bus

Church mourners die on Kenya’s Nairobi-Mombasa Highway weeks after another crash killed 17 people.

A bus carrying mourners has collided with a truck on a major highway in southeastern Kenya, killing at least 24 people, police say.

The crash happened in the Kanga area near Mtito Andei, on the road linking the capital, Nairobi, to the coastal city of Mombasa, at about 7:45am (04:45 GMT) on Sunday, October 25.

Another 24 people were injured, hospital officials said.

The deaths came just over three weeks after another crash on the highway killed 17 people, prompting fresh government promises to improve road safety.

The bus belonged to Power of the Word Church International in Mombasa and was taking passengers home from their pastor’s funeral in western Kenya.

They had stopped for breakfast shortly before the collision, according to one survivor.

The other vehicle was a truck transporting cement.

Violet Mwandonyi, who survived the crash, told the Associated Press on Sunday that she remembered passengers crying out for passing motorists to help.

She said she did not know what had happened to her two children, who had been travelling on the bus.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif, the government’s senior administrator in the area, told Kenyan newspaper The Standard that the bus driver had tried to overtake several vehicles before colliding with an oncoming truck.

Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) also identified dangerous overtaking as a possible cause. Another survivor said the truck struck the bus from behind.

On October 3, a crash involving several vehicles killed 17 people, most of them Catholic pilgrims travelling to a prayer site, near Salama on the same highway.

Police said a truck driver had tried to overtake another truck before the collision.

The NTSA had identified that stretch of road as an area with a history of crashes.

President William Ruto offered condolences on Sunday and ordered inspections of vehicles used for public transport.

Transport Minister Davis Chirchir said the government would step up enforcement against speeding and unsafe overtaking, improve dangerous sections of road and strengthen training and checks for commercial drivers.

In a statement on Sunday, Chirchir said the government would work with police, local authorities and lawmakers on the measures, including closer oversight of buses and heavy goods vehicles.

“We cannot continue treating road safety as business as usual,” he said, calling for stronger action to reduce deaths.

Figures from the NTSA, reported by Kenyan media, show that 5,009 people died in road crashes in 2025, with 2,150 deaths recorded in the first half of 2026.

The authority estimates that about 20,000 crashes occur across Kenya each year.

Following Sunday’s collision, it called for road crashes to be declared a national disaster.

BUS fares are set to soar to a historic high in November, affecting millions of workers.

A single adult bus and tram fare in London will rise by 10p to £1.85 from next month, Transport for London (TfL) has announced.

It means the cost of fare has gone up by 35p alone in the last 10 years, although there has been a freeze on price hikes in place since March 2023.

Those with concession cards, like 16+ Zip Oyster cards or the Jobcentre Plus card, will also have their fares increase by 5p when the new prices come into effect on November 1.

In a blow to millions of people who use London’s bus and tram network every day, the hike will also affect the Hopper fare, which allows travellers to pay a single flat fare for unlimited journeys within an hour.

The daily bus and tram cap will increase to £5.55 from £5.25.

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Originally, London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan was set to hike prices in July.

But he extended the price freeze until November, after TfL said it was “an emergency cost-of-living measure to support Londoners on the lowest incomes”.

Price caps for tube, rail and Travelcards will remain frozen until March next year, TfL added.

Meanwhile, a new £2 price cap for all single bus tickets in England will come into force from January 1 2027, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced.

The voluntary scheme will see millions of people across England able to access single bus tickets for £1 less than the current £3 cap – but it won’t apply to every single bus route.

School buses, buses that only run on school days and some other services won’t be subjected to the £2 cap, which will run until December 31, 2027.

ANTHEA Turner has revealed that she has had bus drivers “think she’s too young for her bus pass”, following her £500 non-surgical facelift.

The Blue Peter legend, 66, has been wowing people with her timeless look, as she showed off the results of her procedure.

Anthea, who shot to fame in the late 80s hosting Top of the Pops, revealed before having the non-evasive treatment, she was starting to feel less confident about her looks.

“I think you get to an age where you suddenly stand in front of the mirror and start pulling your skin tighter around your face,” the TV star confessed.

Earlier this year, Anthea headed to her local aesthetic clinic, Bodyvie in Richmond, and underwent six monthly full face Focus Dual treatments, which is a facial rejuvenation procedure.

The system uses the micro-needling and radio frequency technology to boost the youthful appearance of skin.

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Anthea said the treatment has made her feel younger, and now people can’t believe her age.

“Since having these aesthetic treatments there have been quite a few occasions when I try to use my Freedom Pass and the bus driver asks, ‘You’re not, are you?’ and I have to persuade them that I am indeed 66-years-old!” she laughed.

Speaking about getting older, the star confessed: “I think that up until probably your mid to late 40s, you don’t really notice a huge amount.

“Everything seems to be going in the right direction, that’s okay.

“And then all of a sudden, as you approach 50 and beyond, you do notice changes.”

After shooting to fame on Top of the Pops in 1988, Anthea then got another big break when she landed a job as a presenter on Blue Peter in the early 90s.

After this, the stunning star became a household name and has continued to appear on TV ever since.

It’s early morning in Erfurt, the capital of Germany’s Thuringia region, and Domplatz is abuzz with local growers setting out crates of vegetables and flowers beneath the soaring medieval cathedral towers. This 14th- and 15th-century engineering wonder holds the Gloriosa, the world’s largest medieval free-swinging bell, cast in 1497 and weighing 12 tonnes. Though the city and surrounding landscape are notably flat, its skyline is pierced by soaring church towers and steeples, the atmospheric old town hardly changed over the centuries.

Thuringia – often called the “green heart of Germany” – lies in the centre of the country, between Hesse, Saxony and Bavaria. It’s famous for its dense forests, intellectual heritage and hearty cuisine, and I’m here for four days to explore using public transport.

Leaving Frankfurt behind, my three-hour coach journey rolls through rising forested highlands before descending into the wide, agricultural basin that cradles Erfurt. After checking out Domplatz’s morning market, it’s just a short walk to one of the town’s other famous sights, the 120-metre-long Krämerbrücke – a 14th-century bridge lined with colourful half-timbered houses.

Erfurt was once at the crossroads of two major trade routes, and the wealth that built its impressive churches and merchants’ houses came partly from waid, or woad, a plant cultivated in the surrounding fields and processed for its blue dye. I stroll past the craft shops (some still sell the dye) to Petersberg Citadel, one of the largest and best-preserved fortresses in Europe, with a maze of underground tunnels. This is also the city where the Protestant Reformation took root – Martin Luther studied here and was a monk in the Augustinian monastery (you can join a guided tour or even stay overnight).

Dinner is in a suitably historic setting; Wirtshaus Christoffel, in the Haus zur weißen Lilie (House of the White Lily), dates back to the 12th century (the house-brewed beer and beef roulade with Thuringian dumplings are delicious).

Next morning, I head to Egapark (a seven-minute bus ride or a 30-minute walk from town). Spread across 36 hectares (89 acres), it was created for the 1961 international horticultural exhibition. The old Cyriaksburg fortress houses the German Horticultural Museum, which traces the history of gardening, while displays range from landscapes of cacti and succulents to tropical planting.

The city of Weimar, a 30-minute bus journey away, is next on my list. The birthplace of the artistic Bauhaus movement, and where Germany’s first democratic constitution was adopted, it’s full of interesting historic sites and design gems. I visit the Bauhaus museum, with its ceramics, textiles, metalwork and painting, and wander around town, passing the former art school buildings that now house the Bauhaus-Universität.

The next morning, I swap culture for chilling and take another bus to Bad Langensalza, a spa town of 10 parks and themed gardens, 40 miles (64km) away. My guide, Markus Fromm, explains that people come here to “cure, to relax, to refresh”.

Sulphur springs were discovered here in 1811, and today, the Friederiken Therme is the town’s main thermal spa, offering natural sulphur, brine and drinking mineral waters, alongside indoor and outdoor pools, saunas and treatments. Traces of the older spa history remain around the town: at Friederikenschlösschen, an 18th-century summer residence, a fountain still runs with sulphur water that has been used for healing since 1812.

But it’s the town’s gardens that really win me over. I wander Friederikenschlösschen’s restored baroque garden and visit the Klagetor, a gate tower dating from about 1365, where the old town gives way to the Japanese garden, Kofuku no Niwa (Garden of Happiness), with its koi ponds, clipped azaleas and sculpted pines.

For nature on an even grander scale, I take a bus to Hainich national park, 10 minutes away (you can easily rent a bike/e-bike and follow cycling paths to get there too). Spanning 7,500 hectares, Hainich offers more than 75 miles of signposted walking trails through its beech forests, part of a Unesco world heritage site. The wider Hainich is Germany’s largest unbroken deciduous woodland area. “Parts of this landscape have been left entirely untouched for decades, abandoned to their own devices without a shred of human meddling,” says park director Rüdiger Biehl.

Before hitting the trail, I stop at the park’s restaurant, Forsthaus Thiemsburg, for a regional lunch – roast pork in black beer and Thuringian dumplings, washed down with a cold Köstritzer pilsner. Then, into the trees. Deep in the beeches, the sun sporadically breaks through the branches and the leaves crunch loudly under my boots. Up in the canopy, it’s mostly just the birds making noise – chaffinches and wood warblers chatter, interrupted by the occasional sharp rattle of a middle spotted woodpecker drilling into a trunk.

The Baumkronenpfad, a wooden walkway through the treetops, rises to a 44-metre observation tower. Here, the canopy of an oak that is estimated to be 350 years old is almost at eye level. It’s a spectacular view, but the forest’s real engine is down below. Deadwood is left to decay where it falls, providing habitat for rare wood-boring insects and endangered Bechstein’s bats. Back in Erfurt that evening, I catch the final symphony concert of the season at Theaterplatz. It’s a reminder of the winning combination of culture and nature that I’ve enjoyed over my four days in Thuringia. I had come looking for a less familiar corner of Germany and found a region that offers plenty of variety – and all accessible with a few short bus rides.

The trip was provided by the German National Tourist Board. Dorint Hotel am Dom in Erfurt has doubles from £85. For journey planning, VMT has information on buses, trains and trams across central Thuringia, as well as a free app with live departure updates