Arriva launches free wedding bus competition for Valentines engagements

National bus and coach travel provider, Arriva, is offering couples who get engaged on Valentine’s Day the chance to enter their exclusive competition, the top prize of which is a free wedding bus on the big day.

The bus and coach transport operator came up with the idea of offering a free ride on their special “Love Bus” for brides and grooms-to-be as for many people, a bus trip may have played a significant part in their relationship, with many couples getting together after first meeting on a bus journey, or maybe their first date involved a trip on a bus.

If you’re planning to pop the question on February 14th, and your other half says “yes” you are eligible to enter the free prize draw to win a free wedding us courtesy of Arriva (remember ladies, 2012 is a leap year so if you’re sick of waiting for a proposal, now’s your chance to take matters into your own hands!) The competition is only open to those planning to tie the knot in 2012.

The winning couple can choose to ride in the Love Bus themselves, or alternatively the novelty coach could be used to transport all of their wedding guests. Arriva will deck the Love Bus out with decorations, as per the bride’s instructions, and the vehicle will also be filled with free goodies and presents courtesy of the bus and coach hire provider.

For full terms and conditions of the competition, and more information on the Love Bus prize and how you can enter, please visit the Arriva website.

Go North East bus provider launches bus tickets on your mobile

Go North East bus service provider which operates 660 buses and coaches providing local transport services have introduced as brand new mobile ticketing system which will enable smartphone users to pay for their travel online and display their e-ticket on their phones.

The North East bus and coach transport operator, which transport 72 million passengers every year, has teamed up with the Corethree platform to provide the electronic ticketing facility for bus and coach passengers. The e-tickets will be compatible for use on a wide range of smartphones including iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.

The tickets must be displayed to the driver on the passenger’s phone when boarding each bus or coach service. A number of anti-fraud checks have been put in place to prevent fraudsters taking advantage of the new electronic ticketing service. The multi-layer solution uses colour, words and moving digital water marks to distinguish the genuine e-tickets. A number of elements will also change on the tickets on a daily, hourly or even weekly basis to combat any attempts to replicate the bus fares.

The transport operator already offers a mobile app to allow passengers to access bus and coach timetabling, locate nearest bus stops and live service updates via mobile devices.

The mobile ticketing system is due to come into play on February 8th on Go North East bus and coach services.

TopShop’s double-decker bus stunt in Oz

Retailer TopShop have launched free double-decker bus travel service in Melbourne to help promote the opening of the new branch in Australia, and get shoppers through the doors. A traditional double-decker bus, more commonly seen on the streets of London where the TopShop’s flagship store is located, has been given a TopShop makeover to advertise the new store’s opening down under.

Customers can ride on the TopShop double-decker bus for free, with a timetable of the bus’s routes available in store and also online. As well as dropping off and collecting customers from the new TopShop store, the bus also runs along routes in other parts of the city taking passengers to popular spots including the beach and a nearby open air swimming pool.

As an extra incentive to encourage passenger onto the TopShop bus, the retailer is giving away travel tickets to each passenger that boards with one in every ten of the first 300 tickets issued winning an instant prize or a TopShop gift card of up to $500 value. In-keeping with the London theme, the travel cards are designed to look like the Oyster Card, the electronic travel ticket used by commuters in London.

Regular updates about the TopShop double-decker’s route in Melbourne are being made on the retailer’s Twitter and Facebook pages. The free bus is expected to run until February 24th.

Titanic coach tour launches in Belfast

A themed coach tour through the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland swung into action for the very first time this weekend. The Titanic Explorer will allow visitors to take in the different parts of the city which helped in the creation of the world famous ship, the Titanic.

While the story of the Titanic and its tragic demise on its maiden voyage is well documented, the story of ship’s creation which started in Belfast is not as well known and so this brand new bus tour will seek to educate visitors on the birth of the ship that was dubbed “unsinkable”.

The Belfast coach tour is a collaboration between the Titanic Walking Tours and Belfast City Sightseeing who have joined together to create a hop on/ hop off coach tour taking in all of the different areas of the city which contributed to the creation of the Titanic.

Starting off from Belfast City Centre, the bus tour takes in a number of locations which are significant to the maritime history of the city including the H&W Drawing Offices, SS Nomadic, Thompson Dry Dock, the Northern Ireland Science Park  and the Titanic Belfast Visitor attraction which is due to open in March. The experience of the tour will be enhanced with the use of character guides in full early 1900’s costumes who will lead the sightseeing bus experiences.

Regular Titanic bus tours will commence in February.

Harry Potter’s Knight Bus goes on display at Watford studios

The iconic triple-decker purple bus famed for its role as the Knight Bus in the Harry Potter movies, is due to go on display at the Leavesden Studios in Watford this week so fans of the movies can get up and close to the actual vehicle used during filming for the films.

Contrary to the belief of many Harry Potter fans who assumed the Knight Bus was created using CGI and computer graphics, the giant purple bus was in fact created by the Harry Potter set designers who actually made the vehicle from scratch by taking two 60-year-old London Routemaster buses, taking them apart, and then bolting them back together again to create the triple-decker bus.

The project took several weeks to complete as a great deal of strengthening work had to be done on the 60-year-old body of the bus to ensure it was safe and secure in its new triple-decker form.

The extended height of the Knight Bus also caused a few problems during filming on location in London as the vehicle was unable to travel on many routes in the city as it was unable to travel under the vast majority of bridges.

The Knight Bus will be on display at the Leavesden Studios along with other authentic sets, props and costumes from the Harry Potter movies.

Liverpool football fans book your coach hire to Wembley today!

Congratulations to all Liverpool fans who will no doubt be celebrating today after booking their place in the Carling Cup Final at Wembley on February 26th. Now your place in the final is secure, the next thing you need to fix is your transport to the game so you can celebrate what promises to be an epic afternoon of football when Liverpool FC and Cardiff City come head to head! Coach Broker has unveiled some amazing bargains on coach and minibus hire for football fans to help you on your way, read on for more details…

Coach Broker is offering reduced rates across its entire fleet of coaches and minibuses for football fans travelling to Wembley Stadium for the Carling Cup Final, so whether you’re a committed Cardiff supporter or you’re backing Liverpool all the way, you can benefit from the cheap coach hire rates being offered for the Carling Cup Final at London’s Wembley Stadium.

With access to the UK’s largest fleet of coaches and minibuses, you’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to finding the right vehicle for your trip to Wembley. If you’re travelling to London with a huge group of friends and family, or perhaps as part of a club, then we can offer you the chance to all travel together in one of our 80-seater double-decker coaches. Alternatively we can provide you with a standard size coach or 50-60 seats, or for smaller parties there’s the 32-seater coach, 25-seater mini coach and a range of minibuses which seat anything from 8 to 20 passengers, so we really have every base covered.

All of our coaches and minibuses are provided along with a highly experienced driver who will take care of every detail of your journey so you can concentrate on the important stuff – the football and enjoying yourself!

Liverpool football fans get in touch today and book your coach hire to Wembley and we’ll guarantee you a highly competitive rate.

Cheap Coach hire to Wembley for Cardiff City fans

Congratulations to Cardiff City supporters following the Bluebird’s victory over Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup semi final last night! If you’re a Cardiff footie fan you’re probably still on cloud nine after last night’s thrilling match, but once you come back down to earth, Coach Broker has even more good news as we’re offering all Bluebird fans the chance to bag an absolute bargain on chauffeur driven coach hire to Wembley on February 26th.

Whether it’s Liverpool FC or Manchester City Cardiff has to face in the final showdown at Wembley at the end of February, make sure you don’t miss a second of the action by enlisting the expert services of Coach Broker. We offer a door-to-door service so we’ll collect you from your home and transport right to the entrance of Wembley Stadium so there’s no need to worry about catching taxis and buses, we take care of your journey from start to finish so you can concentrate on more important matters – cheering your team onto victory!

Coach Broker operates throughout the UK so whether you’re travelling from Cardiff or Newport, Bridgend or Birmingham, Barry or Basingstoke, Leeds or Chester, Newcastle or York, Manchester or Norfolk, we can provide you with a coach or minibus hire service from your chosen location to London’s Wembley stadium at an all-time low cost rate.

Take your pick from literally hundreds of coaches and minibuses for match day transportation to the Carling Cup final at Wembley. Coach Broker has everything from 8-seater minibuses, to 16-seater minibuses, 25-seater mini coaches to 36-seater and 42-seater coaches and 60-seater executive style coaches and even double-decker coaches with the capacity to carry over 80 passengers, so however many Cardiff football fans are travelling to Wembley for the Carling Cup final, we have a coach to match your every need.

Get your hands on the very cheapest coach hire deals for transport to Wembley right now – call Coach Broker today and request your free quote for coach hire to London.

Coach holiday company in Gloucestershire calls in the administrators

A Gloucestershire based coach travel company, Phoenix Travel, went into administration late last week with the immediate loss of 20 jobs. The coach holiday provider specialised in the provision of coach transportation for ski holidays, coach tours and also river cruises.

The organisation was rescued by two of its former managers back in 2008 when the coach holiday company, known then as Travelscope, was on the brink of collapse. Darren Parris and Anu Desai formed Phoenix Travel when they rescued failing Travelscope, however just four years after the company was saved from the brink of disaster, it appears the troubled firm has finally come to the end of road with the administrators being called in to wind down the company’s affairs once and for all.

At the time of Travelscope’s collapse in 2008, the company blamed a cancelled cruise for pushing the business into financial difficulty. 250 people lost their jobs as a result in 2008, and 12,000 holidays had to be cancelled.

While the picture is not expected to be as severe this time around as it was in 2008, 20 people were told they’d lost their jobs with immediate effect on Friday and would receive no pay. The administrators are currently working at the business, however there’s no news as yet on how customers who’ve booked coach holidays with the company will be affected.

Any Phoenix Travel customers who are currently aboard on one of the trips organised by the travel provider will receive a return transfer home, the Civil Aviation Association has confirmed.

The Audi R8 Stretch Limo attracts over 23k hits in less than a week

The YouTube Video introducing the world’s first Audi R8 Stretch Limo has attracted as massive 23,778 hits, five days after being released online. The exclusive limousine is being created by Limo Broker, the sister company of Coach Broker, with the finished Audi R8 limo set to become the signature limousine for the leading luxury transport hire company.

Carbonyte UK, who famously created the world’s first Ferrari Limo, are working in conjunction with Limo Broker to design and build the exclusive Audi R8 V10 stretch limo. The project has been in development for several months, with the official unveiling of the Audi R8 Limo design being made at the annual Transport Broker Awards earlier this month by Chris Wright from Carbonyte UK.

The rendered video depicts a 3D impression on what how the white Audi R8 limo will look once complete, with the video proving incredibly popular with online viewers with thousands of hits being calculated less than a week after the video was posted on YouTube.

To help fans keep up to date on the progress of the Audi R8 Limo, a special Facebook page dedicated to the never-seen-before limousine has also been set up and has already had petrol heads flooding to the social network page to sign up to receive the latest information on the development of this exclusive limo. The Audi R8 Limo Facebook page will feature behind-the-scenes videos of the creation of the new supercar, as well as allowing fans to give their input on what features and special touches the Audi R8 should include.

The Audi R8 Limo is expected to be complete and ready for its official unveiling by the end of summer 2012, but if you can’t wait until then, check out the exclusive YouTube video now.

London bus stops to get Olympic inspired art

Bus stops in London are getting an art make over ahead of the Olympic Games this summer. As part of a special art commission, selected bus shelters will be decorated with changing displays on the roof, with 30 bus shelters in 20 London boroughs already boasting these innovative displays.

Mark Titchner is the artist behind the latest bus shelter art project in which motivational slogans and phrases are being flashed up on the top of bus stops. Commands including, “If you don’t like your life, you can change it” and “Act or be Acted Upon” are being displayed on the roofs of bus shelters so those travelling on the top deck of London buses can look down and read the phrase.

There are 31 different motivational statements in total which are being changed on a daily basis on the bus shelter displays so commuters will see a different one every day they pass the same stop. The system is controlled by curators via the internet who change the displays at different times of the day and on different routes. The idea is to give passengers a thought to take with them on their journey, the Turner Prize nominated artist revealed.

While a number of professional artists are involved in the creation of the art for the London bus shelters, the public can also get involved via Bus Tops, where the people can submit their ideas and suggestions for use as art displays on the shelters.

The project is part of a wider programme of 12 public art commissions rolled out throughout the rest of England, also Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.