Welcome to The ALBUM Report 2024, a publication from Passenger Transport devoted to Britain’s independent and municipal bus companies. Returning for an eighth year, this year’s report also incorporates the Conference Workbook for the ALBUM Conference 2024, hosted by Warrington’s Own Buses at Carden Park Hotel on April 23-24. We...
Issue 311 of Passenger Transport is published on April 19. Contents include: LEAD STORY Labour vows to fast-track bus franchising Party says that its plan will allow 250 million more bus passenger journeys a year, but ‘it will require no additional central government spending’ NEWS ‘Franchise your...
Party says that its plan will allow 250 million more bus passenger journeys a year, but ‘it will require no additional central government spending’ Labour launched its plans in the West Midlands. Left to right: Angela Rayner, Richard Parker and Louise Haigh Labour has promised to help local...
Polls suggest Labour’s Richard Parker will win mayoral election Labour’s launch event was hosted by National Express West Midlands Labour’s candidate in next month’s West Midlands mayoral election has pledged to bring bus services back under public control if he wins power on May 2. The Labour Party...
Order for 10 new trains could solve Alstom order desert Harper (right) met Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge this week Rolling stock manufacturer Alstom has confirmed that it is in “intense discussions” with transport secretary Mark Harper about the future of its Derby plant and a potential order for...
You won’t persuade me to join you on a camping holiday, but many others enjoy it – and bus companies should make a pitch for them A West Coast Motors bus photographed by the editor on a detour into Port Ban Holiday Park, Argyll and Bute I was...
Walking is good for our mind and body, our environment and public transport. Hana Sutch of Go Jauntly wants to make it easy Hana Sutch set up Go Jauntly in 2018 I’ll be honest, before the pandemic I had zero interest in walking for fun. But then, apart from model railways and...
Claire Miles has indicated a new approach to bus franchising and wants to turn the page on ‘cultural and political baggage’ of Souter years Claire Miles is keen to cast aside Stagecoach’s “cultural and political baggage” The recently appointed chief executive of Stagecoach has expressed regret over the group’s confrontational approach to bus...
New service aims to woo motorists to rail with faster journeys FirstGroup said the venture would form part of its Hull Trains open access business FirstGroup has revealed it has submitted an application to launch a new, faster open access rail service between London and Sheffield via the East Coast Main Line. It...
The latest ORR figures on rail usage are surprisingly good because the railway suffers from brakes on progress. Here are five of them Rail usage is up 14% year-on-year Industry, politicians, and civil servants will doubtless be taking some quiet satisfaction from the upward trend in rail usage reported by the regulator,...
Happy New Year to you all. To ring in the new dawn, here are some of the things I hope to see or fear we will see in 2024 Bring back NRPS! Remember the National Rail Passenger Satisfaction Survey (NRPS)? It was a very simple, quarterly customer survey with a decent sample size....
The UK Bus Awards 2023 presentation ceremony took place in London in November, and you can read all about the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners in this official Souvenir Brochure. Click on the image below to view The Big Book of Big Winners 2023. If you are viewing the site on a tablet or...
London’s buoyant retail and hospitality sectors has spurred public transport recovery in the capital. Outside of London, bus groups reveal ‘very encouraging’ year-on-year passenger growth of 5-10% Bus use is up by 8% in London The festive period has brought encouraging signs of continued recovery in public transport passenger volumes. Transport for London...
Open access operator plans Edinburgh-Cardiff service GUT’s Cardiff to Edinburgh services could use Class 222s Grand Union Trains is seeking access rights to run the first open access passenger services which would exclude London. It says its proposed services between Cardiff and Edinburgh via Birmingham would provide a much-needed uplift in capacity and...
Capital investment in transport across English cities is welcome, but we must not forget London. Its success must be maintained 50 year old Bakerloo line trains being maintained I am writing this column after our work Christmas party, which was held in Manchester. Unfortunately, the Urban Transport Group team didn’t get invited...
For almost 25 years Anthony Smith has represented transport users. He’s about to move on and leaves behind a strong legacy Anthony Smith received the ‘Lifetime Contribution to Transport’ award at this year’s National Transport Awards The internet was just a novelty, text messaging was starting to replace pagers, compact disc players...
First Bus has set the groundwork to enter 2024 with strong momentum, and continued investment Janette Bell: ‘We’re on a mission to get more people to use the bus’ By Janette Bell At First Bus, we’re on a mission to get more people to use the bus – so unsurprisingly this has been...
Britain’s big cities should significantly increase public transport commuters to catch up with European counterparts, says Centre for Cities think tank The UK’s big cities outside of London are outliers and would need nearly one million (963,000) additional workers taking public transport to work to bridge the gap with other cities overseas The...
Walking and public transport are allies