On Trains & Buses

Thankfully, Derbyshire County Council has shelved its plan to cut funding to all subsidised bus services. There still may be some rationalisation but the good news is that planned wholesale cuts are to be no more. What follows is the news item from the council website’s public transport section: Bus passengers in Derbyshire are to keep services paid for by us as plans to cut public transport funding are reviewed. It had been proposed to withdraw funding for around 144 subsidised services from October 2017. Following consultation where more than 90% of respondents said they disagreed with the plan, we have now agreed to provide £3m to continue funding some of these services.

The future of individual services has yet to be decided but we will be working closely with operators to see if some can be run commercially. We will also continue to review the whole of the bus network, streamlining less well-used services by reducing their frequency and joining up other services to reduce duplication.

Mallorca has a reputation in line with sunshine holidaying but it does have another side, one that offers opportunities for coastal and hill walking. While you can hire a car, there also is an extensive public transport network. For getting about Palma de Mallorca, there are bus services operated by EMT. When it comes to travelling elsewhere on the island, there are interurban bus and train services operated by TIB. There also are heritage train services between Palma and Sóller operated by Ferrocarril de Sóller on whose website you can book journeys and there is that of Valsóller Services. All in all, this looks like an island well connected by public transport that has plenty of trails to be followed by hikers away from the summer season when temperatures surge too high.

Here is a list of British airlines:

British Airways

bmi

bmibaby

Flybe

EasyJet

Jet2

Air Southwest

Loganair

Airtask

Isles of Scilly Travel

Here is a listing of British airports:

Aberdeen

Barra

Benbecula

Birmingham

Bristol

Campbeltown

Cardiff

Dundee

East Midlands

Edinburgh

Farnborough

Glasgow

Inverness

Islay

London City

Kirkwall

Liverpool

London Gatwick

London Heathrow

London Luton

London Stansted

Manchester

Newcastle

Newquay

Southampton

Stornoway

Sumburgh

Tiree

Wick

It appears that Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way has been great for promoting its western coastline, so we now get Ireland’s Ancient East as the brand used to promote its antiquities. Just like it has for the former, Bus Éireann currently is advertising the part of its network that allows you to explore the latter. Here are links to timetables for those bus services:

2: Dublin Airport − Dublin − Arklow − Gorey − Enniscorthy − Wexford

4: Dublin − Carlow − Waterford − New Ross

40: Rosslare Europort − Waterford − Cork − Killarney − Kerry Airport − Tralee

65: Galway − Athlone − Cavan − Monaghan − Belfast

70: Galway − Athlone − Mullingar − Dundalk

72: Limerick − Birr − Athlone

100X: Dublin − Dublin Airport − Drogheda − Dundalk

109: Dublin − Navan − Kells − Cavan

111 Athboy – Trim – Batterstown – Dublin

111A: Athboy – Delvin − Granard − Cavan

111X Clonmellon – Delvin – Athboy – Trim – Dublin

115: Dublin – Kilcock – Enfield – Mullingar

133: Wicklow − Rathdrum − Avoca − Arklow

163: Drogheda − Donore

182: Drogheda − Ardee − Monaghan

190: Drogheda − Navan − Trim

215: Cloghroe – Blarney – Cork City Centre – Ballinlough – Mahon Point

245: Clonmel – Ardfinnan – Ballyporeen – Mitchelstown – Fermoy – Cork

366: Lismore − Cappoquin − Dungarvan − Waterford

370: Waterford − New Ross − Duncannon − Wellingtonbridge − Wexford

City of York Council also is having a consultation on services to which it wants to cut funding. All supported evening and Sunday services could see funding withdrawn and some services are affected too. Being a city, the effect may not be what it is in rural areas but it is a sign of the times in which we live.

Dorset is seeing services change or being withdrawn within the next few weeks. Many of the ones to stop running currently operate on just one day of the week, so I suppose the council got to questioning the need to retain these. However, one partly commercial service is being lost even if the council is stepping in to replace another one that is shortened.

Bus routes cut or merged as Kent County Council bids to save £400,000 on rural routes (article from KentOnline)

Derbyshire County Council is proposing the abolition of their subsidised bus network like what has happened in Cumbria. This is planned for October 2017 and there is a consultation ongoing until 2016-04-24. It sounds short-sighted and I already have made my views known. It helps also that this is a survey that is easy to complete.

The start of 2016 is set to see these bus service changes in Cheshire:

2016-01-20 Service 9/9A (Routemaster Buses)

Service reverts to the previous route.

2016-01-16 Service 8: (Routemaster Buses) Crewe – Wistaston

Commercial service withdrawn.

2016-01-11 Service 20 (Routemaster Buses) Crewe – Ruskin Road – Kingsway – Beech Drive

Route and timetable revised.

2016-01-04 Service 8 (Routemaster Buses) Crewe – Wistaston

New Monday to Saturday commercial service to replace withdrawn Arriva service 8.

Service 9, 9A (Routemaster Buses)

Timetable and route revised to link with new Routemaster 8 service.

Service C84 (Routemaster Buses) Chester – Crewe

New commercial service part replacing withdrawn Arriva 84 journeys to/from Chester.

2016-01-03

Manchester Bridge, Crewe roadworks from 3 January to 6 April. D&G service 8, 8A will run to a revised timetable and will operate in a clockwise direction around the Sydney and Elm Drive estates.

2016-01-02 Service 8 (Arriva) Crewe – Beech Drive – Crewe

Service withdrawn

Service 8 (D&G Bus) Crewe – Beech Drive – Crewe

New Monday to Friday commercial service to part replace withdrawn Arriva service 8.