Stansted Surve Part 2

An apology from fbb

As this blog was being composed, something weird happened. A chunk of text copied from the Easybus web site managed to find itself floating on top of the raw blog. It simply would not be deleted and sat over about one third of the viewing area. 

fbb could not risk publishing the blog in that corrupted state.

Eventually, using his minimalist skills at wurgling, he managed to extract the text from the mayhem. Then rebuilt the blog!

It should be OK but may be a bit scruffy in formatting here and there.

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

Airport Bus Express ...

... was incorrectly referred to s "Airport Express" in yesterday's blog. Put that down to fbb's ARMD eyesight deterioration 'macular' (that has stopped deteriorating so far) whereby he saw the word "bus", in the livery below, as a decorative 'flourish'.

An earlier livery would have been easier to 'read'.

This is a UK company and part of the Autostradale Group, a major Italian bus and coach operator founded in Milan in 1924.

Originally a bus operator, we've transitioned to providing a one-stop booking service for travellers who want a fast, efficient and cheap ticket booking service for airport bus transfers to Stansted, London Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports.

Our partners are some of the biggest bus operators in the business, with outstanding reputations for reliability and customer-focused quality service. Airport Bus Express Ltd is part of the Autostradale Group, a major Italian bus and coach operator founded in Milan in 1924.

... and you can book journeys on the Airport Bus Express web site.

BUt, also like Terravision, the journeys are actually National Express trips. so it would appear that National Express had a monopoly of coach services to Stansted.

EasyBus Express ...

... lays claim to "our routes".

But they aren't

Again it is a National Express vehicle that you will board. The future is no longer orange!

Stansted Express

We need to be reminded, however, that Greater Anglia run their Stansted Express train service every 15 minutes. But do not attempt, foolish train traveller, to find a timetable on their dedicated Stansted Express web site.

Such a minor aid to travel planning was "not accessible" when fbb first looked! It did reappear later in the day.

A timetable was continuously available on Anglia's main web site ...

... which shows the Stansted trains shaded in grey.

So back to the traditional operator ...

National Express

There is a very helpful diagram on-line if the FOUR services available to a wide range of London destinations.

It is very clear and easy to understand. It is also out of date and thus WRONG.

Currently THREE route numbers are used ...

A6

A8

A9

Without doubt National Express is, and always has been, the dominant operator.

Flibco "Express"?

So in 2025 Flibco arrives with just one service. this ran from Liverpool Street every 30 mins ...

... but via alternate routes one of which calls at Redbridge.

The above timetable style is decidedly unhelpful involving two directional scrolling! Now there's a novelty to make things easy for the potential customer!

A second service has just been added ...

... serving more London suburbs, as here for example at Wood Green.

fbb also noticed that the fare changes according to time of day ...

... and that this new route runs at an entirely forgettable every 45 minutes.

The web site is messy and difficult to fathom.

It would be easier to follow with a proper timetable like Nat Ex. also, with variable fares, a direct comparison of prices is difficult.

(A few maps would be helpful (from Nat Ex as well!)

Even Easybus can manage a map ...

... even if it lets other companies run the coaches.

The bright green Flibco livery is far more eye catching than its competitor ...

... from all angles!

The fascination of this business is that Flibco does not operate any coaches from London to Stansted! The actual work is subcontracted to The Coach Travel Group, a UK company.

Or is it?

These coach operators are all part of The Group!

So which of these actually runs the Flibco branded coaches?

And to add to the Corporate Conglomeration of Confusion, Luxembourg's Sales Lenz Group has recently sold Flibco to Flixbus!

But then we don't really know who actually operates the A6, A8 and A9 forvNational Express, do we?

P. S. (Express?)

Intriguingly, if you do choose National Express, you might ride on an all electric coach!

There's lovely!

  Next Preservation Problems blog : Fri 24 Apr 

Surveying Services to Stansted ...

 ... By Coach (Part 1)

By 'coach' fbb means services that are usually booked ahead or bought at an airport counter. As pictured above, First Bus runs services branded Airlink from Essex to Stansted, but these are buses for which you pay the driver.

This blog will concentrate on services from London.

The obvious cadidate for such an operation is National Express whose routes generally started life as 'Airlinks', then National Express Airport ...

... now simply part of the general brand ...

... but latterly bereft of knitting needles!

A few years back, Terravision arrived. This oddly named operation could be found at various European airports.

The innocent observer may opine that Terravision is still at Stansted.

But there it isn't.

The Terravision web site is merely an alternative portal to the set of National Express links from various London localities.

fbb thinks they are National Express fares!

There is an oddity on-line, however, being Terravision route A20 ...

... which no longer exists! Don't you just LOVE the reliability of the interwebnet!

Then there is Airport Express ...

.... with less variety of route but usually cheaper prices.

Now there us a new kid on the block, which arrived last year with just one route.

The comoany is called Flibco.

???????

Flibco, also known as Flibco.com or Flibtravel International, is a public transportation company that manages short-medium distance bus lines to airports especially in Europe.

Flibco is part of Sales-Lentz Group (SLG). It is known in Germany Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Sales Lenz Group? 

This is the best Wikioedia can offer.

Sales-Lentz Group est une entreprise luxembourgeoise spécialisée dans le transport de personnes par autobus et autocars. Créée en 1948, l'entreprise familiale est implantée au Luxembourg et en Belgique.

So a bus operator based in Luxembourg with services into Belgium.

Except it isn't Flibcco any more!

BLOG CONTINUED TOMORROW

fbb ran out of time!!!

  Next Airport blog : Thursday 23rd April 

Missing Monument Mystery blog

The planned 'Airport' blog is postponed until tomorrow!

Even AI Didn't Know!

The Cardiff tolley bus blind showed ...

... "14 Pier Head & Monument" but fbb struggled with finding "Monument" anywhere in Cardiff. As the painting above was diagnosed as a bus returning to the city centre, it was reasonable to conclude that the destination blind served for both out and back running.

For a laugh, fbb (with No 3 son's help) asked Gemini ...

... a personable young gell with a mid-Atlantic accent. It was apparent that she didn't  really know, despite offering plausible but inaccurate or incomplete replies to our questions.

Is Gemini related to Alexa - they both have similar speaking styles?

Rather naughtily, fbb had already found the answer using his Biological Research And Interrogation Notation software late last night. He did have a bit of help from his Tablet ...

... but needed his personal software to make sense of it. Even the sainted and supposedly omniscient Wikipedia could not satisfy the old codger's search for monumental knowledge!

He had also tried asking his blog reading chum, Andrew, who lives in Cardiff - but he had no idea.

The key to unlocking the Monument mystery was this postcard ...

... also available in 'colourised' form.

Note the trolley bus 'overhead'.

The caption on the monochrome picture confirmed this to be 'The Monument'. The card was on a web site posting, bewailing the disappearing heritage of the city. The author reported that "almost everything in the picture was now lost". Said author did confirm that the roundabout was 'at the bottom of St Mary Street'.

There was an even older shot of the same location with a passing tram!

But no roundabout.

There is, however, still a roundabout at the bottom of St Mary Street ...

... but its monument is very different.

It is an arty but significant water feature!

Further late night searches revealed that the 'Monument' had been moved to Callaghan Square ...

... which was right next to the St Mary Street roundabout but, alas, now lacking trolley bus overhead.

It transpires that Callaghan Square used to be called Bute Square ...

... and we have met the location before. There is the Bute Street bridge that featured yesterday also that 'iconic' tiled pub.

Somewhere in his tortuous research, fbb had gleaned that the 'Monument' was a statue of a prominent local businessman ....

... namely the Second Marquis Of Bute. (There is a clue to all this in the various Cardiff names) Quite what happened to the first narquis is unclear.

John Crichton-Stuart (1793 to 1848) was a member of the House of Lords and controlled the votes of several members of the House of Commons, He was a political and religious conservative, a follower of the Duke of Wellington, but rarely took part in national debates unless his own commercial interests were involved. Early on, Bute realised the vast wealth that lay in the South Wales coalfields and set about commercially exploiting them through local ironmasters and colliers.

He constructed the Cardiff Docks, a major project which, despite running heavily over budget, enabled further exports of iron and coal and magnified the value of his lands in Glamorganshire. When violence broke out in the Merthyr Rising of 1831, Bute led the government response from Cardiff Castle, dispatching military forces, deploying spies and keeping Whitehall informed throughout. The contemporary press praised the marquis as "the creator of modern Cardiff", and on his death he left vast wealth to his son.

Maybe today's 'politically correct' promoters might classify Marquis John as the Dictator of Cardiff?

But, joy of omnibological joys, the Monument Mystery is now resolved.

As an aside, chum Andrew suggests an alternative equivalent to the former electric powered 14.

Service 6 is, like the old 14, a short route from city to Cardiff Bay (Pier Head as was).

Is route, however is via a relatively new Lloyd George Avenue, running parallel to the 14's Bute Street. The 6 also starts from the recently re-opened Interchange a k a Bus Station.

Famous for branded buses ...

... in beautiful blue ...

... it currently runs every 30 min ...

... boringly with vehicles in orange fleet livery.

But, like the former 14, these vehicles are electric. Power, however, now comes from batteries rather than overhead wires!

And bemused people, with a touch of sympathetic concern, ask fbb what is so interesting about public transport.

Tomorrow we return to ...

  Next Airport blog : Weds 22nd April