Rail headlines are dominated by questions around the future of ticket offices. But strikes and overtime bans have been going on for more than a year, creating uncertainty and difficulty for passengers. And engineering works – albeit vital – bring disruption. In the middle of this passengers are still making journeys for work and pleasure, day in day out. What has it been…
Where’s The Station? Fort William used to have a magnificent Station Hotel. It was grand and luxurious … … and it even had extensive greenhouses to ensure its clientele had the freshest and best produce. But there was a snag. Back in the day, the station was in the middle of town … … right on the lochside and offering…
• Ticket office stealth closures: Train Cos reveal they stopped hiring new counter staff (Standard) • 1st West End Tube stations receive 4G/5G coverage (RailUK) • The NIMBY ‘tax’ on new UK & US transport: Objections & long reviews (FinancialTimes) • Friendliness to bus drivers improves their job satisfaction, possibly retention (Independent) • San Francisco: New study recommends battery trolleybus…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
• 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…
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…