Aylesbury Adventure Part 2

The local rag reminded us that Aylesbury was very much a border town bus-wise.

Red Rover was the more local independent ...

... with an interesting variety vehicles over the years.

.Northampton correspondent Alan has supplied much of the material for this blog and he, on a visit to the town, purchased an appropriate model bus in the market "several pounds cheaper than Hattons."

The company sold out to Luton and District (later Arriva) in 1987, unwilling to risk slow destruction under the competitive regime.

Arriva is still present in Aylesbury ...

... joined in the omnibological fray by four independents ...

... Red Rose, Redline, Red Eagle and Star Travel.

Alan writes:-

Aylesbury’s bus station, buried under a shopping centre, would not tempt the non bus user to travel. Any bus information is fixed to the wall in the form of computer screens or timetable frames and the window of what might be an enquiry office is hidden behind two display stands.

Buried is the word. You can see buses coming out of an uninviting tunnel ...

... and in the gloom is the vehicle entrance to some saw-tooth bays.

The pedestrian entrance is decidedly underwhelming ...

But, hooray; at the northern entrance to the tunnel of doom is a super smashing enquiry office.

Oddly, it has posters on the front that do not mention buses.

Alan rushed excitedly to the doorway only to find it block by three EMPTY timetable carousels.

Yes, you guessed it. This excellent enquiry office is well and truly closed.

But there is hope? Next door is the Library.

 Discover  bus times?  Create  a plan for a day out by bus? Don't be silly - there was nothing available there either.

Buckinghamshire used to be a top county for Public Transport information with an excellent series of regional timetable books. Now all that the county can offer from its grand tower just next to the bus station ...

... is a numerical list of services. Thus it is that, yet again, you have to know where to want to get before you can find out where and when you want to go. "If you do not know which bus you require," says the "helpful" site, search Traveline.

Alan was able to discover, by dint of opening his eyes and looking, a new competitive service that started on December 2nd.

Arriva does not seem to be worried about the competition. As Red Rose have just introduced an “Express” service to Milton Keynes taking 33 minutes less than Arriva’s corresponding service 150 perhaps they should be.

Here is a Red Rose timetable extract ...

... and the slow Arriva offering.

There was one leaflet stuck on the window of the Red Rose bus!

So they must be available somewhere?

Bus usage declining? You do have to wonder why.

 Weekend Mixed Bag blog : Sunday 8th December 

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The fbb Advent Calendar

The fbb Alphabetical Advent Calendar

Glory

Although not too glorious for the flocks of Red Grouse whose demise is permitted from that date!

"Send her victorious Happy and glorious Long to reign over us God save the Queen." With respect to Her Maj, how do you "send" victorious? And how is it happy OR glorious?

In the Bible, however, "Glory" is associated with brilliant light.

In the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, the prophet sees a vision of God's Glory leaving the Temple in Jerusalem ...

... because of the peoples' disobedience and rejection of God's ways. God leaves them to the consequences of their sin.

Towards the end of the book, when the people have sorted themselves out (repented), God's Glory returns. The people are renewed, refreshed and, for a time at least, in obedience to their Heavenly father.

An angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and the Glory of the Lord shone over them. 

A dark and damaged word needed the Glory of God, the Presence of God, the Light of the World.

And, surely, it still does?

Hark! The herald angels sing,

Glory to the new-born King!

Perhaps we should sing "Glory FROM the new-born King"?

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Aylesbury Adventure Part 1

Aylesbury is the County Town of Buckinghamshire with a spectacular but not always loved Council office block.

The precise origins of the eponymous breed of duck ...

... are unclear, but raising white ducks became popular in Aylesbury in the 18th century owing to the demand for white feathers as a filler for quilts. Over the 19th century selective breeding for size, shape and colour led to the Aylesbury duck.  Duck rearing became a major industry in the town.

fbb last visited Aylesbury in the summer of 1965 to spend the day with a University chum called Chris Saunders, who lived at nearby Wendover.

Little of the visit filters up through the old man's memory banks but he did photograph a diesel multiple unit at Aylesbury Station - photo long lost. The somewhat seedy lines from Marylebone were revises under Chris Green's Network South East ...

... and revived even further by the privatised Chiltern Trains, part of the troubled Arriva.

fbb does clearly remember arriving by bus, probably from Bletchley(?) at Kingsbury Square, then the town's bus station.

A similar picture to the above appeared in an article in the local press remembering the delights of public transport to and in the town. fbb's bus to Wendover was provided by United Counties, also supplier of bus travel to fbb's village just outside Northampton; a long way away.

The article reminisced about the Square ...

... and the variety of bus companies serving the town.

Today, no buses venture into Kingsbury Square ...

... but otherwise the view has hardly changed.

The railway station is now in good order ...

... but offers much from its history with Great Central railway trains ...

... and as part of the burgeoning Metropolitan Railway.

The present service is excellent, offering three trains an hour to Marylebone (one via H/W - High Wycombe) ...

... one of which starts from the new-ish terminus at Aylesbury Vale Parkway.

It is all very different from fbb's visit all those happy but numerous years ago.

But tomorrow we must go in search of today's bus terminals, and to achieve this we may chose to walk via what must be the longest foobridge in any town in the UK. Called the Bourg Walk Bridge, it starts here ...

... at Penn Road, south west of the station buildings; then runs above interesting views of car parks and Morrisons (view below looking back towards Penn Road, station just off shot on the left) ...

... and ends just short of the A41.

Might we find the buses as we descend its northern slope?

 Next Aylesbury blog : Saturday 7th December 

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The fbb Alphabetical Advent Calendar

Fear

SANTAPHOBIA - fear of Father Christmas?

SIDEROPHOBIA - fear of (Christmas) stars?

DENDROPHOBIA - fear of (Christmas) trees?

MELEAGRISPHOBIA - fear of Turkeys?

DECANTOPHOBIA - fear of Carols?

Oddly there is no "official" word for fear of Angels, but the generic THEOPHOBIA would cover it. Some of the above are npt "officialI either! You guessed.

Mary meets the angel who tells her the awesome news. She was deeply troubled. (and who wouldn't be?)

She struggled to understand what was going on. (and who wouldn't?)

Zechariah (father of John the Baptist) was ashamed and afraid.

The shepherds, tough toil-hardened men that they were, were scared witless.

(and who wouldn't be?).

Whatever was going on was terrifying. It was not sweet, sickly and soppy. It did not involve girly creatures with long flowing hair and wings. Angels "visiting" humans are always portrayed as man and very scary. And they NEVER have wings!

The shepherds were terribly afraid.

Something very special, almost too big to comprehend, was going on.

Of course people were scared - and who wouldn't be?

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Bothered By Bristol Part 3

Comment writers are always ready to jump down fbb's chubby throat whenever he comments about service reductions. "Bus companies need to make a profit if they are to survive." True is the only system under consideration is the "commercial model". If our society it serious about "the climate crisis" and serious about reducing the number of cars on the road then the "commercial model" as created by the deregulation and privatisation of the bus industry in 1986 is simply not delivering the goods.

Bristol's Metrobus was a political construct, deemed cheaper than a tram system, aimed at providing quality public transport along bus prioritised corridors to tempt the jaded Bristolian out of their cars, to reduce pollution and congestion and to shine a bright light for new-look bus travel.

So the ten minute frequency of route M1 ...

... has already been reduced to every 12 off peak Monday to Friday.

On both sides of the city centre ...

... the route runs along long stretches of open road with no housing nearby.

From January it is reduced further to every 15, every 20 on Saturdays. It may have posh stops, it may have pay before board to speed loading, it may have distinctive buses but it is nothing like a tram.

Interestingly peak travel is being increased from January to give an every 7/8 minute headway from Patchway Brook to the depot at Bedminster.

M2 replaced the Long Ashon park and ride.

Its little nibbles of guided busway (which doesn't go round any corners) ...

Guidedness ceases travelling west after the stop

... ensures that buses are slower than those it replaced which used the normal road system throughout. Currently every 12 minutes off-peak ...

... it drops to every 20 Monday to Friday. Surely this defeats the potential attractiveness of Park and Ride. The advantage of a motor car is that you leave when you like; there is no hanging around waiting for a bus. OK, depending on time of travel, you may hang around in a traffic jam; but we are talking off-peak frequencies.

First bus has an interesting use of language to describe this cut-back.

Service m2 (Long Ashton - City Centre) will continue to operate every 10 minutes during peak times on weekdays but will run at a slightly reduced frequency of every 20 minutes during off-peak times on weekdays and Saturday. Some evening departure times on this service have also been revised.

A slightly reduced frequency? No, a gurt big reduction! Does it encourage use of the Park and Ride option? A big, loud and resounding NO.

BUT ...

To encourage more sustainable travel at weekends, and to coincide with the start of the busier spring period, a new Sunday service will operate every 20 minutes on the m2 from 5 April 2020.

fbb predicts that the Sunday buses will be somewhat lacking in passengers, whether sustainable or not.

Yesterday's blog reveal First's contention that the spring period was "less busy" hence the cut backs on 1, 2, 75 and 76.

Is someone being a little economical with the truth?

M3 from a much less used Park and Ride at Lyde Green manages every 20 minutes off peak at the moment.

This becomes every 30 minutes from January - and even less encouragement to use the site off-peak.

Again, much of its route is along the "empty" A 4174 - empty that is of housing and bus passengers. There are houses, of course but Filton Road is on the edge of the estates and largely inaccessible from the road network.

Another quote from First explains things further.

Rob Pymm, Commercial Director at First West of England, said: “As metrobus grows in popularity, we continue to learn more about people’s travel patterns and this helps us to adjust the services and make sure we have the right number of buses in the right places at the right times. Peak time services are exceeding expectations, so we are pleased to be able to put extra peak buses on the busiest section of m1 from January and also launch a Sunday service on the m2 from April, but to make these investments we need to ensure that we have the right level of service during the quieter periods as well.

“We are working closely with the metrobus team to develop ways of encouraging more off-peak demand and to get things moving in the new year we’ll shortly be launching a January offer aimed at getting more people to use metrobus during what is typically a quiet month after the festive period.”

From 6 January until the end of the month, a group ticket on all metrobus services will be available from 10.00 on weekdays allowing up to 5 people to travel for £5.00.

Rob added: “85% of metrobus users told us they’d recommend metrobus to family and friends, so we really hope people will take advantage of the offer and give metrobus a try.” 

fbb is wary of making predictions, but it is traditional at this time of year, so here goes.

Within 12 to 18 months the "Metro" network will be disbanded and incorporated into First's "normal" bus route pattern. Monoliths will be removed and (maybe a bit far fetched, this) ...

... the Long Ashton Park and Ride will revert to its pre-busway route.

Maybe, maybe not; but fbb does also wonder whether the weaker performance off-peak might be a consequence of the Bristol flat fare system.

Whilst weekly tickets etc cater well for the "commuter", a high flat fare discourages those little off-peak trips down to the local shops or for a meet up for a coffee at the Community Centre. £2.50 single, £5 return is a lot to shell out for a purely social or local trip. (Yes, there is a three stop fare of £1.20 - three stops is a bit mean)

That is yet another challenge to the "commercial" model.

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Expectations

The secular seasonal festival is full of expectations. A child is excited to see what gifts he will get; although increasingly, these days, the quality, quantity and price of the big gift will already have been pre-booked with parents. So the expectation is less than it was.

"We are meeting up to have a good time" is a pretty standard expectation. Presumably this "good time" will include consumption of alcohol which can, in extremes, lead to a bad time.

Missed expectations.

Apparently this particular season is tops for family rows, marriage breakdown and a whole range of relationship difficulties.

And then there is the paying of the bills!

Of course many expectations are fulfilled; time with the family, good food, charades and hours of top quality televisual entertainment (?).

The people of Israel had high expectations. One day God would do something outstanding to provide a new relationship between the Heavenly Father and sinful man. God would send his Messiah.

But what sort of Messiah?

This very day in David's town your Saviour was born - Christ the Lord! And this is what will prove it to you; you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.

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Bothered By Bristol Part 2

Bristol and Bath have been something of a Beacon of Bright light for the ailing bus industry with some spectacular growth figures, successful route branding and the much heralded Metrobus network. But announcement of changes from January might be seen as evidence of a few cracks appearing in the good news.

It is indeed ironic that service reductions should be announced soon after First West of England won to trophies at the UK bus awards, one for marketing and one for Metrobus.

Two cross city services (four routes) are having their off-peak frequency reduce by one notch from every 12 minutes to every 15. 1 and 2 have been up to every ten minutes during the competitive battles with Wessex's "The One" and "The One, Two".

Between the city centre and the junction between Westbury Road and Henlease Road this will mean a bus every 7½ minutes instead of every 6. Allowing for the influence of the dreaded traffic congestion and other "operational reasons" this reduction will be hardly noticed.

But where the routes bifurcate, the difference between 12 and 15 becomes more noticeable, especially if one bus is "missing" or there are accumulated delays.

South of the city centre there is less common ground.

The split occurs soon after Temple Meads station.

A similar situation applies to the combined 75 and 76 service.

The Gloucester Road has plenty of buses so the cut back only gets really notices at the extremities. 

South of the city ...

... there is frequent common ground to Parson Street before the split.

Let's hear what First Bus says about the cut-back.

With customer demand dropping away a little during the winter and spring months, some services will run at a slightly decreased frequency during off-peak times from 5 January. Service 1 (Cribbs Causeway – Broomhill), Service 2 (Cribbs Causeway – Stockwood), Service 75 (Hengrove – Cribbs Causeway) and Service 76 (Hengrove – Henbury / Cribbs Causeway) will operate every 15 minutes during off-peak times, with the reduced frequency also applying to the 75 and 76 services during Saturday daytime.

Service 70 (Bristol Temple Meads / City Centre – UWE) and Service 71 (UWE (Bower Ashton) – UWE) will operate every 20 minutes during off-peak times, Monday to Friday.

That gives a combined frequency of every 10 instead of every 7½ ...

... which might begin to be more noticeable.

There is an important question here. What does the frequency reduction have on people's perception of the quality of the bus service? The majority will probably just go and wait at the stop; but at what point in the cut-back do they begin to feel that cold, wet and tedium and blame First for a poor service before the passengers, too, reduce their frequency of travel!

The second question is also relevant. If these frequency "trims" are in response to "customer demand dropping away slightly during the winter and spring months", are Bristolians to expect a return to the previous frequencies from Easter onwards when finer weather (apparently?) encourages the good folk of Henbury and Hengrove (for example) to take more bus rides?

In Sheffield, routes 97 and 98 have run every 20 minutes each for many years giving a useful every ten on the common sections - which is most of the route. This year the service was reduced to every 30 (commonality every 15) with "customer demand dropping away slightly during the summer months".

Every 10 to every 15 is a bigger ouch than Bristol's every 12 to every 15.

Frequency has not returned to every 20/10 even though "summer" is long gone.

A third question arises. To what extent do minor cuts like this reduce the total number of passengers carried? Has anyone done any studies or do the companies simply "hit and hope"? [fbb is currently watching a bit of the UK Snooker Championship from York!]

Tomorrow, Metrobus.

Beyond Belief No 239.
And it is from our friends at South Yorkshire PTE.

There is a cosy waiting room adjacent to the two tram platforms.

The PTE, ever anxious to make a bob or two, have recently install and Amazon collection point, a "locker". You can ask Amazon to deliver your box of delights to Meadowhall. You then type in various codes, a door springs open and you collect your package, hop on a tram and carry the seasonal goodies back home.

Seemples.

Unfortunately the ever considerate PTE has arranged for "The Locker" to block the timetable display frame in such a way that said frame can neither be opened or removed and installed elsewhere.

Well done all concerned!

fbb's anonymous correspondent assures him that a responsible personage from the PTE (are there any such?) has been delegated the job of sorting it out by either removing "The Locker" or the frame, or maybe knocking down the wall to get at both.

 Next Bristol blog : Thursday 5th December 

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David!

One of the things that always amuses or infuriates many readers of the Nativity Narratives in the Bible is, to quote from the King James version, all those "begats".

Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;

And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;

And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;

And Salmon begat Boaz of Rachab; and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;

And Jesse begat David the king;

That's David of Goliath fame. As well as being a dab hand at stone and sling, we have appointed as the first king of a the united tribes of Israel.

Luke has a similar family tree idea but many of the names are different.

Of course, neither can be 100% correct as genealogy. Records were sparse in ancient times and links were very complex, hence different genetic trees researched by the two Gospel writers.

What mattered to both was to attempt to show that Jesus was, indeed, the Gift of God that the Old Testament had predicted.

He will rule as King David's successor basing his power on right and justice. (Isaiah -  Old Testament Prophet - Chapter 9)

This very day in David's town (that's Bethehem, King David's birthplace) your Saviour was born, Christ the Lord. (from Luke's Gospel).

The Angel said, "Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife." (from Matthew's Gospel)

The "begats" are an attempt to show that Jesus wasn't just a happening in history but was part of God's eternal plan.

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