The Opportunities and Threats AheadBritain's Buses under Labour“A must read for anyone with a serious interest in the future of the bus industry” Roger French, Bus & Train User“A timely analysis of the seismic changes Britain’s buses are facing in a post-Covid era” David Leeder, TILThis acclaimed report focuses on the future of the bus industry following the change of government in July 2024, setting it in the context of the changes that have taken place since the last Labour government left office in 2010. It contains analysis of:Where we have come fromThe bus market as it has evolved since 2010, looking at income, service levels, patronage, fare levels, costs and fi...

The plain man's guide to the UK bus industry“Very easy to understand”“The way you presented the concepts is very straightforward”“Your book became a bible for me”For a whole variety of reasons, the bus industry continues to be of vital importance to the UK. It remains central to the economy, to plans to combat climate change and pollution, and to policies regarding social inclusion and accessibility. Yet, public and political comment on the industry continues to betray a lack of understanding and, it often seems, a degree of prejudice. This book offers a clear, non-technical, jargon-free explanation of how the bus industry works. The chapters examine:The costs of operation -...

“David was contemplating the wreck of his home life and his career. He realised with sickening clarity exactly how much this meant. He was going to lose everything he had taken for granted for the last few years – friends and acquaintances, his parents and siblings, the routine of life at the depot, the house he and Mona had shared for the last five years, his marriage and his kids.”After being best friends from the age of nine, David and Alan had not seen each other for six years after Alan had left their home town in Yorkshire for a life in London. Then, one February day, they met up by accident when Alan got on the bus that David was driving.  Having reconnected immediately, th...

Holding and being held by his lifelong friend had felt right, as if he’d come home. Exactly as it had the last time, all those years ago. But he wasn’t a horny, confused teenager any more; he was a married man with two children, and he had responsibilities towards them. He had to focus on that fact.David and Alan are in their mid-twenties, best friends since junior school in the Yorkshire mill town where they grew up. When Alan left to live in London six years ago, David was left with memories of one night together which he quickly buried. Now married to Mona with two boys, he has a comfortable life with a good job driving buses. He enjoys his work, is well thought of and has prospects o...

How could I trust him not to do the same thing again? Politics were his life; how would he react if all he’d worked for was threatened? The danger was that, confronted with choices over his career and his personal life, he would choose his career.Dan Forrester is a rising star of the government, but he has a secret that he keeps well hidden from family, friends and colleagues – he’s gay. He also deeply regrets his callousness towards the one man with whom he could have formed a meaningful relationship.Luke Carter is now a successful environmental consultant working on a government contract. When the two meet again, it is an encounter that will change both their lives for ever.Set again...

Why should it matter to me that there was going to be a good-looking, charming gay boy around the office? I was forty-two, for God’s sake and had nothing to offer a young man like that, even if I was prepared to do anything about my sexuality. Which I was not. Because we all knew what the outcome of that would be. So there. End of subject.Prickly, irascible and totally dedicated to his environmental consultancy business, Steve Frazer has no time for hook-ups or relationships; they belong to the past, to another life that he left behind two decades ago. Consequently, his powerful attraction to a new recruit, bright, funny, out-and-proud Josh Ashcroft, is an unwelcome emotion. Initially...

Peter Harvey is a second year undergraduate in the Oxford of 1968. At school, two years earlier, he had an affair with John, a younger boy, whom he then dropped. Now, John is coming to the same college.Memories unlocked and Peter faces the issue of his sexuality, aided by his old friend and mentor, Arthur Benson, the school’s deputy head. Peter and John meet and resume their relationship, but can it survive the events of a traumatic summer?Five years later, we see Peter returning to his old school as a teacher, seeking to build a new life. He settles in with help from Arthur Benson and new colleagues Terry Fowler and Ian Palmer.The school has problems, though: it is stuck firmly in the pas...