It was a challenge from correspondent Andy that sent fbb off on his so far less than productive search for buses from Derby Station to The Travelodge at Pride Park.
In his email, Andy was going on about Wyvern and buses thereto. Indeed you would need a bus to Traveline's "Wyvern Park" to get close to the hotel (map below, top right).
So fbb had originally started with this enquiry ...
... which delivered this "interesting" result.
It would involve 26 minutes of walking; surely suggesting that a walk all the way from station to hotel would be easier. A quick check of the map shows that there is a walk route from Nottingham Road (one-time of route 66 trolley fame) through to Wyvern retail park and thus across the river to the Travelodge
An enlargement shows a footbridge over the A52 Brian Clough Way ...
... amd here it is on Google's Streetview.
And, of course, there's about 5 minutes further to walk to the hotel; thus the schedule was quickly rejected by a potentially creaky fbb. But one answer was helpful as it turned out.
Another 27 minute walk surrounding a two minute bus ride on Service 4 which might be a replacement for the D2 and D3. Perhaps a look at the Arriva timetable might at least explain yesterday's Park and Ride service finishing at about 1500.
Things look very different when we look at a real page.
Lo and behold, despite the efforts of Traveline to deter customers, the Park and Ride runs half hourly until well after evening peak. Later evening journeys are labelled 4A at xx33 from the bus station and xx43 at The Wyvern.
There is also a map ...
... which struggles to be helpful. The map is too small a scale to explain where the stops are for the eastern exit from the station ...
... but the mysteries are beginning to resolve themselves.
Of course, one comment writer gave the best answer of all.
The Derby City map is more helpful than Arriva's ...
... and the printed timetable book and or web site is great. It offers a full service 4 timetable ...
... which shows the Wyvern variety of 4A. The there are separate Park and Ride tables ...
The critical comment writer (mayhap with tongue in cheek) asks why fbb is wanting to get to Wyvern Travelodge when there are "excellent hotels in the centre of Derby". Often the plastic and cardboard ambiance of the Travelodge, although lacking any character, is cheaper than anything central.
Two important conclusions, then.
Traveline is not as helpful as it ought to be and, in some cases, just plain wrong.
Derbyshire's timetable book and maps are the bees knees and much to be admired.
Next technology blog : Wednesday 13th January
Suffolk is also good. You can go to the "Suffolkonboard" website which gives details of all public transport (not just buses). Iy has recently been revamped.
ReplyDeleteIf you go to the "buses" tab you can get all the full timetables listed by service number; if you go to "timetables by area" you get precisely that (these correspond to a series of printed booklets); the site is also very good at putting in forthcoming "bus service changes". But do NOT go to "departure board" as this links in to Traveline - last time I tried it I got a bus service several counties away!
The Ipswich Buses website is pretty good too and they "tweet" service delays and alterations during the day (not in the evenings though). Again the timetables and map correspond to the printed ones readily available at the bus station.
None of your Sheffield nonsense here!
Interesting to note that the service is "normally operated by a wheel chair accessible bus". I thought that had to be so accessible now.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's a DD, or a Harry Potter style triple decker....? When do triple deckers have to be PRM Compliant..???
ReplyDeleteApologies for pre-empting today's blog.
ReplyDeleteI didn't want to call you a cheapskate, but.... Note that the Chaddesden Travelodge has much more frequent bus services than the one on Pride Park.
I would like to add a bit more about buses in Pride Park, from local knowledge.
Given that some match-day parking had to be provided for the new stadium, it made sense to use it for a Park and Ride the rest of the week. So it's not a Coventry Arena situation. There is a separate match-day shuttle from the city centre.
I can't remember who originally ran the park+ride. The oldest timetable I have to hand is 2009, by which time the 111, mentioned in part 1, was up and running - operated by Notts and Derby. It was never particularly busy.
In 2012, Derby gained Local Sustainable Transport Funding to improve access to employment sites including Pride Park. One action was the "Connected" website, another to increase the frequency of 111, with new buses and a new operator, Little's. This funding ran out last year, and in the present financial situation, any replacement needed a much lower subsidy.
Arriva have been serving part of Pride Park for many years. By tweaking their existing service, they came up with D2 and D3, introduced in May 2015.
This was only ever a temporary expedient, as Arriva were planning major changes to their Derby network.
One result of these changes is the new 4 group, which as the map shows is complicated but provides lots of inter-suburban links as well as those to/from the city centre. It introduced an evening service to Wyvern Park for the first time. It began on 25 October.
The Derby Telegraph has been full of complaints about some changes, but I don't recall any about the Pride Park route.
For the "anons" - Arriva Derby's fleet was replaced in a "big bang" in 2008-9, and there have been some new arrivals since. So everything has been wheelchair-accessible for a while. 4's are Versas or Omni-Cities.