Wenzit Goh - not Interested in Maps?

TfL (Transport for London) service 405 is a bit of an oddity. Originally a London Transport country (Green Bus) route, it joined the red network in 2001 despite burrowing deep into darkest Surrey.

Conceptually the route follows the "old" A23 although the original road is much rebuilt and completely by-passed at Croydon and Coulsdon. At the Redhill end, through traffic is routed via the M23 and on to glorious Gatwick and beautiful Brighton whilst the 405 takes the A23.

One other deviation from the A23 line of route came in 2003 when the service was diverted off the main Brighton Road via Pampisford Road in Croydon ...

... where it joined service 455.

So, how is the journey that fbb was asked to investigate communicated geograhically on-line or even in hard copy?

Don't start with Traveline! Although the timetable on this service was one of the best, the maps are disappointing. There are two. Without extra clicks this style is unhelpful ...

... you have to enlarge (tediously) and know that the blue square (coded incomprehensibly "entrance" in the rubric) is the station ...

... and the red dots are stops nominally at "The Feathers". At least you know you are in Merstham! Whereas on the map labelled "PDF" ...

... Merstham is not mentioned. TfL's offering is better ...

... and again is enhanced with an extra click or two. There is also a seemingly pointless straight line diagram burdened with an LT roundel at each stop ...

... which, erroneously, implies that the bus stops at the station; which it doesn't.

Surrey offers two local maps in TfL style (click to enlarge) ...

... and a county-wide network map which, by definition lacks detail for local decision making.

It also has one conceptual flaw. The "white box" at Redhill only shows services which terminate here leaving the occasional innocent visitor to wonder whether services 430 and 435, for example, actually call at the bus station. They do!

Sadly the 405 falls off the bottom of the Mike Harris London Bus Map, leaving Merstham and Redhill to bathe blithely in the bucolic beauty of Surrey.

Pity, 'cos it's probably the best of the lot.

Clearly, different maps serve different purposes and help people with different needs. Longer distance passengers may be happy with less detail as they plan town to town journeys; whereas local travellers may hope to see all stops tidily presented. But over the span of these four blogs we have experienced four quite different timetable presentations and eight assorted map versions.

fbb believes that the bus industry needs to take a lead in creating a national database of timetables in a standard style; it happened with the National Bus Company in the 60s. At the same time a series of national bus maps is desperately needed so that intending passengers can understand scales and styles wherever they may be in the UK. The present "mixed bag" delivers mixed messages and demands considerable skill and research on the part of the potential customer. Very few use what is currently available on-line (as a percentage of total bus ridership), even allowing for a statistical bias in favour of regular travellers who know where they are going anyway.

School report : could do better!

 Next bridge blog : Saturday 5th April 

Wenzit Goh, Chairman of NUTS, strikes again! [3]

The campaign for timetable secrecy is not universally successful. Recent blogs on Megabus at Honiton plus parts 1 and 2 of this mini-series might suggest that the campaign is gaining ground. Despite Transport for London's tireless efforts, timetables for the 405 are available on-line in three places.

But not in an obvious location.

A search for what is Metrobus's own service is fruitless.

There is nothing between 400 and 409. A search for "Merstham" is equally pointless ...

... as it's not there either! Great!

But we can turn to Surrey County Council, who offer a series of "Bus Guides" region by region but which are not available on-line. But timetables are all there, including the 405.

Now fbb has never been a fan of Traveline (you hadn't noticed?) and a glimpse at their timetable index for London and the South East does not inspire confidence.

Traveline have managed to move Oswestry, Hereford, Bromyard, Cradley, Battisford, Stowmarket, Huntingdon and Peterborough into the South East of UK! But, there, halfway down the list is our friend the 405.

And there it is; every journey shown clear as clear can be.

But don't be fooled into looking at "London 405" ...

... which mysteriously appears twice. Clicking on either of those two leads to this ...

... a list headed "stops"; which in turn clicks on to the standard TfL panel non-timetable ...

... showing "First bus" but not "Last bus" because there is only one a day. So, as thy say biblically, "the first hall be last and the last shall be first." It is a school journey operated by Arriva and not Metrobus.

Arriva schoolday 405 working

The third source pf 405 timetables is, of course, the redoubtable Robert Munster ho collects and collates ALL TfL timetables in his spare time and then bungs them on-line as both a summary PDF ...

... similar to the now-withdrawn "panels" but with the much more useful full tabular version as well.

The deepest of deep joy! If you are not familiar with Robert's work have a look at his site (here).

A map always helps.

In essence, the 405 follows the old A23 south from Croydon to Redhill, cut back ages ago from its earlier terminus at Crawley. Tomorrow we assess the helpfulness (or otherwise) of 405 route maps from various sources. There is quite a bit of good news and some less good.

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First Fares Freeze Feature ...

... in Glasgow

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Children' fares held in price including 60p single

Late night fares frozen at £2 and £3
City Flexi Ten ticket held at £18

Adult Single £1.20 fare, held in price

All other Adult Single fares

increase by between 5p (for £1.90 ticket)

and 30p (for £4.45 ticket)

The £1.20 and the £1.90 are the most popular single tickets

all other adult single fares combined are used

by less than 2.5% of customers
All City and Lanarkshire Adult Return tickets

at £3.45 and below, frozen in price

Network Return to increase to £4.80
FirstDay tickets to increase from £4 to £4.10

The new price is 40p cheaper than in April 2013

The network wide ticket is held at £5.50

The Family Day ticket held at £8.00

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  Next bus blog : Friday 4th April 

Wenzit Goh, Chairman of NUTS, strikes again! [2]

See "Wenzit Goh, Chairman of NUTS, strikes again! [1]" (read again)

fbb has been asked to find a useful timetable for buses from Merstham to Redhill. It should be simple. The 405 route, despite running into the wilds of Surrey, became a London buses service in 2001. The appropriate website is www.tfl.gov.uk; BUT we already know that "panel" timetables ...

... were removed years ago. They were replaced with TfL's so called "timetables". fbb referred to the inadequacy (and inaccuracy) of these when enjoying his ride on the route 24 Borsimaster way back in June 2012. This was TfL's "effort" for the 24 ...

... and fbb's "correct" version.

Thus fbb was hoping that such a stop-based departure list (it is NOT a timetable, Tfl) could, if nothing else, provide the guide that his telephonic enquirer wanted. So, here goes.

Timetables?

Timetables?

More? Timetables?

At last, timetables!

No, we ain't got none!

"Go to the live web site"?

Nothing told me this one was dead. It would appear, perversely, that TfL have posted a beta (= provisional) version of a "new" web site on-line and helpfully, oh so helpfully, hidden the version we are used to behind a near impenetrable menu. fbb wonders why. It couldn't be, surely, that TfL is hoping that no-one will ever find "timetables"; then the powers that be will issue a press release telling us that, "as very few people looked up timetables ..." they will no longer be provided. But TfL wouldn't be as duplicitous as that, would they? Wenzit Goh and his NUTS colleagues will have achieved their avowed evangelical aim in the most prestigious area of the UK; no timetables at all ...

... ever ...

... anywhere!

Wenzit and family in Latvian national costume

There is, then, a little cheer to be cheered. If we can retain the will to live and if we persevere with Boris's beta bog-up, we can get something that might help in the way of timetable information.

But better news is at hand. Timetables may be successfully expunged in the capital, but, out in the sticks, in that rural backwater of old Blighty that we call Surrey (where be dragons!), the secret of the 405 can be revealed. There are THREE sources of a proper timetable for route 405.

And one surprising failure. The failure?

My correspondent Rob's mute on that one!

In case comment writers are incensed by fbb's criticism of TfL, let the record state that the new web site does provide journey planning for single trips; here from Merstham to Redhill ...

... in summary form with icons obliterating the route number; and here, textually ...

... with an instruction to walk from Merstham station (enquiry start point) ...

to the Feathers Station ...

... to find the bus stop ...

... which is cunningly round the corner and just out of sight. Hopefully a regular user will understand, but fbb will look at maps - soonest.

 Next bus blog : Thursday 3rd April 

Visitor Centres are Plenteous

Recent news items have been fascinating in that we see a growing desire to improve visitor access to some of our most intriguing transport infrastructure.

The now-privatised Post Office, struggling to cope with declining levels of mail and thus profitability, has announced that it proposes to open up a section of its underground railway (dubbed "Mail Rail") to the public.

The architect's computer recostruction looks somewhat santitised ...

... compared with the dark and creepy set-up that a youthful fbb visited over 50 years ago. The atmosphere is just not the same! Nevertheless a great visit, potentially.

Then Network Rail has announced a visitor centre for the Forth Bridge, seen here in a promotional video ...

... and here in a BBC news report.

fbb expects that both attractions will be pricey and that he, in his decrepitude, will be unlikely to enjoy the walk along the Forth Bridge girders.

Hot on the heels of these two comes another announcement in a press release jointly issued by First Great Western and National Rail.

The proposal, announced today, is for a major visitor attraction located at the iconic Severn Tunnel.

Acrivity will be centred around the existing Sudbrook pumping station exhibits ...

... where visitors can already see the modern pumping equipment, essential to remove millions of gallons of water from a ferocious underground stream.

A working (but non-pumping) reproduction of one of the original beam engines is to be positioned over the currently non-spectacular electrically powered outlets.

But that is just the start of this, as yet unnamed, experience. Visitors will then be taken on  guided tour through a maze of access tunnels ...

... to view some of the other machinery. Here, for example, are the powerful blowers which remove diesel exhaust fumes, equipment no longer needed when (if?) the line goes all-electric.

The tour will end in a series of underground viewing galleries. Here visitors will be able to gaze out onto the tunnel itself and, when a train is approaching, the gallery lights will be dimmed and the tunnel lights switched on. The sounds of the train will be relayed to the gallery.

Gallery overlooking "electrified" tunnel : archiects sketch

Also, deep below the River Severn, will be a souvenir shop and restaurant, the latter also with views of the tunnel itself.

But that's not all. Trumping the high girder walkway on the Forth Bridge, brave (or foolhardy) visitors will be able to book a "Wet Wade" along a section of the stream which caused so much trouble during the tunnel's construction and which is held at bay today by those massive pumps at Sudbrook.

This part of the visit will be in the hands of the Forest of Dean Speliological Society with all the necessary safety equipment supplied (wet suits included!). Here is a team of cavers researching possible routes last autumn before heavy rainfall made the tunnels temporarily impassable.

It looks like a lot of soggy fun; hot showers will be provided back at Sudbrook!

Whilst the funding for the Forth Bridge project may be brought into question after the forthcoming "Independence" vote in Scotland, the Severn Tunnel project is underwritten by an EEC fund available to open up important Industrial Heritage projects. The director of the clumsily named Accès Personnel Racommendé (Industriel Livraison) fund, Madame Avril M Bécile ...

... said, in her best but imperfect English, "I am very excited with this plan You would be the fool to ignore him." She continued, "J'éspère que je serais le premier visiteur qui plongera dans les eaux froids et souterrains de la Rivière Severn!"

After you, Madame!

 Next bus blog : Wednesday April 2nd