How many Bank Holidays are we having this year? OK, because of THE wedding, we've only had one more, but it does seem like loads....
And we have another one looming on Monday.
But despite the inevitable news report that will show gridlock on the roads as us Brits up sticks for yet another "getaway", why are the vast majority of our bus services on Sunday service?
There may be the usual engineering work on the rail network, but at least they're running a mainly Saturday timetable.
Locally, I'm thinking of places like the Severn Valley Railway over the border (but less than 10 miles away) in Worcestershire, the Safari Park, the quaint town of Bewdley, the South Staffs village of Kinver....the list goes on. These are places that on Mon-Sat, can be reached by one direct bus. "Sunday service" decrees them out of bounds, unless you have a car and want to add to your blood pressure levels as well as the CO2 levels.
It used to be that Boxing Day buses were a no-no in the West Midlands, until some brave soul at Centro decided a few years ago to try experimenting with a limited service. They are now well-established.
So how have we got to a default position whereby Bank Holiday bus services are "Sunday" levels, but trains are much more "as normal"? "Tradition"? Premium payments to driving staff that wouldn't be recouped in fares?
In the meantime, cue letters to local papers letters pages all over the country which will make the point that "the Governmet wants us out of our cars and onto buses - but we tried on Bank Holiday Monday and failed miserably"......
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