On Trains & Buses

Northern Rail and Community Rail Lancashire are launching a Sunday train service called the Ribble Valley Rambler that runs from Blackpool to Hellifield. It starts on Sunday 15th September and connects with trains to and from Carlisle. The new service has its own dedicated website and I wish it well. Northern Rail have done their own announcement and I hope that it’s a service that I could use sometime.

North Yorkshire County Council are looking to reduce bus service subsidy from next year and have commenced a consultation. There is a summary document on their website that gives a sense of what they are thinking. They have described the plans for the respective districts as follows: Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough, Selby. There is one interesting comment about leisure use being a low priority for the council (given the presence of two national parks in their patch, it is a striking and strange statement to see) but another about retaining those used to get to and from work is more reassuring.

Bus Eireann has been operating an updated service 115 timetable since Sunday. Services 22 (Ballina to Dublin) and 23 (Sligo to Dublin) are unaffected. More details are here.

From the middle of September, the Bus Eireann express coach service between Cork and Dublin service will not call at Urlingford and Portlaoise any longer to reduce travel times so a replacement service between Cashel and Portlaoise is being organised.

Railway engineering work between Manchester Piccadilly and Macclesfield is taking place from 22:48 on 2013-08-12 to 00:35 on 2013-08-16. Late night trains will be replaced by buses and these journeys will have extended travel times.

High Peak to operate Monday to Saturday journeys on service 118. Wardle Transport will continue to operate Sunday service under contract to Staffordshire and Derbyshire county councils. However, the timetable makes it look as if there will be journeys run by Wardles even though they look close to those operated by High Peak. Has confusion been caused by the cancellation of a council contract? Let’s hope that no damage is done in the long run.

High Peak is to run a partial replacement for the journeys on service 99 between Macclesfield and Congleton that are to be withdrawn at the end of August 2013.

The new Transpeak bus timetable from the start of September just involves some tweaks to help service reliability and satisfy passenger requests. The service runs between Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Derby.

After what must have been a frustrating few days for users of buses in Dublin, things thankfully are going to go back to normal from tomorrow. A full service is planned.

Added a good number of West Midlands bus operators to the British Bus Companies page following perusal of the Network West Midlands bus operators listing. East Yorkshire and Finglands also are added there now.