ABOVE: First Bristol, Bath & The West 30078 (YH25 CZK) is a Yutong U11DD. It is between journeys when parked up outside Bristol Parkway station on Thursday 27 November 2025.
Quarter Four Snippets
Stories, pictures and opinions from the last three months that don't merit a full article of their own...
20 December 2025
75-reg Buses A-Plenty
On the very morning that I published my Quarter Three Snippets, which bemoaned the fact that I had not yet found a 75-reg bus four weeks in, I made the last leg of my journey "Around the Outside of London" (series starts here). By the end of the day I had accounted for three 75-reg buses, and had even travelled on one.
The first photo isn't great - the bus was passing one I was sitting on, so it's only a rear view. And it's a better rear view than I would have got if it hadn't ended up in front of my bus, and turning left. There are better views of 75-reg buses to be found in this article.
The first photo isn't great - the bus was passing one I was sitting on, so it's only a rear view. And it's a better rear view than I would have got if it hadn't ended up in front of my bus, and turning left. There are better views of 75-reg buses to be found in this article.
ABOVE: Falcon Buses 140 (YX75 LDZ), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, became my first 75-reg bus sighting. It is seen in Woking, turning from the High Street into Victoria Way, working local route 81 to the Barnsbury Estate in the south of the town. It's Saturday 27 September 2025.
It took a lot longer to find a London 75-reg bus. All new buses into the capital now are electric, and most are ending up in store for a considerable period of time whilst charging infrastructure is installed. The result is that the "new" buses coming onto London's streets in September / October were 25-reg, or maybe even 74-reg! As far as I can tell, it was mid-October before a 75-reg bus entered service in London. When it did, it was on a route that goes right past my office, and I still didn't find it.
A lovely friend of mine finally found a 75-reg London bus, on route 47 (Shoreditch to Bellingham, Catford Bus Garage), in mid-November. She texted a picture of Stagecoach London 82158 (LV75 FLK) with the simple message "Found one"! I'm not bitter. I don't begrudge her that win. So it was only with a limited amount of glee, therefore, that I shared this video that I found, of the same bus/ It was taken a week later, and it had broken down!
I personally had to wait until early December to find a live London 75-reg of my own, and, like the Woking picture above, it isn't a very good picture. You can only just tell that it's a 75-reg!
ABOVE: My first live London 75-reg bus, which I believe to be EBD 116 (LF75 OTM), is a BYD BD11 belonging to Go-Ahead London. It is seen in Waterloo Road, London, on Sunday 7 December 2025. It is working route 188 (North Greenwich to Tottenham Court Road), but turning short of Tottenham Court Road at Aldwych.
The 26-reg will be out from 1st March, and my Quarterly Snippets will be due on 28th. I wonder whether I will find a 26-reg in time for that?
New Yutong Double-Deckers
I noted six months ago that the Yutong U11DD was quite a rare sight on the streets of Britain. First subsidiaries at Bristol, Bath and the West and First Buses of Somerset now have over 100 in service, and I popped over to Bristol, where the majority are, to try one out.
ABOVE: First Bristol, Bath & The West 30065 (YH25 CYV), a Yutong U11DD, passes the complex Zetland Road / Gloucester Road / Cheltenham Road junction near The Arches, north of Bristol City Centre. It's Thursday 27 November 2025.
They are smooth-running and comfortable, although the leg-room for the front seats upstairs is a bit tight. The strangest thing is that the vertical front lights make me think that I'm looking at the back of the bus rather than the front!
It's a decent view out of the front, and there's no conflict between the "next stop" display screen and the upper windscreen.
ABOVE: The provision of an information screen does not conflict with the view from the top deck of a route 74 bus in the Knowle West area of Bristol, on Thursday 27 November 2025.
Something I have never consciously seen anywhere before is that the destination display of these buses changes (presumably automatically), to "Terminates Here" as buses approach the final stop.
ABOVE: First Bristol, Bath & The West 30060 (YH25 CYO) demonstrates the "Terminates Here" display, when parked at Cribbs Causeway on Thursday 27 November 2025.
The green livery and WESTbus branding make for a smart and attractive appearance but, as these are First Group services, they will presumably end up in the new, drab dark blue corporate livery in due course. Such a shame.
Three Photos of the Same Bus Stop
Whilst in Bristol, I went to check on a bus stop that I had previously featured in these pages when complaining about poor bus information. The bus stop B7 in The Haymarket was a frightful mess in March 2022, as I commented upon in an article soon afterwards.
I went back in March 2024 and little had changed.
I went back in March 2024 and little had changed.
March 2022
|
March 2024
|
After my 2024 visit, I emailed the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) and asked them to fix it. Now, finding myself back in Bristol, naturally I had to check.
And there has been a change...
The 15-storey Premier Inn, that had stood next to this bus stop, has been demolished and is now just a hole in the ground!
However, the bus stop flag itself is as before:
According to BusTimes.info, the routes that currently stop here are the 17, 25, 70, 73, 74, 75, 76 and 77 - only four of which are listed on the stop, alongside four routes that haven't existed in years.
I never even received an acknowledgement of my email from WECA. All very disappointing.
More Bus Stop Stories
Still in Bristol, riding the 74 bus from Bristol Parkway station into the City Centre, I noticed that the route number was missing from every stop. What is it about the industry "shop window" in these parts?
|
|
To the city of London next, where this bus stop near St Paul's Station is presumably "closed" at present:
Route 67 Update
I featured Borders Buses route 67 (Berwick-upon-Tweed to Galashiels) in my 100 British Bus Routes series earlier in the year. One of the unusual things about this route was that it ran in two distinct halves - Berwick to Kelso and Kelso to Galashiels - with a change of bus necessary to cover the whole route. From 20 October, a through service was introduced. It's a lovely ride and now it's even better because it can be done on one bus!
Reading Heritage Bus Running Day
The Thames Valley & Great Western Omnibus Trust organised a Running Day based on Reading on Sunday 16 November. Here are three of the buses that were in service on the day.
First, SV 6107 is a 1929 Leyland TD1 L53R, new to Jersey Motor Transport. When sold for preservation in 1958 it was the last petrol-engined double decker in use in the British Isles. It's now 96 years old and looks amazing!
First, SV 6107 is a 1929 Leyland TD1 L53R, new to Jersey Motor Transport. When sold for preservation in 1958 it was the last petrol-engined double decker in use in the British Isles. It's now 96 years old and looks amazing!
City of Oxford 371 (FWL 371E) is a 1967 AEC Renown with Northern Counties bodywork. Delivered in August 1967, it is four months younger than me, but very similar in age to a life-long friend of mine who reads this blog!
Thames Valley Traction Company no. 556 (FMO 938), a Bristol LL6B with ECW bodywork, was new in 1950 and looks in great shape for a 75-year-old!
Thanks as always to the organisers of all of the Running Days that take place through the year, and of course to the vehicle owners and all of the support teams who make these days possible.
A Few Non-Bus Snippets
I was amused to find a statement on the Transport for London (TfL) website that Westminster Station was "quieter than usual". I wondered if there was a reason for that...?
Here's a lovely (in my view) photo of a Great Western Railways "Intercity Express Train" (IET). It was taken on Platform 2 at Southall station on Friday 8 August 2025 (OK, that was in Quarter Three, I admit). During a period of mid-morning disruption, London-bound Elizabeth Line trains were temporarily being routed onto the Main Line instead of the relief line, hence a platform that is normally very firmly closed off to station users was open. It didn't affect the country-bound Elizabeth Line services, like the one on Platform 3 to the right.
Unlike some commentators, I really like these "IET" trains, but I wish they had come up with a better marketing name - one to match the London North Eastern Railway "Azuma".
The Elizabeth Line services from my station now come with (generally inaccurate) statements about the likely availability of seats. "Plenty of seats available" should always be taken with a pinch of salt, especially in circumstances such as the 0800 departure on Friday 12 December:
Does this bus serve the Biscuit Aisle?
When I rode route 399 (Scunthorpe to Doncaster) a few weeks ago, I remember it going into the grounds of the Tesco store on the edge of Scunthorpe, but I don't remember it going as far as is suggested by the timetable (below left). I don't remember the front door of the store being high enough for a double-decker either...
|
|
The picture on the right is an AI image from Craiyon. I just asked for a bus, but this is a very fine rendition of a Routemaster. But, look at the people in the image. Apart from the one leaning on the bus, the rest seem to have come from Lilliput...
TfL Website on the ball
I was puzzled to see a recommendation on the TfL website to catch the 453 bus from Hyde Park Corner to Elephant & Castle, because the 453 doesn't go to Hyde Park Corner.
But, due to the "Vitality 10K Run", buses were being diverted, so the advice was accurate. So nice to see TfL on the ball for once, presenting a diversion in real-time with practical, accurate information.
But, due to the "Vitality 10K Run", buses were being diverted, so the advice was accurate. So nice to see TfL on the ball for once, presenting a diversion in real-time with practical, accurate information.
TfL Website NOT on the ball
Buses on routes from First London Transit's Westbourne Park Garage have been disrupted by strikes over recent weeks. As I write this, more are planned for four days in the run-up to Christmas. But you wouldn't know from the TfL website Home Page:
If you want details of bus strikes, you need to go to the special strike page of the website:
But how do you know that you need to go to the strikes page if there's nothing to tell you anywhere else that there's a strike? Bus strikes rarely get media coverage in London nowadays. I would suggest checking the strikes page every day, just in case. (In getting a screenshot for this article, I've just found out about a whole separate Stagecoach dispute that I wasn't even aware of!)
Any image will do...
Unite, the union involved in the First Bus dispute, chose a generic image to illustrate a story on its website about an earlier series of strikes at Westbourne Park Garage back in September, with a New Routemaster on route 11. Not a route operated by Westbourne Park Garage, or even a route operated by First London, and not a type in use currently at Westbourne Park Garage.
Ahead of Schedule?
Here's an amusing screenshot from BusTimes.org, which is an impressive and really useful resource. Probably because a driver had reset his / her journey details before reaching the destination of route 77A, the Buttermere Circular in Cumbria, BusTimes was reporting some early running:
No London Bus Services on Christmas Day
The TfL website states clearly that:
Such a pity that the reference to "bus routes run by other operators" couldn't mention the special service being operated by Carousel Buses on what is normally TfL route 111 between Heathrow Airport and Whitton, or even the heritage operation on TfL route 430. The 430 has run for a number of years; the 111 operation is new this year.
I guess the 430 operation is more of a "fun" thing but the 111 is a serious operation designed to provide a service for airport workers that TfL should provide but won't. I would love to see the 430 and the 111, but I have no way of getting to either. With buses being provided all over the place on Christmas Day (including in Buckinghamshire, Brighton, Edinburgh and the Isle of Wight), how can there not be any provided by the capital's operator?
I believe there would be a market for services, and there are bound to be some drivers who would be willing to work - for the bonus, because they don't celebrate Christmas, or just to get out of the house?!
Coming Soon...
The pictures below are linked to stories that I will be bringing to you over the coming weeks. Admittedly only two of the four pictures in the Quarter Three "Coming Soon" article have so far been published, but the others are coming!
|
|
|
|
Next week's article will be my usual end-of-year reflections and tallies. Did I cover more miles in 2025 than in 2024?
In the meantime (assuming that you're reading this soon after publication and not weeks later), may I wish you a very Happy Christmas.
ABOVE: A slightly early Christmas greeting has made its way onto the front of Arriva Herts & Essex 4117 (SN67 WUE), an Enviro200 MMC. It is parked at Heathrow Airport's Central Bus Station on Sunday 30 November 2025, between journeys on route 725 (Stevenage to Heathrow), a new innovation in 2025.