Stagecoach West has announced more details of its Vintage Vehicle Running Day on Saturday May 31st 2014. It will be publishing information bulletins on its website and has also released details of the special timetables for the day. The first bulletin is reproduced here and you can also download the timetables using the link below.
We would urge you to check with the Stagecoach West website (www.stagecoachbus.com/cheltenham) for up to date details and also a list of the vehicles attending.
Welcome to the first Stagecoach West bulletin containing the provisional details about the event which is designed to commemorate the 85th Anniversary of the Cheltenham District Traction Co and also mark the retirement of Stagecoach West Managing Director, Ian Manning, who has led the Company for  the last 11 years.
We hope you will enjoy what we have in store for you which is designed to provide a number of Classic Buses from the 1950s/60s/70s, mostly with conductors, in service on our ordinary route network for the day in place of the modern buses normally in use.
Most of the routes are in a triangle bounded by Cheltenham, Gloucester, and Tewkesbury and in addition to the ordinary services, we have  reintroduced a historic route 541 from Cheltenham to Tewkesbury via Bishop's Cleeve for the day and additional journeys over and above the normal Service 71 journeys will run as Service 535 (the old BOC route number) between Gloucester  and Tewkesbury. Service X94 which normally only runs on Mondays t Fridays between Cheltenham and Gloucester will also enjoy a special half hourly frequency for the day.
Classic buses will also operate on Service 43 between Tewkesbury and Bishop's Cleeve with some journeys on Service D (Bishop's Cleeve-Cheltenham-Hatherley/Warden Hill) and half the daytime runs on Service 41  from Cheltenham to Tewkesbury and Northway.
Most of the routes interconnect in Cheltenham, Gloucester and in particular Tewkesbury but there are various other places where you can change buses as well.
The Classic Buses will generally operate from about 0900 until 1900 hours with a few earlier and later journeys. Weather permitting, some journeys will be operated by Open Top buses. In addition it is hoped to run a
free bus service from Cheltenham Promenade (Civic Offices side) to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway Station at the Racecourse using a  preserved left hand drive AEC Regent III of Carris, the Lisbon urban bus operator.
Ordinary fares will be charged on the Classic Buses and visitors  are encouraged to buy the Stagecoach West Explorer Ticket priced at £6.50 which  will provide excellent value for the day on all the vintage operations as well as on all Stagecoach West's other routes. There are Family and Group versions of the Explorer Tickets additionally available priced at £14 respectively.
At 2000 hours, Ian Manning will drive the Service 94 from Cheltenham to Gloucester, returning from Gloucester at 2040 hours and arriving in Cheltenham for the last time at 2110. These journeys will be duplicated as required in accordance with passenger demand.

Stagecoach has confirmed to Steven Knight Media that it plans to replace 20 buses on its Peterborough Citi network later this year. The confirmation comes at Peterborough Citi reaches its tenth birthday. It was launched on April 19th 2004 with a fleet of 20 standard Transbus Darts. Since then a further  21 single deck and 20 double deck  buses have been added to the Peterborough fleet replacing much older vehicles.
Stagecoach's Peterborough Citi network now carries 8.2 million passengers a year - an increase of 48.6% since its launch in 2004.
The new buses should be in service in Peterborough by the end of the year.
Stagecoach regards its Citi network in Peterborough, and a similar one in Cambridge where the brand was launched in 2001, as being a huge success. The Citi brand has also been used on Gloucester and Carlisle networks.

Thousands of visitors are estimated to have visited the celebration of motor bus services held in Coventry on Sunday 30th March.
Buses that had operated in the City were on display with some of those that were built in Coventry by Daimler Motors.
The event celebrated 100 years since motorbus services were first operated by Coventry City Transport. It also marked 40 years since Coventry Transport operated its last bus services on March 31st 1994, operation of the city's bus services passed to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive the following day.
A selection of the buses also operated free services over local routes and the Midland Red D9 owned by Wheels/Midland Red Coaches recreated an old service 159 journey from Coventry to Meriden. Midland Red operation on the route finished in December 1973 when the services in the West Midlands county passed to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive.
Organisers estimate that over 2,000 passenger journeys were made during the day on the shuttle services.

Virgin Trains continued its high-profile launch of the X-MEN branded Pendolino train by renaming Wolverhampton station as Wolverine this morning. Seen as an April Fools stint the station was completely transformed as the attached image shows. Image from Pitch.