A strange type of day

It’s been a rather odd sort of day today.

It’s not every day you are asked to drive a film crew around town in a bus.

The gadget show came to MK to test Noise Cancelling Headphones, and what better was to do it than on a noisy bus!

twitterpic

The day was spent driving round the City Centre while they filmed various bits, Which even included a guy playing the bagpipes.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA70B-BGRHg

Never did I imagine one day that I’d be driving round in a bus with a man playing the bagpipes at full volume!!

Been a great day!

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Time for a “refresh”

I’ve started to notice that I’m getting more and more visitors looking for timetables for buses in Milton Keynes, Even though the MK Council and Arriva sites have them all available and rank much higher on google when searching.

At the moment, I just copy over the MKC page and link to that, I’m starting to wonder if it would be in my interest to tap into this generated traffic, Which then may in turn be worth a few quid with an advert or two. (I’m not talking about plastering the site with banner ads, and I certainly didn’t create this blog to make money, But something that covers the cost of hosting wouldn’t be too bad.)

This blog has always been about me and my job with a bit of Public Transport information thrown in alongside, I’ve toyed with the idea of creating a blog within a blog for the Information section, But don’t think I would have the time to keep it fresh and upto date.

Is there anyone out there that is ofay with WordPress that would be interested in helping with that side of things? Someone that could put up bus news etc?  Nothing confirmed yet, Just thinking out aloud really but would be interesting to see if there is any interest.

hummmmmmmmm………


Station square redevelopment starts


Development of Station square started on Monday and will are buses moved out onto Elder Gate until next March.

More details at http://www.Milton-Keynes.gov.uk/station-square

Plans on how it’s going to look…

Personally, I’m not sure how this layout is going to work as there doesn’t seem to be any layover space for buses on stand, Unless a couple of the extra stops are setup as stands instead…

This is the current view, Lets see what it looks like in March 2012

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Travelling to The Foo Fighters Concert at Milton Keynes Bowl

The Foo Fighters play Milton Keynes Bowl this Saturday (2nd July). If you are coming by public transport, Then you need to know that Thames Valley Police do not allow any buses to drop off at the Bowl itself. Buses and coaches are normally directed to the Old Bus Station, Oppisite the Central Rail Station. You then need to walk along Cycle route 51 to the bowl, It is well signposted, and usually heavily supervised along its entire route.

bowl

Route 51 Highlighted in Red

If you are arriving by National Express coach, You will most likely be dropped off at Milton Keynes Coachway. From here you can catch the Service 300 to the Central Rail Station, But please remember the last bus back in the evening is 2258, and that the bus will obviously only have a limited amount of space.

 

If you are travelling by Rail, Walking Route 51 starts right outside the station. Turn right as soon as you exit the station, Walk untill you get to the end of the building and turn right onto the footbridge across the railway line, Then follow the Route 51 signs from there. When returning at the end of the concert, London Midland normally operate a queuing system outside the station. Please bear in mind that the last “all stations” train is at 2311, and the last “fast” train to London is at 2346. The train company have been known at the last minute to provide extra services, But nothing is currently available on their website.


Bye bye

So the service changes are in, it’s time for some of our buses to depart to new areas. The following will be leaving us:
2418
5103
2420
2421
2422
2423
2425
2424
2431
2427
2428
2429
2430
2445
3521
3522
3537
3620
3529
3530
3532
3536
2419

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Solos waiting their final checks before leaving MK


Arriva announce May Service Changes

On the 22nd May bus services across Milton Keynes will be changing.  On our key services, the changes are being made to improve punctuality and reliability and to better reflect the current demand for our services.  Other services are having to change to reflect the changes to MK Council’s contracted services.  Where there are new operators for services, please contact MK Council for more information or pick up one of the Travel Guides at local outlets including MKube on Midsummer Blvd, opposite the Point.

Listed below are the details of the changes for each service

Route 1
Newton Longville or Fenny Stratford – Bletchley – MK Hospital – CMK & Rail Station – Newport Pagnell – Olney& Lavendon or Cranfield

Following customer feedback we intend to simplify this service and current 1/1A/1B/1C and X9 are changed to:
• Half hourly service between Bletchley and Newport Pagnell
• At the north end, one bus an hour will go to Cranfield and one bus an hour will go to Lavendon
• At the south end, one bus an hour will go to Lavendon and one bus an hour will go to Fenny Stratford
• 1A service will operate on Sundays only between Lavendon and Bedford
• Connection from Olney/Lavendon on weekdays  to Bedford is withdrawn and replaced  and covered by the Stagecoach P1 service
• Stagecoach will also operate a replacement 1C service to Stagsden and Chicheley from Bedford & Milton Keynes

Route 2
Westcroft – Kingsmead – Oxhley Park – Grange Farm – CMK & Rail Station – Downs Barn – Willen – Poet’s Estate – Newport Pagnell

• Minor changes to the timetable
• Revised Sunday route between MK Station and CMK
• The service will also not operate via Hazeley School and Kingsmead at the request of MK Council

Route 3
Woburn Sands – Wavendon – Kingston – Open University – Monkston – CMK & Rail Station

• Between Woburn Sands and MK Central station there are no significant changes however service is withdrawn from Fishermead due to low usage and to improve journey times to CMK.
• Fishermead section is replaced by MK Council routes 28 and 29.
• Service between MK Central Station, Bradville and Bradwell Village is to be replaced by MK Council routes 23 and 33.

Route 4 & 4A
Bletchley – Far Bletchley – MK Hospital – Springfield – CMK & Rail Station – Two Mile Ash – Wolverton

• Mon – Fri the service between Bletchley and MK Central Rail station continues to operate up to every 7/8 mins.  On Saturdays it will operate up to every 10 minutes
• The link between Two Mile Ash and Wolverton is restored on this service
• North of CMK buses will operated up to every 15 mins, Mon- Fri and up to every 20 mins on Saturdays.
• Improved faster journey times between Greenleys and CMK and the service will also serve Hodge Lea
• The service to Shenley Church End is replaced by service 7 (see below for more detail)
• Service to Crownhill will be replaced by MK Council route 28

Route 5
Wolverton – Stony Stratford – Bradville – CMK & Rail Station – MK Hospital – Bletchley – Lakes Estate

• Route will not longer serve Hodge Lea (will now be served by route 4)
• Adjustments to timetable to improve timekeeping across route

Route 7
Bletchley –  – Furzton – Shenley Church End – CMK & Rail Station – Neath Hill – Bradville – Oakridge Park – Wolverton

• Service between Greenleys and Wolverton will now be operated by Route 4
• No change to the route between Wolverton and CMK
• Will now serve Shenley Church End
• Route 7A withdrawn and section between CMK and Bletchley is replaced by MK Council route 28.
• Service 7 will continue to operate up to every 30 minutes on weekdays between CMK and Bletchley via Furzton
• Service will also serve the new development at Oakridge Park once infrastructure is in place

Route 8 8A
Westcroft – Shenley Brook End – CMK & Rail Station – Kingston – Walnut Tree – Caldecotte – Bletchley

• Minor changes to timetable to improve reliability
• No change to routes

Route 14
• Service is withdrawn following loss of funding from Northampton CC route is replaced by Stagecoach service, 89.

Route 25
• This service will be operated by Vale Travel under contract to MK Council

Route 30/31
• There are no changes to these services

Route 32
• There are no changes to this service

Route 33
• This service will be operated by Z&S under contract to MK Council

Route 42/43
• This service will be operated by Z&S under contract to MK Council

Route 80
• This service will no longer operate

Route 150
Aylesbury – Leighton Buzzard – CMK
• The Sunday service will not longer operate via Bletchley or Little Brickhill.  This change is effective from 15th May

Route 300 – Platinum MK
Magna Park – Coachway – Broughton Gate – Kingston – CMK & Rail Station
• A new timetable was introduced on 21 April following the opening of the A5130

Route 639 School Service
• This route will be operated by Z&S under contract to MK Council

There are changes to other services currently not operated by Arriva and you can find out more information by visiting the MK Council’s transport pages by clicking here

 


Bus Changes in May

Below is the MK Council proposals for Bus services from April 2011, Including some Commercial Decisions that Arriva are wanting to implement at the same time, The dcument is a bit heavy going, and as I’m driving a bus this weekend I haven’t had time to pick the interesting bits out, But if anyone wants to have a go, Feel free to comment with anything that You find 🙂



APPENDIX
Annex A – Award of local bus contracts with effect from 22nd May 2011
Contract 1219 Service 1: Central Milton Keynes – Hospital – Bletchley.
One journey Mondays to Saturdays except public holidays.
Award to Arriva The Shires who submitted an alternative tender of