TM Travel 29/4/2010

Ripley 28/10/2010 - TrentBarton

Just a reminder that service 90 to Mansfield is still operated by red Dennis darts.
Bus and bicycle.

24/4/2010 Nottingham NCT

Two pictures of today's buses.

Two pictures of next week's bus.

Nottingham and Radcliffe 23/4/2010 - YourBus and TrentBarton

I saw this Diamond bus from the West Midlands on service 81 to Bulwell.

TrentBarton's new Solos on the Radcliffe Line. This was my first ride on a 10 registered bus and rather a contrast from Ukraine.

Who would have beleived it?

When this picture of a Derby trolleybus was taken in the 1960s who would have beleived that 50 years later the bus service to Alvaston would be provided by a subsidiary of the German railways?

Ukrainian minibuses

Minibuses are a vital part of public transport in Ukrainian towns and cities. In the Soviet Union trams and trolleybuses provided urban passenger transport along with bus services to smaller towns and villages. Over the past 20 years the tram and trolleybus networks have declined because of a chronic lack of investment and the minibuses have filled the void.

Odessa bus station

Towns and cities in the former Soviet Union usually have a bus station in the suburbs and Odessa is no exception. This one is at the terminus of tram route 5.
Buses stop at the exit for forms to be completed.This one is an Ikarus.
Ukraine is the land of the minibus. This one is on an international service to Chisnau in Moldova passing through the breakaway republic of Transdinistria.

Obviously a former German owned Neoplan.

This Mercedes has Russian number plates and is bound for Volgograd which is a long way.

Finally a visitor from from Riga in Latvia.
For some pictures of the roads these buses have to negotiate see my tram blog - http://www.tramways.blogspot.com/

Derby and Long Eaton 2/4/2010

Just for the record, here is a picture of the former temporary bus station offices which I assume will soon be removed.

There have been a number of adverse comments about the pedestrian approach to the bus station entrance and the lack a taxi rank on the same side of the road.

Arriva services to Mackworth (above) and TrentBarton services to Ripley and Heanor don't use the bus station.

Finally I had another ride on Gill's service from Sandiacre to Long Eaton. This time on one of their own buses which was equipped with a Wayfarer ticket machine.

Manchester 1/4/2010 - Haytons, Stagecoach, Finglands, Burnley & Pendle