International Bus Services (2)

T M Travel 218 - a P.S.

A fuller explanation of the picking up restriction on the T M Travel web site (see Tuesday's blog - read again) was still unclear.

Does the 218 pick up passengers on London Road and Eyre Street as it abandons Abbeydale Road and gets closer to the Interchange terminus?

This comment is also pertinent.

The screens show the journey but it won't stop for you. The disappointment is that the half hourly 218 provides a useful link from Abbeydale Road to the railway station and bus station (Interchange) not available on any other service.

But worry not, Traveline offers it at ALL the stops at which it doesn't. Lynmouth Road is on the city side of any possible restriction ...

... with Bannerdale Road being the second intersection with Archer Road.

Here is the journey plan extracted by fbb.

From Abbeydale Road Adj Lynmouth Road, Nether Edge,

take 218 bus to Sheffield Interchange (D3)

16 minutes. 

Depart 09:33

Arrive 09:49

TM Travel

You would be miffed indeed if you were aiming to use the 218 to connect with a train or a coach, or even another "critical" bus an it ailed past with its omnibological nose in the air.

Time for a rethink, T M Travel?

Back to Distribus at Basel

We are often old how wonderful public transport is in Europe and especially in Switzerland. Well, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. Following No 3 son's excitements as he grappled with the bus/tram network in Basel, he came across an anomaly.

His workplace stop is Im Brühl, served by buses 48 and 64 as shown clearly on the bus stop flag.

Bachgraben is a terminus, at nowhere in particular, equipped with a turning loop.

In fact the BVB (green) 48 becomes a 38, joint with Deutsche Bahn and zooms off to Germany, the subject of a previous blog. The 64 ...

... is the other lot.

Baselland Transport operates "outer suburban" bus services as well as the yellow and red trams.

So what is the 608, not mentioned at the bus stop?

All attempts to find a timetable on the various Basel bus/tram sites failed, so fbb had to ask No 3 son to solve the problem. "Have you ever seen a 608 bus?" fbb queried.

"Would that be the little blue thing that appears from time to time?" the lad replied.

A few days later, he was able to photograph the "little blue thing" as it passed his place of employ.

As Lady Macbeth might have said in similar circumstances, "Is this a Distribus I see before me?"

So, hotfoot it to the Distribus web site for a 608.

But there isn't one! Curiouser and curiouser?

In an amazing burst of uncharacteristic intellectual acuity, fbb looked at Distribus service 8.

It crosses the frontier at Hegenheim (Allschwil "Frontière Zoll") ...

... connects with Tram 6 at Gartenstrasse ...

... passes the Im Brühl stop and terminates at Bachgraben.

Distribus (France) thinks it is service 8 ...

... but Basel bus and tram map (see top of the blog) ...

... calls it service 608.

Bus 8/608 starts at Bartenheim ...

... and travels south via Blotzheim.

As No 3 son pointed out, "when it passes me it is always empty!" This might explain why off peak trips on Monday to Friday plus all journeys on Saturday have a little telephone at the head of their column of times.

All these trips are pre-book only.

But there are three more Distribus routes from France to Switzerland which fbb will adumbrate tomorrow.

Or is it two?

 Next Basel blog : Friday 11th May