Tony Shaw, Senior Duty Manager, looks pleased as he casts his eyes across the screen at the map showing the whereabouts of the operator’s Tees Flex fleet. Tony said: “It’s 11am on a Wednesday morning and they’re all busy.” Tony is the man that presides over the service, keeping a careful eye on the screen […]
We couldn’t really have chosen a worse day to road test a coach – at the peak of Storm Jorge, who was busy dumping a month’s rainfall on the north-west in 24 hours. But if anything was going to show up any deficiencies in MAN’s tweaked Tourliner, Storm Jorge was it. The rain coupled with […]
At its biggest conference yet, the Coach Tourism Association outlined what’s in store for European touring after Brexit. The annual event, this year at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in York, drew more than 160 delegates including coach operators and suppliers, with an agenda of familiarisation trips around York, dinners and networking events. The conference […]
Thousands settle down of an evening to watch Emmerdale, following the famous characters’ trials and tribulations. But what they might not know is those actors and the crew that film them would not be making TV if it was not for Fourway Coaches. The operator provides the transport for the iconic soap opera from its […]
With operators increasingly having to manage fares on home-to-school services, a Yorkshire entrepreneur has come to market with perhaps the most cost-effective cashless ticketing system. Software developer Chris Bell has created ShuttleID, a ‘cloud-based’ system which can manage payments by the year, term or month, issue electronic tickets to pupils’ smartphones and has the cheapest […]
Is the future electric? With the government announcing funding for the UK’s first all-electric bus town, the focus does seem to be on shifting to electric power for the UK’s PCV fleet. However, there are more green options for fuelling buses and coaches that are just as viable as plugging them in. We look at […]
In her keynote address, the self-proclaimed “Baroness of the Buses” began by saying: “What a transformational year this is going to be for us all. It’s the start of what I believe is going to be a golden age for buses in this country.” Baroness Vere, Minister with Responsibility for Buses, DfT, said: “It is […]
Blackpool is a town that is re-inventing itself, looking for new opportunities to grow employment and amenity opportunities for its visitors and resident population. At around 139,000, the latter has been in decline for a number of years and faces the added challenges of ageing and deprivation but the town’s unitary authority is delivering on […]