The Boston Bees (Bs) - Part 1

If Manchester can have Bees, so can Lincolnshire! Harrogate had them for a while as 'The Bilton Bs", a collection of minibus services to the Bilton estate ...

... for which fbb produced a leaflet hundreds if years ago. The picture above shows pre-privatisation West Yorkshire branding at Bilton.

The provider of the Boston Bs is Brylaine, a company which has been around for about 45 years. It operates a number of inter-urban routes ...

... centred on Boston; all of which, a while back, were renumbered into a tidy sequence and given a 'B' prefix, 'B' for Brylaine and/or (?) 'B' for Boston.

fbb does not know the history of the 96A, but it certainly doesn't enter Boston. 

It runs on schooldays and Saturdays with only a couple of 'short' journeys running Mon to Fri during school holidays. Sounds odd but it is rural Lincolnshire! 

What you would expect to be the 'main' service 96 isn't; it is one school journey run by Stagecoach!

Brylaine also runs a significant number of school contracts.

The company began with a blue and white livery and second hand DP coach bodied vehicles; this one being a Ford, ex Southdown.

A "bread van" ...

... came from West Yorkshire PTE ...

... via Compass Travel of Royston.

Indeed most of Brylaine's fleet is "pre-owned" but fettled up very nicely. This decker ...

... once plied the streets of London ...

... for the East London pre-franchise company.

A rather unhappy and cluttered Preston Bus paint job ...

... re-appeared as a smart but non-standard yellow with lovely blue bits!

Lothian buses ...

... begat a smart, mostly red, livery with a rebuilt destination display.

The livery used to be more complex ...

... incorporating diagonal yellow flashes listing the towns served.

Now it is a simpler red all over plus ...

... a touch of tasteful blue. The above was also known as a Konnectbus motor!

The name Brylaine derives from the first names (Bryan, Elaine???) of its founders but the logo is a bit of a mystery.

The 'ST' is, in fact, 'TS', standing for Transport Services - a concept which is even more baffling when the device is applied to an offside body panel!

'TZ' - To the Zoo?

The company provides excellent printed timetable leaflets ...

... as well as a profusion of on-line material via social media. It also advertises its own telephone enquiry service.

Well done!

One disappointment for fbb is that the company on-line "timetables" page is a right mess and simply doesn't work on fbb's tablet.

Stuff covers stuff and stuff will not uncover stuff!

Is it any better on the laptop?

Thankfully, yes. Stuff no longer covers stuff.

But of route B617, more tomorrow.

  Next Boston Bs Bus blog : Weds 9th July 

Portsmouth X Files (2)

PSVAir Or PCVAIR : P.S.

Following fbb's piece on some intrusive technology to comply with the upcoming "Access Information Regulations", correspondent Keith reports:-

What is even worse is the fitting of next stop screens for wheelchair users to see when they are in the wheelchair bay. A laudable aim but absolute hell for the vast majority of able bodied passengers. These screens are fitted to the near side and completely block the forward vision for all passengers sitting on this side of the bus. The offside forward vision is already blocked by the driver’s screen. So we can’t see where we are going anymore.

Please see photograph above of the rear of one of these screens as fitted to a new electric Stagecoach bus on the service from Kingswear to Brixham in Devon on which I travelled on recently.

So, to help the disabled, in this case a wheelchair user, a significant number of ambulant passengers become disabled as they can no longer see the road ahead and thus suffer a more unpleasant journey.

Back To The X Files!

The story so far ...

... concerns First Bus route 3 from Fareham via Paulsgrove, Queen Alexandra Hospital. London Road, The Hard and South Parade Pier at Southsea.

It is a slow urban grind taking a little over 90 minutes for the full stimulating journey. As is so often the case with First Bus timetables, the frequency is "varied" ...

... but on Saturdays it does start from Fareham every 10 minutes, clock face. Such a clear-cut and helpful frequency later adopts scheduled unreliability further down the line.

The X4 and X5 become "Xpress" for the last few miles by taking the M275 from junction 12 into the city.

It is not much of an express, especially at peak times when the M275 clogs up dramatically.  But from Fareham it is much quicker than route 3 ...

... 38 minutes to The Hard vice 73 minutes on route 3. But the X4 and X5 do not run to Southsea.

From 26th July

This is how First explains the changes.

We're making some adjustments to our Solent network from Saturday 26th July

These changes include revised frequencies on Services 1 and 3, the introduction of a new express service, the X3, and timetable updates to Services X4 and X5. 

The new X3 service will provide a direct link between Fareham and South Parade Pier, offering a faster journey and serving customers travelling to and from Southsea.

We've also reviewed running times on the X4 and X5 to improve reliability, with some evening X4 journeys being replaced by the X3 service.

We recommend checking your journey before travelling to see how these changes may affect you. 

Here is the new route 3 timetable showing a frequency reduction from every 10 to every 12 ...

... again with the caveat that every 12 at Fareham becomes less structured (and potentially more confusing!) as the route progresses. 

But you will probably get a posh electric bus for your delectation!

The new X3 is shown as extra journeys on the X4/X5 table following the same route from Fareham ...

... but extended fron The Hard to Southsea, just like route 3. 

But notice a typical First Bus daftness.

The new 3 calls at "The Hard/Gunwharf on its way to Southsea whist the X4 and X5 terminate at The Hard Interchange [D].

Somebody should tell First Bus that they are the same place.

So to help the passengers the times could be shown in the same line!!

Once branded (optimistically) Solent Express ...

... later generic 'Solent' ...

... the X4 and X5 are now also provided with new buses.

First Bus has also given us pictures of similar vehicles to pre-launch the X3; at Gunwharf/The Hard ...

... and at Southsea.

The only branding in these buses is a small, almost imperceptible 'Solent'.

It is good to see something positive from First Bus, when so much emanating from HQ is about withdrawals and timetable reductions. Whether a fast-ish bus every 15 min from Fareham to Portsmouth can be justified remains to be seen.

A similar result could be achieved by extending the X4 /X5 from The Hard to Southsea!

Time will tell.

  Next B Bus Blog : Weds 8 July 

Portsmouth X Files (1)

There was a certain amount of angst when Stuart Linn (latterly boss of Southern Vectis), in consultancy mode, was invited to design a new network for First Bus in Portsmouth. The press had a field day, supported by vox pop interviews wth Elsie Miggins of Hilsea who opined, "How can a bus be numbered '0'; that makes no sense."

What was worse was that route 0 was a both-ways-round circular numbered '0' in both directiions! Although, pedantically, there were no shared stops, there were stops for both directions next to each other.

A bloggist wrote ...

We'll start with route Zero. This brand new route connects Tipner with North End, Southsea, Eastney and Hilsea and vice versa.  Furthermore, there have been many suggestions to connect route Zero to the QA Hospital. With the forthcoming service review, it will be interesting to see what happens to the Zero - I can't see it remaining the same in 18 months time.

... and he was right!

The route did not go down too well with the average Portsmithian! Stuart hotly denied that it was a bludner, stating that he had offered First's management THREE options and they had chosen the option that included route '0'.

The historic (?) 3 to Paulsgrove ... 

... now had a 3A.

The 0 was replaced with a non circular 17 and 18 and the 3As became 3s! The 3 was (and still is) joined by route 2 at Paulsgrove.

The 2 has been around for ever!

Route 3 now starts from Fareham and runs via Portchester Castle ...

... rather than the obvious main road, before venturing into Paulsgrove and the hospital.

To add to the fun, the 3 once terminated at The Hard interchange aka Portsmouth Harbour Station aka Gunwharf ...

... and was subsequently extended to Southsea, South Parade Pier.

And it wasn't branded "Star"!

For the nostalgic joy of trolleybus aficionados, Portsmouth Harbour Station OR The Hard used to be called "Dockyard" and was the main central terminus for the city's trolleybus network.

To the mix, we need to add the X4 and X5 which linked Southampton with Portsmouth (X4) and Gosport (X5).

But that changed as well.

How bus passengers yearn for stability!

How bus operators just love to change things!

The current situation is shown on the map below ...

... where we see that the X5 pictured below departing Gosport ...

... now runs from Portsmouth instead.

Worry not dear reader; things change again from 26th inst. But fbb is on the case; he understands what will happen (clever clogs) and will reveal all tomorrow.

 Next X Files blog : Tuesday 7th July