On Trains & Buses

Schools are opening again in Ireland as the new year begins for them. For Bus Éireann, this also means that its summer schedule ends on Sunday. While the services that I have seen do not show much change, that may not be the same for all of them. A check ahead of next Monday would do no harm. Unlike in England and Wales, it is not a bank holiday in Ireland anyway. That was at the start of the month.

Cheshire East bus services 70, 72 and 73 will cease at the end of this month (August). A new contract will get issued for service 71 because it is a school service. Otherwise, the loss of these Nantwich rural routes is a reflection of the parlous state of the British public finances. Hopefully, things will improve sooner rather than later.

For those wanting to get to Skibbereen from Ballydehob, it is tricky to work out where the stop for service 270 is on the N71 if you are going to Skibbereen. This route unhelpfully does not enter Ballydehob itself, unlike service 237 for Cork, Schull and Goleen. Thus, you need to stand on the side of the N71 north of the junction with R592 and well up from there where there is space to stop. It is not where the TFI Live app shows it is, and I was fortunate to have some passengers disembarking there so I could get on at the same place.

Bellevue, near Seattle, has a free electric shuttle bus service in the form of Bellhop, operated by Circuit. According to 425, they seem to be happy with how things are going so far, and the conurbation is being linked to Seattle by light rail too.

Earlier in the month, LNER announced the start of a simpler fares pilot to proceed for two years from 2024-02-05. Only three kinds of fare are available and both Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak fares are unavailable.

Flexibility continues in the form of Anytime tickets with Advance ticket being the most restricted. There is a new semi-flexible offering called 70min Flex that allows travel on any service departing within 70 minutes of the booked departure.

Thankfully, flexibility remains for walk-on passengers despite some appearing to want a book-ahead railway. Apps may be a workaround, but there is something about turning up and going that is so precious.

The RMT union has announced two two-day work stoppages for 2024-02-19 to 2024-02-20 and 2024-03-04 to 2024-03-05, respectively. Like other strikes, this again is related to pay increases that the union complains are not keeping pace with inflation.

The dispute between LNER and ASLEF over the application of the minimal service legislation has reduced enough to allow cancellation of strike action and overtime bans during the week commencing 2024-02-05. The strikes and overtime bans for every other English train operator between 2024-01-29 and 2024-02-06 remain in place.

Skiing season is well under way in the Canadian Rockies, so Golden Shuttle is offering services between Calgary Airport and Golden and between Golden and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. Timetables are online too for you to check when buses depart and arrive. If they did something similar during the hiking season, that would be of keen interest to me as a non-driver.

Two D&G Bus services are changing on 2024-02-05. Bus times during the middle of the day on weekdays remain unchanged. Specific details follow.

31 Crewe - Northwich: Some morning weekday journeys run earlier, and some afternoon journeys run later, as extra time is allowed where they have been experiencing traffic congestion, particularly around Leighton Hospital and Winsford. There is now an additional weekday evening journey between Winsford and Crewe. All Saturday bus times are unchanged.

37 Northwich - Crewe: Some morning weekday journeys run earlier, and some afternoon journeys run later, as extra time is allowed where they have been experiencing traffic congestion, particularly around Sandbach and Winsford. Some early evening journeys that currently terminate in Sandbach have been extended to Crewe. Apart from one early evening journey between Winsford and Sandbach, all Saturday bus times are unchanged.

In Japan, there is what they call a new Golden Route between Tokyo and Osaka that goes via Hokuriku on the Japan Sea coast. This is for use by tourists when exploring the area served by the new link and there even is a multi-day travel pass, the Hokuriku Arch Pass. This is cheaper to buy outside of Japan, so the target market appears to be visitors from overseas.