January Changes in Sheffield [3]

Mapping mess maintained.

A reminder. Travel South Yorkshire produces a leaflet for every bus service in South Yorkshire county with the exception of those serving schools at school times on schooldays only. Apart from minor changes to layout, these have had the same form for may years.

There is a cover ...

... which is often misleading and occasionally wrong. Thee 81/82 version shown here misleads by implying that the route serves Dore. It doesn't. Two morning peak journeys Monday to Friday start there; it would be better if the text said "occasional journeys from Dore." Even better would be to say "for full service to Dore see route 70." 

It is utterly wrong to suggest that the 81/82 serves Upperthorpe. It would be entirely realistic to walk from the bus to Upperthorpe, Owlerton, Neepsend, Sharrow and Broomhall; but the route serves none of these places. For the record, the route to Upperthorpe from city is the 31, one-time home to some unusual vehicles.

In each leaflet is a brief summary of what the change is.

The explanation is often unnecessarily convoluted. Better would be "existing routes 11 and 12 will be linked with the service to Ecclesall and will show numbers 81 and 82." But why say something simply when you can make it sound complicated? Despite the text above, nothing is rerouted!

Then follows a map.

click on the map for a larger version

The committee minutes extract will refer to the map.

The next leaflet page is headed "Stopping Points for Service 81; an unusual title in that the page does not show stopping points for service 81. As an indcation as to the stupidity of this heading, there are 53 bus stops between Stannington and Ecclesall on the new cross-city route 81. How many "stopping points" are listed on the leaflet?

Stannington, Nethergate, Upper Gate Road, Bankfield Lane, Stannington Road, Acorn Drive, Greaves Lane, Stannington Road, Oldfield Terrace, Oldfield Road, Stannington Road, Malin Bridge, Loxley New Road, Holme Lane, Hillsborough, Hillsborough Interchange, Langsett Road, Langsett Road, Upperthorpe, Infirmary Road, Shalesmoor, Sheffield, Gibraltar Street, West Bar, Snig Hill, Queen Street, Townhead Street, Leopold Street, Furnival Gate, Charter Row, Moore Street, Ecclesall Road, Hunters Bar, Greystones, Banner Cross, Ecclesall, Ecclesall Road South.

Answer, 37!  16 "stopping points for service 81" are redacted from this ill-defined and unexplained list; which has been extracted verbatim from the leaflet for the new service. Once again, the minutes will refer to this list.

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Committee for Output of Cartographic Knowledge
and Updates for Passengers
Present : DG, FB, IT and IK. Apologies for absence from SC.

2. Review of major changes for January.

DG : We are sadly depleted today as SC is unavailable. But, no matter, most of the big changes are from FB. We have been looking at the new timetables for routes from, erm ...

FB : Hillsborough to Ecclesall

DG : Yes. Just so. All these changes can be a bit confusing at times, eh? Now, Keen, you had a further question.

IK : Yes sir. Why does the leaflet tell us that the 81 and 82 run via Upperthorpe? I thought they ran along Infirmary Road.

DG : Because that's where they will go, I presume?

FB : Well, erm, yes and no. Can you explain, IT?

IT : We have a very expensive and sophisticated system which automatically plots the routes using the NaPTAN database of every bus stop in the country; and obviously that must be right.

IK : Why must it be right?

IT : The data is input by local authorities and, obviously, they will know where the buses go.

DG : So who inputs the Sheffield data?

IT : We do!

DB : Well, there's your answer, Keen.

IK : My friend lives near Upperthorpe Library & shops and says he has never seen an 81 or 82 there. The only buses he ever sees are 31 or 31A.

DG : It seems you are not understanding the sophistication of our system, Keen. There's nothing wrong here, is there?

FB : No, of course, not. There can't be, surely? But I will check the registrations to see where the 81 and the 82 are supposed to run after the changes.

IT : Absolutely right. If the database says that the buses serve Upperthorpe, then that's what they do. Our system automatically imports the district name from NaPTAN, so there's no chance of human error.
DG : And we would all want our publicity to be error free, surely?

IK : Can I also ask about Greystones?

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 To be continued ... 

  

 Next bus blog : Thursday 16th January