BusAndTrainUser

Tuesday 29th September 2026 I’m beginning September’s round up of miscellany with a mini Book Review….

Saturday 2th September 2026 With D-Day (bus Deregulation Day) now just a month away, the 24th September 1986 edition of the fortnightly newspaper Bus Business contained more news of NBC’s privatisation process as well as the unstoppable march of minibuses.

Thursday 24th September 2026 Over the years I’ve featured various bus route developments in Ebbsfleet Garden Village including DRT and Fastrack changing hands and new routes to serve the expanding residential areas.

Tuesday 22nd September 2026 Answer: a brand new bus station.

Saturday 19th September 2026 After the South East, South West and South Wales, East Anglia, West Midlands, Potteries, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside and last time’s seasonal adventure in East Yorkshire it’s now time for the first of the

Thursday 17th September 2026 Full disclosure: Historian Ruth Thomson (co-author of this wonderful new book along with husband Neil) contacted me in June 2025 explaining how she was compiling “a history of Lewes bus station (including the garden of Trinity…

Tuesday 15th September 2026 After Wigan, St Helens, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Stroud and West Drayton, I continued last week’s exploration of new bus routes by sampling the latest additions to networks in London and Hampshire.

Saturday 12th September 2026 After sampling new Bee Network route 612 and Metro route X3 on Monday I headed down to Gloucestershire later that day ready to be up bright and early on Tuesday to sample the first scheduled departure of GoStroud’s brand new c…

Thursday 10th September 2026 I’ve been exploring five new routes introduced over the last couple of weeks – here’s the first of a three part blog taking a look at these new additions to the bus and coach scene.

Tuesday 8th September 2026 I’ll try not to make this a full on habit every Tuesday – bringing news of on-the-road competitive skirmishes between two bus companies – but here’s just one more to add to the many I’ve already highlighted over the last few wee…

Saturday 5th September 2026 It doesn’t seem possible a year has gone by since I published a blogpost marking the Diamond, Golden and Ruby Anniversaries of my starting secondary school in September 1965, beginning a career with the National Bus Company in…

Thursday 3rd September 2026 It’s an intriguing development.

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Yes; it’s another one.

Monday 31st August 2026 Welcome to a Bank Holiday Blog Special which, thanks to blog reader Paul, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the publication of a one-off experiment from the erstwhile Berkshire County Council in the form of a fully integrated pu…

Sunday 30th August 2026 I’m now in the final stretch of my relentless journey north through Britain sampling all 25 bus routes numbered 99 and it’s time for the second open-top bus ride of the series (the first being Ensignbus’s Shoeburyness to Leigh on S…

Saturday 29th August 2026 After three months, this weekend brings the BusAndTrainUser summer blogging timetable to an end with tomorrow’s blog (featuring the next route 99) being the last for a Sunday appearance for this year but there will be a Bank Holi…

Thursday 27th August 2026 Readers may recall the journey I took on route 99 in the Chew Valley operated by The Big Lemon for the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority back in April and explained how the route had been introduced after a community cam…

Tuesday 25th August 2026 Among the many changes to bus routes on the western fringes of Essex at the end of last month was the introduction of new route 19 between North Weald and High Ongar taking in a circuitous route via Epping, Theydon Bois, Abridge,…

Sunday 23rd August 2026 Following last time’s review of the Bee Network’s route 99 between Manchester and Prestwich it’s over to neighbouring Liverpool City Region for my next exploration of all Britain’s 25 bus routes numbered 99 to find our 20th route in

Saturday 22nd August 2026 Despite the hot weather I’ve hardly done any open-top bus riding this summer.

Thursday 20th August 2026 As more areas give up on their dalliance with DRT (Norfolk County Council’s the latest to revert to fixed routes with its Flexibus scheme coming to an end in Swafham at the end of the month) it’s interesting to see South Yorkshire

Tuesday 18th August 2026 READER ALERT (+ high pitch screeching sound from smartphone/tablet/computer).…….

Sunday 16th August 2026 My latest journey of discovery on all of Britain’s 25 bus routes numbered 99 turned out to be the busiest journey yet – even beating TfL’s route 99 between Woolwich and Erith/Bexleyheath – and perhaps fittingly it’s part of the high

Saturday 15th August 2026 Continuing this monthly nostalgic look back to the build up to bus deregulation forty years ago, thanks to those fledgling early editions of Bus Business from the Bus Archive, we now reach August 1986, just two months away from t…

Thursday 13th August 2026 It’s been a while since I’ve shared emails kindly sent to me by blog readers at busandtrainuser@gmail.com so here are some more from recent weeks… The most out of date information on public display?

Tuesday 11th August 2026 Readers may recall back in April I featured two bus routes reintroduced by Suffolk County Council funded from its three year £26 million Local Authority Bus Grant (LABG) – the 51 between Stowmarket and Hadleigh and 52 Hadleigh cir…

Sunday 9th August 2026 This is the second route numbered 99 in South Yorkshire (check out last time’s journey between Doncaster and Retford) and despite what I (mistakenly) initially wrote in that blog about that being the only one to straddle two counties

Saturday 8th August 2026 Readers may recall a blog last November featuring a grassroots campaign in Glastonbury calling for a dedicated direct bus route linking the Somerset town to and from Castle Cary railway station to alleviate the need for the convol…