Bus Route? What Bus Route? (2)

Nuneaton?

Continuing from yesterday's post, an article appeared on line in very similar vein to that from Thames Ditton. 

The fourth estate loves a "daft" bus story, especially if it involves a waste of public money. Quite rightly, politicians (most of whom never travel by bus) need to be held to account. Here is the bare bones of the piece:-

Clearly, this is old news - a space filler article - but it does seem to repeat the pattern of Thames Ditton. The key players in the saga are the A4254 (a south eastern by pass link road) ...

... and the communities of Horeston Grange and Whitestone. The main bus operator in Nuneaton is Stagecoach, but there were no maps on their web site when fbb began his investigation. An on-line town services map ...

... showed service 4 to Horeston Grange (BLUEY GREEN) and service 7 (YELLOW) to Whitestone. Between the two estates runs A4254 Eastboro Way and is is called Eastboro (with or without an apostrophe but definitely without an "ugh").

But, yesterday morning, as fbb began to set keyboard to blog, the maps has appeared (re-appeared) on the Stagecoach site.

Service 4 has been extended via Eastboro Way to pick up the main part of the service 7 at Whitestone (map LILAC). Thus it would appear that events have overtaken the article as there are now buses along the previously deserted road.

So can we find the once un-served J C Decaux shelter? The southern end of this road is actually part of an older road, Garrett Street ...

... and was served by the old 7 and is still served by certain journeys on the new 4.

These are exactly the same as the old 7 as poor Horeston Grange only gets a "between peaks" service. Also on the peaks route are stops named Townsend Drive.

None of these has a shelter! For most of the rest of the road there is not a bus stop in sight.

Of course, some may have been added for the route change and not yet picked up by a revised streetview. But such newcomers should appear as blue bus blobs on the Google map.

But there is only one shown and it is on the northbound side of the road ...

... and labelled Rugby Club. Streetview does not show a likely site for such a stopping facility ...

... and something in the opposite direction would be ruled out on safety grounds - no pavement. The rugby club is round the back, behind the greenery on the left.

At the northern end of the road, where the 4 used to perform a loop, there are no stops on Eastboro' Way.

What does Traveline's detailed all-stops timetable tell us?

Northbound the 4 shows a stop for a whole minute at "Rugby Club" but no equivalent southbound.

So, whatever unserved shelter the article referred to is not there now.

Mystery UNsolved.

Norton Fitzwarren

This location will be familiar to rail buffs as the junction where the Minehead branch leaves the Great Western main line just to the west of Taunton. Scene of an horrific railway accident in 1890 ...

... it is where the preserved West Somerset Railway's tracks link with the national rail network.

The community is currently served by buses of Somerset route 25 and 28 just nudges the area.

Collett Road, mentioned in the article, is off the B3227 just after its junction with the A358 Minehead road. As is common with modern estate design, Collett Road is a small network of culs-de-sac off a road linking the B3227 with Great Western Way.

Turning in from route 25 we can immediately find the location of the on-line picture ...

... and we can zoom in to the shelter but we will search in vain for the bus lane cameras.

From the opposite direction, streetviewed a few months earlier, we observe the scene without housing.

The bus gate and the road closed notices are to prevent Collett Road becoming a so-called rat run for through traffic.

Google maps simply shows a gap!

But, most definitely, no buses go that way.

Are there plans to divert the 25?

Or were those diversionary intentions a political or planning aspiration unfulfilled by the harsh world of commercial public transport?

Maybe First is holding out for more money from developer (possible) or local authority (highly unlikely?).

Pity really, it is such a nice bus gate and the shelter is more substantial than most.

Tomorrow to Maltby and Karnataka!

Talking of Commercial Bus Operation ...
fbb spotted this rather poor quality picture on-line. It Shows Sheffield High Street pre-tram but post bus deregulation.

Thankfully, this omni-shambles did not last for too many years. Even today, the Sheffield Bus Partnership is a nonsense. Sometimes the two contenders talk of the "partners" and, when it suits the PR, refer to them as "competitors". Either way the people of Sheffield have suffered badly under the commercial regime.

The Return Of The Plastic Pigs ...

... does sound like a title for a cheaply made SciFi "B" movie. In fact the nickname evolved for the class 442 third rail electric units that worked between Waterloo, Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth.

They remained in place well into privatisation and gained South West Trains rather gorgeous livery.

Replaced by class 444, the pigs went off to be Gatwick Express ...

... later losing the "Gatwick" to avoid bafflement when they were running through to Brighton (and some did not stop at Gatwick!!!).

And now the pigs return to First's version of the south western operation. This time they will run some improved services to Portsmouth. The grand master plan was to refurbish the trains inside and out, fit new doors and new traction motors and have them enter service in December 2018.

The first unit ran a few days ago, seen here at Basingstoke.

The livery is now utterly uninspiring, the doors have not been changed and the new motors have not been fitted.

The general opinion is that the insides are less comfortable.

So it is all going very well!

 Next Where Do Buses Stop blog : Wednesday 12th June