Cover picture:One of the most unusual buses in First's UK fleet is Leeds-based 30244 (S660 NUG), an Alexander Royale-bodied Volvo Olympian whose upper deck was repaired using parts for an East Lancs Pyoneer body. DANIEL STAZICKER

Contents

NEWS
Cardiff Bus faces competition threat; Stagecoach consolidates in Eastbourne and Preston; snow takes London buses off the road; major cuts to Irish fleets

BUS PEOPLE
NewMD for Trent Barton; Arriva appoints Southend manager; Optare recruits coach sales manager

INSIDE TRACK
Connectivity, certainty and impossibility

GLOBAL NEWS
First expands its German operation; Volvo launches 9700 in America; bus rapid transit developments

IN LONDON
Hopes and fears over New Routemaster costs; LibDems push Fastbus; latest tender results

MILLAR'S TALES
Beginning of the end of London trolleybuses; that leaping RT; Leicester—where 'better' means fewer

MEN IN LEMON CELEBRATE FIRST'S 20 YEARS
Hi-viz jackets were to the fore when Barbie's busmen marked a big birthday

WHAT JULIAN DID NEXT
Part two of the Julian Peddle story looks at his investments post-Stevensons

WHITHERWESTERN WESTERNWELSH?
Andrew Babbs uncovers traces of bus facilities abandoned nearly 40 years ago

ALL ABOARD THE CAPE CRUSADER
Geoff Lumb rides aboard the most north-westerly bus service in Britain