On Trains & Buses

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 All supported evening and Sunday services could see funding withdrawn and some services are affected too.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Dorset is seeing services change or being withdrawn within the next few weeks.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.

It does appear that rail services in the north of England are facing a transformation that begins from next April when Arriva takes on the Northern franchise and First continues with Transpennine Express without the involvement of Keolis. Only time will tell how it all goes but here are some links in the meantime:

Massive boost to rail services brings Northern Powerhouse to life

Transforming TransPennine Express

FirstGroup plc welcomes award of TransPennine Express rail franchise

Some of the above take the form of press releases while others provide further information. There may be time yet for me to provide some commentary of my own to follow the above, but I hope that these will be useful for now.

From 2015-12-19 the following Cheshire bus services will be withdrawn:

RR3 Disley – Macclesfield X20 Middlewich – Cheshire Oaks X81 Winsford – Hanley

From 2015-12-21, the following Cheshire bus service changes will come into place:

27X Macclesfield – Knutsford: service withdrawn, registration cancelled. 36 Crewe – Haslington – Sandbach: service now only operates during school term time. 12:25 from Crewe withdrawn. 11:55 from Sandbach withdrawn. 39 Macclesfield – Congleton: service number changed from 39 to 87 to avoid number clash on network. New 07:00 journey from Congleton added. 18:00 journey from Congleton withdrawn. 12:00 journey withdrawn and 13:00 journey added. 44 Crewe – Nantwich: service now only operates during school term time. 38 Crewe – Congleton – Macclesfield: most of the extra commercial journeys introduced on 2015-08-31 have been withdrawn. 88 Knutsford – Wilmslow – Altrincham: timetable revised with some journeys added or extended. 130 Macclesfield – Manchester: timetable revised and runs on Sundays only.