Although fbb lived for twenty years in Sheffield, his visits to Chesterfield were rare. The location of bus terminals was far from simple but can be summarised as follows.
Most corporation buses ran from town centre streets with oddities. The joint route(s) to Sheffield had their terminus in Elder Way (top left on map).
... the 202, 203 and 204 being variants of the all stops service. These are now X17, 43 and 44 respectively, now exclusively Stagecoach, but their daytime terminus has moved. The stop is still there, unchanged.
Some Corporation Services:-
These, including the busy Clay Cross routes left from a corporation bus station on Vicar Lane.
This is now a pedestrianised street (shown on the map in grey) running westbound from Old Ship Lane. The bus station is now all shops.
"Country" services:-
These served a rather primitive bus station on Beetwell Street ...
... where you would find an sweet but poky enquiry office.
We now have the imposing "Chesterfield Coach Station" ...
... with a V shaped set of shelters.
There, as before, are home to longer distance bus services and the occasional National Express coach ...
... pronto, for example runs to Nottingham. The road behind pronto is ...
New Beetwell Street:-
It has a huge line of shelterage, now decorated with mysterious red swirly bits.
Effectively this is also Chesterfield's bus station, used by most town services. It replaced Vicar Lane and some town centre terminal stops - all made clear by the excellent town map c/o Derbyshire County Council.
So it was that correspondent Bob, on one of his regular visits to Chesterfield Market, had cause to wander along to the Coach Station - as you do!
He was pleased/surprised to see that there was a splendid electronic departure thingey near stand A which he thinks is fairly new. Its two screens alternated between bus and coach ...
... with the "B" stands being on New Beetwell Street and the "B" stand being part of the coach station. Gottit?
Bob did wonder about the 39 to "Birdholme". This delightful locality does not appear in the timetable ...
... or on the buses.
Consistency, what consistency?
And why Barnsley Town and Sheffield Centre but not Matlock Town or Alfreton Centre? And as we stand at Chesterfield coach station, why might we want to catch a 90 to ... erm ...
... Chesterfield. The 90 is a cross-town service between Yew Tree and Brimington & Staveley! Helpul sign, eh?
fbb also wondered what happens in the evenings and Sundays, for example, when the 43 and 44 to Sheffield do not serve either the bus station or New Beetwell Street. Does this super sign send expectant passengers off to Cavendish Street (near Elder Way)?
Bet it doesn't.
But it was the coach departures that mystified knowledgeable bus-man Bob.
He knew that "Digbeth" was, in fact, a cunning disguise to put passengers off from thinking they might be able to get to Birmingham by coach. "Best discourage such depraved journey opportunities", thinks Derbyshire's Deep Throat confuser!
But one destination baffled him totally. He writes:-
The next scheduled departure shown was the 1125, a service 560 with the enticing destination of 'Brook Furlong'. This was a complete mystery to me, so to satisfy my curiosity I went back to the coach station half an hour later to witness the mysterious departure and to see whether the coach showed Brook Furlong as its destination.. Unfortunately 1125 came and went, although no coach did and at 1135 I had to give up. By then the departure had gone from the screen although there will still several passengers waiting, all presumably bound for Brook Furlong.
That meant recourse to the internet so I googled Brook Furlong and the first thing that came up was in Frodsham (Cheshire).[also Bembridge Isle of Wight and in other exciting localities, see below - fbb]
That seemed more than a little unlikely but the next answer revealed all - Milton Keynes Coachway is apparently at Brook Furlong.
I never knew that [neither did fbb], and I'm sure many other coach passengers didn't know it either!
I looked at the screen long enough to confirm that it was not of the scrolling variety and didn't alternate between showing 'Brook Furlong' and something more useful, but it didn't. After the 1125 departure had failed to depart the screen showed a later 560 (1525 - no photo this time), listed as going to Golders Green.
On returning home further googling confirmed that both the 1125 and the 1525 were actually bound for somewhere rather better known - London; Victoria Coach Station to be precise.
So why on earth was the screen programmed to show a meaningless description of an intermediate point (Milton Keynes) rather then the actual destination of the coach (London)?
Good question, Bob.
But we already know the answer. Designers of electronic systems have no idea was a bus or coach timetable means; likewise those who initiate installation and programing of such beasts are equally ignorant of reality.
Of course the real reason is a deep seated desire of the industry to obfuscate and bewilder in order to discourage the use of public transport by any but the most determined. See also:- NaPTAN, Traveline, lack of printed timetables, closure of National Express offices, 13p a minute charge to book by phone.
Thankfully Traveline expands the over engineered stop information to tell us that Milton Keynes Coachway is at Milton Keynes Coachway which is at the almost unknown Brook Furlong. It is not indexed in Google Maps ...
... or Streetmap! It would be much MORE helpful to tell us it is adjacent to M1 junction 14.
But here is Traveline's "we all love Brook Furlong" journey plan:-
From Coach Station (Bay A),
Beckingham Way, Chesterfield,
take 560 coach to Milton Keynes Coachway
(Bay 4), Milton Keynes Coachway, Brook Furlong
2 hours . Depart 11:25, Arrive 13:25
Walk to Milton Keynes Coachway
(Bay 1),Milton Keynes Coachway, Brook Furlong
Less than a minute. Depart 13:25, Arrive 13:25
Take X5 coach to The Point (Stop H4),
Midsummer Boulevard, Central Milton Keynes
12 minutes. Depart 13:31, Arrive 13:43
What is the betting that "same time" connection won't be made?
We will remain at Milton Keynes for one of tomorrow's "oddments".
Next various blog : Sunday 2nd June
The same time connection is a walk from bay 4 to bay 1. The actual connection is 6 mins.
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