Talk:Buses in Milton Keynes

Electric buses

The number 7 electric buses powered by induction charging are apparently unique (or at least first) in the UK and rare worldwide. The Economist says that this technology is the way of the future, especially for buses and taxis. See https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21730623-electromagnetic-induction-gets-rid-cables-it-now-practical-refuel

Anyone fancy adding some text and a pic? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.97.11.54 (talk) 09:55, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

Bus station in CMK opposite railway station

Does anybody know when this opened? (A picture would be good). When did the depots in Stony Stratford and Bletchley close? --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 22:21, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Opened in 1981 I believe. There are several pictures of it at various points in history on fotopic, it may be possible to get permission from one of the people who've uploaded to use it here (you can message the uploaders though their site). If not I can nip up the city and take a picture myself, but the place is a mess now and most services don't stop there. The railway station frontage and Lower Ninth Street are MK's bus stations now, sadly. Tom walker (talk) 20:30, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Shires? MK Star? Arriva Milton Keynes? Or what?

Neither this or the Arriva Shires and Essex article really clearly state whether or not the MK operation is part of AS&E or a separate operation. If anybody knows which is true, I think it would be good if both articles said so. Also, the 89 and X4 are operated by Stagecoach Northants, not Bedford, and both Northants and Bedford are now Midlands, not East. I'd make the change myself but I have no source! Tom walker (talk) 20:30, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Both issues are a little complex. MK is part of AS&E, but is run under the MK Star brand (at least, that seems to be what their press release says). As for Stagecoach, Northants did indeed become part of Midlands, but Bedford stayed with Stagecoach East, which was expanded to include Cambridgeshire. More info on that can be found here. And you're absolutely right about the 89 and X4, that was a mistake on my part. The council's timetables back that up e.g. here. Alzarian16 (talk) 20:45, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to think MK is a separate brand, and they do have a separate fleet (mostly) and a separate brand for us. Incidentally, MK Star was a term coined by the previous MK Council member for transport which Arriva then used, but I can't source that because the only way I know it is by him telling me about it way before it happened. It would be nice to get an official line off Arriva as to whether or not MK Star is distinct from Shires. However, last time I went to them for an official line, they told me the MK Metro name would never go. That was in September 2009!

On an unrelated point, I'm wondering if I should take a couple of photos for the article? The existing ones are great, but I think a main one for the top of the page is a good idea. I might try to get a line-up at the station of Arriva and Stagecoach together. Tom walker (talk) 21:11, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

I'm afraid you have been Arriva-ed. No buses wear blue and yellow any more, and most are in Arriva livery with Arriva fleet names. I believe the plan was to (eventually) put MK Metro onto the main Arriva The Shires license, though I've no idea whether they've done this.

Everything is complicated with the goings on at East Herts & Essex, with Garston becoming part of The Shires, and Harlow going to Tellings-Golden Miller. So basically, everything Shires-related is in a state of confusion at the moment.

Additional photos would be great if at all possible. While Alazrian has helpfully uploaded and added some of his, there's a limit to what you can achieve on a day trip! It would be great if we could have lots of MK Metro images on Commons, showing all the different Arriva bus types, and different coloured-route branded liveries as well. Currently there's not that many MK photos. In contrast Commons:Category:Arriva Guildford & West Surrey has lots!

We could also have a "Buses in Milton Keynes" category on Commons, like Commons:Category:Buses in Staines and Commons:Category:Buses in Dorking. A Buses in MK cat would match this article, and you could do the whole link across thing.

As I final thought, I have mentioned Harlow. As well as the Arriva/TGM changes, two other companies are all in competition. What about a Buses in Harlow article...?! Arriva436^{talk/contribs} 07:22, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Apropos Harlow, if there's enough history to make it work, go for it! I'll always be willing to support my fellow new town! Another idea would be a Transport in Harlow article, just to widen the scope a bit. I think there should be a Transport in Milton Keynes article, so as to cover the railways, but it's hard because there's already a separate article on the Milton Keynes grid road system and merging them all would create an impossibly long article. I think a note on railways in Milton Keynes is needed somewhere, it probably wouldn't work as its own article, although there is a lot to talk about (six stations, two working lines and two lost ones with another three lost stations, two miniature lines and a third at the theme park, Bletchley depot etc).

Yeah, I was aware of having been 'Arriva-ed'! I assumed like you say that we'd come under Shires, which was why the email I sent them said I don't think it's right for MK to come under Aylesbury, it should be the other way round if anything. Maybe they agreed, I don't know, but they do seem pretty serious with the MK Star and Platinum:MK brands (I now have a Platinum:MK pen and fridge magnet). Is there any way of telling if it is a separate operating brand?

Agreed on the commons category. I'll create one when I've taken a picture or two.

lastly, the 'MK Metro' name is still around on the older route 5 branded buses and the route 8 branded buses. The yellow livery finally disappeared somewhere in July but the name still pops up in places. Tom walker (talk) 08:32, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

I probably could have achieved more on that day trip, but I'm still on a film camera (!) so I only have a limited number of pictures, and I didn't think of doing a grouped one. There were a few DAF SB120s in route 4 livery, an Optare Solo branded for the 7 (working on another route, of course) and a Dart SLF in green, but everything else was Arriva except the silver Citaros on the 300. A grouped image is a great idea if we can get one. We sort of have one at present in the MK Coachway section, but that's probably better used there than the top of the article. Alzarian16 (talk) 20:34, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I can tell it's a film camera, it gives it that sort of '90s look! Nothing bad about that, but it'll be good to have a couple of digital ones too. Next time I'm in the city centre I'll grab one or two to give as much of a complete coverage as we can. Usually fifteen minutes at Central station will give you an X4/X5 and some local Arriva ones together at least. Tom walker (talk) 21:24, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

As a temporary measure I've put a shot of the bus station up there (which I didn't know existed until it appeared in the newly-created Commons cat, so that idea's paid off already). This should probably be moved to Urban services if/when a new one comes in. Re Buses in Harlow, I think there probably is enough material to justify its creation, but you can't rely on me to write it. I'm quite busy in real life at present, and I've got about seven others articles that I'm meant to be creating, and I'm committed to sourcing unreferenced BLPs as well. A word of warning to whoever does write it: it'll only really work if you find loads of sources and cover almost all the history that you can find. It's all too easy to end up with an unsourced half-finished stub like Buses in Lowestoft. We don't have many active editors in the Harlow area, so don't expect much help from that direction either. Alzarian16 (talk) 17:40, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Bus station

I didn't want to do it without asking here first but I think move the bus station picture down and have a picture of a bus at the top? Purely for the reason that the bus station is a very ugly building and gives readers totally the wrong idea of both the article's topic and the city itself... Tom walker (talk) 18:55, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

You have a point. Perhaps the Arriva Excel? Alzarian16 (talk) 19:12, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Something in Arriva livery definitely I think. At least pending a picture of multiple operators together (which hopefully I'll be able to take now the weather's improved!). Tom walker (talk) 19:36, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Put the Excel there for now. Alzarian16 (talk) 10:49, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

The bus station, possibly the most under-utilised bus station ever? All the buses go the the Central railway station instead. Maybe worth a mention, but a quick Google search for sources only comes up with stuff relating to the coachway doesn't it! Arriva436^{talk/contribs} 17:42, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

The bus station has turned out to be a complete white elephant, for whatever reason [worth some detective work if some one has lots of time]. AFIK, no busses are timetabled to stop there. But busses do stop there, but only to change drivers. By the way, I don't agree at all with Tom's view that it is an ugly building, far from it. But fundamentally it failed and it really seems to me that whoever specified it clearly had no idea how or why it would be used. The blatantly obvious place for a bus interchange is at MK Central but, with the money spent, we ended up with a set of draughty bus shelters. Last time I looked, there wasn't even a 'busses arriving/departing' live display inside the station concourse - that would be far too obvious and a step far too far on Railtrack's patch. :( --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 23:06, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

I heard (not exactly WP:RS!) that it was built because of regulation [which meant that MKDC had to persuade United Counties to provide services] and became much less used after deregulation. Buses stopped using it completely last year when the drivers got a new rest room opposite the Point in CMK. The nail in its coffin (as a bus terminal) came with a fortune being spent to provide new bus bays outside MK Central and associated roadways [which had to be done twice because some dim-wit failed to work out in advance that a bus needs enough space get out and around the bus in the space in front]. The good news is that it has a new lease of a life as a classy youth centre.

I don't agree that it is ugly by the way, though I suspect that Mussolini would have been proud of it. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 20:11, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

"The bus station, possibly the most under-utilised bus station ever?" It was used extensively to service buses all over the town from when it first opened until the late nineties. Even after the buses moved over the road, the bus drivers were still using the station as a break room and the cafe was regularly filled with drivers in between their shifts. It was an important social hub for them for a very long time. Not to mention that Milton Keyne's very first skate shop was run inside the building for a time (by the family who went on to open the UK's first ever in-door skatepark (Radlands) in Northampton. The area immediately surrounding the station is historically important to skateboarding in the UK and the rest of the world and has opened many doors for the town internationally through skateboarding. So, the building is of massive cultural importance and has been used for much more than just buses. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.110.136.60 (talk) 23:15, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

X5 pics

Does anyone have a picture of one of the new Volvo B9R coaches that Stagecoach are using on the X5 now, or could easily get one? I just created Stagecoach bus route X5 but only have a few old images of B10Ms to illustrate it. It would also be nice to have one on this page since the only Stagecoach at the moment is in Virgin livery. Alzarian16 (talk) 13:53, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

I don't have any myself but you could try emailing this guy [1] and asking for permission. If he says no there are a billion more like him on Fotopic! Tom walker (talk) 18:05, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Rail services

I've put a paragraph near the top of the article briefly overviewing the internal rail services in the city. This is a sort of precursor to a Transport in Milton Keynes article, which would need more material to stand separate to this and the grid system article (and would be too big if it incorporated either). Obviously the within-the-city rail services are part of the same transport system as the city bus routes, so mentioning them seems important. Tom walker (talk) 15:57, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

When I first saw this thread I thought it was a terrible idea, but the summary you've added is a decent one. One suggestion: wouldn't it be better in Urban services rather than in the lead since it only refers to services within the city? Alzarian16 (talk) 16:15, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Possibly, yeah. It just made sense to me to put it in a neutral and obvious location, after all rail services run from all six stations to other towns and cities. In many ways the services into MKC from Wolverton and Bletchley together with the Bedford line count as a small commuter rail system, and I know people commute into MKC from all five smaller stations, but I don't know how to find a source for that. But yeah, put it where you think best and feel free to add to it, I just think it's important that the [extensive] rail services are mentioned somewhere. Tom walker (talk) 16:32, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Bus Station again

I think we ought to have an article or at least a section here on the Bus Station. Most major towns and cities (well, ok, London (Victoria), Oxford, Cambridge, Northampton but not Luton any more I think) still have bus stations so if someone is trying to find from Wikipedia where the is the MK bus station, answer comes there none. We should be able to find the construction date from MKiObservatory, but when was it closed? I know that the drivers were still using it as a rest room until last summer some time, but I don't mean that. When did the bays at the back stop being used and do we have a citation? We don't need to say much more than that except that the interchange function is now outside the station and NatEx uses the coachway. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 21:01, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

Yeah I kind of agree the building itself should have an article that can also talk about its present role as a youth centre, skate park and the restaurants/clubs/shops that occupy and have occupied it. Services moved to the rail station in 1996 but continued to do driver changes with some services still officially calling at the bus station up until its closure in 2010. Drivers were then accommodated inside an old bus parked at the station until the MKube opened in 2011. Unfortunately I can't source any of that; I know it all from my own memory, photos on Flickr and what I've been told.

Also people are increasingly using 'bus station' to refer to the facilities around Lower Ninth Street and Midsummer Boulevard, especially now Arriva have a permanent presence there.

As I've said before I'd really like to have a 'transport in Milton Keynes' article so we can break some info out of this one and talk about it all together along with the roads and canal and historical railways and stuff. There's far too much in this article and the grid roads one to just combine them or to lose either of them. Tom walker (talk) 18:20, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

Well, as can be seen, I've done a section on the old bus station, now that it has been awarded Listed Building status. Improvements would welcome, especially citations!! --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 20:05, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

Pictures

I'm moving some pics to more relevant sections. Consequently, there is no pic on the first (body) section. The obvious candidate is a long shot of the row of stops outside the station. Any volunteers? --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 20:05, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

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Make a difference (MAD) Controversy

I see that the information surrounding the closing of MAD at the CMK bus station was removed. Disappointing, as I was told first hand by an inside source what happened.

MAD were granted use of the building and the car parking spaces surrounding it. To ensure that the required funding for the charity was met, commuters who were not using the building but wanted to use the car park whilst they travelled to work by train, were asked to pay a fee to park. All of the surrounding spots were already pay and display and the bus station has a network of CCTV cameras - thus providing a deterrent for thieves and removing the little known anomaly of the last free parking spaces in that very busy area of the town.

MAD began to heavily rely upon the takings from the operation of the car park as a constant revenue stream. At some point, the council got wind that the car park was profitable and the owners moved in to greedily capitalise and remove the funding stream away from the charity. MAD then ran up substantial debts due to the removal of the revenue stream and had to cease operations at the site.

In short, the council and the site owners killed the charity's operations, the community they had built there and negatively effected youth culture in Milton Keynes by being so disgustingly greedy. Shame on them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.110.136.60 (talk) 23:35, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

A linked source is behind a paywall

In the section Buses_in_Milton_Keynes#Milton_Keynes_central_bus_station the reference to https://www.lgcplus.com/best-practice-dont-repel-the-borders/523615.article is behind a paywall. Could another source be found for this info please?