On Trains & Buses

Transport for Wales rail now has a capacity checker for finding quieter trains on which to travel. This sounds like a good idea if you want a more pleasant journey or remain cautious even if most think the pandemic is over.

East Midlands Railway services are affected by industrial action by members of Unite the Union today and tomorrow. Some trains are running, but it is a restricted service level. National Rail has the details.

On a slightly more uplifting note than recently, here are the details of train services over the festive period from National Rail. There is an entry for every train company showing the effects of any engineering work.

More Network Rail strike dates were announced after talks broke down during negotiations to resolve the ongoing dispute. These dates will be: 2022-12-13, 2022-12-14, 2022-12-16, 2022-12-17, 2023-01-03, 2023-01-04, 2023-01-06, 2023-01-07. Hopefully, talks can restart to get this stopped since the disruption means that whole weeks are blighted now, and there may be more to come next year.

The A537 Buxton New Road is closed near Macclesfield for approximately six weeks until late October. Because of this, service 58 will use Buxton Old Road instead, but will still be able to serve Black Road and Windmill Street.

On the Bank Holiday for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, a Saturday Service will operate on all services provided by First Scotland East. In other areas like Cheshire East, a Sunday service is on offer.

First Bus is selling its First Scotland East business and all its routes in the area to McGill’s Group. The sale is due to be completed on 2022-09-19 and it includes depots in Livingston, Larbert, Bannockburn and Balfron along with the Edinburgh open-top bus operation Bright Bus Tours. The deal also involves the transfer of all buses currently operating in the region and approximately 550 staff.

Bus drivers working for Arriva Northwest are on strike and the action is continuing into next week after starting on 2022-07-20. The result is that very few services across Merseyside, Greater Manchester or Cheshire are running. The exceptions include Macclesfield local services except for service 38 together with services running out of the Chester depot, those running into Chester from Wrexham and Rhyl and the special Liverpool Clatterbridge Hospital Shuttle. Also, Arriva pre-paid tickets are being accepted on those operated by D&G Bus.

Today is much cooler than it has been for the last few days when almost insufferable temperatures came upon us. These have not been days for travelling and I do wonder how anyone could have done that given the record-breaking temperatures. How staff worked at all is beyond me but things are better now and remain set to remain that way for as far as I can see.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union announced one-day strikes for 2022-07-27, 2022-07-18 and 2022-08-20. This action affects both Network Rail and train operating companies so the likely advice is not to travel unless it is necessary to do so. Services on the following days could start late as well so that also needs consideration.

Also, the train drivers’ union ASLEF announced strike action 2022-07-30 which affects the following eight train operating companies: Arriva Rail London, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, GWR, Hull Trains, LNER, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains. Currently, it looks as if other companies are not affected so this may not be as disruptive as the RMT actions.