Some time back, fbb reviewed a significant change in First Glasgow's bus services. A group of routes to Dumbarton, Helensburgh and Balloch were rebranded and upgraded as "The One" (route 1).
Specifically, see "The One Part Three" (read again)
And "The One Part Four" (read again)
Since then, the company has announced major changes to many services with improvements in frequency and renumberings. This month's Buses magazine contains a piece by editor Alan Millar ...
... questioning the wisdom of altering long-standing route numbers, apparently just for the sake of it. One argument put forward by First is that single digit numbers are "easier to remember". But how easy are they to remember when the previous double digit number has been running along busy local roads for 50 years? Alan ought to know. He has lived for some time in the Glasgow area and he has written extensively on Glasgow buses ...
... this being the excellent and definitive work on the PTE from its inception until the horrors of privatisation.
The changes are at "the consultation stage" prior to registration for introduction later in May. Will First make the same mistakes in Glasgow as they have just corrected in Portsmouth? Dealing with all the proposed changes is beyond the wit of fbb at this stage, but one suggested development illustrates the pitfalls of the proposed plan.
It is to add yet another route 1 to "The One". This variant will leave the main drag here ...
... at Scotstoun, just before the splendid bridge that once carried a now-closed bit of the rail route via Glasgow Central Low Level. The extra "One" then turns north to cross the existing railway near Garscadden Station ...
... before veering west again along the lengthy residential Alderman Road.
A further north-bound turn takes the route across the Great Western "boulevard" to Drumchapel shopping centre and on to its terminus at Lillyburn Place.
Here is the present route diagram for the existing two (quite different) "Ones" ...
... alongside one "One A" and one "One B" (see leaflet cover at the top of this blog!). This shows the straightforward common route at its City end. And here is the proposed new "One" added, running every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes and every 30 minutes evenings and Sundays.
In his editorial, Millar tells us that this "One" terminus is 17 miles (yes, seventeen miles) from the another one, namely the "One" terminus at Helensburgh and, apart from a relatively short section in the Scotstoun area, the Drumchapel "One" is well away from the "main line" of the other "Ones".
Sensible or Silly? Being clever for the sake of it?
Maybe they should number all the buses to Drumchapel via various other routes as "The One" to avoid confusion and make it easy to remember.
As an intriguing tailpiece, fbb spotted an earlier Allan Millar as pictured on the back cover of his Glasgow book.
He hasn't changed a bit!
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When they arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus went to the Temple and began to drive out all those who were buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the stools of those who sold pigeons, and he would not let anyone carry anything through the Temple courtyards. He then taught the people: “It is written in the Scriptures that God said, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for the people of all nations.’ But you have turned it into a hideout for thieves!” The chief priests and the teachers of the Law heard of this, so they began looking for some way to kill Jesus. They were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild? No way! When he arrived in the Temple after his Palm Sunday "visual aid" he found the usual rip-off stalls and unnecessary sales pitches. Instead of being a place to worship God, the Temple (His House!) had become nothing more than a tourist show, forcing visitors and even a few genuine worshippers to hand over their cash for spurious so-called religious reasons.
So what should have been a Throne-on-Earth was a literal waste of space.
Jesus showed, with vehemence and violence, what had been said by the prophets years previously, namely "God hates religion."
The Lord says, “I hate your religious festivals; I cannot stand them! Instead, let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry." Empty religion is as bad as no religion at all.
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Next bus blog : Tuesday 26th March
I don't like the current fashion for using a single number for all variants of a route. I grew up with the Portsmouth Corporation numbering system, where each route had two numbers, depending on direction of travel - particularly helpful for routes with loops.
ReplyDeleteThe extreme example was the 143, which ran from Portsmouth to Leigh Park and Havant, under the joint arrangement with Southdown. This route had six variants - some short workings, some branching off to a terminus away from the main route. Each of these had a suffix letter - 143A, 143B etc. But on journeys towards Portsmouth, all buses were numbered 143, because they all went to the same place, so there was no need to distinguish between them. This looks a bit cumbersome (and was difficult to represent neatly on a map) - but it was unambiguous.