Saturday Variety - Mini Blog

Route 991, 992 and 993

Readers may remember fbb teasing them about the "bus" routes 991 an 992 showing as running along a flash of white on the Copenhagen network map. These are the principal city river bus routes, actually one route but with different numbers for each direction to avoid confusion as they stop at the same piers irrespective of final destination.

The river service started in year 2000 and has a fleet of seven boats, six are required from Monday to Friday operation.

On Saturdays, the frequency is an irritatingly unmemorable every 45 minutes ...

... likewise on  Sundays but with a shorter day.

There does not appear to be a timetable for the 993 which shuttle across the river ...

... serving mainly tourist and leisure destinations. All river buses are now electric powered, charged overnight ...

... with top up at the terminus piers.

Unlike in London, the river services are all part of the multi-mode city and beyond common fare policy. There is no premium for travelling by water as it outer be on the Thames.

New Trains For Switzerland

BUT, Swiss experts are concerned that. by 2030, there will not be enough power to feed the ravenously growing demand for the electric.

How is the UK's plan for a sustainable electric power supply going, Ed?

it's no laughing matter, Minister for Power!

Boost for Bums on Seats in Brum

Whilst any increase in passenger numbers is a good thing, it would be nice to know what is being compared with what. Are these increases compared with pre-covid? Or maybe just compared with the previous year, however good or bad that might have been.

Star Trek Brick Characters Part 3

This item refers to the Inter Galactic transport provided by the United Star Ship Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) and its crew. The challenge was to identify the  roles of these characters and, possibly, the actors who played the bricks for real.

Today we have:-

Guinan ...

... famous for her silly hats - or was her alien head that shape?

Wesley Crusher ...

... son of Dr Beverley of that ilk.

And, Data

As a special bonus, you can remember the name of Data's pet cat!

Answers tomorrow

Quorn Quality and a Query

A dedicated band of volunteers is committed to restoring and operating goods trains on the Great Central Railway between Leicester and Loughborough.

The team has done a lot of work on tank wagons ...

... fettling some up to look as if they were newly delivered. One such is this c/o Quorn.

Another in similar livery has its home on the Derwent Valley Light Railway at York.

Either way, fbb is becoming slightly obsessed about European four wheel tank wagons in his favourite colour.

More to come, surely?

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 16th Nov   

Copenhagen's Baffling Buses (2) ...

A, R and S : All Rightly Sorted!

A for ???

Routes with suffix letter 'A' are high frequency all-stops city services, usually running all night.

Above, the 9A ran to Glostrop station, the current terminus of the Letbane (tram) line. But there is no sign of it today c/o Google Maps. But the 8A has recently re-appeared in the island area which accommodates the airport.

Here is its timetable.

Note that the full route runs every 30 mins all night with daytime headway being given as a woolly 5-10 mins!

The 8A Legravsparken station terminus and map are optimistic in their geography.

The bus terminus layby is at the very bottom of the map and the pin for the Metro station is at the top, Streetview shows an 8A in residence ...

... with the Metro at the far end of the huge block of flats on the right.

Wikipedia does revel that the 'A' network has had numerous re-jigs over the years. The original idea was for "rapid transit" routes to supplement the developing Metro system but there isn't much that is notably rapid about the 'A' network today!

'S' routes are more 'rapid' as they are mostly 'limited stop'.

fbb has not found evidence of what the 'A' stands for. "Frequent" in Danish is "Hyppig" which, according to Google Translate, is pronounced 'Hoo-big'.

R is for Rural?

These lines do run is association with local trains ...

... which also carry an 'R' suffix.

But Google Translate tells fbb that rural is "landdistrikterne" in Danish!

The 430R runs every 30 minutes Monday to Friday and every hour on all other days. It does link three stations; Kalunburg, Hong and Slagelsee on the east of the Island of Zealand.

Kalundburg is an important ferry terminal for ships to mainland Denmark.

S is for Superbus?

That name does appear in a few places but does not have general currency. 'S' routes are limited stop running on top of the standard city network. Readers may remember the Wedgwood blue occasional dots for rhe 350S (now 250S) alongside the more frequent cyan dots for the 5C.

Why use blue for both? What would be wrong with green, or purple or pink?

The notable feature of the 'S' network is that one route used to be double deck, surely a rarity in Europe.

Now single decks are standard throughout.

Originally, branding was simply a white and blue chevron bank above the windows as here on an older single deck vehicle ...

A typical 'S' timetable looks like this.

Note the hourly all-night service and every 15 minutes for most of the day. Thui is the timetable for t0e 'S' line that features in the airport are map, although it does not serve the airport ...

... although a heavy rail connection is available,

The problem with Copenhagen's excellent public transport network is that there is too much information on-line with confusing operator names and logos. 

Once fbb had found the correct and safe route through the minefield, information was good. 

What is needed is one well labelled and well designed web site with all the other entry points being removed or incorporated. It would also be nice to have a simple overview of what the suffix letters really mean.

9 out of 10 for quality of service but only 5 out of 10 for on-line information and ease of use.

 Next Variety blog : Saturday 15th Nov 

Copenhagen's Baffling Buses (1) ...

 ... Baffle Much Less

666 (perhaps unfortunately 'The Mark of the Beast - Bible book of Revelation!) was a number used for a special pop concert event at a Copenhagen stadium whilst ...

... 50E was an experimental trolley bus route.

But first, an apology. fbb reported that the overview web site only offered a journey planner and no maps or timetables. That's because the old man clicked on ...

... which was a silly mistake. fbb should know better than to try a web site labelled "public transport" and expect to find all about public transport! Silly old man.

Now, if only the incompetent octogenarian had looked at ...

... as above, he would have found everything he could ever want! Din Offentlige Transport is the "DOT" brand on the front of the buses. It means "Your Public Transport". (see front of 666 bus above)

Anyway, DOT has full timetables, easy to find if you know the route number and only slightly less easy to find if you use the maps. 

There is the Copenhagen city map we have met before ...

... with the airport area shown above. For those with a good retentive memory, note is made that a red line for an 'A' service has re-appeared. One of yesterday's versions showed all the 'A' routes in the area had been withdrawn.

So here goes with a full and frank expose of the bus services in Copenhagen.

Airport Route 36

Timetables are in the horizontal format which is OK once you are use to it.

Saturday service has a similar frequency with Sunday and official holidays offering a bus every 30 min. There is no route map, but a table showing roads served (left) and stops served (right) is useful if you know exactly what you want.

These are the standard City routes.

Special Route 5C

The deep yellow "network" colour is modified by big splodge of cyan.

In this case there is a detailed route diagram on-line but NOT on any of the usual web sites. It is headed Nyt Bynet ...

... which means something like "New Arrangement". But it might help us explore the route from North (Hospital) via the city to the Airport in the South.

Oddly, the bus has a layby on the opposite side of a dual carriageway from the hospital ...

fbb suspects that this layby is a new construction ...

... the bus having been pushed out of stops on the main road to make way for ...

... the forthcoming Letbane tram extension! 

There is the bus stop, inconveniently over there.

There is no obvious subway!

The 5C continues on its Airport trajectory ...

... serving two stations (St), Norrebro being for Metro and S-bane trains ...

... and Norreport being similarly multi-tasking. The Metro bit is splendid!

Next the 5C takes a loop ...

... to get to the main nattily named city centre stop  ...

... Hovedbanegården, Tivoli (Bernstorffsgade) which is the stop for the Central Station. Google Earth obliges.

Tivoli is variously described as a Beer Garden or a Pleasure Park ...

... which will look great when illuminated ...

... and provide lots of fun for kiddies of all ages.

Meanwhile, the 5C continues its run south(ish) to the Airport.

The route passes Anagerbro station on the Metro ...

... where line M2 has yet to come up for air!

The terminus at the airport is at a long roadside bus stop ...

... in full view of the terminal building.

fbb thinks the C of 5C stands for Cityline ...

... although no other service is designated 'C'.

The timetable is, to say the least, impressive.

fbb notes that it suffers from London Buses type "woolly" frequencies.  What does "every 3 to 10 minutes" actually mean? "Every 11 to 14 minutes" to the airport is even dafter.

The service runs all night, every hour from the Hospital, every hour from the Airport but overlapping to give a bus every 30 minutes in the core. There are no through buses overnight from Hospital to Airport|!

Tomorrow fbb will explore 'A', 'R' and 'S' brands.

The excitement is palpable!

 Next Baffling Buses blog : Friday 14th Nov