Sabbath Sundries

Notice The Notice If You're Noticeably Nippy

Sheffield correspondent Alex was in Macclesfield recently and was amused by a notice (now out of date) explaining that the bus station would, in future, be locked and barred on Sundays. The notice in on the doors (above, centre left).

But it is an automatic door, so as you approach, this notice slides right behind other bits of the building and you cannot read it. Helpfully, though, it is easy to read on a Sunday.

When The Meaning Of Amended Is Amended 

Cheery posters have appeared at Northampton station (and elsewhere on London North Western) warning folk of engineering work on certain weekends during the summer.

The amended service is ...

... that there isn't one! Passengers will be shovelled off their trains at Hemel Hempstead or even Milton Keynes, transferred to Stanmore ...

... by bus where they can enjoy a leisurely ride on the London Underground Jubilee Line which, of course ...

... doesn't run to Euston.

Super amended!

Buxton's Belated Bus Build-Up

At last (with less than 48 hours to go) Stagecoach have admitted that they will be running to Buxton from today. The web site has one of those annoying scrolling advert panels which scrolls just as you try to click on it.

Improved? Hardly - it is more-or-less the same as High Peak's previous 65 which ended on Saturday. Perhaps they are thinking about the extension to Meadowhell? The timetable appears when you do manage to click.

But if you search for the timetable under the appropriate heading "timetables" you get something different. A service from Buxton to Tideswell ...

... and a totally separate service from Tideswell to Sheffield.

Notice that the notes refer to "dates not known" and the 1802 from Tideswell does not exist on the lower table. That is because it appears in part of the Buxton to Tideswell section.

Weird; but that's what happens when all you can manage to publish is extracts from the "working" timetable.

Not helpful to the public. Not likely to encourage passengers.

Do the gnomes skulking deep in the bowels of Stagecoach web site cellar actually know where any of their buses go?

Probably not - it's all on the computer.

Worrying Wellingborough War?

News culled from the Evening Telegraph.

The 34 runs "round the back way" between Wellingborough and Kettering.

Harrowden, Orlingbury and Pytchley are not "good bus territory", hence the need for a tendered service.

Pity that the timetable is near incomprehensible. 

The need hasn't gone away, but Northamptonshire has no cash in the box under the desk. 

But Wellingborough folk have cause to be miffed. The 34 first tours the south side of the town ...

... replacing route W3 of old.

Then, on its way north to its villages it visits two more former Wellingborough Town Service destinations.

That is three former town services that have now been reduced to nothing. Does this make sense? If there is no money, the County would appear to have no choice, and we know that the County is broke!

Is this inevitable or (fbb's view) is it that the methodology of Public Transport funding is simply not fit for purpose? The increase in costs to other Government and Local Authority agencies is never revealed, but some sources say that it is greater by far than the few quid saved by withdrawing bus subsidies.

Short sighted in the extreme.

 Wessex Fallout blog : Monday 23rd July