It does not look as fresh or modern as it could do. 334018 was our train, departing at 1437, operated by First ScotRail.

Prior to last December, it was not possible to travel from between Edinburgh and Glasgow via the route we undertook, using Bathgate and Airdrie. This section was re-opened on 12 December 2010 and I took a short video of us travelling over the new metals.

The interior of the 334 was more attractive in my opinion than its exterior.

I recorded our Class 334 leaving Glasgow Queen Street at 1544.

We had time in central Glasgow before out next train so had a walk to the Buchanan Bus Station. En route a nice shot of the entrance to Glasgow Queen Street presented itself, where I captured a Class 158 departing.

An immaculate T-reg Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400 is seen here, operated by McGill's. The bus was new to Metroline London Northern in 1999.

Seen here heading from whence we came is a tri-axle, 65-seater Volvo B12B/Plaxton coach operated by Stagecoach under the Citylink name. SP08 FPF was new to their Strathtay subsidiary but has since been moved to their Glasgow operation.

Arriva operates the service linking Glasgow Airport with the city centre. SJ57 DDN is a Volvo B7RLE/Wrightbus Eclipse Urban, wearing a very attractive variation to the Arriva corporate colours.

Just before we left, we spotted a private hire arrive, operated by Park's of Hamilton, using a Plaxton Elite-bodied Volvo B9R. It was bound for the Rhineland - quite a trek from Glasgow.

Closely followed by another of Stagecoach's tri-axle Volvo B12Bs, though this time wearing its corporate livery, with branding for Service X76 (Cumnock-Glasgow). SF57 DPV was new to the company's Western subsidiary in 2008.

And finally is a tri-axle Plaxton Elite-bodied Volvo B12B, HSK 641, in the Citylink Gold livery. This coach is operated by Park's of Hamilton, who use identical vehicle specification to Stagecoach, who also provide new vehicles for the Citylink Gold network. Designed by Best Impressions, this livery is one of my all-time favourites.

We headed to Glasgow Central where we were to catch the 1640 Virgin Trains service to London Euston. Virgin Trains uses the lower numbered platforms, which snake into the distance.

Our train was 390006, named Tate Liverpool.

Virgin send Voyagers to Glasgow, working shorter journeys to Birmingham New Street.

Nearing London now, one the last leg of Day 1 - we called at Milton Keynes. Virgin has reduced the number of trains calling here with the introduction of their Very High Frequency timetable last year.

At the end - literally - platform 13 at London Euston where 390006 terminates.

Railrover 2011: Itinerary in Full

2011-07-09T23:34:00.006+01:00

In dissecting the recently ended 2011 LEYTR Railrover, we've detailed our actual itinerary in full. This should be read in conjunction with the day-by-day accounts, which have been amassed and uploaded to The LEYTR Jaunts blog (click here)

Saturday 2 July 2011

1P61, 365528+365511
0546 Peterborough
0701 London King's Cross
First Capital Connect

1N20, 43465+43468
0747 London King's Cross
1140 Sunderland
Grand Central

4054+4082
1159 Sunderland
1227 Central Station
Tyne & Wear Metro

1S10, 91126(+82231)
1240 Newcastle
1415 Edinburgh Waverley
East Coast

2M29, 334018
1437 Edinburgh Waverley
1543 Glasgow Queen Street
First ScotRail
**via recently re-opened Airdrie-Bathgate**

1M17, 390006
1640 Glasgow Central
2136 London Euston
Virgin Trains

Sunday 3 July 2011

1H63, 390041
0810 London Euston
1017 Crewe
Virgin Trains

1D83, 221113
1042 Crewe
1209 Bangor
Virgin Trains

LL09 WYN
1315 Bangor, Bus Station (A)
1425 Porthmadog, High Street
Lloyds Coaches Service X32

Iarll Meirionnydd/Fairlie's Patent
1500 Porthmadog
1620 Blaenau Ffestiniog
Ffestiniog Railway
**additional service due to earlier lineside fire**

2D15, 150262
1730 Blaenau Ffestiniog
1829 Llandudno Junction
Arriva Trains Wales

1D13, 158839
1827 Llandudno Junction
1927 Holyhead
**scheduled to catch 1924 departure**

Monday 4 July 2011

1V31, 57313
0532 Holyhead
0958 Cardiff Central
Arriva Trains Wales
**Premier Service/WAG Express**

1B93, 150260
1057 Cardiff Central
1325 Fishguard Harbour
Arriva Trains Wales

1G97, 150260
1330 Fishguard Harbour
1402 Whitland
Arriva Trains Wales

2E17, 153303
1411 Whitland
1522 Swansea
Arriva Trains Wales

1L76, 43026+43135
1528 Swansea
1824 London Paddington
First Great Western
**scheduled to catch 1628 departure**

15102 (LX09 FYY)
1855 Paddington, Praed Street (H)
1910 Euston, Bus Station
Stagecoach in London Service 205

1S25, 90036 (EUS-EDB), 67030 (EDB-ABD)
2115 London Euston
0735 Aberdeen
First ScotRail
**became 1A25 at Edinburgh**

Tuesday 5 July 2011

1V60, 220024
0820 Aberdeen
2142 Penzance
CrossCountry
**longest train journey in Britain**

Wednesday 6 July 2011

1A81, 43139+43070
0844 Penzance
1315 Reading
First Great Western

1O76, 166209
1334 Reading
1450 Gatwick Airport
First Great Western

1U89, 442421+442410
1505 Gatwick Airport
1535 London Victoria
Gatwick Express/Southern

Used Victoria Line to travel to Euston

1S82, 390052
1630 London Euston
2032 Preston
Virgin Trains
**plan was to catch 1S82 London Euston-Glasgow Central in the booked time of 4:08, making it the fastest ever journey time between London and Glasgow; however, sadly, this was not to be as a problem north of Milton Keynes saw us reverse to Hanslope Jn and travel via Northampton. The train ran so late that we were terminated at Preston and caught the next available service**

1S94, 390005
2047 Preston
2308 Glasgow Central
Virgin Trains
**delayed due to the line blockage; it was the 1757 ex Euston**

Thursday 7 July 2011

Diagram 5, unit 126
0918 Buchanan Street
0947 St Enoch
Glasgow Subway

1M53, 221104
1000 Glasgow Central
1110 Carlisle
Virgin Trains

2H89, 153359+158855
1155 Carlisle
1437 Leeds
Northern

1B34, 158757
1453 Leeds
1512 Bradford Interchange
Northern

1A67, 180114
1537 Bradford Interchange
1905 London King's Cross
Grand Central

1S25, 90036 (EUS-EDB), 67030 (EDB-INV)
2115 London Euston
0831 Inverness
First ScotRail

Friday 8 July 2011

53209 (SV54 EKP)
0845 Inverness, Bus Station
1045 Fort William, Bus Station
Scottish Citylink Service 919
**Stagecoach livery**

1Y34, 156485+156465
1140 Fort William
1530 Glasgow Queen Street
First ScotRail

1R56, 170428
1545 Glasgow Queen Street
1635 Edinburgh Waverley
First ScotRail

1E24, (82230+)91102
1700 Edinburgh Waverley
2144 London King's Cross
East Coast

1N35, 43257+43313
2200 London King's Cross
2245 Peterborough
East Coast

Total mileage, which includes a Tube ride on the Saturday evening to our overnight accommodation, and a bus ride on the Sunday morning from the accommodation to Euston, totals:

5841.76
(calculated using railmiles.org)

Travelling Time

2011-07-09T22:24:00.002+01:00

In the bus industry, paying a driver to travel as a passenger on a bus service is frowned upon. In the privatised and deregulated bus industry, the operator's finances are a key factor - overriding many things that it didn't, under a nationalised framework. Efficient scheduling is something the bus industry knows a lot about, often to some employees' distaste. It is very rare to see a bus driver travelling as a passenger on board a bus as part of their shift, unless he/she is travelling to/from his base, which may be located some distance from the town/city centre changeover point.

In the scheduled coach industry, services are forced to comply with EC Drivers' Hours Regulation 561/2006, requiring a driver to have a break after 4.5 hours. If a second driver is conveyed, this is the reason why. Ensuring an attractive end-to-end journey time for the passenger can help business, so this inefficiency is a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. Even when a second driver is needed, he/she is diagrammed as intensively as possible. It is nothing to see some coach drivers 'jumping' a coach along the M1 for an hour, where he/she will then leave at the next motorway services, before doing the same to a coach heading in the opposite direction. It is very rare to see a scheduled coach service with the same two drivers throughout (I can immediately think of two but as a percentage of every single scheduled coach service that operates today, this isn't even 1%). Company cars are sometimes used to enable drivers to change near to their base but to prevent an unnecessary diversion to the coach journey, taking a fleet car is, again, the lesser of two evils.

The railway industry is an altogether different beast. A letter in the latest RAIL details how taxis are used on a daily basis to convey a Virgin Trains driver between Liverpool and Chester and how one is used to transport an Arriva Trains Wales conductor between Holyhead and Chester. I wonder if it is the same one? A retired train driver friend of mine who lives in Lincolnshire was sent home by taxi each and every night he was rostered to work lates (one week in 3) from Waterloo station in central London. He was not the only one: a taxi took an employee from Norfolk home, too.

This kind of wastage is all too apparent in the rail industry. Part of me agrees with the line taken by hardened unionists, that being a member of a heavily unionised workforce and standing your ground from the start ensures that, more often than not, you'll win and that particular derogation to your contract of employment will be retained. But then the nature of the railways meant that privatisation was never going to be a carbon copy of that with buses and coaches. The prescriptive nature and micro-management by the DfT has, in my opinion, assisted the industry's workers in maintaining almost identical contracts of employment fifteen years after privatisation got underway.

The McNulty Report essentially recommended everyone sitting down and chatting about how best to turn the tide on the railway's spiralling costs. More efficient scheduling that removes the use of taxis on a daily basis must surely be a starting point. The public is largely shielded from this area of wastage but less so when it affects them directly: the cancellation of all Sunday services because either drivers or guards (or in some cases both) are not contractually obliged to work on the Sabbath. Colloquially known as Barbecue Days, these debilitating incidents have affected me on a number of occasions with Central Trains and now East Midlands Trains. This should also be one of the first things that need to be addressing. Arriva Trains Wales and London Midland have also suffered over the past couple of years.

The very fact they're known as Barbecue Days has a number of unpalatable undertones to me. This can have a knock-on effect to the following day as trains are often positioned incorrectly and a reduced service with yet more replacement buses are the order of the day on the busy Monday morning - costing many thousands of pounds. Coaches used to provide replacement road transport are usually paid a set fee per day, of around £500. Consider, say, Wales being without any trains for a day, and the cost is not inconsiderable.

Tackling these inefficiencies first are going to be relatively easy - when you consider McNulty would like to see the removal of safety-critical guards from virtually all trains - and they will make tangible savings. In the scheme of things they won't go anywhere near tipping the balance, but they will be a start. If movement can't be made in these areas, the thorny issue of Driver Only Operation will never, ever be resolved.

Railrover 2011: Day 7

2011-07-08T23:30:00.000+01:00

Today is a historic day for the LEYTR Blog: A Transport of Delight, as it is our 1,000th post. We also celebrate the end of our around Britain epic Railrover, with the final entry below.

Next week a series of posts that will predominantly detail photos with captions that tell the story, will appear. The photos used this week have been taken by my 3 million pixel phone, not my 14 million pixel 'bridge' camera with HD video facility, so there are some corkers to upload in due course.

Back to today, however, and I awoke just after 0400 when the Class 90 that had hauled us our of Euston and along the WCML last night, was coupled much nearer to the front of our coach than it had been. When braking it was as if gear changes echoed throughout the sleeper. Not pleasant at all. The Inverness portion of the train - 8 coaches today - is the last to be coupled to a Class 67 on Platform 19 at Edinburgh Waverley. We were supposed to depart at 0424 but did so at 0448, with 67030 replacing 90036 at the front.

The '67' was much smoother and I soon fell back to sleep and awoke when the host brought the complimentary breakfast, featuring what must be the world's smallest bread roll. All free and welcome though. Except for the UHT milk in a stick!

Realising that the London-bound East Coast HST was due to pass us at any moment, I rushed around to try and capture it doing so. We had stopped at a passing loop and it was the train we were awaiting. Not on my phone but on my main camera, I captured a cracking video of it passing that I'll upload in due course. Elation turned to anxiety when we saw how late we were. An expected arrival time of 0848 was showing on the National Rail website and we were booked aboard the Citylink coach from Inverness to Fort William at 0845. I always knew this would be particularly tight. A simple calculation for the time the HST had taken from Inverness, where I knew it had departed at 0755, to our location revealed that we would arrive at 0839 - tantalisingly do-able yet at the same time worryingly tight.

Our DB Schenker loco driver gave it the beans and we clocked him attaining 83mph at one point. All very welcome, and we arrived, as I'd roughly calculated, into Inverness at precisely 0839. Without hanging about we made our way to the bus station and saw the coach at the stance. It was in Stagecoach livery, 53209 (SV54 EKP), a Volvo B7R/Plaxton Profile, working the 919 to Fort William. The English driver was very accommodating and told us there was no need to rush as he would be delayed leaving as he was awaiting a mechanic from the depot to sort out his wingmirror, which didn't look in a good way.

Can you believe it took 30 minutes for this to be repaired, so we departed at 0915 and the driver drove so hard and fast to make up time that the engine overheated. He stopped at a garage in Invergarry to add cool water to his boiling engine, but the alarm still sounded for the next hour to Fort William. We were both glad to get off for a number of reasons.

In Fort William we had time to photograph the portion of the sleeper train that we were attached to leaving Euston the night before and West Coast Railways' Class 37 before our train to Glasgow arrived from Mallaig at 1140: two ScotRail Class 156s that were heavily reserved: 156485+156465. A load of people boarded and after the ensuing melee, we found a pair of unreserved seats for the lengthy journey to Scotland's largest city. I'd only done this route once before in 2005 on the sleeper service heading north and slept through most of it. It is a very spectacular line, slightly less so than the stretch north of Fort William to Mallaig (which I bagged in 2009), but still very much worth the ride.

Some of the gradients on this section of line are incredibly steep and perhaps more noticeable with our reduced speed. We arrived on time into Glasgow Queen Street at 1530.

Just two platforms away from where we arrived was our next train, the 1545 ScotRail service to Edinburgh via Falkirk. We'd done the reverse journey on Saturday via the recently re-opened Bathgate line so planned the slightly faster and more direct on this occasion. The small First Class section was very quiet, despite the numbers choosing to travel on this train in Standard, and off we went, aboard 170428 - our first Turbostar of the jaunt.

We seemed to run at decent speed throughout and weren't held anywhere but we arrived into Edinburgh Wavereley a few minutes late. Our plan now was to catch the 1700 East Coast service to King's Cross - our penultimate journey of the week. Being Friday evening the train was both busy and, understandably, heavily reserved, especially in Standard, but we managed to get seats in First.

A very enjoyable journey south along the ECML with 91102 propelling us. The loco does look rather tatty, with both GNER and National Express branding still visible under the East Coast names. It's Durham Cathedral name, which was given to it by GNER, was still visible on the loco. Inside, we were served the All Day Offer menu, with a change of crew at Newcastle. Unlike Virgin Trains, East Coast doesn't offer the Evening Meal menu to any journey other than those leaving London from 1700.

43257+43313 were my final trains of the jaunt, working the 2200 East Coast service to Newcastle, though I would be alighting at Peterborough at 2245, where my lift to take me into railway-less rural Lincolnshire would be waiting. We departed on time and despite East Coast having a ruling about passengers in First Class travelling for less than 70 minutes being only offered drinks and biscuits for free, was both offered and took up a main course in the Evening Meal menu. Plus another G&T for good measure. A very civilised end to a jaunt that has seen a personal mileage of over 5,800 in 7 days.

43257 awaits its 'right away' from Peterborough a little later than its advertised 2246 departure

More of the Railrover in the coming posts next week. Time for bed now!!

Day 1: Peterborough-London-Sunderland-Newcasltle-Edinburgh-Glasgow-London

Day 2: London-Crewe-Bangor-Porthmadog-Blaenau Ffestiniog-Llandudno Junction-Holyhead

Day 3: Holyhead-Cardiff-Fishguard Harbour-Whitland-Swansea-London-Aberdeen

Day 4: Aberdeen-Penzance

Day 5: Penzance-Reading-Gatwick Airport-London-Glasgow

Day 6: Glasgow-Carlisle-Leeds-Bradford-London-Inverness

Day 7: Inverness-Fort William-Glasgow-Edinburgh-London-Peterborough

Railrover 2011: Day 6

2011-07-07T17:22:00.007+01:00

Following last night's significant delays, we were made aware that what is believed to have happened is that vandals threw one or more objects from a bridge onto the catenary on the West Coast Main Line, with one missile damaging the overhead equipment to the point that part of the mechanism was displaced and hit by the 1620 Euston-Manchester - the train, ironically, managed to continue in service around one hour later. The 1623 Euston-Wolverhampton was less fortunate and lost power and was rescued by a Class 57. We were very fortunate the signaller sent the stop command to our driver before we entered the damaged section.

We still got a good 8 hours sleep in, though, as our first train wasn't until 1000 - a Virgin Voyager to Carlisle. Before that, however, we had a ride on Glasgow's subway section, dubbed the Clockwork Orange. Last time I visited Glasgow, I undertook a circuit on the inner circle; this time we chose the outer circle, joining at Buchanan Street and doing a loop plus one stop, alighting at St Enoch. Our unit was 126 working diagram 5. The loop took approximately 27 mins, after which we headed to Glasgow Central.

Actually, we cut it very fine indeed, arriving just 5 minutes before 221104 Sir John Franklin departed, bound for Birmingham New Street. As with our last trip aboard one of Virgin's Voyager sets (Sunday, Crewe-Bangor), this was formed of five cars with one being First Class. We made good progress through the edge of the Lake District to Carlisle, arriving on time, and after a very tasty bacon panini.

At Carlisle we had enough time to catch up on all the News of the World gossip from the free papers before our next train arrived: 153359+158855, working the 1155 Northern service to Leeds via the iconic Settle-Carlisle line. I'd not travelled on this section of route since childhood so was eager to include it in this week's itinerary. We departed on time and the train was filled with people with ruck sacks and walking boots and we made steady progress. The weather - having been glorious every single day without exception - looked ominous, with very large, black clouds in our direction.

At 1300 precisely we passed the line summit at Aisgill (356m/1168ft) and soon after through Dent station (the highest mainline station in the UK, at 1150ft above sea level), before crossing the world famous Ribblehead Viaduct - our guard even announced our crossing. Line speed here is 30mph maximum, lending itself to passengers' enjoyment of the view. Many people lost their lives building the line, not least the construction of these enormous viaducts. While I don't consider the 'drop' to be as great at viaducts that litter Brunel's line into Cornwall, the crossing was no less impressive than I remembered. As a child, my first crossing was aboard a loco-hauled train, comprising a very long rake of mk2 coaches, which I vividly remember stopping twice at Settle - once to accommodate the first few coaches and then moved further up for the second half.

Our initial plan was to get off at Ribblhead and photograph the viaduct before returning north on the next available service to Carlisle and then Virgin to London, but we had planned to try and bag a Class 180 working with Grand Central. This we managed by remaining on our Northern service to Leeds (and not alighting at Ribblehead as intended - a good call as it was utter cloud burst as we called there) and catching another Northern service from Leeds to Bradford Interchange at 1453, formed by 158757, bound for Blackpool.

Once at Bradford Interchange we crossed platforms where our Grand Central Class 180 (the company no longer refer to these trains as Adelantes or as we believed they preferred, Zephyrs) was stood. 180104 was our train, looking resplendent in its black livery. Other than the driver, only two crew worked the service, and having only ever caught a '180' once before, while in service with First Great Western a number of years ago, was very impressed with the interior of the train. First Class tables don't have the integral board games, unlike the HST, but everything else is appears fresher and more modern. Leather antimecassars look very swish, too.

We took an absolute eternity to join the ECML, just north of Doncaster. Similar to the Sunderland service, the speed along the non-ECML sections of route is mind-numbingly slow. We waited outside Wakefield Kirkgate for a platform to become available for over 5 minutes yet still had time to kill there before our scheduled departure. That said, it is the direct link the company offer that is a very strong selling point.

Once on the ECML we called at Doncaster and then direct to King's Cross. We ran up to 10 minutes late as we didn't appear to have a very efficient slot. An East Coast '91' overtook us after Doncaster and then we constantly slowed down with this express now holding us up. A Class 91 was noted on Platform 3 at Newark Northgate - diagrammed to be a HST and prior to a very bum decision at the end of last year, would have been headed to Lincoln Central.

We made use of East Coast's First Class Lounge in King's Cross - we planned on using it on Saturday morning but it didn't open until after our first train had departed - before walking to Euston and catching our second sleeper service of the week, this time to Inverness.

Tomorrow is a milestone for two reasons: it is the final day of the 2011 LEYTR Railrover and it also marks this blog's 1,000th post. We're both going to the lounge car to celebrate. Goodnight.

Railrover 2011: Day 5

2011-07-06T20:59:00.004+01:00

Morning broke at 0844 when our First Great Western service to London Paddington left Penzance. At the helm was 43139 that was named after Driver Stan Martin who was tragically killed when his train collided with a car on a level crossing on 6 November 2004. At the rear was 43070 The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Travelling in/out of Cornwall by train is something I've done only once before. It is a wonderful experience. While the speed isn't what you'd expect from a HST, the views and ridiculously high viaducts are no less impressive second time round. Although travel yesterday aboard the Voyager was pleasant, it was very noticeably how more enjoyable it was in a leather-seated mk3 carriage.

A mini crisis took hold at Exeter when the hot water boiler failed. We were held at Exeter for 5 minutes while an engineer looked at it but to no avail. This journey heralded my favourite guard announcement of the journey so far: "If you're leaving the train here please ensure you're alighting onto a platform."

Despite the slight delay at Exeter we made good time travelling non-stop to Reading, arriving only one minute late. We didn't have long at Reading so headed to Platform 4A where our next service was loading.

First Great Western operate from here to Gatwick Airport every hour and we were aboard its 1334 departure, formed by 166209. The journey was, quite frankly, rather boring when compared to what we've been used to. But it was very punctual and we arrived at Gatwick Airport on time. I had a mini crisis of my own here when I realised some time after we alighted that I'd left a bag on board. I was so lucky for a number of reasons, not least that the service travelled to some sidings for 10 minutes before forming the 1503 return journey from the same platform, so I was able to acquire said bag from the driver trainer at the front.

The reason for the run to Gatwick Airport was to try and bag a Class 460 Juniper on the Gatwick Express to London Victoria. It, however, was not to be as the one I scheduled us to travel on was a pair of 'plastic pigs', Wessex Electric Class 442s (442421+442410). I rather enjoyed them and had never travelled on one before, though m'colleague assured me they'd been extensively refurbished. He also commented that a '442' holds the fastest speed of a third-rail train, at 109mph.

A very efficient and speedy trip into London and half-an-hour later we were at Victoria. We jumped on the Tube to get to Euston as we were booked on the 1630 Virign Trains 'crack express' to Glasgow Central in their record-breaking journey time of 4:08. This necessitated my first trip on the 2009 Stock, now the sole occupier of the Victoria Line, relieving the remaining 1967 Stock last month. I didn't catch the fleet number!!

Our super-fast Virgin Trains departure at 1630 was formed by 390052 Virgin Knight that carries the name of Alison Walters on the train fronts. We took our seats and at precisely 1630 (and I do mean precisely!) we glided out of Platform 13. Progress was as per the running schedule until an emergency brake application between Hanslope Junction and Weedon. Although it was an emergency brake application, no one came out of their seat and no luggage fell from anywhere in our carriage. Sadly, there we sat for a very long time.

The 1630 Euston-Piccadilly struck what we now understand to be the overhead power equipment which caused it to blow its circuit breakers but this was later changed to the train brought the overhead wires down. We were the second in line as the 1623 Euston-Wolverhampton was between us both. We were the lucky ones as we didn't lose power and after a considerable length of time undertook a wrong direction move back along the Down Main to Hanslope Junction, where we headed via the diversionary route through Northampton. Once we rejoined the WCML at Hillmorton Junction, it was 1908, not the booked passing time of 1716. We ran just under 2 hours late through to Preston, with an unscheduled stop at Warrington Bank Quay so the London-based driver could return to London.

Sadly, a decision was made to terminate our train at Preston and the relief train crew were no longer available. Clearly a decision had been made to schedule this crew to relieve a train that was not as severely delayed as us and, in the cold harsh light of day, it was the right call.

We pulled into Preston a rather impressive 2 hours and 2 minutes late at 2032.

As luck would have it the 1757 Euston-Glasgow pulled onto Platform 3 at 2039 and departed at 2047, with a scheduled arrival time in Glasgow at 2257, precisely 2 hours 19 minutes after our booked arrival. It is 390005 City of Wolverhampton. I'm typing this blog entry up while on this final train - we've just passed the Shap summit (916 feet about sea level, after a 1:75 approach gradient from Tebay).

Thanks to Twitter, Virgin Trains contacted me to say the overhead line problem is suspected vandalism. We understand the 1623 bound for Wolverhampton had to be rescued by a Class 57 and ran almost 200 minutes late. Everything considered, Virgin handled the situation impeccably. Announcements, while taking 5 or 6 minutes to come initially, became regular and contained the 'human' touch - the weren't sterile and emotionless. Forms were handed out for passengers to complete which would be passed to customer relations for their consideration on some form of remuneration. Certainly in my carriage there were no complaints, even when the guard very bravely announced our delay was likely to be around two hours.

There are no complaints from us about the way the incident was handled, though obviously our severely delayed arrival was a clear inconvenience. It is, hand on heart, the only delay in excess of five minutes we've had for the entire jaunt so far.

We get a lie in tomorrow, before heading south and plan to bravely deviate from our itinerary.

Railrover 2011: Day 4

2011-07-05T22:08:00.005+01:00

Today was the most uneventful of our week-long jaunt as it is the day that we sat on the same train for thirteen hours and twenty two minutes. 1V60 is the headcode for CrossCountry's 0820 departure from Aberdeen bound for Penzance, where it is booked to arrive at 2142. But before that, there is the small matter of last night's sleeper service to comment on.

Platform 15 at London Euston was the place to be from 2030hrs when ScotRail's Caledonian Sleeper began boarding. The service runs six days a week (Sun-Fri) in both directions. A Class 90 hauls the sixteen-carriage train along the WCML to Edinburgh, where it splits into three separate trains, one for Fort William (the front four coaches), one for Aberdeen (the next six carriages) and one for Inverness (rear six carriages). We were headed for Aberdeen so headed to the carriage in which our booked berths were. Although it was Coach B, this was found slap bang in the centre of the train.

The set is stabled during the day at the Wembley depot and as it was humid yesterday the interior temperature was pretty impressive, more so in the berths than the vestibules and corridors. Our host (one per two carriages I believe) assured us that by Watford Junction we'd feel the air conditioning properly. This never happened. Otherwise, it was an excellent journey, as ever. The Aberdeen route is the final sleeper service I needed to 'bag', too.

To say our motive power, 90036, was capable is an understatement. Within 10 minutes we recorded our speed to be 83mph. We spent between 2300-midnight in the lounge car sharing a bottle of wine.

Breakfast was served at 0640 - nothing to write home about, but there were three different types from which to choose - and we arrived in Aberdeen fifteen minutes early at 0720.

Time for a look around the station and to make use of ScotRail's First Class Lounge before boarding the train that was to undertake the 772.21 mile journey to Penzance, calling at a total of 45 places. All destinations were listed on the departure screen at Aberdeen and it took three pages. It is the longest train journey in the UK and can only be undertaken in this direction, since its northbound equivalent commences at Plymouth.

220024 was to be our home for the next thirteen-and-a-bit hours. Despite our seat reservation request saying otherwise, our reserved seats faced backwards so we sought unreserved seats. At 0820 we departed. At no point until our Cornish arrival did we operate in excess of 4 minutes late. It was a journey that even in the bus industry would have been categorised as 100% punctual.

It was, however, a little boring, though less so than our Top 'n' Tail trip during 2009 when we travelled from Edinburgh to Penzance on the erstwhile National Express 336. Back then it formed part of our John o'Groats to Land's End jaunt. This time, however, we were in First Class and being waited on (well, between Edinburgh and Plymouth, anyway). Some said that being on a Voyager was punishment enough, and while I concede that a HST would have been more preferable, the journey wasn't uncomfortable at all.

There were a total of five drivers (they changed at Edinburgh, York, Birmingham & Exeter), six train managers (they changed at Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham, & Exeter), two retail managers (Edinburgh-Birmingham and Birmingham-Plymouth) and three first class hosts (Edinburgh-Newcastle, Newcastle-Birmingham and Birmingham-Plymouth).

Other than us, the only others who travelled anything like the distance we did in First Class did so between Dundee-Bristol Parkway.

We arrived in Penzance bang on time and witnessed the Cornish Riviera sleeper service leave, headed for London.

A tiring day but nonetheless satisfying.

Railrover 2011: Day 3

2011-07-04T19:38:00.005+01:00

Today was the earliest start of the entire week as our first train departed Holyhead at 0532. Known within enthusiast circles as The WAG (Welsh Assembly Government-funded) Express, this is a once daily loco-hauled service between Holyhead and Cardiff Central, timed to appeal to commuters and shoppers bound for the Welsh capital. I conveniently timed return train from Cardiff also operates, worked by the same stock. It is operated by Arriva Trains Wales who refer to it as The Premier Service.

First Class travel requires a compulsory reservation, or so the timetable states. A total of 24 seats are located in First Class and at no point today did more than 13 travel at any one time, ourselves included. We reserved out seats but the depot at Holyhead had run out of reservations slips.

Another very friendly and approachable Arriva Trains Wales guard worked the service, being relieved at Chester. She even offered to photograph us both, spotting we were making the most of the journey. A number of regular passengers appear to travel, with one chap having his coffee poured for him before he took his seat. Service indeed.

Four mk2s were hauled by 57313, which we understand is allocated to Virgin Trains, though the entire set was in Arriva Trains Wales livery. It was a very civilised start to the day and the complimentary three-course breakfast was superb. It was another one of those absolutely faultless journeys.

There then followed a gap in First Class travel for precisely 5:30 as we headed west on one of Arriva's Sprinter services to Fishguard Harbour. The 1057 departure was formed of 150260. The female guard's announcements prior to departing were not what I considered "text book" but they ensured no one was on the wrong train. Sometimes this tack can prevent considerable inconvenience to both passengers and crews alike. Basically, two trains were on Platform 4A about six feet apart and she ensure quite successfully that no one boarded our train by mistake.

We only stopped twice in the 2:28 journey to Fishguard Harbour, with the '150' running at top speed (75mph) at almost every possible occasion. Almost an express service for such a unit.

We arrived early so had longer than the booked 5 minutes at Fishguard Harbour. There's no arrow of indecision noticeable at the station, nor is there any traditional railway-style station name. A load boarded, fresh from the Stenna Line ferry that was berthed opposite and at 1330 we began our return. The train was booked to Cheltenham but we alighted after half-an-hour or so at Whitland.

There appears to be very little to do here so we stayed on Platform 1 and a few minutes ahead of time ATW's 153303 arrived, bound for Swansea. It has come from Pembroke Dock. I didn't consider that it would be a '153'; indeed, I assumed it would be a busy run as in the relatively short distance it had travelled a total of 9 stations had been called at. The train, however, was dead quiet and after a crew change (and reversal at Carmarthen) we arrived early into Swansea.

Next was First Great Western to London Paddington. Our '153' was due to arrive 6 minutes before a London train left so I'd booked us on the one an hour later, but we managed to catch the 1528, formed of 43026 (leading) and 43165 (trailing). The last time I travelled in FGW's First Class was in 2005 and since then the ambiance has been improved no end with leather seating throughout. A problem with the heating in Coach G meant that few people wanted to sit in there so our coach (H) was very busy indeed.

Just outside Didcot Parkway we slowed very quickly indeed and moved onto the Down Main line to pass a failed HST. We believe it was the 1500 Newquay-Paddington. We were incredibly lucky not having to even stop as there are onto two lines along this section of route. The delay was just 13 minutes in total.

Time for our second (and final) bus ride of the jaunt: Stagecoach East London's Service 205 (Paddington Basin - Bow Church) between Piccadilly and Euston. We had 15102 (LX09 FYY), a Scania OmniCity - an integral bus that is rare within the Stagecoach Group (though purchased by East London Bus Group before Stagecoach re-purchased the operation at the end of last year).

I'm typing today's entry up in Virgin's First Class Lounge before we head to Aberdeen using the ScotRail's Caledonian Sleeper service. I'd hoped for a quick photo to upload but when we arrived at 1910 it had yet to pull onto Platform 15. Problems on the MML mean Euston is very busy, with passengers being permitted travel with London Midland and change at Tamworth.

I'll upload the Sleeper shots to the start of tomorrow's blog. There would otherwise be precious few photos of different trains as will become evident...

Railrover 2011: Day 2

2011-07-03T18:36:00.006+01:00

After an early morning in London - so early that we missed out all-inclusive breakfast at the LSE's Carr-Saunders Hall - we caught Virgin Trains' first departure of the day from Euston at 0810. We left from the same platform that we arrived from yesterday (13), though the Pendolino was different, 390041. It was a very enjoyable run along the increasingly familiar West Coast Main Line. An additional 15 minutes running time has been added to the journey on Sundays, in case engineering work forces it to operate via Northampton, so we flew through Rugby 15 minutes ahead of time. Our guard apologised for us being held south of Stafford and that "it would not have an adverse effect on our journey time". He seemed like a great guy (called Steven), with the voice a cross between 'Brother' Crow and Ray Winston.

We had a quick look around Virgin's refurbished Cheshire Lounge at Crewe station. Very nice it was too. It was a little odd having to show our tickets to a camera before being allowed access though.

Next it was to Platform 12 for a Virgin Voyager - 221113 Sir Walter Raleigh - where we caught the 1042 service bound for Holyhead, though we bailed out at Bangor. On board, the train was very full indeed when we left, even more so at Chester. It was a very pleasant journey along the North Wales coast. A chat with the Holyhead-based guard (who relieved a Scots chap at Chester) was interesting; she was telling us that she sees a fair amount of variation, with duties that take her to London.

Bangor was the location of our first (and penultimate) journey by bus during our trip. Service X32 forms part of the TrawsCambria network and operates between Holyhead-Aberystwyth, though our Sunday journey commenced at Bangor and was operated by Lloyds Coaches. They used LL09 WYN, an ADL Dart/Enviro200 B29F. It was the sort of journey that despite the light loadings, is difficult to keep to time on. We ran a few minutes late throughout and at one time clocked our bus doing its top speed of 57mph along the A487.

Arriving a few minutes late in Porthmadog, we meandered to the Ffestiniog Railway station. It was 1435 and our train wasn't due to depart until 1600. Much to our surprise, an additional departure at 1500 was now scheduled as today's timetable had been disrupted as the result of a lineside fire earlier. Our First Class All-line Rovers were valid in the First Class section at the rear of our train (we checked first), so we sat an enjoyed our wonderful 13.5-mile journey into Snowdonia. Our train was hauled by Iarll Meirionnydd/Fairlie's Patent.

The guard commented that he'd never seen First Class All-line Rovers before in his 10 years at the company yet today we were the second to present them to him.

Our connection at Blaenau Ffestiniog was to be 0:10, but thanks to our bespoke journey from Porthmadog we now had a much more comfortable 1:10. Arriva Trains Wales provided 150262 on their last departure of the day from there at 1730. Whether it is supposed to await the arrival of the Ffestiniog Railway's 1720 arrival or not, we did not know, but were glad we didn't have to find out.

The Ffestiniog Tunnel is one of the first things travellers on the Conwy Valley Line will notice as they leave Blaenau Ffestiniog. At 3522m/3853yds I believe it is the longest tunnel on a single-track line. The train was lightly loaded though at Llanwrst a number of people who had been re-enacting in a field somewhere boarded - their spears and chain mail appeared to weigh them down on this very humid summer's afternoon.

We arrived a couple of minutes early at Llandudno Junction, so we were, for the first time, able to catch a train that wasn't in our official itinerary: Arriva Trains Wales' 1827 train to Holyhead. We'd been booked on the 1924 as we weren't due in until 1829.

Our conductor Joe was very courteous and chatted for some time. He was a bastion of his profession, pointing out places of interest on route, from Snowdon to the barracks where Prince Harry is based. He also gave us some insider information regarding the first train of the day tomorrow. It's an early start so I shall retire to watch Top Gear.

Read Day 1's account here.

Upon our return we shall provide a number of blog entries with images of the 2011 LEYTR Railrover, including facts and figures.

Railrover 2011: Day 1

2011-07-02T16:42:00.009+01:00

Greetings from aboard Virgin Trains' 390006 Tate Liverpool, as we head south along the West Coast Main Line. The daily blog entries will consist of a number of photos taken during the day with some comments beneath each - this being the first of the 2011 LEYTR Railrover.

My first trip was from Peterborough to London King's Cross aboard First Capital Connect's 0546 departure. 1P61 was formed by two four-car Class 365s, with 365528 leading and 365511 trailing, though I sat in the latter - in the first class compartment. The Revenue Protection Officer's words when he clocked my All-lines Railrover was: "We don't see many of those!"

In London we boarded the exceedingly busy 1N20, Grand Central's first Sunderland service of the day at 0747. When I say it was busy, it left The Cross full and standing. The guard declassified first class so plenty of people entered. Complimentary refreshments were still offered upon production of our ticket and we had to go to the buffet. Neither m'colleague nor I had ever travelled with Grand Central before and it was a very pleasant experience. There does, however, appear to be ridiculous amounts of time for stations north of York. We waited on numerous occasions at Northallerton and Eaglescliffe. Outside Hartlepool we arrived so early an announcement was made to say we wouldn't be allowed in until our booked arrival time. Even then we had a further 7 minutes to dwell.

So any claim that Grand Central is feeling an adverse effect on its Sunderland-London journey time as a result of East Coast's new ECML timetable is a little off-the-mark as they could take out at least 10 mins between Sunderland and York. The only other niggle I had is that seat reservations were not put out as (and I quote): the train arrived late into King's Cross last night.

We had to purchase a single ticket on the Tyne & Wear Metro. We would be passing through three zones so the fare to Central Station, Newcastle, was £3. Sunderland is a very convenient place to interchange as the Metro uses Network Rail infrastructure. Our train was the 1159 and was formed of 4054 (leading) and 4082. A very enjoyable journey and, as with all journeys so far, bang on time. German efficiency even...

Not long before East Coast's 91126 arrived at Newcastle platform 2, working 1S10. It arrived a little ahead of its booked time (1238) and we left spot on at 1240. A nice scenic run up the northern end of the ECML, with lovely views of the North Sea and the viaduct immediately before Berwick. And before that the tightest curve on the line at Morpeth.

We arrived into Edinburgh 7 minutes early on platform 11 and luckily we didn't have far to go as our ScotRail service to Glasgow Queen Street (then Milngavie) left from 12 - and it was in. Some nice shots of 334018, before it left at 1437, working 2M29 via the new Bathgate-Airdrie link that was re-opened on 12 December last year. It's a pretty nondescript line though - the scenery is nice enough but nothing spectacular - a bit like the Strathclyde Passenger Transport livery First applies to its trains; they don't do the units justice.

In Glasgow it is only two blocks to the hive of activity that is the Buchanan Street Bus Station, so we headed there for a quarter of an hour for some photos. Park's of Hamilton was working a private hire to the Rhineland using a Plaxton Elite. The Citylink Gold colour scheme really is very impressive.

A wander to Glasgow Central and we jumped aboard the 1640 Virgin Trains service to London Euston. 1M17 was formed by 390006 Tate Liverpool and we currently have the entirety of Coach K to ourselves. Just this one journey would cost £207.50 (First Anytime Single, Glasgow-London).

We're staying in London overnight and heading out first thing to North Wales. I'm sure we'll both sleep well!

Starting tomorrow...

2011-07-01T15:15:00.003+01:00

The 2011 LEYTR Railrover starts tomorrow at the crack of dawn, and will last for seven days. This year's itinerary has been assembled with a number of things in mind: different traction types; different journey types (commuter/express); different areas of the country that weren't covered in the 2005 LEYTR Railrover; and to maximise gluttony - for this is a First Class All-lines Railrover!!

There might only have been a gap of six years, but in 2005 neither of us travelled with a laptop, nor did we take advantage of free Wi-Fi on the few trains that offered it. This very blog hadn't started, either. Virgin still ran Cross Country, GNER was providing Anglo-Scottish services along the ECML, the heritage slam-doors were plying their trade along the Lymmington Branch, First Great Western was operating many more Adelantes than today and Class 37s hauled the Caledonian Sleepers north of Edinburgh. Of the few buses we caught, Rapsons was still independent and Southern Vectis hadn't started scrapping cars. Wilts & Dorset had operational Bristol VRs and the 'more' network in Bournemouth was causing a stir. We both had slightly more hair and fewer wrinkles, too.

The forthcoming week-long jaunt involves two overnight sleeper services, the WAG Express, copious amounts of Pendolinos (Pendolina??), some Grand Central, T&W Metro, the Ffestiniog Railway, Settle-Carlisle, Airdrie-Bathgate, the TrawsCambria bus network, the lengthiest train journey in the UK and as many First Class Lounges as we can pack in. There'll also be some slightly less exciting elements that form personal firsts.

A day-by-day account will be uploaded to the blog, accompanied where possible with mobile phone photos. There's also our twitter feed (and Facebook for our friends). Upon completion, we'll provide photos and video of the trip.

In the six years that have passed, we both agree the single biggest leap in technology is the downloadable National Rail Timetable, stored on our laptop. In 2005 a certain book with over 2,000 pages had to be carted around!

Another Tube map

2011-06-27T11:11:00.006+01:00

There are only a handful of lines forming the London Underground network that I've yet to complete - easily accomplished in a matter of hours I suspect - and in preparation for the trip to that there shiny London, I've been looking for new Tube maps. One I stumbled across only this morning, hot off the press:

It has more of a Harry Beck feel to it than other more geographically accurate versions I've seen, that's for sure. The Thames also reflects its natural shape.

It has been produced by Mark Noad to address problems people have using the original, iconic diagrammatic design. A recent study claimed a large number of people (tourists, presumably) travel greater distances between two points using TfL's official production than they should. Noad's map aims to be more spatially aware.

True geographical accuracy makes the Tube network look horrendous in map form, specifically in central London, for obvious reasons, while acres of space is given to a small handful of stations at the extremities. Noad's map could be seen as a compromise between this and Beck's design that TfL modifies and produces.

Have a look for yourself by viewing the new map in its entirety.

Adding in wheelchair accessible stations, Crossrail and Thameslink may not be as straightforward to a map like this though. That said, on the pdf version, zones have been nicely added. You may spot that Heathrow Express and Croydon's Tramlink are included, which aren't on TfL's. To this end using St. Pancras to Stratford International as a faster way between two points with Southeastern could be shown. A couple of things that are on TfL's but aren't on Noad's are the off-peak curtailment of Northern Line trains at Kenington isn't made obvious and that owing to the location of the interchange 'blob' at Euston, it isn't made clear that travel to King's Cross St. Pancras from the Northern Line's Charing Cross branch isn't possible.

A valiant effort, nonetheless.

TfL's latest version

Chesterfield upload

2011-06-20T19:41:00.007+01:00

I had reason to visit the StagecoachBus.com website the other day, specifically to look for bus times for Services 43/44, operating between Chesterfield and Sheffield by Stagecoach. The StagecoachBus.com website is pretty easy to navigate and within seconds I located the timetable I needed.

I prefer to view the actual timetable online than see a computer generated bespoke timetable for the parameters I choose. Many train operators' websites build you a bespoke timetable for a specific journey and while this has many merits, isn't really for me. Luckily bus companies tend not to do this - though there may be merit in offering both types.

Expecting to find the Stagecoach-standard corporate timetable design, I was initially shocked to view the following:

Click to enlarge

Perhaps due to a printing problem or a tight deadline, Stagecoach in Chesterfield has uploaded the actual vehicle registration for the service in question. This is far clearer than the official timetable, with the company's corporate image on display. In fact, it's not dissimilar to the timetables produced by the excellent Derbyshire County Council.

It just shows how simple a timetable can look if it is produced in a certain way. It looks to have been produced on Microsoft Excel or a similar spreadsheet and manages to communicate very clearly the times of services between Chesterfield and Sheffield.

Trouble is, it's a 5-page document and isn't exactly handy for printing out and taking with you, though it probably costs less to print out than the full-colour version when it is eventually uploaded - which is probably what will happen eventually (probably sooner if someone reads this blog entry). It is also missing a route map and contact details, plus sample fares and has no ticketing promotions detailed. Breaking with tradition even more, absolutely nowhere in the 5-page pdf is the word Stagecoach mentioned.

You may spot that the timetable denotes the evening journeys that wont operate on Christmas and New Years Eves - information which certainly isn't shown as standard on other operators' timetables nationally so this offers more information than would otherwise be available to the public.

I hope they don't feel the need to replace it just yet.

Service 43/44 pdf (while it is available)

A gift

2011-06-20T19:00:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to The Grammarian for the following:

Sirs, I offer you a gift to spread on the side of your Polish coach. It's the real deal, so Mr Souter will surely approve!

He was of course referring to our faux pas in the recent PolskiBus post, which came to light when a comment was received bringing this to our attention. He should have said that this was a large 'bloc' of stalk, of course, but we welcome the gesture nonetheless.

He also offered us some of this:

But that's fool-proof as it's spelt the same!!

A couple of years ago we were some one of these:

after this blog entry about Preston Bus. But that was a genuine play on words - bus drivers using their soles to keep the vehicles moving etc... We thought it was pretty clever at the time!!!

Many thanks all the same :-)

Curtain call for Derby?

2011-06-17T21:42:00.005+01:00

News broke recently that the long overdue and delayed £6bn Thameslink Project will receive 1,200 new carriages, after the DfT awarded the contract to the Siemens and XL Trains consortium, who will assemble the units at the Siemens factory in Hebburn, Tyne & Wear. The first trains will enter service in 2015 and they will allow peak-time frequencies through central London to effectively double.

Around 300 of the 2,000 new jobs will be created in Tyne & Wear, as the Consortium will 'build, own, finance and maintain' the trains. Others will be at two maintenance depots, which are likely to be built at Hornsea (Haringey) and Three Bridges (nr Crawley).

It's a good news story, not least because it confirms that the government is willing to put its money where its mouth is and commit to supplying the required number of carriages needed to meet the much-vaunted benefits of Thameslink. But, scratch away the surface and this £1.5bn announcement is not as rosy as it could be.

While 2,000 new jobs should not be scorned, we understand the carriages will only be assembled at the German manufacturing plant in Tyne & Wear; most of the raw materials will not be sourced here. Consequently, fewer people are needed. The DfT could have awarded the £1.5bn contract to Bombardier, who is already *building* trains here in the UK, at a location that many would consider the home of the train manufacture: Derby. Not to be dismissive of those who will play a part in the Thameslink fleet's construction, Litchfield Lane in Derby is the last remaining train construction plant in Britain and employs vast numbers of skilled train builders.

For much of this year Bombardier has been turning out new trains faster than has ever been recorded in its 160-year history, with massive orders for TfL (Underground: 2009 Stock and S-Stock; Overground: Class 378 Electrostars; NXEA: Class 379 Electrostars; and Class 172s for London Midland and Chiltern). On average 100 carriages per month are being produced. Thameslink's 1,200 carriages would take Bombardier a little over a year to build.

We British taxpayers delegate to government how best to spend our taxes, though this is a decision that reaps very little benefit to the country as a whole. Once the bulk of TfL's orders have been completed, production in Derby will wind down as nothing on the same scale is forthcoming - not now the Thameslink order has been awarded to the Siemens/XL Trains consortium.

In the short term, we concede that Siemens must have made the better offer, ensuring taxpayers' hard-earned cash goes further, but in the long term if more skilled train builders are made redundant at Derby (c3,000 currently employed at Litchfield Lane) than are employed afresh in Hebburn (300 planned), the consequences could be far-reaching and costly.

Opening Soon!

2011-06-13T06:00:00.001+01:00

A date has been set for the opening of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway - 7 August 2011, following a delay of over two years.

Spring 2009 was originally planned but at last minute this was delayed until the summer of that year. This was soon put back again when the summer of 2009 arrived. Actually, the opening date wasn't just put back, it was postponed with no estimation given, owing to the work needed doing being so substantial.

The following February, it was revealed that BAM Nuttall, the Busway constructor, was being fined by Cambs CC £14k for each and every day that the scheme overran - at that time this amounted to 335 days, or a cool £4.7 million.

Flooding was seen as being the main problem faced by the contractor, while soil shrinkage in parts was causing concern for the County Council who believed this could force the Busway's road surface to fracture.

It has been an unmitigated disaster and has served to air caution on other local authorities who are contemplating a similar scheme. Rather than refer to the Cambs Guided Busway as the beacon, and how best to emulate it, it is seen as the problem child and visits to Longstanton and Swavesey by council officials from elsewhere are being undertaken to learn lessons of how not to construct theirs.

The sooner this former railway trackbed opens and buses begin running the better. It will be many years before the Busway is free from its problem start. Its saving grace, however, is the massive time savings those using the special buses purchased for the scheme (though all must have undergone two MOTs by now!). Anyone who has to commute along the A14 between Huntingdon, St. Ives and Cambridge will know what a huge difference the Busway will made to their lives.

More on PolskiBus.com

2011-06-12T11:49:00.006+01:00

Following on from Friday evening's (now amended!) blog entry, there was one large element we omitted: Why did Brian Souter choose Souter Investments and not Stagecoach to begin the new Polish coach company, PolskiBus.com?

When you own the largest bus company in the UK, with world-wide business interests, you would surely use the knowledge, know-how, experience and expertise of that company to start a new venture in Poland. It's not as if Souter hasn't gone out on a limb with Stagecoach before, beginning Megabus as a operation to throw some ex-Hong Kong Leyland Olympians into the mix, to see what happened.

Stagecoach doesn't have a presence in Poland and so it could have been a positive way in which to introduce it. Operations here in the UK that do not use the Stagecoach corporate livery or the company name often carry a "brought to you by Stagecoach" vinyl beneath the operating name. In the case of Megabus, this was hurriedly added after that operation was formed in 2003, as it was seen as reassuring to new passengers. While this may not have the same effect in Poland, it would act as a subtle advertising tool.

Souter Investments said in its press release that it had been keeping an eye on Poland for some time. The manner in which coach companies do business there may not favour the large multi-national. With a portfolio of businesses worth £400m, Souter Investments is anything but small.

There may be unpalatable risks involved with the new venture in Poland that Souter thinks he best shoulder, rather than Stagecoach. Or the potential benefits may be massive and he wants to grow Souter Investments. There may be other investment opportunities spied within the country, as it emerges into a key European partner, and Souter wants 'in' from the start.

PolskiBus.com could be a pawn in a larger future expanse.

Megabus........... Poland-style!

2011-06-10T22:15:00.005+01:00

You have to hand it to Brian Souter, co-founder and chief executive of Stagecoach Group plc, he knows how to make a news story. Seemingly out of the blue, the multi-millionaire's own investment company has revealed plans to enter the Polish inter-city express coach market, with a brand new venture, employment for 100 people and some very swish coaches, starting Sunday 19 June.

PolskiBus is based in the Polish capital, Warsaw, and will operate eight different routes throughout the country (serving 16 Polish cities), some of which will extend to other European cities (Berlin, Bratislava, Prague, Vienna). In a move not dissimilar to the Megabus network, headline fares starting from 1 zloty* (similar to Megabus' £1 or $1) are being advertised. Yield management is coming to the Eastern Bloc!

This really is an impressive news story for anyone interested in the coach industry. Love him or loathe him, Souter is very capable of putting his money where his mouth is! The fleet of eighteen TD921 Van Hool Altano over-decker coaches with 70 seats (all 14.5 metres long) have been bought outright and been painted in a very striking red livery, with the PolskiBus.com fleet name. They feature free wi-fi, reclining (red) leather seats, toilet and plug-in power sockets. This kind of kit would imply that a slightly different type of clientèle is being pursued to that of Megabus. I'd go so far to say that they are the Greyhound equivalent in Poland.

Former Stagecoach London MD Roger Bowker is heading up Souter Investment's Polish venture and said that in addition to the likely travellers such a venture would attract, business professionals and retired folk are also being targetted. It's worth pointing out that Poland's attitude to coach travel is like the UK's was a couple of decades ago - very little stigma is attached.

While Stagecoach's Megabus has Syd, PolskiBus has Ziggi, a seven-foot stork as its mascot.

Souter Investments has a growing portfolio of businesses, together worth £400 million. It soon becomes clear that purchasing 18 new coaches outright is not as big a deal as first thought.

Other companies forming part of Souter Investments include:

- Mana Coach Holdings (New Zealand)

- Howick & Eastern Bus (New Zealand)

- Argent Energy (bio-fuel producer)

- Alexander Dennis (Falkirk, Scotland)

- Fullers Group (majority stake in the Aukland-based ferry business)

- Istanbul Deniz Otobusleri - "IDO" - (Turkish ferry business, owned as part of a consortium)

Commenting on the decision to start PolskiBus.com, Souter Investments chief executive Andy Macfie said: "PoskiBus.com is an example of an investment where our transport expertise, combined with excellent local management and our pool of experienced transport consultants can add significant value. The model is based on successful and fast growing transport businesses operating in the UK, USA and Canada, adapted for the Polish market."

* - plus one zloty booking fee

Chicken & Egg

2011-06-02T21:44:00.004+01:00

On this evening's regional Look North news programme, a report was sent in from Rawcliffe in East Yorkshire, a location whose railway station saw annual patronage of 252 passengers during the 2009-10 financial year. Of all the stations in the LEYTR area, it is ranked second-to-bottom, only being outdone by Kirton Lindsey in Lincolnshire for fewer passengers (220).

Train operating company Northern Rail has spent a total of £12,000 here and at Snaith station (2,574 passengers p/a) fitting cycle racks and CCTV to what a local councillor has claimed are 'ghost stations'. Scarborough councillor Nick Harvey made a Freedom of Information Request to ascertain the total spend and believes that the money would be better spent on larger stations that attract more passengers so that a greater number of local residents could cycle there.

However, the initiative that Northern embarked upon, was to encourage patronage at these least-used stations, by improving infrastructure there: the addition of cycle racks being one example. A government grant was made available and as so often with grants of this type, these strings are attached. The train service Snaith and Rawcliffe receive is nowhere near as 'impressive' as that received by Bridlington, for example, so patronage is likely to be lower as a result. If Councillor Harvey thinks £12,000 is a lot of money, he would have a nasty surprise at the cost to add an additional train to the timetable, in the hope of growing patronage.

How do you grow patronage at these smaller stations? What comes first? In these stringent times it is more prudent to improve the infrastructure for locals in the hope that this might have a positive effect. In the LEYTR area, for the period of 2009-10, the number of stations that saw growth was in a minority (a situation reflected nationally), but Rawcliffe was one of these that bucked the trend, seeing an increase of 23% to be precise. It was ranked 8th in our list of stations recording the most growth.

We think it a little ironic that a councillor should make a song and dance about what he considers to be a waste of public funds. How much would East Riding of Yorkshire Council have paid for the same work to be done at Snaith and Rawcliffe? Rest assured there won't be much in it, if at all. The average council pays out around £3k to construct an accessible bus stop kerb. In Lincolnshire, it cost more to make the bus stops along the route length of Service 100 (Lincoln-Scunthorpe) accessible than it did for Stagecoach to splash out on five new buses to work the route.

In the scheme of things, £12k would get you four raised kerbs at four bus stops or a number of cycle racks and CCTV at a couple of railway stations. The fear of crime is always reported as being far greater than the number of crimes committed and CCTV - either love it or loathe it - can help address these fears. Investment has to come first and hopefully growth will follow. £12k is absolutely nothing to spend on minor improvements to a station.

As for the age old question, in a recent episode of comedy show QI, Stephen Fry said that the answer was quite simple: the chicken had to come first. Eggs don't lay themselves.....

Topping out

2011-05-30T21:37:00.005+01:00

When the legislation regarding acceptance of the English National Concessionary Bus Pass was tightened in 2009, a number of hitherto bus (and coach!) services managed to struggle free of the scheme. Park and Rides was one, another was scheduled coach services, where the majority of seats were bookable in advance. Another was open-top tourist services.

We've not heard of any park-and-ride schemes openly refusing to accept the free bus pass in England (though please let us know if there are any examples), but National Express was soon to stop accepting bus passes for use on sections of its coach network that it registers as local stopping services to claim BSOG. Recently, North Yorkshire County Council has said it is looking into how feasible it will be to not offer any reimbursement for bus operators providing Scarborough's seafront service.

Shoreline Suncruisers used to operate this ex-GCT Daimler Fleetline, KBE 108P, along Scarborough's seafront. (Photo: Tony Wilson)

Service 109 is the bus route in question, running between Scarborough's North and South Bays, terminating at The Spa. Shoreline Suncruisers operate traditional open-top double-deckers. EYMS do the same. The frequencies vary depending on the height of the season. EYMS, for example, have three different timetables, with buses operating up to every 12 minutes. Shoreline Suncruisers (who used to run an ex-Grimsby-Cleethorpes Transport Daimler Fleetline/Roe for many years, complete with GCT notices inside) operate a bus up to every 10 minutes at peak times.

The County Council claim that enforcing the open-top exemption will save them £240,000 a year. We all know too well that local bus services are seen as an easy target when looking to balance the books. But is imposing this restriction to a seasonal, open-top tourist service going to have such a detrimental effect?

Locals are naturally concerned that people won't travel down the seafront as much and so money spent in shops could reduce. Holidaymakers could choose to not venture away from the area of the town where they're staying, or where they've parked their car. On the other hand, is it too much to ask tourists of a certain age visiting Scarborough to pay to use the open-top service? The government clearly doesn't think it is, otherwise they wouldn't have placed the exemption in the legislation.

EYMS's Scarborough & District operates along the seafront using Volvo Citybuses. If NYCC has its way all passengers will have to pay to travel on this service. (Photo: DWB Photos)

A consultation has been launched and the County Council has said it will consider very carefully the views expressed.

LEYTR Comment: Times are tough. As detrimental as locals may consider this move to be (if it's implemented) it is a better way for the local authority to save almost a quarter of a million pounds than taking an axe further to the local bus services that residents rely on so much. Councils that have seaside resorts have to pay a disproportionate level of reimbursement to operators than land-locked authorities. Many would argue that this is far outweighed by the benefits tourism on this scale brings to the local economy though. If Service 109 becomes exempt from the bus pass scheme, we can't see it forcing holidaymakers to go elsewhere.

Within 12 minutes...

2011-05-29T11:44:00.003+01:00

In response to realitycheck's comment on the last post, we offer the following video, recently uploaded to the LEYTR video channel on YouTube.

As one London service departs, another arrives to form the second within twelve minutes. East Midlands Trains (EMT) departs at 0708 for Nottingham thence London via the Midland Main Line (MML) while East Coast's (EC) empty stock journey arrives from Neville Hill in Leeds to form the first Lincoln-London journey via the East Coast Main Line for 18 years.

Obvious differences between the two services include not only the route taken and traction type deployed but specifically the journey time. EMT's London service takes 2:52 while EC's takes 2:08. EMT's does offer Lincoln residents new direct journeys to localities along the MML, while EC's doesn't.

Oddly, EMT's departure does not present itself when using the impartial National Rail search engine - even when St Pancras International is specifically mentioned for the London station at which arrival is preferred. Unless you're a lover of the Meridian (or despise HSTs) there can't be many reasons why you'd opt for EMT's 0708 ex Lincoln.

The Flying Scotsman

2011-05-24T17:13:00.006+01:00

M'colleague and I arrived at London King's Cross aboard the first direct ECML-operating train from Lincoln in 18 years just in time to welcome the arrival of one of Britain's most iconic railway sights - the Flying Scotsman. Booked to take just 4 hours, the train, operated by nationalised train operating company East Coast, departs Edinburgh at 0540 and stops only once at Newcastle.

Welcoming the train as it pulled onto platform 1 was a piped band and a purple carpet. Signage, a stage and spotlights had also been erected for the special occasion. The 9-carriage Class 91 and DVD made its appearance from Gasworks Tunnel almost on time and received a rapturous welcome.

The train departed Edinburgh's platform 7 on time and ran up to 3 mins early through the North East and into Newcatle. Its departure from Tyneside was as booked at 0703 and the train once again made excellent time through North and South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, running up to 2 mins early. Between Claypole and Grantham, however, it lost four minutes and began to run up to 4 mins behind its non-stop journey towards the Capital, clawing back 50% of its delay as it arrived at King's Cross at 0942.

We joined the press in taking some very memorable photos and collected our free Flying Scotsman ticket wallet.

Elaine Holt, the CEO for Directly Operated Railways, the government company set up to operate train franchises brought in-house. East Coast is DOR's only responsibility to date

Edinburgh Waverley to London King's Cross is 393 miles, along the full length of the East Coast Main Line, and to complete the journey in 4 hours requires an average speed of 98.25mph to be attained.

By comparison, West Coast Main Line operator Virgin Trains has a similar Anglo-Scottish journey, though theirs is northbound from London Euston at 1630, calling once (Preston) and arriving in Glasgow Central at 2038 - a 4:08 duration, but covering 8.25 more miles (401.25 miles in total). This sees an average speed of 97.15mph.

There's been a fair amount of chatter within the industry about the Flying Scotsman and how its operation will cause reduced journey possibilities and increased journey times to other services south of Newcastle as Network Rail has kept a significant 'buffer zone' in front of the train to ensure it stands a good chance of making its headline journey time. But yesterday wasn't about that. Yesterday saw an icon of Britain's railways return. An iconic name. An iconic brand. An iconic journey time.

The online Way Out Map

2011-05-21T06:00:00.000+01:00

A number of years ago I invested £5 in the Way Out Map. I'd never seen anything like it before. It has primarily been produced for people who don't want to be travelling on the London Underground network for any longer than is strictly necessary. Simply find the station you're travelling to on the map and it tells you which carriage to position yourself in when you board to ensure that you're adjacent to the exit at your destination.

With anything up to a potential of 500 people simultaneously disembarking with you, this can be a significant heads up.

Obviously the Way Out Map isn't as small as the conventional Tube Map - and nor is it free. Travelling on the Tube actually doesn't bother me either, but I was fascinated by the concept. I suspect many users will have made a strategic purchase along the same lines.

Trouble is, though, I can't remember the last time I've remembered to take it with me to London. It must have been years since it was a travelling companion of mine. Help is at hand however because an online version is now available. Although all sections of deep-level running see absolutely no mobile Internet coverage whatsoever, TheAtoB.com can at least be used prior to descending the depths.

Click here to visit TheAtoB.com website.

If you don't put an apostrophe in King's Cross the result comes back as 'no stations found'

The site is self-explanatory and offers the same result as the Way Out Map. Except this is free and updates are more easily made without the need for another print run. I've bookmarked it in my BlackBerry. Hope to use it on Monday when m'colleague and I head to that there shiny London aboard a certain historic train journey from the LEYTR area....