Yearly Archives: 2023

Monday Variety

 We Are On Our Way Last autumn the fbbs were at Ardgarten Hotel (near Arrochar) and Lochs and Glens new-build mansion at the head of Loch Long. Later today, the gruesome twosome will be ensconced in the Highland Hotel Fort William. The gaff is literally just up the hill … … quite a steep hill … … from the town…

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Sunday Variety

Weather Warning! As you may know, the fbbs are off on holiday tomorrow, based in Fort William. A few days ago, Mrs fbb looked up the weather forecast for that part of Bonny Scotland. It looks as if the standard West of Scotland forecast applies. If you cannot see across Loch Linnhe, it is raining …  … if you can…

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Happy Or Horrific At Heathrow Part 4

A Huge Percentage Will Travel By Bus & Coach So let’s try the coach. There is no link from these pages to the excellent network maps, so we are truly in the hands of Heathrow’s technical wizards to help us. And really they don’t! With no maps Heathrow extols us to “plan our trip” by taking us to each of…

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Tuesday Pub Meetup 12th September 2023

A quick reminder to this interested that our monthly meetup is on Tuesday 12th September. For more details click ‘Monthly Meetup – 2nd Tuesday Evening in the City‘ at the top of the home page. The current heat spell should be over by then so we do not expect the air temperature or the beer to be unpleasantly warm. All…

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Out now: Issue 296 of Passenger Transport

Issue 296 of Passenger Transport is published on September 8. Contents include:    LEAD STORY TfL records highest ridership since CovidAugust Bank Holiday Weekend saw a near 10% increase in bus travel on the equivalent weekend last year, with Tube journeys seeing a near 6% rise  NEWS West Midlands unveils rail investment strategyThe West Midlands Rail Executive’s comprehensive 2022-2050 investment…

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Friday Reads – 8 September 2023

• UK rail industry deeply frustrated by Network Rail’s extensive domestic air travel (RailTech) • Family Friendly Train operating companies Scorecard 2023 (FamilyFriendlyTrains) • Reuse of Philly’s City Branch downtown tunnel & RoW for transit is unlikely (WHYY) • Gotthard Base Tunnel preliminary report confirms crash details (RailwayTechnology) • Ideas not just infrastructure: What the US could learn from the…

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Happy Or Horrific At Heathrow Part 3

Where What When – And Why? (1) Heathrow is big and all the statistics are big! Heathrow is the largest single-site employer in the UK. More than 76,000 people work at the airport – and many more nearby. In total, Heathrow supports 114,000 local jobs. It accounts for 22% of local employment. In 2022, London Heathrow Airport handled approximately 61.6…

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20mph limit sees Welsh operator ditch Euro 6

Vehicles sold because of concerns over particulate traps  A Phil Anslow bus in Cwmbran   A bus operator is selling two of its Euro 6 buses because of concerns over the vehicles’ particulate traps when 20mph becomes the default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales. However, an experienced bus engineer told Passenger Transport there was no need for Welsh…

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TfL records highest ridership since Covid

August Bank Holiday Weekend saw a near 10% increase in bus travel on the equivalent weekend last year, with Tube journeys seeing a near 6% rise  TfL is now hoping to maintain upward momentum as autumn approaches   New ridership figures from Transport for London have revealed a record number of public transport journeys since the Covid-19 pandemic. The August…

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Toon Tour wins inaugural UK Open Top Bus Cup

Initially set up to procure the Wales and Borders rail franchise, Transport for Wales will be tasked with nurturing a ‘multi-modal culture in Wales’     Toon Tour, the sightseeing bus service across Newcastle and Gateshead has become the winner of the inaugural UK Open Top Bus Cup, sponsored by Ticketer. This follows its victory in the Final against New…

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