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Within Bury St Edmunds there is overlap between the Mulleys Motorways and Stephensons of Essex town services. Both networks were introduced back when First still had a depot in the town and ran their own town services as well, although since then Mulleys have substantially expanded their network...

The January changes that you mention plus the enhancement to frequency in Leicester on NovusDirect are a big investment for us, and we also have a new service launching in Peterborough too in January, so we’ll need to see how that all beds down. It’s likely there’ll be further tender...

All supported local buses in Essex are due for retender in early 2024, and the outcome of those tenders will play a big part in how the networks of both operators look in the medium term, as the majority of work requires some form of council funding. This impacts upon the ability to permit...

I religiously travel on the first departure of every new service that we take on, and I try and make a point of travelling on the last service of the preceding operator too, partly for learning purposes and partly to gain a sense of “closure”. When we took over Park and Ride in Chelmsford I...

In fairness, most independent operators will take on work at short notice, if the price is right. Local authorities across the country have worked successfully in a whole host of situations to mobilise short notice bus services, and independent operators are usually the ones who pick up the...

The only financial cost of registering a new operating centre with the Traffic Commissioner is the £122 registration fee for doing so. However, expect to be asked to answer detailed questions on your business practices, staffing levels and especially availability of competent qualified Transport...

Leicester Flexi is valid on all Vectare buses in Leicester. The only exception is the part of their NovusFosse route which operates outside of the Leicester Flexi zone. Vectare's NovusFlex DRT service - on which Flexi was not valid - no longer operates. It may be worthwhile editing your original...

The more interesting one would perhaps be where a local authority supported a service and another operator (perhaps a bitter former operator) registered a similar service over part of the route / part of the timetable. We had this in Lincolnshire recently where PC Coaches lost a contract for...

What about for services covered by enhanced partnerships where the local authority doesn’t support the service?

On paper a small bus franchise is no different to a collection of gross cost tenders, you’re right. However, the hoops one has to jump through to win - and retain - the franchise package, and the service standards one will be held to, are much much higher, with proportionately higher financial...

I don’t know how Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket revenue is apportioned, but traditionally these sort of tickets operates on what is called the “revenue lies where it falls” basis - in other words, whoever sells the ticket keeps the revenue. So if you’re buying the Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket anyway...

Rolleston village is served by Stagecoach buses. The railway station is a short walk away. Elton and Orston is served by Vectare’s 94 and 833 bus services.

Route 505 exists to provide a Saturday link between Waltham Abbey and Harlow, but is now operated by Vectare following a recent Essex County Council tendering round.

Chelmsford Park and Ride does not allow free travel except for Essex County Council issued Mobility ENCTS holders after 09:00 Monday to Friday and any time at weekends. Howeve all ENCTS holders qualify for a reduced day ticket price of £1.50 at all times.

It’s possible. I learned to drive a Routemaster sat in the “jumpseat” of a cab, and have also driven one with a passenger sat there. Both times out of service of course. Not the most comfortable for driver or passenger but it can be done.

Is the C12 a busy route? Looks to run through some quite industrial territory and some fairly suburban housing, without the density usually required to make urban buses viable. But Springfield Sainsbury’s at the end could / should have led to some two-way patronage flows.

No worries. It’s a really interesting point that you made, so I’m glad you did. The solution would be for operators to put QR codes on their App M-Tickets, and then have passengers scan the QR code as they board each bus. This at least means that if the operator WANTS to do the extra analysis...

As an absolute minimum, at least if you purchase a day ticket on the bus you can be confident that one trip will be recorded and ascribed to that route, even if the driver fails to record your use of the ticket on your return journey later on. Whereas, purchasing the ticket on the app is...

As an operator of quite a number of rail replacement duties every weekend it’s exceptionally frustrating to see TOCs blame lack of buses on the driver shortage. Weekend driver availability is not fixed. On jobs where the money is right, operators can enhance pay and attract staff in to work. The...

Whilst there may well be logic in this approach, the lead times of doing this are 9-12 months away, assuming new deckers are used. And even if they purchased and refurbished second hand deckers, that’s a 3-4 month minimum project. Plus there’d need to be some substantial engineering change as...