This blog has kept a close eye on Hulleys innovative new service via the Snake Pass between Sheffield and Manchester. It was received with effusive enthusiasm by the councillors in Glossop.
Great news guys.
From 25 October, Glossop will have a new hourly bus link to Manchester via Woolley Bridge (which recently lost the 236). Plus a brand new 2-Hourly service to Sheffield via the Snake Pass run by Hulleys of Baslow.
The Snake X57 will run every 2 hours, 7 days a week. Non-stop between Manchester and Mottram then Hollingworth Gun Inn, Woolley Bridge and Glossop town centre will be served before the route carries on to Sheffield via the Snake Pass and Ladybower. Evening trips will also run Friday and Saturday.
In addition, the new X56 will run every 2 hours between Glossop and Manchester Monday to Saturday via the exact same route as X57 but this service will terminate at the Shirebrook Estate (which also lost the 236) instead of carrying onto Sheffield.
The X56 and X57 combined will create an hourly link between Glossop and Manchester Monday to Saturday daytime.
In addition the area between Sheffield and Ladybower will have a combined hourly frequency with the X57 and 257. The 257 runs to Bakewell instead of Glossop and Manchester but still may be a day trip opportunity.
The X56 soon disappeared ...
... but the two hourly through servicer kept going, was extended to the airport and extended further to the visitor centre.
A bus appeared in a promotional puce paint scheme ...
... and Friday and Saturday evening journeys came and went, came again and went again. Extra stops were added, he airport extension was removed but nothing seemed to generate anything like the business needed to make this innovative and courageous new service viable.
It succumbed to the inevitable and was withdrawn in January 2022.
To everyone's surprise, Hulleys announced that the 257 that ran every two hours interspersed with the X57 from Sheffield to Ladybower ...
... would be come hourly ...
... with a two hourly Sunday service increased to hourly for the summer months (with note BST).
The summer months start traditional with British Summer Time which happens on Sunday.
One of the problems with Hulleys is that their web site is often unreliable. Looking yesterday evening for the arrangements from this coming Sunday, fbb was surprised to read that there was no Sunday service on the 257 at the moment ...
Indeed, fbb could find no reference to this coming change anywhere on Hulleys web site. But it's only Wednesday - there are three days to go before anything happens.
But there is!
But what does happen?
From Monday 28th the Monday to Saturday service is changed ...
... with a substantial increase in running times.
But the Sunday service is completely different. The hourly service does not happen, Sundays remain two hourly throughout the Summer - which probably reflects the poor loadings so far.
But the route has changed dramatically. Here is the current 257 ...
... from Ladybower to Bakewell; Sheffield is off scene to the right. And here is the new 257 ...
Instead of running direct to Grindleford, the Sunday 257 ...
... sets off up the hill from Hathersage and then forks left off the main road to Sheffield, signposter Ringinglow ...
... and begins a climb up onto gorgeous moorland.
But soon (?) you come to Burbage Bridge.
This is popular with walkers and rock climbers and a path takes you all the way to Fox House which we will see again soon.
It has no building as it is simply a bridge over the Burbage Brook
Soon, also, we ought to come to welcoming signs ...
... marking the boundary with Sheffield and, a bit further on, the hamlet of Ringinglow. But there are no signs. The boundary of the pulsating industrial city of Sheffield is here ...
... and Ringinglow just happens.
Turn right at the Round House which isn't ...
You are IN Sheffield, a city which you may have left on the 257 one hour and 12 minutes ago!
... and you are on Sheephill Road which isn't much of a hill. You pass a road called Long Line ...
... which is long and a straight line. These Sheffield folk have a knack of choosing appropriate road names! There is plenty of rugged moorland to see ...
... even after we join the main A625 road ...
... which takes us to Fox House. It's a pub innit?
We are nearly back at Hathersage which we left just 13 minutes ago (too tight, Hulleys you are forgetting about Sunday afternoon bimblers who don't know where they are going!) but we will leave the bustling industrial city of Sheffield passing what used to be fbb's favourite road sign.
It used to read "A625 City Centre" with not so much as a hovel in sight!
But we will turn left before getting to Hathersage and ...
... rejoin the Monday to Saturday 257 at Grindleford.
fbb downloaded the timetable from the very (in)efficient Travel South Yorkshire. During the writing of this blog, the anxious old bloke wanted to check whether the TSY (PTE) leaflet had a map.
It doesn't, of course, so fbb could not check the detail of the route via Ringinglow.
There are several option coming out of Hathersage, for example, but fbb reckons that the left turn at Hathersage Booths is the most likely.
All power to Hulleys omnibological elbow; the diversion via Ringinglow is gorgeous and unserved by any other bus route except the very last bit via Fox House.
The revised route is very picturesque all the way, so doubtless many blog readers will be rushing to Sheffield Interchange to take a ride this coming Sunday (don't forget to change your clocks!)
But don't bother to join the queue if eager exploratory and adventurous "first day" customers.
fbb downloaded the timetable from the PTE yesterday morning at 0930. When he looked for the non-existent route map he noticed this:-
The date is changed to April 17th. Which might explain why there is nothing about it on the Hulleys web site and social media.
Who changed the date?
Normally this service (and its many predecessors) DOES change when the clocks change. Could the PTE/TSY have been so daft as to think that the Hulley's change would maintain the tradition. Is it possible the lads at PTE towers never looked at the actual date and just assumed?
Surely they could not have been as daft as that?
Hmmmm!
But this does present bus users with something of a philosophical dilemma.
Which fbb will adumbrate tomorrow!
Next scheduled blog : Friday 25th March
The 'City Centre'' sign is still there. It was never the one illustrated, but rather the confirmation sign a few hundred yards on that says 'A625 City Centre 8'. The 257 HAS to follow the illustrated and suggested route out of Hathersage- the alternatives would be too narrow and twisty for anything beyond a minibus.
ReplyDeleteTSY did jump the gun by publishing the new timetable. I've been copied in to emails between a local councillor and Hulleys, where Hulleys say on 17 March "The new timetable has yet to be finalised but will take effect on 17 April 2022. As soon as the new timetable is registered I will forward a copy to you." TSY's first version was already on their website! I've not yet seen a copy of the final version.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, on the subject of misleading information, what's happened to the item about Ray Stenning, trailed in Monday's blog as "see tomorrow"?