On Trains & Buses

This website may be about public transport from an everyday point of view, but there are those who embark on rail holidays too. Dedicated providers include Rail Discoveries, Great Rail Journeys, Ffestiniog Travel and Rail Europe. Other non-specialists like Inn Travel may be able to help too.

The Virgin Trains brand has not been tarnished by recent troubles on the West Coast Mainline or the travails of the recent pandemic. Still, their non-operation of trains in the U.K. is a loss. However, they still sell train tickets via apps on Android and iOS under the Virgin Trains Ticketing brand. There are no booking fees, and you can collect points for flights and other goodies through Virgin Red.

Update: Some missteps with ticket buying have meant refunds that were processed with the same kind of efficiency that I found when doing the same with Virgin Trains. Some practices never get relinquished, it seems.

This is a little something that I found via Twitter: a ticket booking website for train journeys across France, Italy, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Hungary. It is called Save a Train and has been going since 2016. However, plans to include USA, Canada, Spain, Poland, Russia, Japan, Australia and Czechia in 2021 appear not to have happened yet, and one of those is compromised since 2022 in any case. Otherwise, the recent pandemic will not have helped.

On Friday, Transport for Greater Manchester was notified with 24 hours notice that Little Gem was ceasing trading, letting a lot of bus contracts without service. Thankfully, this does not include services 391 and 392 between Macclesfield and Stockport since these have passed to Go Goodwins. Otherwise, there is a deal of disruption until things get sorted at the start of May, even if other services still operate and may offer alternatives. Hopefully, the introduction of the Bee Network avoids this kind of thing.

After what felt like an eternity, there is better news on the industrial relations front in the rail industry. The Network rail strike has been settled after RMT members accepted the latest offer. Today’s RMT action against eighteen train companies has been suspended, and it is the same for Saturday. Hopefully, this all leads to resolution of these disputes, even if others continue in other sectors.

Not so long ago, I wrote an entry on here about how much more positive things felt in Ireland compared to the U.K. when it came to public transportation. One thing that lay undone from my time in Ireland last August was to add to the Irish Bus Companies collation three new operations that came to my notice during a stay in Cork city. That has happened now and these are Cobh Connect, Cork Connect and West Cork Connect. All are there now for your perusal and for checking out extra travel options.

The website’s British Bus Companies collation is getting some attention at the moment. A lot has changed in the last few years with takeovers, consolidations and withdrawals. Thus, there have updates to make and there may be more to do, even without the continuing upheavals that we are experiencing at the moment.

It looks as if useful services like the Poppit Rocket (405, Cardigan to Newport), Puffin Shuttle (400, St. Davids to Marloes) and Strumble Shuttle (404, Fishguard to St Davids) will not run for the 2023 summer season. These have been operated by Richards Brothers who are cancelling them on 2023-04-05. The first two of these are covered by the Fflecsi scheme but having a scheduled service that does need prebooking is better, even if an app is provided.

From 2023-04-01, changes are coming to routes 316, 318 and 319 in Cheshire East, operated by D&G Bus. The main change is a reduction in the days of service; all are down from their five-day service offering. Services 316 and 319 run on Monday and Thursday only, while route 318 operates on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday aside from weekday school journeys. Residents of Sandbach, Alsager, Kidsgrove, Congleton, Holmes Chapel, Rode Heath, Cranage, Scholar Green and Goostrey are going to have to become accustomed to some cuts in bus services in April.

Using developer funds, Cheshire East Council are funding a new bus service that serves Wilmslow, Handforth and Handforth Dean. This is operated by D&G Bus from Monday to Saturday for an initial period of twelve months. It runs hourly between 09:00 and 18:00 and is numbered 312. While one might reckon that there are other ways of spending the cash, its origin constrains its usage, so the longevity of this new service will be worth watching.