Messages

http://traintimes.org.uk/map/london-buses/

This website by Matthew Somerville uses live data to show position of all buses on a route. Select routes by using drop down list.
When route is displayed each bus is shown as a moving red dot. You can find its identity by pointing at it.

Amazingly it includes boats on the Thames routes RB1-6!

Surely it must be adopted across the fleet save perhaps vehicles likely to be withdrawn in, say, the next 2 years. If not NX will be running with dual standard liveries for years to come not to mention the Platinum livery and the Coventry variant. Have to say I can't understand why NX seem to regard this matter as commercially sensitive now that the new livery has been widely reported in the media.

So operators like Nottingham, Trent, Go North East get praise on here for being very good operators (no argument from me there) but have multiple liveries in much smaller fleets than NXWM, yet the thought of NXWM having multiple liveries horrifies people

If (God forbid) NXWM have multiple liveries ,but keep each livery on a given route,then it would not be too bad......problem is multi liveries on each route.
I cannot give NXWM much credit for keeping branded buses on correct routes as it is,never mind extending the concept.
I will admit that ANY branding is a pet hate of mine,and any visit to Derby merely reinforces that opinion.The overall appearance of Derby would suggest one major operator (Arriva) and hosts of smaller unconnected operators who could just as easily be completely independent of each other.
If you want a network marketed to the public,then use one fleet name and livery........bet most people in Derby don't have a clue who Black Cat are,and probably don't care either.
I can only repeat that for 20 years my brother was MD of a medium sized Company,NBC,then Badgerline then Firstgroup and never needed to use this new fashioned gimmick.

Route branding has been around for a long time!

https://flic.kr/p/aJX9Fv 

https://flic.kr/p/byW9v6

Excellent Badgerline route branding ;)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mkIaxTSsFi0/U9YPYwC7aVI/AAAAAAAANFM/pePZa7tuHts/s1600/G904-GWS.Badgerline.jpg

Some odd places see a service on Christmas Day:

Harlow - Network Harlow Routes 133, 309 & 510 operating houry/2-hourly almost 24-hour service for Stansted Airport
Keighley - Vintage buses
Crawley - Metrobus Route 10 every 30-50 mins - 24-hour service for Gatwick Airport
Poole & Bournemouth - More Route m1 - every 60 mins
Isle of Wight - Southern Vectis Routes 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9 - every 60-120 mins
Manchester - Stagecoach Route 43 - every 60 mins
London - No Service

Routemaster running day on the 66 this Saturday: http://centralbuses.com/news.html

It does seem to be a standard option for Arriva nationally to order low height deckers with the exception in the past of Leicester, Derby and London. I'm not sure why Leicester and Derby have been different to the rest of the UK!

NXWM 900 v's London Midland train between Birmingham International and the Custard Factory on The Gadget Show: http://www.channel5.com/shows/the-gadget-show/episodes/episode-6-481

The 90s was such an odd time for vehicle types and allocations but 1990s Brum was certainly a National hotbed, so many companies had them eg WMT, MRW, Birmingham Coach Company, Ludlows, Cityline, Central (wmt), Your bus, Falcon Travel etc. A great time for enthusiasts but not the best for the image of bus travel with all that smoke!!!!!

Are any proper (ie not Greenways) Nationals still in service anywhere?

Go-Ahead's Konectbus operated one until May this year: http://www.konectbus.co.uk/152/

I thought we'd all agreed City To City travel via buses fast doesn't actually work? After all, if your destination is that of the final one of the bus, then you'll chose a train or tram or coach or whatever over sitting on a bus for hours. It's like these idiots who catch the 636 from Brum to Halesowen and then moan at the driver for it taking over an hour to get there. Well excuse me, clot, there was a 9 you could've caught if you used your mind. Well I mean it's not for anyone to educate these people.

City to City travel by bus can work and in the following cases buses offer quicker journey times than the equivalent journey by rail, some of which are on fairly long distance runs!

Sheffield to Mansfield - Stagecoach X17 (43 mins), Train (86 mins)
Bradford to Huddersfield - First X6 (37 mins), Train (45 mins)
York to Whitby - Transdev Coastliner 840 (142 mins), Train (162 mins)
Corby to Peterborough - Stagecoach X4 (52 mins), Train (108 mins)
Northampton to Wellingborough - Stagecoach X4 (35 mins), Train (108 mins)

The following offer very similar journey times to the equivalent rail journey:
Newcastle to Middlesborough - Go North East X9/X10 (80 mins), Train (78 mins)
Sheffield to Matlock - Stagecoach X17 (80 mins), Train (92 mins)
Coventry to Leicester - Travel DeCourcey X6 (75 mins), Train (68 mins)

Merc on WB75 this morning.

This is really stretching it but... NX Dundee Route 81 has to be the most scenic NX Bus route - search for Kirkbuddo Crossroads on Google Streetview - it operates 1 return journey Monday, Wednesday and Friday on one routing and Tuesday and Thursday on the other.

An alternative TWM livery? - Travel Surrey's livery on the 441: http://tinyurl.com/o6zrgh6  :) (not my photo)

808 on 97 pm peak

If you can get down to Cornwall, Western Greyhound still operate 34 Merc Varios! Plus First's Cambourne depot has a fair few step entrance buses hanging on including Volvo Olympians, Dennis Darts and a coach seated Merc 0814D.

Try Poland!  https://www.flickr.com/photos/22455491@N02/2725780566/ (not my photo!) possibly 52510 ex-Redditch???

Route 525 in Halifax, West Yorkshire is surprising: every 7 minutes from 0800 to 1230 Monday to Saturday, no afternoon, evening or Sunday service! http://www.wymetro.com/site/handlers/buses/timetables/pdf.ashx?route=525&code=