Senior Traffic Commissioner (STC) for Great Britain, Beverley Bell, has launched a consultation on the regulation of professional drivers. The eight week consultation invites views on proposed revisions to the STC’s Statutory Document on Vocational Driver Conduct, which was first issued in 2011. It forms part of the Traffic Commissioners’ key strategic objectives for 2014/15 […]

Consultations are being held on changes to the Sheffield bus network. Passengers are being invited to give feedback on proposals, including the optimisation of key routes into the city centre and better access to employment and training sites. The consultation is being held by Sheffield Bus Partnership and closes on 31 July 2015. Views submitted […]

Bus and coach passenger campaign group, Bus Users, has appointed Dawn Badminton-Capps to head up its work in England. The move follows a reorganisation that will see the group bring the structure of its England operations in line with those of Wales and Scotland. Dawn officially takes up the role of Bus Users’ Director of […]

First South West has agreed to sell its operations in South Devon to Stagecoach. On completion of the sale, expected to conclude by 6 September 2015, the Plymouth bus depot, outstations at Tavistock and Dartmouth and 253 staff will transfer to Stagecoach. First will continue to operate services up to and including 5 September. The […]

Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne’s Summer Budget 2015 is one that ‘puts security first’. It comes at a time of growth for the economy, which rose 3% in 2014. A 2.4% increase was forecast in 2015 (0.1% lower than predicted in March). Salient points in the document included a cut in the deficit at […]

Overall trading for FirstGroup is in line with management expectations, according to the company’s latest figures for the first quarter of its 2015/16 financial year. During the period covered, like-for-like revenue in the operator’s UK Bus business increased by 1.4%, with commercial passenger revenue continuing to grow at more than 2%, partially offset by a […]

Early last year we put the Plaxton Leopard bodied Volvo B8R demonstrator through its paces (B&CB issue 1266, 7 March 2014) and with the exception of a few body issues that appear to have been overcome on subsequent vehicles were impressed with what we found, particularly the smoothness and quietness compared with the B9R. With […]

Volvo is completely convinced that Electromobility is the future for bus operation and has been keeping members of the press fully informed of developments with the latest stage of its moves in this direction. Last week these took a major step forward with the entry into service of three fully electric buses alongside seven plug-in […]