A Familiar Name : But Not The Same (2)

 The Business Plan - Can We See?

Twenty Seven And Forty Three!

Travelling south from Rotherham along the A618, there are a whole variety of possible destinations for a bus service. You could start your journey on Corporation route 10 ...

... all the way to Chesterfield. There were local buses to Whiston ...

... and buses to Aughton, Aston, Swallownest, Wales, Kiveton and Harthill. Lately there was even a bus to Ulley.

To avoid too much nostalgia, confusion or brain strain fbb will start with this map.

It was a relatively tidy scheme devised by First Bus. It wasn't as comprehensive as in "the good old days" but it made sense. The bonus was that it gave the good folk of the Aughton Aston Swallownest 'triangle of communities a bus service to Crystal Peaks shopping centre.

Buses were hourly on each of the three routes, with 27 and 29 as shown below.

So what might we see today?

The only bus from Rotherham is the 21 ...

... just one bus an hour where once there were three; and nothing from Rotherham to Crystal Peaks. The 26/26A just twiddle around locally and infrequently. 

Here is the  current 21 timetable extract.

At least there remains an evening and Sunday service to the villages.

And along comes SMT ...

... with a reprise of the former First 27.

But the timetable is hardly a direct replacement!

There is hardly an afternoon service at all on Schooldays. There are only THREE buses back to Rotherham at 1015, 1115 and 1215; not an attractive spread for a midweek shopping expedition.

Are we looking at a potential failure?

Which brings us to the new 43.

Weill it isn't completely back! First bus once ran seven days a week ...

A First Bus map, on-line, despite being from 2018 and thus totally out of date, reveals one past version of Firsts's 43.

It's golden yellow line shows a link from Wingfield and Kimberworth Park estates via Kimberworth 'village' to Meadowhell. Frequency was an unattractive once an hour.

How does SMTs comeback kid compare?

For the new 43, SMT has solved the problem of needing weekday buses for schools. The solution is simple - just run on Saturdays and Sundays!

Neat and cunning plan, eh? But hardly "bringing back" the 43!

Their route, however is more extensive and represents better coverage of the estates but still with a less than endearing every 60 minute headway.

Again the bus appears to sit around for about 45 minutes at Rotherham; hardly an efficient use of two buses and two drivers. Maybe SMT have plans to fill the gap.

 

Should you wish to enjoy this service, it follows a particularly curvaceous trajectory through the north west of Rotherham centre.

... and continues to wiggle ...

... before a straight run to Meadowhell.

So, if you only want to travel on Saturday or Sunday, SMT offers better coverage.

Having travelled round these estates by bus in several occasions in the past, fbb defies any untrained visitor to work out which way he is facing once the gyrations start!

Musbborough Estate

Greasborough Estate

Wingfield Estate

Kimberworth Park Estate

It is really easy to lose any sense of direction.

Just for the record, and thinking of gap filling, the 27 between Rotherlham and Crystal Peaks would appear to have a self contained timetable with no spare time to integrate with the big gaps in the new 63, as seen in yesterday's blog.

An experienced industry "thinker" has contacted fbb to express concerns about SMT, notably on two counts.

1. Where is the money coming from, and what happens when the wallet is empty? There has been a huge investment in good (hopefully good!) Seconds hand vehicles. If payback doesn't happen, what then?

2. What about South Yorkshire's franchising plans? As we saw in St Helens and the Wirral, smaller operators can easily be squeezed out completely as services are franchised in big lumps!

It will be interesting to see if SMT survives.

P.S. SMT at Flat Street, Sheffield with a service 63 as featured in yesterday's blog.

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It's A Station Platform!

The meat of the structure is made of a sandwich of four strips of corrugated cardboard; cheap and strong. The face will, of course, be covered with 'brick' or 'stone' or 'concrete'.

It will form a halt to serve Peterville Castle.

Clearances, however, are VERY tight. So a platform was made which would be easy to trim with Mrs fbb's old kitchen scissors. Once carriages can pass by without impacting the platform face, the job can be completed.

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 Next SMT Fleet blog : Sat 10th Oct 

A Familiar Name : But Not The Same (1)

 A Familiar Name ...

... the same letters ...

... but different colours!

The new SMT (no idea what the letters stand for - if anything) has an address at Auckley near Doncaster which is private house. The company has recently applied for more vehicles at an 'operating centre' (posh speak for a depot) in Sheffield.

The 'Industrial Park' is on a former heavy industrial site (below, top left), shown as 'under development' on Google Earth ...

... a short walk from the Sheffield Wednesday stadium. A Sheffield Supertram terminus happens near the Winn Gardens Estate, adjacent to Middlewood Park.

The Leading Light of SMT is Darren Sentance. 

The picture is from approx ten years ago ...

... but it illustrates Darren's passion for the Heritage bus game. He once worked for First at the now closed Rotherham depot. He was the bus painter who created some glorious bus liveries for First Sheffield and elsewhere.

fbb's favourite of all the vehicles benefitting from a Sentance enhance  was a pastiche of Sheffield's very first motor bus ...

... which ran to Lodge Moor in 1913.

The bus correctly replicates the legal lettering from 1913 with the general manager of Sheffield Tramways, one A. R. Fearnley, grandfather of Giles.

Darren is also co-author of an excellent book about the PTE.

Gary Nolan was also involved and we met him in the blogs about the recently launched Shrewsbury timetable book.

So what has the new Sheffield version of SMT been up to?

Until very recently, schools and tendered work,

The Sunday journeys on route 51 in Doncaster are joined by Sheffield's M44, M45 and M55 services.

Until recently these Ms were in the hands of T M Travel.

There are plenty of SMT buses serving Schools, particularly in Sheffield.

So, following an oft repeated pattern since deregulation, the question arises; what is to be done with bus and driver when not carrying the kiddies to and from the hallowed halls of academe?

The answer is simple and equally oft repeated, namely to run a non school bus service.

So we get the recently introduced route 63.

Birley is a council-built housing estate on the south eastern edge of the city, just off the Mansfield Road and not far from the much older community of Gleadless.

In Sheffield Transport days, route 83 ran via Base Green to Birley.

It was renumbered 63 to release 83 for a reorganisation elsewhere; and passed to the PTE as such - with no change of route.

In one of the many, many reorganisations by First Bus it was renumbered 8 ...

... and extended during the daytime to Crystal Peaks shopping centre.

Reorganisation continued apace with half the 15 minute frequency terminating at Birley and the other half diverted to Dyke Vale Road as 8A.

Nothing then ran through to Crystal Peaks.

Of course, the southern edge of Base Green and parts of Birley now have the tram to Crystal Peaks. Also, you will note, Birley has the M44 and M45 (now tendered with SMT) which go, eventually, to the shopping mecca.

SMTs revival of the 63 ...

... is close the the original, but actually serves no more of Birley than does the tram.

In an innovative mood, however, the new 63 runs via Norfolk Park Estate ...

... recently a tram only domain. But the new 63 offers an alternative.

Or does it?

At just hourly, it hardly compares with a tram every 12 minute to Crystal Peaks. It will restore links from Base Green and offer an alternative to the tram for, e.g. holders of bus only day and weekly tickets.

fbb doubts whether there will be enough custom to make the route viable commercially. Perhaps that is why SMT says the service will be experimental until December?

Experts in scheduling will note straightaway that there is a huge amount of layover time at Crystal Peaks, 35 minutes to be precise. If the bus sits there all sad and lonely, then the service is not viable.

Might 63s interwork withe 27s?

That exciting timetabular detail must wait until tomorrow's blog.

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fbb Makes A Sandwich?

It is a sandwich with four layers of corrugated cardboard and a filling of a fine smear of 'No More Nails'. It also has an overhanging topping.

What could it be?

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 Next SMT blog : Friday 9th Oct