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Saturday, 04 February 2012

The Herald

• Drivers to face Scotland's first motorway bus laneDRIVERS will be confronted by Scotland's first motorway bus lane this year when a dedicated route is expected to open as part of traffic measures introduced during the construction of the new Forth Road Bridge.

Liverpool Post

• Arriva threatens redundancies if not allowed to expand its Bootle bus depotBUS firm Arriva has said it may put 100 staff out of work if plans to expand its Bootle depot are rejected by council planning chiefs.

Manchester Evening News

• Bus firm First to face transport watchdog in punctuality probe Greater Manchester™s biggest bus firm is being hauled before the industry watchdog after a probe into the punctuality of its services. Bosses from First will appear before the region™s traffic commissioner, Beverley Bell, at her office inWigan on Monday.

The York Press

• 29 bus jobs at risk in YorkA UNION claims 29 conductors are at risk of redundancy following First™s decision to axe York™s ftr buses.

East Anglian Daily Times

• Support is expressed for new bus serviceTHE DETAILS of a new bus service for a large estate have been revealed.

Other Regional Press

• Plea over bus station falls flatA campaigner’s impassioned plea for a referendum on the future of Preston Bus Station was overwhelmingly rejected at a meeting yesterday.

Bus and Coach.com

• Wales cuts bus support by 20 per centThe Welsh government has announced reductions totalling £7million in transport grants, a cut of over 20 per cent.
• Bus stop info scans launched in GlasgowFirst Glasgow is now displaying quick response (QR) codes at bus stops across the city so customers can instantly access its website by scanning the code using the camera on their mobile phone.
• Cable support for ITAsSupport for an integrated transport authority for the Bristol area, and potentially in other conurbations, has come from business secretary Vince Cable.
• Gas trials underway in ReadingReading is currently at the centre of gas bus activity with two operators in the area, Reading Transport and Thames Travel, evaluating MAN™s CNG-powered EcoCity demonstrators.
• Through ticket from Citylink and FirstScottish Citylink “ part-owned by Stagecoach “ and First Glasgow have introduced a through ticket which allows passengers using the Citylink service between Edinburgh, Harthill and Glasgow to continue through to Glasgow Airport on First Glasgow™s 500 Shuttle service.
• Commons plans new inquiryIn what at times seems like a never-ending procession of inquiries, the House of Commons transport committee is now getting in on the act, with what sounds like an inquiry into an inquiry, as it plans to look into the Competition Commission™s report on the local bus services market.
• Hydrogen-powered bus plan for AberdeenPlans to operate 12 hydrogen-powered buses on services in Aberdeen have been approved by the city council.
• Blind passengers œvulnerableBlind bus passengers are being left stranded and vulnerable, according to a new survey by the charity Guide Dogs.
• Cambridge community minibus scheme flopsThe first of Cambridgeshire™s community minibus schemes, promoted by the council as a flexible alternative to funding conventional rural bus services, carried just one passenger in its first month of operation, although that one person did make three journeys.
• First to withdraw StreetCars from YorkFirst is withdrawing its fleet of Wrightbus StreetCars from York.