Messages

If you're planning to visit Stratford on Avon, don't bother using the park and ride service. For the second time in the last few days, the 1851 number 1 bus from Bridge St to the park and ride has left 4 minutes early and would not stop for me hailing it as I was walking to the bus stop at the time.

Then the next bus, number 4 at 1906, turned up at 1905 and turned his engine off. When asked at 1910 why the driver, reading his newspaper, hadn't left at 1906 like he was supposed to - his answer was literally "I go when I'm ready mate". Excellent customer service, my experience of Johnsons so far reminds me of Western Greyhound towards the end, such as disappointment in the general attitude.

All I want to do is get to and from work...

What's the VOSA tolerance for early/late running?

Customer Service is one of the main selling points at Johnsons, to which the majority of drivers adhere to. It's a bit unfair to tarnish a whole company for the actions of individuals, especially on a public forum. I've had bad experiences with most operators, but enough positive ones to continue using buses when the need arises. Most of the Johnsons drivers are lovely.

No idea why the 1851 would go early as it would show up on the vehicle tracker, which is a huge risk to take for a driver. As for the 1906, the driver probably waited to leave deliberately late to avoid early running at Wood Street. Wood Street bus stop becomes a taxi rank at 1900. At that time of evening, it takes about a minute from Bridge Street to Wood Street, which on the timetable gets 5 minutes. The driver should have explained that.

Versa pulling out of Albert Street in Brum ~19:30 this evening,  on the X20 I can only imagine

1935 off Brum X20 is booked a Versa - comes off P & R and runs Stratford-Brum-Henley every day.

how much is an all day ticket with Johnson's service X20 and 150 ?

£10 for all routes. Decent network now as well. Could do Brum-Stratford-Banbury-Stratford-Moreton-Stratford-Brum in a day I reckon!

£2.20 for Stratford Park & Ride Only

There's the Cotswold Discoverer which can be used on the 21-25 services to & from the Cotswolds, as well as buses and trains in the Cotswold district, all operators. Cotswold Rambler for £8.10 for 21 & 22 services all day.

On top of that you can use the Connecta ticket anywhere in Worcestershire (all operators) which includes Broadway to Evesham on 24 service, the 150 anywhere south of (but not including) Maypole, 350 to Worcester and 182/183 Lickey Hills service. That one's about 7 quid.

And of course the various Network tickets within the West Midlands boundary.

Anyone know what happened  with the 12.30  87 service from
solihull as it went to the station  & didn't return

Follow @JohnsonsTraffic on Twitter would be your best bet to find out about service disruptions.

The situation with the Lynxes is that we tend to focus on restoration more than rallying.

We like to have a bus to play with each year which we decide in the spring time. We used 1292 in 2006 + 2007, 1142 in 2008+2009, 1292 in 2009-2012, and this year 246.

Technically it ought to be the turn of 1142 next year, if it's ready. We're attempting a very basic tart-up of the exterior for now, in between doing jobs on our main long-term project. A full 'every Sunday for the next ten years' restoration is needed on 1142, but for now the focus is on the short term to be able to get it in a condition where we can use it for another season.

It appears to be a 4 speed Voith  so potentially quite a beast. Won't go under the railway at Bearley which explains it being on the X50, and Omnilinks on the X20 recently.

You could get the train to Berkswell then the 87 to Kirby Corner, then walk from there. 87 is timed to connect with trains from Brum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhC9gpKvucQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player video of 246 leaving Bromyard for Worcester .

Approx how many people went on the Lance Tour - only in all the photos there seems a distinct lack of people!!

16 in total this time. We had 22 of us on the previous tour.

If yer doing a tour with a Lynx i'm definitely in, I miss them

+1.

Each individual one had their own personalities. I remember those legendary journeys on the 27/35 in Kings Heath. Excellent.

When we have 1292 on the road again, we'll definitely do 27 and 35 on a route tour as those were our local routes too!

Photos from the tour with 246 can be found here. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wmtlynx/sets/72157633427307894/

Very nice. Really nice shots. Do you mind if I use one as my Desktop background?

Personal favourite is the one on Clee Hill.

Feel free to use one as your background :-)

Photos from the tour with 246 can be found here. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wmtlynx/sets/72157633427307894/

Glad you enjoyed it guys. Kickdowns totally unnecessary on our route out off Brum, but always good to have a bit of fun with the gearbox for enthusiasts :)

And tank90 watch this space as we also own 2 Lynxes. Neither is MoT'd at the moment a it's to expensive to have more than one on the road at any one time.

146 Stand is NS7 under the Bull Ring link bridge by the old New Street Station entrance.

Anyone is welcome to board / be dropped off at any "timing point" during the day. With doubt planted in my mind, I've checked the old MRW timings on the 192. M-F was 61 mins via Halesowen, stopping at bus stops, dealing with change and in slower buses. Sundays were 50 mins.