Non-motoring > Trains and buses Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Crankcase Replies: 8
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New Tue 28 Nov 23 07:19 
 Trains and buses - Crankcase
Buses? Busses? Anyway.

Was behind a bus the other day with the railway logo on it. I imagine a replacement for a delayed train.

I wondered who drives them? Bard seems to think uk train companies employ full time bus drivers, who, if there is no bus required on a given day, just sit about and get paid anyway.

Is that really so? Might explain part of the ticket cost if it is.
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New Tue 28 Nov 23 07:34 
 Trains and buses - legacylad
Buses in my part of the world are dirt cheap. £2 per single journey. I think the £2 bus fare price cap will run until 31/12/2024 and lots of bus companies are taking part.

A few years ago Settle to Kirkby Lonsdale was almost £9 return.
When I had to pay.
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New Tue 28 Nov 23 08:07 
 Trains and buses - Zero

>> I wondered who drives them? Bard seems to think uk train companies employ full time
>> bus drivers, who, if there is no bus required on a given day, just sit
>> about and get paid anyway.

Absolutely not true. The railways* employ spot hire bus companies who have their own driver pool.

* in the greater sense TOC/Network Rail depending on circumstances.
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New Tue 28 Nov 23 09:31 
 Trains and buses - Bromptonaut
>> Absolutely not true. The railways* employ spot hire bus companies who have their own driver
>> pool.
>>
>> * in the greater sense TOC/Network Rail depending on circumstances.

That exactly.

There are/were a number of bus companies who specialised in providing buses to the TOCs/Newtwork Rail during engineering work. The name Fraser Eagle sticks in my mind from the early noughties when the Euston line was being upgraded. I think they went bust though.

If it's emergency stuff, broken rails or whatever, they hire locally. Lost count of how often I travelled from Rugby back to Northampton on Midland Red.

Trouble then is often that there are simply no buses available; all out on service, school runs etc.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 28 Nov 23 at 09:35
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New Tue 28 Nov 23 10:08 
 Trains and buses - Crankcase
Interesting, and unsurprisingly Bard wasn't completely accurate.

When you say that often no buses were available, is there some sort of obligation for the railway to get you to your destination, but if that's a week Tuesday that's ok? Do they have to provide accommodation or anything?

As I know nothing about trains or buses it's all interesting, a bit like being from Mars, where at least you get free chocolate.
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New Tue 28 Nov 23 10:32 
 Trains and buses - Bromptonaut
>> When you say that often no buses were available, is there some sort of obligation
>> for the railway to get you to your destination, but if that's a week Tuesday
>> that's ok? Do they have to provide accommodation or anything?

My experience of this was on a daily commute I did for 20+ years. Let's say the signals are down and likely to stay that way while engineers get to the site and diagnose/fix. Maybe a truly tech issue or it could be rodents or cable thieves; outwith the control of either TOC or infrastructure.

We're in an town with a significant hinterland of dormitory villages and kids are bussed to school. The hallway at our local comp is like Heathrow departures at 15:30 with kids lined up by destination. Twenty plus buses to get away.

If London North Western need buses to take 4-500 people down to MK they're going to whistle for a bit.

Taxis might be used but they're busy on education stuff too - Special Needs Kids.

You either wait, go home or drive to MK.

Push/shove, long distance, they'll use taxis even over hundreds of miles. You'll get there in the end but it can be a VERY long day.

Crash at Watford in 1996 some people were put up overnight in the sleeper coaches.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 28 Nov 23 at 10:34
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New Tue 28 Nov 23 11:05 
 Trains and buses - Terry
I assume where engineering works are planned alternative bus transport can be organised in advance. Train companies no doubt have long term contracts with bus/coach companies in place.

With short term disruption I am unclear how fast bus companies can or do respond. I would assume that at certain times of day (morning, evening, schools) there is limited spare capacity. At other times both drivers and buses would be available.

Not every bit of track needs a bus standing by to cover all eventualities. Fleets of buses could be mobilised from a number of depots with central coordination. Buses are quite capable of travelling 30 miles or more to where the incident is to provide transport.

I am also sure that on occasion things don't work so smoothly - middle of the night, adverse weather, roads ungritted, control centre asleep etc.
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New Tue 28 Nov 23 12:41 
 Trains and buses - Zero
Interestingly, where engineering works are well planned, and there is a parliamentary requirement (OLD BR term, now of course a contractural requirement) to run a service, the bus replacement will appear on the signalling consist system/timetable as "Bus"
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New Tue 28 Nov 23 15:31 
 Trains and buses - Rudedog
Working in Croydon means I often see buses used for tram replacement - although the buses still have 'Rail replacement' on the front - two weeks ago they must have had issues with the trams because we were treated to a whole load of 'Boris' buses drafted in from some where - they also had two of the oldest, dirtiest double-deckers - one of which I unfortunately had to follow home and was belching out non-stop thick diesel smoke, they really were scraping the barrel with that one - so much for ULEZ - I guess they must be exempt.


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