Stagecoach avoids penalty with free buses
£190k penalty results from staff shortages and reliability issues West of England traffic commissioner Kevin Rooney has ordered Stagecoach South West to provide free travel in Exeter for two weekends before Christmas at a cost of £120,000 and make provision for staff to assist and maintain information displays at the city’s bus station...
Rail is reeling, but where are the buses?
Rail strikes recently required me to search for a bus and coach alternative, but I was surprised by the paucity of available options I’ve had nothing but positive experiences on long distance coach services I’d never been before and had been looking forward to attending for over three years, with the pandemic...
Ignore your employees at your own peril
What the rail industry can learn from the Yorkshire Cricket Club crisis BY Nafisa Nathani November marks Islamophobia awareness month and with 45% of all recorded religious hate crimes offences in the UK targeted against Muslims, I thought this would be an ideal time to discuss the Yorkshire Cricket Club (YCC) scandal. Cricketer,...
Relief as Hunt commits to transport spending
The worst fears of transport professionals did not materialise this week when chancellor Jeremy Hunt made his cost-cutting Autumn Statement Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will not be “cutting a penny” from the UK’s capital budgets over the next two years There was tangible relief in transport circles this week when chancellor Jeremy Hunt avoided...
Blackpool wins Bus Operator of the Year
Council-owned operator wins coveted prize and Stagecoach tops the medal table as UK Bus Awards returns for first in-person presentation since 2019 Koli Begum, of Go-Ahead London was the gold winner for the Luke Rees-Pulley Award for Top London Bus Driver, sponsored by The Luke Rees-Pulley Charitable Trust and TfL Blackpool Transport is...
Zero-emission buses need a bigger plan
It’s been a long time coming but the bus fleet is decarbonising.This transition needs all key parties to think bigger and act faster Coventry’s buses are going all-electric Berlin, 2013 Nine years ago I was at an event in the Schoenberg district of Berlin, in what was a gas holder and is...
There can be no refuge for bullies
Sir Gavin Williamson stepped down this month amid accusations of bullying behaviour. Do bullies exist in the transport sector? A week wouldn’t be a week if we didn’t have a member of parliament needing to resign for some kind of unedifying behaviour. Arise, Sir Gavin Williamson who this week fell on his...
Northern Powerhouse Rail to be scaled back?
Liz Truss pledged to build long-awaited scheme in full but new transport secretary Mark Harper has hinted at a return to a scaled-back version Transport secretary Mark Harper Reverting to a scaled back version of the Northern Powerhouse Rail project would be a “serious setback to levelling up”, campaigners warned this week. Henri...
The mad ministerial merry-go-round
In the last three months we have had three transport secretaries. And the latest incumbent is my former colleague, Mark Harper Mark Harper Another week, another prime minister, another transport secretary and another lot of new junior transport ministers. Perhaps Passenger Transport should turn into a weekly publication so we can keep...
£100 penalty fare is recipe for disaster
The rail industry should have got its house in order first before increasing penalty fares fivefold. Front line employees will suffer “I’ll kill you. I’ll rip your f***ing head off.” These were the words of Michael Lucas just before he punched Colin Spicer, who was carrying out gateline duties at Wigan Wallgate,...
How can buses survive Austerity 2.0?
There won’t be much money for buses in the years ahead, but the sector can live without it if the government is willing to be brave Brave courageous urban traffic policies don’t cost anything but will deliver much cleaner, liveable cities and contribute to meeting climate change targets BY Robert Montgomery Ever since...
A challenging in-tray for Mark Harper