Bus Christmas cards

Every Christmas we get a few bus cards from family and friends. This year it has been nos. 2 and 3 below. The top one is from 2016 and is stuck to the wall by my desk at home and is my favourite to date. It's a scene c.1950 and that probably explains why. In those days there was more snow about and whilst I can't remember Christmas street decorations in Wembley I do remember going 'into town' (ie. London) to see the Christmas lights.

I would love to see Christmas bus cards like this for Nottingham and other cities. Maybe 2020 will be the year. In the meantime enjoy looking at the cards I have found together with the ones I already have.

You can find this card on the web (click here).

You can find this card on the web too (click here).

This is one I rather like, but that's the London Transport bus nerd in me. For the record is probably meant to be RT1, which entered service in 1939 but never on route 164A. For some of us with an interest in London buses, the RT trumps the RM Routemaster for its importance and comfort. You can find this on e-bay if you click here.

This one is captured from the Cards for Good Causes website (click link here).

The cards below have all been captured from the web today using 'Christmas Xmas bus card' for my search. There is not a single non-London card, this I find a little disappointing but I know from making bus boxes to take to local history fairs in Nottingham and near-by Mansfield, my London bus boxes go a lot quicker than my Nottingham City Transport and Trent-Barton bus boxes/

The similarity between these two cards is striking. In the absence of having them in my hand I can only wonder where they have been painted/creasted by the same artist/graphic designer?

And, finally, part of another Christmas card I found on the web, which you can buy. Click here for more details 

Of scenes outside London, there are a few showing my beloved trolleybuses and if you are looking for transport cards with a difference, then look no further than this link.

So, why not go in search of bus cards and see what you can find. You may well do better than me.

More Conservative promises which are not what the headline suggests

Barely a week ago this was what the Conservatives (and other political parties) said about public transport when I posted this summary from the BBC News website:



Today BBC News is running a story headlined 'Conservatives pledge £4.2bn for trains, buses and trams'.

Er, not until 2022! The report reads
The Conservatives have promised £4.2bn of new spending on local train, bus and tram services if they win the 12 December general election. The party said the cash, which would become available from 2022, would help fund transport projects outside London. 
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said it would transform services "in towns and cities across the country". 

The Conservatives are banking on the fact that come 2022 this belated £4.2bn public transport pledge will have long been forgotten by the muppets who voted for them. 

This is the political party with the slogan 'Let's get Brexit done'. A great many people believe if the Conservatives win we will leave the EU on 31 January 2020. NO WE WON'T! We'll be lucky to leave by the end of 2020.

Present-day Conservatives have no interest in public transport other than what profits it can make for their big business/corporate backers. Once it was very different. They created many of the municipal bus and tram systems in England, Scotland and Wales in the late-19th/early-20th centuries before the Labour Party existed. This is something you can read about in an earlier blog posted by me, headed: Take the slow bus no more dated 14 August 2019.

The Conservatives used to believe in and understand why public utilities exist to serve all us. Not any more. This makes me sad. They would be a better, and more acceptable, party if they could recapture some of the historic decency they once had. 

Catch a 35 and explore Nottingham's wild side

I am trying to persuade BBC Radio 4's Open Country series to do a programme about Nottingham City Transport's 35 bus route, which I champion at every opportunity. In the meantime a new map and leaflet to enjoy (click on the images to enlarge)