To be fair, some transport hubs do provide prominent information to the effect: 'New here? Here's where to find the buses and here's information on the fares system.'

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57

13:14 Swindon to Westbury due 13:57 has been delayed at Swindon and is now 20 minutes late.
This is due to a points failure.

14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:00

14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:00 will be starting late from Westbury and is expected to be 5 minutes late.
This is due to a points failure.

Lifts still not commissioned. Bus from down side to upside/branch has been booked for the summer season.

Driver critical as fire engine and buses crash

A bus driver is in a critical condition after a "major collision" between a fire engine and two guided buses.

It happened on the B1050 Station Road at the junction with the Busway in Northstowe, near Cambridge, shortly after 14:00 BST on Wednesday.

The 44-year-old woman, from Gedney Hill near Spalding, Lincolnshire, received serious injuries and remained in hospital, Cambridgeshire Police said. Ten other people taken to hospital had minor injuries, the force added.

A fire engine had been responding to an incident travelling north when it crashed with a single-decker Stagecoach bus travelling towards St Ives. A similar bus travelling in the opposite direction was also involved.

Eleven people were taken to Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital, including the driver of the second bus.

Det Insp Garry Webb said no arrests had been made. "This was a major collision which has seen numerous people left injured," he said. "I would like to hear from anyone who has yet to speak to officers about the collision."

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said three firefighters were on board the engine. Two received minor injuries and one of them was taken to hospital for a precautionary check, but has since been released.

The road and Busway have since reopened.

(Article continues)

Really is time for some stirring on this, major embarassment for someone, surely some resolution could bave been sorted by now. Last I heard it was power supply issues but .....

A man from Devon said a "total mistake" left him upset as he lost a treasured item that belonged to his late wife.

Clive Angior, 81, from Plympton, said he was heading home on a bus from Royal Parade in Plymouth city centre when he inadvertently showed his wife's bus pass instead of his own.

He said he carried the pass for sentimental reasons but the "driver seized it" and would not return it.

Stagecoach South West said that "if a concession pass is identified as expired, their current process is that drivers retain the pass and return to the local authority in that area". However, Mr Angior has been given a copy of its photograph.

Mr Angior said he and his wife Maureen were married for 38 years before she died in 2023. He added that he carried her old bus pass with him in his pocket as a "permanent reminder of her" as "they used to travel on the bus together".

He said he accidently placed his wife's pass on the vehicle's card reader instead of his own.  "The driver immediately spotted that it had expired and said he was seizing the pass as its now council property," he said.

Mr Angior added that he used his own pass and continued with the journey but asked several times if he could have his wife's pass back but was told no. He said he told the driver that it was "really important" to him and asked if he could make an "exception" to the rule but the driver refused.

Stagecoach said they "understand the sentimental value of the pass" and contacted the council in an "attempt to reunite it with the passenger."

Plymouth City Council added that it contacted Mr Angior directly and said it could not provide him with the original pass as it was likely "destroyed or lost."  The authority agreed to send a copy of the photo that was on the pass.

Mr Angior said he "accepted the fact he wouldn't get the pass back" but was "very happy with the compromise" that was reached.

13:18 Hereford to London Paddington due 16:24 will be terminated at Reading.
This is due to a fault on this train.
Last Updated:17/04/2025 10:22

From the BBC:

Business owner 'willing to go to jail' over rates

An Oxford business owner said he could be willing to go to jail after he and other traders boycotted paying their business rates because of ongoing disruption on a key route.

Botley Road has been closed since April 2023 as part of Network Rail's ongoing £161m project to upgrade Oxford Station and is expected to reopen in August 2026.

Five businesses affected by the closure stopped paying their business rates and say they will not pay them until they get further financial support.

Tom Rainey, who runs The Porter House restaurant and hotel and The Punter pub, said it was "shocking" that businesses were being charged the full amount in business rates. He said it would "not take much brains" to create some form of exemption.

Business rates are collected by Oxford City Council on behalf of the government, which set the rates and keep most of the income. Decisions over changes to business rate charges are made by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

The council says it has supported businesses in applying for hardship funding.

However, Mr Rainey said he had applied to city council's hardship fund and received no response from the authority since November. He then found he would have to go to the VOA first to apply for relief, but his application was refused. Despite making two appeals to VOA's decision, he has still not heard anything.

"We are just passed around in this vicious circle because no-one actually cares," Mr Rainey said. "I find it more stomach-wrenching that we are actually paying business rates than the money we are losing. Oxford City Council is giving us absolutely nothing, and the VOA is just a waiting game. They are hiding behind bureaucracy. Not one person has offered us anything, and therefore we believe the only option is to make a stand."

The city council has not acted yet but Mr Rainey said he expected them to produce paperwork within the next few weeks. "Knowing the city council, they will have us in the magistrates' court by May." he added. While he admitted it was "a bit extreme", he said: "If I end up with a jail term, then I would accept that".

The group of traders, who are part of the Botley Road Independent Traders Association (BRITA), include The Porter House, The Punter, First Stop Spannerworks, The Westgate Hotel and Pack & Send.

Zack Iqbal, owner of First Stop Spannerworks, said he would take part in the boycott to "highlight the strain that Botley Road businesses are under".

An Oxford City Council spokesperson said: "The council understands the seriously negative impact that the long-term disruption of Botley Road is having on local businesses and is committed to doing what it can to help, within the limits of its powers. The council is responsible for collecting business rates on behalf of the government, which then retains the majority of the income. The rate is also set by central government. Decisions on changes to business rate charges are made by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) through an independent process, with each case assessed on its own merits."

A VOA spokesperson said: "We cannot comment on individual cases. If there has been a change to a property or its surrounding area, a business can report this to us, and we will assess if the rateable value should be reduced. We encourage any business who thinks that their rateable value is too high to let us know using our online service."

I notice that some traffic lights in Reading seem to have been changed to very short phase and cycle times. Doesn't do much for the safety of cyclists. Is this just the normal attitude of Reading BC to cyclists, or does the quote above suggest that there has been a national direction.

06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47

Facilities on the 06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47.
Will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 2.

they are so quick in changing from the road to the guided bus that I'm surprised there hasn't been more crashes there.

4.1 First Group support a strengthened role for a passenger watchdog in the form of the Passenger Standards Authority (PSA). However, we are concerned at a macro level that the passenger is under-represented in the proposed industry structure given:
...
6.1 FirstGroup supports the continuation of a common Rail Ombudsman (RO) service across all operators, and we would expect GBR to be subject to the RO service on the same terms as other operators.

Eleven in hospital as buses and fire engine crash



Eleven people have been taken to hospital after a crash between two guided buses and a fire engine.

It happened on the B1050 Station Road at the junction with the Busway in Northstowe, near Cambridge, shortly after 14:00 BST.

Cambridgeshire County Council said the road had been closed in both directions and buses, which use dedicated lanes, had been diverted.

An eyewitness to the aftermath of the collision said it looked "pretty horrendous".

The Busway lanes/tracks have raised concrete sides, which can only be used by modified vehicles, although they have junctions with normal roads.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said four ambulances, three Hazardous Area Response Team vehicles, two paramedic cars and helicopters from the East Anglian Air Ambulance and MAGPAS were sent.

The council said it was working with the emergency services and the bus operator. The authority added that a diversion route was in place via Longstanton roundabout to the A1307 at Swavesey crossroads.

Ian Missen saw the aftermath of the crash and said it was "pretty horrendous".  "There was two buses and a fire engine and it looked like the fire engine had hit one bus which pushed that bus into another bus," he said. "The traffic lights at the Northstowe guided bus – they are so quick in changing from the road to the guided bus that I'm surprised there hasn't been more crashes there. It was on the B1050 between Northstowe and Willingham... closer to Northstowe than Willingham."



At a crown court hearing earlier on Wednesday, the council was fined £6m after three deaths on The Busway, which offers three routes in Cambridge with links to Huntingdon and St Ives. Judge Mark Bishop criticised the authority for its "rigid and blinkered response" to the fatalities, as well as numerous near-misses and accidents. The authority had previously admitted two safety breaches and said it was "truly sorry".

Is the bus wheelchair friendly?

Kryten 2X4B 523P, B.S. (Bachelor of Sanitation) is a Series 4000 mechanoid or 'slave 'noid'. He is very humanoid, with the exception of the flat cubic planes visible on his face and head. His brain is synthetic yet also partly organic, based on that of John Warburton.

Once the personal servant of three female crew members of Nova 5, he is now reduced to serving the slobbish Dave Lister, the only surviving human crew member on Red Dwarf. He was also on SS Augustus before Nova 5, but the crew died of old age. After his rescue from Nova 5, Kryten becomes a vital crew member of Red Dwarf, serving as science officer.

A neurotic mechanoid obsessed with cleaning and being a slave to humans, Kryten, with the help of Dave Lister, learns to break many of his programming protocols to become more independent and human-like.

What the story doesn’t say is how much an adult ticket is.  Most family tickets are more expensive, even if only slightly, than an adult travelling on their own.