Making A Start
fbb has had no cartographic training, but has enjoyed drawing maps from a relatively young age. Two great personal successes (?) were, at age 10, a street map of the Abington area of Northampton where lived Granny, largely done from memory after numerous expeditions on creaky bicycle.
The other was to impose the main roads of the new city of Milton Keynes on an old 1 inch OS map to show how the grid would change the whole area. Probably age about 17.
In the case of a putative London map, fbb has begun by looking at an area he does not know well, running from Barnet to Enfield. This area is too big for the blog page, so illustrations for this investigation will use a chunk surrounding Barnet, Cockfosters, Southgate and Whetstone.
For investigational purposes, fbb begins with the existing Mike Harris map as "quoted" at the head of this blog.
He started by tracing all the bus routes plus underground and national rail using different colours ...
... and it looks a right mess. Add a few route numbers as points of reference.
Then slide a piece of "virtual" white paper under the traced lines and see what you have got.
The thick lines, reading from left to right are: underground Northern Line to High Barnet in BLACK, National Rail from Kings Cross in GREY and Underground Piccadilly Line in BLUE.
And it is still a mess!
Next comes an ill-defined process of tidying up. Lines are dragged to be more parallel and some Paris style route numbers are progressively added.
fbb was keen on the font as used above as it was clear and not so bold that it might overwhelm the coloured box. That is until he saw the slightly weird "4"; so a second attempt will follow in due course. Of course, professional cartographers have super whizzo software that draws parallel lines for them, but such delights are way above fbb's pay grade, making lines nearly parallel!
Next some road names are added, and the station names.
fbb's lines are thicker than those on the Paris maps in order to create a framework for further development; but this means more than four services along a stretch of road become too bulky, hence a provisional solution at Barnet.
At least nine routes enter Barnet via Barnet Hill and High Barnet station, so some solution is necessary.
Incidentally, the 389 is another candidate for the shortest TfL route, and certainly a first place winner for the least frequent.
Once operated by First ...
... it is now with GoAhead.
Mike Harris provides no enlargement for Barnet on his map, but thankfully does add one for Enfield which is an immensely difficult area for fbb. Here is the appropriate extract from the main map ...
... and here is the Mike Harris enlargement.
Hmm. That's OK for the middle bit of Enfield, Mike, but fbb still struggles with the rest.
Whilst fbb will not hear a word against the network map as supplied, areas like Enfield do need something bigger and more detailed if they are to help the inexperienced "average" passenger.
Enfield might well be a nice (??) weekend challenge for the old man; but his brain hurts already in response to the project so far!
In a Paris sector map you get most local streets, all stops and all stop names. fbb's initial experiment is designed to fit on an A4 sheet of paper; to get nearer to La Belle France that size will need to go up to at least A3.
But there is potential.
For the time being, here is the chosen extract so far.
Incidentally, route 383 is operated by Sullivan Buses and uses vehicles with (shhh, don't say it too loud, others may want some) just a modicum of route branding.
DaFT Obviously Reads Their Bible?
In the parable of "The Talents", Jesus tells of the big cheese who goes away "on a long journey" (God is in heaven) and gives good things to his servants, each according to their ability. (The Talent was a high value Roman coin!)
Each servant was expected to make use of their God-given "talents" to improve the Master's realm. Two did and were handsomely rewarded with more good things from the boss (i.e. Blessings from God.)
The one who buried his solitary talent in the back garden, i.e. did nothing for his Master's "kingdom" had his talent taken from him and he was left with nothing, just a life of teeth gnashing.
DaFT has publicised the list of those Local Authorities who will benefit from the Government's latest Build Back better grants.
Remember, this will be the ONLY source of "Public Money" for the industry once Covid cash is curtailed and, later, cancelled completely.
Here is the list.
It would appear that those LEAs that have proved their ability by doing "good things" for their Public Transport network are getting the lolly; to those that have done well is given more.
Those that have had low aspirations or none have got nothing. This will obviously lead to a further deterioration in already weak public transport provision; or, as the Bible says ...
The bad servants, who have failed to do anything positive in the way of talents for improving their bus networks will, effectively, have what little they have got swallowed up with no improvements at all. Further deterioration is inevitable.
So, nothing for fbb'a erstwhile "pied a terres" in Northamptonshire, Sheffield and Hampshire with the Isle of Wight.
Kent gets £35.1 million in preparation for a significant round of bus cuts, recently announced! Maybe Grant will take his money back when he finds out!
Next Variety blog : Saturday 9th April
Route 383 is operated by Uno.
ReplyDeleteRoutes 389 and 399 are both operated by Sullivan Buses.
Good luck with Enfield!!
The 389 and 399 are jointly operated with the same bus and driver (apparently there is a regular driver). These routes operate between the peaks, using a spreadover bus from another route, so are operated at marginal cost. This type of operation is not uncommon elsewhere but is very rare for London.
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