Post-Festive Pot Pourri (7)

 Sadness And Gladness

Sadness in the face of the loss of King Alfred Vehicles and others in the disastrous fire at Pentin Mewsey back in December. It is not yet known what, if anything, can bee salvaged.

Serious Fire at Penton Mewsey

Apart from the Leyland Olympic, four Hants & Dorset buses - three double deck and one single deck - were destroyed as well as a luxury coach, an Ulsterbus Bristol RE single deck and a Southdown Bristol VR double deck.

FoKAB sends its heartfelt sympathy to the owners who have lost their vehicles.

But the traditional January 1st running day went ahead whist offering huge sympathy to all those who lost vehcles.

Buses tun from The Broadway under the watchful eye of King Alfred himself who, in an appropriately regal fashion was unmoved by the tragedy!

There didn't seem to be too many takers for the open top trips, certainly not ON the open top!

Macau Extras

Two more LRT lines are currently under construction. There is the ORANGE line which does actually appear to be branded orange!

This is all underground and there is nothing much to see on the surface (except building sites). It is due to open in 2025.

Work has also started on the East Line which does not appear on th above projected network map.

It will run from the former border crossing to China in the north of Macau all the way to the ferry terminal on Taipa Island, the terminus of the existing LRT line.

The big white bloB on the above map certainly appears as a scorched earth blob on Google.

But major development is pending to be served by THREE stations on the new East Line. This video explains a bit more.

Again, if you missed it, The East Line will also all underground.

Here is the "newly imagined" East Line on a street map base ...

... and added to the "proposed network" map - diagram created by a Macau LRT enthusiast.

The item om Macau LRT fares will appear tomorrow. Yesterday fbb was hard at work preparing material and visuals for the January fellowship meetings on 7th and 8th Inst.

Welcome To GB's United Rail Network

Don't you dare! Of course they aren't - what a stupid idea!

We'll fine you if you do!

Enjoy your ride!

Two questions arise. What effect will this huge display (At Walthamstow (?), its twitterer did not say) on the welcome given to the poor harassed passenger.

Oh, you're going by coach next time? We will miss you.

Dominic Booth, boss of Transport UK, new owners of Stansted Express and the other ex Abellio companies weeps crocodile teats at the loss of passengers as as result of over-aggressive revenue protection policy.

The second question:-

Why not?

You can use Oyster on all of our trains for journeys that start and finish in the London Travelcard area. Oyster can also be used between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria on Gatwick Express services. It's quick and easy to buy an Oyster card, top up online and add your Travelcard or season ticket.

What management skill has Gatport Airwick got that it CAN offer Oyster?

Yet another example of the appalling craziness of Britain's rail non-system.

==========================

IN CASE YOU WONDERED

More "normal" blogging style (mainly one topic blogs) will return next week after our two fellowship meetings.

 Next Pot Pourri blog : Thursday 4th January 

Post-Festive Pot Pourri (6)

Decorative Disaster : Festive Failure?

With Mts fbb's stalwart help, but given under fierce protest ("I an never doing this again" is the annual complaint), the lavish display at fbb mansions, only rivalled by the lights at Blackpool, was hauled in place under the first floor fenestration.

 

And it promptly started falling to bits! 

To save time and to aid dismantling, fbb decided to assemble the garden canes using cable ties. But garden canes are shiny. Cable ties are shiny. QED!

The collapsing frame was lowered to ground level for a review and a rebuild. After much consideration, careful thought and lengthy experimentation ...

fbb gave up!

The star went on top of the CHRISTmas tree already in place on the garden table. Mary, Joseph and the Messiah were suspended on the central heating flue near the front door ...

... and the cross was hung on the kitchen window cill using gaffer tape.

Thus the failed frame was re-created much nearer ground level. With he addition of some twinkling LEDs on the front fence ...

... the display was completed.

Hmm. fbb should have expunged the kitchen illumination before the full delights were photographed.

Despite the failure, the old man is confident that the display is the only full set of exterior CHRISTmas lights in Seaton!

And not an inflatable internally illuminated santa in sight!

Quite Heavy LRT In Macau

There were (and still are) big plans for a significant network.

The first line to open in 2019 was entirely on Taipa Island running from the ferry terminal (map below, upper right) ...

... then in a big loop round Taipa Island to a terminus at Ocean. Yes, fbb knows it is red on the above map and blue on the proposed network map. But worry not, it's actually colour coded green in reality!

The line is mostly on viaduct as here at the "light" rail Ferry Terminal terminus ...

... and at Lotus station.

The other terminus was Ocean, again a substantial building for a "light" railway!

But on 8th December last year the line was extended to Barra on Macau itself.

And it didn't even involve building a bridge. They used one that they had made earlier! The LRT uses the Sai Van bridge ...

... but not on top thereof as you might expect. There is no sign of an LRT train or track in the main roadway. The LRT runs in a tunnel that is part of the bridge's concrete box construction.

Clever, eh? Quite what uses the remaining tunnel road carriageway is not clear to fbb!

And the new terminus at Barra?

Yep! VERY Light Rail - NOT!

And how much does it cost to ride the Macau LRT. fbb will reveal fares and extension work in progress tomorrow.

A Sound Business Opportunity

Historically, before roads and sea wall, Seaton (Devon) had a strange mount on its sea front. It once had a wooden lookout building on the top to aid the essential task of repelling the invading French - who never bothered to invade. 

Later a shelter was built on the top, and, deep in the heap, some public conveniences.

Although they were very convenient conveniences (visited by an eight-year-old fbb occasionally and his granny, frequently! ), they were closed some years ago on the feeble pretence of a narrow footpath access. 

Several shelters passed by ...

... the final useful shelter was removed and never replaced.

The lease on this subterranean property is now for sale. Bids have been invited and, according to the council there has been "lots of interest". Indeed there has, but no bids.

Quelle surprise!

The brochure emphasises the lovely views ...

... which are only viewable from the public footpath that forms the property's roof.

There are no windows; but even if there were, you would only get sight of a tiny strip of sea (at high tide) and a glorious view of a sea wall.

Your view woud be much lower than the above which is from the gubbins on the roof of the StreetView noddy car.

Maybe convert it into a luxury holiday let?

It is served by Stagecoach 9A - every hour to Sidmouth, Newton Poppleford and Exeter.

Please note : the mound is NOT, and never was, called "the moridunum". It is, and always has been "the burrow" - authors, caption writers and the press, please be correct!

 Next Macau and Pot Pourri blog : Weds 3rd December 

Post-Festive Pot Pourri (6)

 But First Of All ...

If you are a passenger, may all your buses and trains run on time (some hope!) and if you are a manager, may Government advice and financial help be useful long term (some hope!).

And How's Your Vexillology?

It is the flag of here ...

... and it's not a graphic for a SciFi movie, it is a real place. As all of our readership will have guessed immediately, it is Macau.

Somewhere in the depths of fbb's aged cerebral cortex, two names floated haltingly up from the foetid swamp of unreliable memory. One was China and the other was Portugal.

Macau is a tiny red dot at the point of the pink arrow on the south coast of the Chinese mainland. And here is an fbb expurgation of Wikipedia's helpful history!

Macau, officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a population of about 680,000 and an area of 12.7 square miles, it is the most densely populated region in the world.

Formerly a Portuguese colony, the territory of Portuguese Macau was first leased to Portugal as a trading post by the Ming dynasty in 1557. Portugal paid an annual rent and administered the territory under Chinese sovereignty until 1887. Portugal later gained "perpetual" colonial rights in the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking. The colony remained under Portuguese rule until 1999, when it was transferred to China.

So, to put it simply, instead of reading UK and Hong Kong, read Portugal and Macau.

The "territory" consists of two chunks; the northern bit labelled Macau itself which is joined to the Chinese mainland ...

... and the southern bit, originally Taipa island, with a number of named communities plus an airport with its runway in the sea. Everything is linked together by a series of bridges, three join north to south ...

... with a fourth to be opened next year (that's 2025!). One bridge links Taipa direct with the mainland.

There are no railways running to and from Macau (boo hiss) but Macau has the beginnings of an LRT system (hooray) the first line of which was extended on 8th December last year (that's 2023!). Indeed the territory did not get anything on rails until 2019 - of which more tomorrow.

Until 2019 you could ride a taxi ...

... or a rickshaw ...

... or a bus.

Two bus operators serve Macau. On is TCM with a web site in Chinese ...

... but some smart buses ...

... including these intriguing motors.

fbb struggled with his (failed) attempt to find a timetable for the 73 ...

... possibly due to a language problem! There ware English and Portuguese translations but, frankly they weren't much help.

 The other operator is Transmac ...

... with similar linguistic problems and similarly smart buses.

But the best ride ever must be a bus across the sea between Macau and Hong Kong.

Yep, you guessed it, there is a bridge, ,34 miles long!

Actually it is two bridges and a runnel (for the shipping lanes). You plunge into a tunnel between two artificial islands.

A double deck shuttle bus operates ...

... at a remarkable frequency and for the full 24 hours between Hong Kong and Macau ...

... and an identical frequency between Hong Kong and Zhuhai.

So take a ride from Hong Kong. The bus journey time is approx 40 min, but the video, showing connections to the "ports" is a modest 10 minutes. That's longer than a normal fbb download but, hey, it's New Year's Day and the telly is rubbish!

Wowsers!

Tomorrow we do meet tracked travel on Taipa.

Greetings For Today!

Blind displays from First Bus in South Yorkshire. It's a reasonable thought in Sheffield where the company is running a much reduced (but subsidised) service.

But a bit of a hollow thought for First's customers in Rotherham and Doncaster where nothing runs. Stagecoach (who either didn't win any tendered work ot didn't bother to tender) will bring no omnibological seasonal joy in Sheffield, Barnsley and Doncaster - zilch Stagecoach buses run today!

For the record, First Sheffield, on their web site for today, tell us they will be running buses on Boxing Day. It should read (mayhap) "the same service as on Boxing Day".

Light Work At fbb Mansions

It seemed a good idea at the time. Fix the three main display elements into a frame made of garden canes. Suspend it from the front bedrooms of fbb mansions and thus provide a spectacular (?) display.

There was the simple nativity scene, the star which attracted and guided the Magi and the Cross which (with his resurrection) fulfilled Jesus' purpose.

All very simple but very much CHRISTmas lights!

But ...

 Next Macau (Pot Pourri) blog  : Tuesday 2nd January