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Friday, 29 March 2019

BBC News

• McGill's invests £4.75m in 26 new busesMcGill's buys 26 buses, bringing its investment in new fleet over the past five years to about £24m.

The Herald

• Bus firm McGill's spends big to expand fleetGREENOCK-based bus firm McGill’s has invested £4.75 million to swell its fleet serving routes in Glasgow and the west of Scotland.

Sheffield Star

• Bus, train and tram passengers in South Yorkshire will soon be able to buy their travel tickets onlineBus, train and tram passengers will soon be able to buy their travel tickets at a time to suit them, thanks to the introduction of a new online buying service.

Other Regional Press

• New bus route for Penarth to hospital funded by Vale councilTHE Vale of Glamorgan Council has stepped in to support a local bus service

Coach and Bus Week

• Committed to GasNottingham City Transport Engineering Director Gary Mason talks to Andy Izatt about how a fleet of gas-fuelled double-deckers will help the operator achieve Euro VI across its entire operation by the end of this year
• Statement on TfL budget releasedOn Wednesday 20 March 2019 Transport for London (TfL) released its budget which demonstrated that its operating deficit has almost halved from £968m to £500m in 2018/2019.
• York set for 21-strong Optare Metrodecker electric fleetThe city of York will soon be home to one of the biggest electric double-decker fleets outside of London, thanks to investment from First York and funding from the City Council and Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).
• £25m funding boost for bus retrofitsOver 1,800 buses will become Euro VI-compliant thanks to the funding. Local authorities across Britain are to benefit from a £25m bus retrofit grant.
• Accessible Transport Group ‘saved’ by council fundingAccessible Transport Group (ATG), provider of Ring and Ride and igo bus services in the West Midlands, has been saved by council funding after entering administration, the BBC has reported.

Route One (Bus and Coach)

• UK’s first electric bus training course launchesNottingham Community Transport and its trading arm CT4N have teamed up with Midland Transport Training to pioneer and launch the first electric bus training course in the UK.
• Liverpool traffic lights will prioritise late running busesLiverpool is getting new traffic light technology that can prioritise buses that are running late.
• Will MaaS destroy public transport?ITS International’s latest conference examined the developments in the fast-changing Mobility as a Service sector
• Omnibus and Freeway connect for smarter softwareOperations and maintenance management are combined with two companies’ integration
• West Mids gets £5.5m boostThe West Midlands has received a £5.5m government award, giving a major boost to Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street’s commitment to deliver the cleanest bus fleet in the UK outside London
• Coach and bus industry is own worst enemyA number of things have struck me in recent issues of routeone. President’s Diary [routeone/27 February] focused on the driver crisis and how Brexit may amplify the shortage.
• Liverpool to get up to 25 hydrogen busesLiverpool is to get hydrogen buses, having made a successful £6.4m bid to the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).
• Retention is the issue‘The truth about driver shortages’ article [routeone/Big Story/13 March] is interesting and long overdue, though I believe a bigger problem is driver retention rather than recruitment.
• Rural areas to get city-style journey planning appsBuses Minister Nusrat Ghani has announced £4 million funding for a digital platform to provide location information about bus services across the country, including in rural and remote area
• NXWM bucks the bus usage trendNational Express West Midlands (NXWM) has seen a 12% increase in journeys by young people as a result of introducing half-price travel for under-18s and low-fare zones.
• First York orders 21 electricFirst York will take delivery of 21 new electric double-deckers in October, making it one of the biggest electric ‘decker fleets outside of London.
• Travel in Style with Pink PassengerRunning a successful business is enough of a challenge, so when a driver shortage throws a spanner in the works, one operator has a solution
• Burnham returns fire towards critics of GM CAZIndustry claims that £100 charge constitutes a tax on passengers are ‘simply misleading’, says Mayor

Other News Sources

• Heathrow Terminal 5 named “World’s Best” at Skytrax AwardsHeathrow Terminal 5 has been voted the “passengers’ pick”, topping the list of the world’s best airport terminals at the annual Skytrax Awards.