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https://bdcmagazine.com/2024/02/west-midlands-advances-plans-for-three-new-railway-stations-to-enhance-regional-connectivity/

There appears to be plans in place for another three new railway stations at Castle Bromwich, "Coventry East" and Tettenhall.

Andy Street has photos of him and friends holding the signs up, but when I went onto his website to see if there was any news on there, it appears he hasn't updated it since 2021.

What is the current deal with Stagecoach services in west Norfolk? I read that they used to have a garage in Lynn which had shut down.

There's a service 505 that runs between Spalding and Kings Lynn. They're in these buses that have the stagecoach livery, but in purple. They've rarely got a logo on them saying they're Stagecoach, as it's taken me quite a while to realise that it is a Stagecoach service. Any reason for this?

[Late buses 'just an unfortunate reality']

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-56827739

I've quoted the Coventry/Warwickshire part below:

Late buses 'just an unfortunate reality'

Jack Spawton-Rice relies on buses throughout the day every day as part of his job as an adolescent support worker in Coventry.

The 27-year-old visits families across the city and sometimes further afield, relying on regular public transport to get him there.

"I try and plan it so if I'm seeing families, I think about where they are in the city and try and plan my day, minimizing the travel time where I can."

He uses the Citymapper app to simplify his journeys, to ease the stress of timings and getting lost. However, it doesn't account for buses being late or not showing up.

"Buses being late happens quite a lot. And for families it can be an experience that sometimes can [cause] anxiety. So I'll ring them apologise and say, 'I'm just running about 10 minutes late with the bus' or I've missed one bus 'sorry I'm going to be 25 minutes late because of my bus'.

"I think it's just an unfortunate reality."

In his previous job he often cycled to work for 45 minutes, as buses didn't cater for the early hours it demanded.

Now living in rural Burton Green in Warwickshire, Jack said if he missed his hourly bus or if it was late, he had to walk for more for 30 minutes to get to Tile Hill, his nearest town.

"Burton Green is really out on a limb. I definitely question our choices now we are living here," he joked.

Jack said he'd like to see transport leaders consider improving connections on a more long-term basis between rural and city areas, especially ones which don't have many local amenities.

"I'd like to see more regular buses into Coventry from Burton Green, [that] would be really great. But also a service between Kenilworth and Burton Green... I don't understand why that does not exist.

"Where we are, I suppose it is difficult to argue for more buses because of the cost and use. They will say that it's not a hugely popular route, you know, and it's my fault for choosing to live in the middle of nowhere - so suffer the consequences."

He added: "At the minute there's lots of young families, but in a couple of years' time, and [the children] need to go to school and get around, buses are going to be required."

Burton Green falls into that grey zone where it lies just outside the WMCA boundary, so isn't subject to the standards held within Coventry, although I'm surprised to hear that the 87/87A is as unreliable as is suggested.

Today, I followed NXWM4024 operating as a GRS Travel bus on the "Spalding 9" route from Wisbech through to Spalding. Recognised it from a distance due to the livery and when I got closer to it, it still had the fleet number emblazoned on it.

The bus is still in the same livery as seen in the latest picture on the site. The only changes I could see (from the back/side) was that they'd put their logo in the space where the NXWM logo normally is. Signs on/in the bus were still written in that font that TWM used. Spent the best part of an hour stuck behind it on the A1101/A17, and the damn thing kicked up a stone that chipped my windscreen.

Anyone else spotted something similar?

To encompass all the various bits in threads about how social distancing is going to work on buses for the foreseeable future.

When I was in Oxford on Tuesday, I saw a Stagecoach Oxford service 700 bus running to the hospitals. On the display at the front, it was showing "SORRY BUS FULL/DUE TO SOCIAL DISTANCING".

I'm guessing the driver would have to set this manually when they feel the bus has reached its capacity.

From the NXWM timetables that went up at the end of last week, it seems that they are going to have extra buses at certain points along routes to throw into action if a set of buses get busy.

What extra resources are the drivers going to be given when they get confronted by people that don't wish to comply with the measures?