Bus Partnership Fund pause disappoints CPT
Scottish Government pledged £500m – but has spent only £26.9m As recently as last October, Scotland’s minister for transport, Fiona Hyslop, told Passenger Transport that the Bus Partnership Fund was “a key area of investment” Formally launched in November 2020, Scotland’s Bus Partnership Fund was hailed as a “landmark long-term capital investment of...
Walking and public transport are allies
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...
Stagecoach pledges new ways of working
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...
First plans Sheffield open access service
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...
Five brakes on rail’s growth potential
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,...
My hopes and fears for the New Year
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....
UK Bus Awards 2023 ‘Big Book of Big Winners’
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...
Christmas cheer for public transport!
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...
Grand Union applies to run non-London trains
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...
We need one last Christmas cracker
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...
A quarter century of caring for customers
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...
Lothian – municipal and entrepreneurial