Half-yearly Statement

So far this year, we believe our record to date really does cement us as England’s top transport blog! And the world’s… possibly.

Astoundingly, the period from 1 January to 30 June 2009 inclusive has for the first time ever seen a new post each and every morning.

Back in December 2008, we privately set ourselves a RELIABILITY target of 13 posts every 14 days or 93%. Not especially challenging, may be, given previously we’d managed 12 a fortnight in the latter half of 2008 (86%). But since 2005 it was stuck between 11-12½ (71-89%). Visitor numbers now warrant this increased publishing commitment and our current actual score is, obviously, 100%.

And, in terms of uploading posts before 0700 (weekdays) and 0800 (weekends), we can report PUNCTUALITY is 98.89 per cent. Actually, the overwhelming number of weekend posts go up before 0700, too.

We now have a satisfactory regular visitor base who call day in, day out. Thank you all. But visitors also arrive impulsively, via a search engine. The year started very interestingly as people piled in having entered “Fotopic problems” or similar into Google. The peak was 3 & 4 January but this term still accounts for a trickle of users (we’re no. 1 on Google for this).

Visitors arriving here searching for Erica Roe won't find what they're looking for

Another popular and wholly unexpected term is “Erica Roe”. At one stage, Omnibuses2.0 was in the top eight at Google. Even now, way down at no. 28, Erica *still* provides daily callers. I bet that they’re all very disappointed when they arrive. Erica’s a popular lady although I bet she never expected such immortality via the internet. Poor Erica, will she ever live down her topless Twickenham ordeal? She emigrated with family to Portugal yet no one seems to want to leave her alone.

Bristol VR RUA 461W contributed to visitor numbers significantly, with a search spike immediately before and after its appearance on Dr Who.

What about operators? Dunn Motor Traction (2nd) and Your Bus both continue to prove popular, disproportionately to the size of its fleet and impact in Nottingham. Omnibuses is currently no. 1 at Google for Luxton & District. Meanwhile, Eastbourne Buses, Cavendish and associated Stagecoach searches still draw in the visitors and I wonder whether some of them are now from the OFT. On the other hand, fewer than anticipated arrive having entered Plymouth Citybus sale.

In terms of Bournemouth, the withdrawal of the X12 to Burton this spring saw new visitors arrive over an extended period. And the introduction of the Purbeck Breezer (no. 5) is a climber.

Both Harry Blundred (4th) and Loonat Coaches (14th) have unaccountably seen a renaissance this year.

And the perpetually popular and regular terms such as Omnibuses and the Mercedes 608 continue to attract searchers daily.