Back in the late sixties this little game was a huge hit and something of a pre-Rubiks Cube craze. To enjoy Instant Insanity all you have to do is to arrange the blocks so that all four colours are showing on all four faces of a line of the cubes.
... manipulating the little plastic cubes does not require much physical skill - it is an intellectual exercise.
Managing a bus company must involve something of the instant insanity and plate spinning skills; and these abilities have been fully challenged during the virus crisis - and the challenges continue..
Whilst the big bosses have been closeted with DaFT (Department For Transport) officials via Zoom (etc. - other video conferencing software is available), the schedulers, staff supervisors, engineers, depot inspectors and IT twiddlers have all been attempting to keep things running.
In many articles, the industry has adopted a self-congratulatory tone; "with Government help we have been able to adapt to the current difficult situation and provide buses for all our much praised helpful workers."
But how have those who needed to travel by bus been kept informed. First we had a cut back to Saturday timetables plus extras, then Sunday timetables plus extras which for some companies led to service withdrawal at worst or less than Sunday frequency at best.
And then, as restrictions were relaxed, services needed to be ramped up again - particularly to cope with the two metre social distancing. With this came crime scene tape and terrifying notices, followed fairly quickly by a decision by "the science" (Oh yeah?) to reduce the critical distance to "one metre plus" (plus what, you may ask!). So all the terror signs are removed but "face covering" becomes mandatory unless exempted.
Exemption? This from the Government's web site:-
The site goes to to offer downloads of an "official" badge.
Bus drivers have to cope with this and, worse, with aggression from some ill-informed passengers towards those who have chosen to exempt themselves - either with badge or without.
Instant Insanity and Plate Spinning are both good illustrations.
But some problems seem to be unnecessarily self inflicted.
In Sheffield (here he goes again) we have been able to observe the Timetable Change Tango under the watchful eye of the PTE (NOT) and the coordinating eye of the Sheffield Bus (non)Partnership (even more NOT).
August 3rd
First bus changes Monday to Friday times on "some" services. fbb is fairly certain that First did not tell anyone about this - the timetables just appeared! Or, if they were announced in advance, the announcement did not reach fbb's acutely tuned hearing orifices.
Pardon?
Certainly the old man never received a set of tables from his usual contact.
August 23rd
Stagecoach in Chesterfield lists changes to times on "some" routes running through to Sheffield.
These are 43, 44, 50, 80 and X17. The list doesn't make it clear which "some" will have revisions.
But Derbyshire' timetable library (extract above) suggests that only the 43 changed out of the five services that run cross border.
Yet again Travel South Yorkshire says they all have changed, e.g. 50!
September 1st
Stagecoach in Sheffield changes times on some routes in South Yorkshire; these are announced approx three weeks before the change.
The list actually shows ALL services whether they have changed or not, including the 107 ...
... which doesn't run into Sheffield at all. For a while the service to Barnsley was indexed under its old route number, 265 ...
... although later the table was moved to its rightful numerical place - but still bearing the label 265. But that's better than the situation in Barnsley itself ...
... where the helpful sideways PDFs ...
... do not include the service 2 (or 265) between Barnsley and Sheffield. The service 2, readers may like to know, is reduced to every hour from every 30 minutes - a Virus reduction which has been made permanent.
Thelack of a take in "Barnsley" is because the service is operated by Sh*ff**ld depot - and we never speak to them; they're not real Yorkshire - ecky thump!
Then on Monday last 24th August comes the announcement:-
August 30th
Major changes by First Bus throughout South Yorkshire.
And then, as restrictions were relaxed, services needed to be ramped up again - particularly to cope with the two metre social distancing. With this came crime scene tape and terrifying notices, followed fairly quickly by a decision by "the science" (Oh yeah?) to reduce the critical distance to "one metre plus" (plus what, you may ask!). So all the terror signs are removed but "face covering" becomes mandatory unless exempted.
Exemption? This from the Government's web site:-
Instant Insanity and Plate Spinning are both good illustrations.
But some problems seem to be unnecessarily self inflicted.
In Sheffield (here he goes again) we have been able to observe the Timetable Change Tango under the watchful eye of the PTE (NOT) and the coordinating eye of the Sheffield Bus (non)Partnership (even more NOT).
August 3rd
First bus changes Monday to Friday times on "some" services. fbb is fairly certain that First did not tell anyone about this - the timetables just appeared! Or, if they were announced in advance, the announcement did not reach fbb's acutely tuned hearing orifices.
Pardon?
Certainly the old man never received a set of tables from his usual contact.
August 23rd
Stagecoach in Chesterfield lists changes to times on "some" routes running through to Sheffield.
These are 43, 44, 50, 80 and X17. The list doesn't make it clear which "some" will have revisions.
43 Chesterfield - Dronfield Woodhouse - Sheffield
Stagecoach Chesterfield
From 23 August 2020
Revised Timetable
Revised Timetable
44 Chesterfield - Dronfield - Coal Aston - Sheffield
Stagecoach Chesterfield
Current timetable
50 Chesterfield - Eckington - Sheffield
Stagecoach Chesterfield
Current timetable
80 Chesterfield - Brimington - Killamarsh - Sheffield
Stagecoach Chesterfield
Current timetable
X17 Matlock - Chesterfield - Sheffield - Barnsley
Stagecoach Chesterfield
Current timetable
Yet again Travel South Yorkshire says they all have changed, e.g. 50!
September 1st
Stagecoach in Sheffield changes times on some routes in South Yorkshire; these are announced approx three weeks before the change.
Thelack of a take in "Barnsley" is because the service is operated by Sh*ff**ld depot - and we never speak to them; they're not real Yorkshire - ecky thump!
Then on Monday last 24th August comes the announcement:-
August 30th
Major changes by First Bus throughout South Yorkshire.
And some of them are VERY major changes.
At this stage fbb will not go into details; but getting all this ready for an accurate GoTimetable App and website is something of a challenge.
Blog readers may understand why posts over the next few days may be smaller than usual.
Now, where are those tranquilisers?
(soft voiced "Ahem" uttered from a safe social distance.)
"How will the passengers know what is going on?"
Reply from bus management, government, local authority and the depot cat,
"Passengers?"
Next small and beautiful blog : Thursday 27th August
"one metre plus" (plus what, you may ask!)
ReplyDeleteThe "plus" is other mitigation; on public transport that is a face covering.
Doing business in transportation sector is very tough. it requires sixth sense to operate smoothly.
ReplyDeleteNicely given.
Let's hope for the best.