First's Festive Farce Follow-up

The Story So Far

fbb has been exploring information about buses in Sheffield over the festive season. He has been looking at the routes that served his home at 166 Crimicar Lane, located near the arrow on the blue/orange lines. There was no 83 when he lived there; it was an 88 which terminated at the junction of Brooklands Avenue and Crimicar Lane.

The general principle in recent years is that a Saturday service operated with enhancements on Mondays to Fridays.  For a good few years there have been no buses on Christmas Day, no buses on Boxing Day in Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley with selected Boxing Day services in Sheffield.

fbb was not expecting any change for 2025.

So imagine his surprise to find this from First Bus for route 51 ...

... showing a Christmas Day hourly service and nothing on Boxing Day; and for the 120 ...

... with nothing on Christmas Day OR Boxing Day. 

Yet elsewhere on their web site (powered by their F A C T software - First's Awfully Confusing Technology) the company was adamant ...

... that there were NO buses on "The Big Day".

What About The Partnership?

Stagecoach was equally adamant.

Tuesday 23rd December 2025

Barnsley, Sheffield and Rotherham:

Saturday service with extra early morning journeys.

Chesterfield: Saturday service.

Christmas Eve - Wednesday 24th December 2025

Barnsley, Sheffield and Rotherham:

Saturday service with extra early morning journeys

and early finishes. 

Chesterfield: Saturday service. 

Services will finish early.

Christmas Day - Thursday 25th December 2025

No buses will run.

Boxing Day - Friday 26th December 2025

Barnsley, Chesterfield and Rotherham:

No buses will run.

Sheffield: Enhanced journeys

will be provided on several services.

Please visit Travel South Yorkshire

for further details

These services are funded by Sheffield City.

Enhanced? Actually, Reduced!

Saturday 27th December 2025

Normal Saturday service.

Sunday 28th December 2025

Normal Sunday service.

And Travel South Yorkshire (TSY)?

They offer combined information for the whole county under the usual three headings.

Here is just an extract from their buses stuff.

Travel by bus

A ‘Saturday plus service' means the usual Saturday service with some extra early morning and evening journeys added.  

A ‘Saturday plus with early finish’ service means the usual Saturday service with some extra early morning journeys but with an earlier finish in the evening. 

Tuesday 23 December : Saturday plus service with the exception of Globe Coaches running a Saturday service, and High Peak, Hornsby’s, South Pennine and some Stagecoach and TM Travel services running a Monday-Friday service.

Wednesday 24 December (Christmas Eve) : Saturday plus with an early finish service with the exception of Globe Coaches running a Saturday service with an early finish, High Peak, South Pennine and some Stagecoach and TM Travel services running a Monday-Friday service with an early finish and Hornsby’s running a Monday-Friday service.

Thursday 25 December (Christmas Day): No service.

Friday 26 December (Boxing Day): Sheffield Boxing Day special services with some Stagecoach GXO services also running (see operator for details).

There is just one snag with TSY.

Download Sheffield Boxing Day and New Year's Day special timetables when available.

NO TIMETABLES - YET!

Back to Stagecoach!

Stageoach are showing their special Boxing Day timetables as here with fbb's chosen 120.

They also have details of the massive enhancements (?) to the 120 timetable, enhancements which will make such a difference to the Saturday service.

Wow, that will make  a huge difference.

And, wowsers, we also have details of Stagecoach's early finish times ...

... but no actual timetables. Stagecoach simply says, "go away and work it out for yourself". Great!

Back To First Bus

Where does that leave First Bus and its Christmas Day timetables? 

Farcical!

Farcically WRONG!

It looks as if First have published their service 51 Boxing Day special timetable as a Christmas Day timetable.

It could be that First have not shown a service 120 Boxing Day special timetable as the service is joint with Stagecoach but it would never do for First to show the whole joint service. That would never do - indeed it might be helpful to the public and that would never do either.

Stagecoach is running 120 journeys on Boxing Day and First isn't so First ain't telling its loyal passengers anything about it.

Maybe relatives of the late Brian Rix ...

... are running First Bus!

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 I nspirational  I nstitution

Quirky Answer : keep reading and you will find it.

On their perilous and lengthy journey from Egypt to the Promised Lane, the Hebrews had Moses' inspired leadership ...

... which they often ignored and so things went wrong.

They had the Ten Commandments ...

... which they often ignored and so things went wrong.

They had a pillar of cloud by day an of fire at night ...

... which they often ignored and so things went wrong.

They had a very posh gold box called the Ark of the Covenant to act as their focus ...

... which they often ignored and so things went wrong.

They had the support of the Tabernacle (a large posh tent where the Ark was kept; an "inspirational institution") and all its rituals to remind them, comfort them and empower them ...

... which they often ignored and so things went wrong.

So a journey from Goshen in Egypt to Canaan, the Promised Land which should have taken less than a year, took 40 years.

Today, people have many of God's support services now focused in Jesus, the Jesus of CHRISTmas, to remind them, comfort them ad empower them ...

... which they often ignore and so things go wrong.

Well,  that is a surprise!

Quirky Question : Under Joshua's leadership, what did the Hebrews do thirteen times? Answer tomorrow.

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 Next Heritage blog : Weds 10th December 

First's Festive Farce

 How Not To Do It

This is the Christmas Information from First South Yorkshire. In general we see that, on most days, a Saturday service operates "with minor variations". These variations usually provide extra capacity for those who are still at work. Such journeys would not normally happen on a Saturday.

On Christmas Eve we have a heading "eves service". Good on yer, Eve! But the text is the same as for the other "Saturday service" days. There will be "minor variations".

What are those "minor variations"? For that we would need to interrogate individual timetables.

The astute may work out that "forthcoming" (almost a Shakespearian word?) means, for example, that things are happen ningon 07/12/2925.

But what?

Upon a deeper investigation, we discover that it means FROM Sunday 7th December TO Saturday 20th December. 

Giving the actual days would be helpful, First.

So, to check on Eve's service (lucky girl, a bus service just for her!) we need 'Forthcoming on 21/12/2025.

We then need to go to our chosen service. fbb imagined himself back on Crimicar Lane and sought out the 120. For those four days (21 to 24 December) we need FOUR DIFFERENT timetables.

Also note that there are no timetables for Christmas Day or Boxing Day - so no buses on those two days on the very busy and normally frequent cross city 120?

Bur back to Christmas Eve. Now we can check the "minor variations".

Only a tiny change, like there are no buses after approx 1900! Maybe First need to check the meaning on "minor" in their Collins Gem dictionary?

It's only timy but it might have 'minor' in it!

Then fbb looked for his other former local route, the 51 to Lodge Moor.

But, shock horror, the 51 has an entry for 25th December which, if fbb's memory is in its usual crisp and incisive working order, is Christmas Day. There it is, a bus every hour!

Way, way back, possibly in the late sixties or early 70s, there was a brief period when the City Council tendered a Christmas Day service on several main routes. fbb cannot remember who was the operator, but certainly not one of the big names!

But look back at the list at the top of the page. Here it is again to save you all that effort of scrolling back to the top.

Yep; it definitely says NO SERVICES on Christmas Day and SPECIAL SERVICES on Boxing Day, 26th.

But their timetables are equally vehement that the 51 on the big day, the Birthday Party for the boy Joshua, has hourly buses. Equally vehement is that neither the 51 nor the 120 has buses on 26th for those whose Boxing might take them to Fulwood Crimicar Lane or Lodge Moor.

Or maybe a boxer will want to enjoy the Moot by the Lodge?

Outwardly none of this makes sense.

But this is the First Bus that recently published Gkagow timetable changes on the First South Yorkshire web site ....

... so web site reliability is not one if the Company's key management skills.

 

But, fbb, the Sherlock Holmes of bus timetables, is on the case and will report back in due course.

Stagecoach, a company that is (maybe was) part of the Sheffield  Bus Partnerships, (stop sniggering arpt the back!) seems to explain things better. fbb is confident that this list is correct.

Again no buses on Christmas day.

More exciting Christmas news to follow.

=====================

 H oliness  H ub

Quirky Quiz Question : Three really crackpot ideas are common in illustrations of Moses holding the 'tablets of stone, the source of' the Ten Commandments. (1) Size : have you ever lifted a pavement slab? What is the likelihood of |Moses stagger down Mount Sinai with two of them?

(2) Shape : Can anybody explain why they have curved tops? The two below look like they fold in the middle. Folding stone slabs: a bigger miracle that God writing on them!

Content : the Ten Commandments are sometimes called 'The Decalogue', Greek for Ten Words. These are those ten words in Hebrew.

They would easily fit on something a good bit smaller that your authors 'tablet'.

But people don't like the image of an angry God ...

.... telling them what to do, despite that being exactly what we all need.

There is nothing angry about the Ten Commandments. It is A Covenant, an agreement between two parties; in this case man and God. By far the BEST READING of the ten is this ...

IF

you worship no other god

IF

you do not worship idols

IF

you do not use God's name wrongly

IF

you have a break for worship each week

IF

you respect those that care for you

THEN

YOU WILL NOT

commit murder

YOU WILL NOT

commit adultery

YOU WILL NOT

steal

YOU WILL NOT

make destructive accusations

YOU WILL NOT

want what you cannot have

Seems a good deal all round - so why don't we do it? It is all about holiness - doing things God's way. That becomes a bit more feasible as a result of CHRISTmas.

Quirky Question : What box would be found in the tent?

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 Next Sheffield blog : Tuesday 9th December 

Sunday Variety

The Benefits Of Tecnology

Seasonal Science

Astounding A I

On a serious note, the use of clever computer technology, that isn't AI, might be yet another way in which pressure groups can cause mayhem without even leaving their keyboard!

Horrific Happening!

Completely fake. The building is in Milan (high fbb memory unreliability factor) and there are no train lines anywhere nearby.

What A Surprise

And, ultimately, we are paying! Did anybody ask us?

Competition for Coventry

Readers may remember the period of experimental street running on a quarter of a mile of "busy city street" closed to all traffic. Apparently it went OK.

It is not clear what the word "success" means in this context, but the aspirations for dozens of these mini trams scuttling around the streets of Coventry seem to have become as politically embarrassing as a certain horse ride.

Modern recreations of the historic and defiant ride by her ladyship seem to involve participants with abnormally long hair!

But, moving quickly on, our friends across the channel have come up with a jolly good idea.

Looks familiar? But this one is designed for low-use branch lines; not city streets. And it will be driverless!

Yeah, right!

It is being developed in Bersee on the border between France and Belgium.

Here there is a short test track.

In purely practical terms, the car has been displayed in Paris.

Bonne chance!

=====================

 G rim  G uidance

Whoops! Forgot the Quirky Quiz Question yesterday : so here it is with the answer below.

What did Moses take off as he approached the Burning Bush?

There really is no point in belittling this experience. Moses had murdered an Egyptian official and run away to the sanctuary of life as a shepherd, married, and only wanted a quiet life. Either the experienced a real miraculous physical happening or a huge mental vision. Either way it sent him back to Egypt to rescue his people from slavery.

Quirky Answer : he took off his sandals out of respect for the holiness of the encounter.

Archaeology has found the area of Goshen were the Hebrews lived as slaves, and it appears to have been suddenly abandoned.

We are told that, in a competition between the Egyptian Witch Doctors and Moses' God, God won at every turn. A string of nine disasters struck the nation.

Remarkably,  the plagues did not effect the Hebrew settlements.

The tenth plague was the death of the oldest child (and the oldest animal). To escape this disaster Moses instructed his people to slaughter a perfect, pure young lamb and smear its blood on their doorposts.

The "angel of death" would pass over their houses. "Pass Over"? Possibly a good name for later celebration?

The blood of the perfect and faultless "lamb" saved the people.

Sounds familiar?

That's  CHRISTmas again.

Quirky Question : What is really strange about most depictions of the "tablets of stone"?

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 Next Farcical "First" blog : Monday 8th December