A Redline bus caught fire today at the old Bus Station in CMK today..
Pictures used with permission from MKFM
Going by the flames in the first picture it seems they were very lucky that there wasn’t more damage done to the Bus Station/Buszy
There has been unconfirmed reports that the bus had mechanical issues earlier in the day, but of course that could be something completely unrelated.
Well this afternoon has been interesting.
With almost no notice, Meridian Bus seem to have suspended their 5 day old route 321!
No explanation given so far, and their website has no mention of the route at all. Rumours on Facebook range from a engineer that’s phoned in sick to the Redline service 21 not charging fares for this week.
MK Council are advising passengers on the City Centre to Olney section to catch the 21. Passengers for the Buckingham end of the route I’d suggest either the X5 or 32.
It’s all going on in Olney!
Arriva announced that they were cutting part of the Route 1, With the service now terminating at Newport Pagnell, Which left the Newport to Olney/Lavendon section unserved.
As is normal in these kind of situations, MK Council looked at a Contracted route which was awarded to Redline who started their 21 service.
Redline Dart at Olney – Photo copyright of “mk_tom” on Flickr
The route Runs from Lavendon to CMK via Olney, Newport Pagnell and taking a slightly different route through MK that the Arriva 1
But what makes this route change interesting is that another Bus Company, new to our area, has started a commercial route of their own from Olney to CMK and onwards to Buckingham and Steeple Claydon.
Meridan Bus Dart on service 321 at Newport Pagnell. Photo copyright of “lucas.d410” on Flickr
This route is run, according to the MKC Timetable Guide by Britannia Bus Ltd, But the buses (and their facebook page) seem to be operated by Meridan Bus.
Note: After a bit of research before posting this blog entry it seems that one is owned by the other
So, now you’ve got a Tendered service that’s almost competing with a commercial service, which obviously isn’t allowed… What will happen?? Who know’s!!
I don’t know enough about the legal side of all these events, But if Brittania/Meridan extend their route to Lavendon then I think they’ve got a pretty good case!
I do feel that Redline, Through no fault of their own have been kinda landed in the middle of all this, How they would be compensated would be anyone’s guess!
Who’d of thought the quite parts of Rural Bucks/MK would end up with such an interesting bus service!
I plan to give both the 21 and 321 a trip over the weekend to see what these new services are all about. I do think Brittania/Meridian need to decide which company name is operating their new route, as some members of the public may be confused on who’s running what, But that’s purely a personal opinion, nothing more.