Integration Frustration (3)

Integration Implemented!

Trains from Shrewsbury (in the north!) arrived in Hereford in 1853 and served a station, named Hereford Barrs Court, on the present site. Here we see the station a tad later being served by motor omnibus!

Trains from Newport (South Wales) via Abergavenny reached their station, Hereford Barton ...

... in 1854. The two operating companies realised that this duality was not helping either of them, so, after a bit if corporate argy-bargy, a link line was built. This opened in 1866.

A few trains continued to terminate at Barton until 1913.

Today's map does reveal something of the line to Barton.

It ran due north from bottom left. The station was north of the GREEN road just above the left hand " Mus ". Google Earth reveals the obligatory scar of greenery at the junction ...

... a bridge across the River Wye ...

... with green stuff fizzling out in an industrial estate.

Take note of the long thin warehouse upper centre, above.

You can also follow the whole route in this Google Earth view.

When the last passenger trains transferred to Barrs Court in 1913, the line remained in use serving a goods yard; which closed in 1979. A large goods shed was built and is shown in this historic aerial photo.

North is on the left!

fbb has spun the modern view round to match the historic picture, and, lo and behold ...

.., the shed is still there!

Pictures do exist of the single line track to the goods yard.

Most of the track bed is now a public footpath.

Impressive Integration - OR ...

Inadequate Integration?

For years the above picture illustrated the level of integration at Hereford Station; one lavish stop pole and flag?

The local City bus map shows a few more local bus routes at the station ...

... notably the City centre circular "Zipper" calls ...

... a city centre FREE bus that follows a fairly incomprehensible route ...

... that is easier to understand in its diagrammatic version.

But the service does link railway station, 'country' bus station and stops near the city bus station (Yates). Sadly, as it is a one way circuit, journeys in the opposite direction are lengthy and slow.

But it is free.

Recently the Council has winced at the cost of the free bus and the whole service is "under review".

But the Council has another cunning plan. Let's just build a brand new transport Interchange right outside Hereford Station!

It is due to open in three months.

The station building is upper right.

But will it be big enough? 

Blog readers should know that this new interchange will replace the country bus station ...

... with all services due to move to the new build. Rumours suggest that the bus station will (eventually?) become a multi-storey car park.

fbb will express his concerns as part of tomorrow's blog.

  Next Weekend Variety blog : Sat 8 Aug 

Integration Frustration (2)

 Hereford Happenings 

In 1968, brewer H. P. Bulmer announced their intention to open a railway centre at the company's Hereford factory. The cider producer had been based at the same site since it was founded in 1887 and the premises also had a direct connection with British Rail. Ex-GWR 4-6-0 "King" Class locomotive No. 6000 "King George V" was chosen as the star attraction ..

... and was going to be in the company of five Pullman cars purchased by H. P. Bulmer from BR. Together, the locomotive and coaches would form an exhibition train to tour the country promoting the company's history and product range, and the first year of operation was envisaged to be 1969.

In 1968, Swindon Council agreed to lease the "King" to H. P. Bulmer. The locomotive was subsequently moved to an engineering firm in Newport, South Wales, which the cider firm had contracted to undertake a full overhaul at a cost of £250,000 (£4,259,000 at 2018 prices). The fully restored engine re-emerged at Bulmer's Railway Centre in November 1968 and was looked after on behalf of the company by the "6000 Locomotive Association".

Five Pullman carriages were purchased by Bulmer from British Railways for a collective total of £3,600 (£61,330 at 2018 prices).

This became the much loved Bulmers Steam Centre ...

... a small but fascinating display. It closed in 1992.

There are THREE public transport "centres" in Hereford,

The railway station is a fine building (map above upper right).

Lower centre on the map we see a cluster of bus stop icons which is the so-called Country Bus Station.

The two parallel lines of shelters lie behind a former cinema ...

... now a thriving church.

The bus station was always was somewhat basic ...

... with rustic shelters and destination boards added to help the potential passengers.

The modern replacement may keep the rain off, but the customers deserve better.

But 'better' is under construction, as we shall see.

Whether is it really is as 'better' as it ought to be is debatable.

But before we look at what is promised, we need to go to the "Hopper" Bus Station - but that name is no longer used. 

So let's do a bit of imaginary shopping at Tesco. The first Hereford "supermarket" was little more than a conventional shop in size ...

... still with shop assistants in white coats! The shop was enlarged and the familiar typeface appeared.

Hereford soon gained a bigger Tesco ...

... at the junction of Newmarket Street and Victoria Street. You can see (above) that the supermarket almost swallowed the historic Bewell House ...

... which seems a very poor planing decision. At least the road outside the house looks a bit better than it once did!

What came with the Tesco development was this ...

... known as the "Hopper" bus station.

Hopper?

Hereford City bus services were historically in the capable hands of Midland Red with route numbers prefixed "H" for Hereford - clever stuff, eh?

Some City services even warranted double deck buses!

The giant Midland Red empire was split and Hereford was then served by Midland Red West.

The minibus craze descended onto the City in the form of Hereford Hopper routes. (Tada!)

The Hopper routes were ideal bed-fellows for the new Hopper bus station. QED!

A Hopper in its trendy livery:-

And many lined up, pre hopping with passengers.

Then, later, they hopped unenthusiastically in standard Midland Red West colours.

And Hoppers, now totally unbranded, operated for a brief while courtesy of First Bus, purchasers of Midland Red West.

First later applied "Hereford" lettering to its 'Barbie 2' livery ...

... but not only was the writing on the buses, but, following a biblical precedent (Book of Daniel Chapter 5, Belshazzar's Feast) ...

... the writing was on the wall - and First ran away from Hereford.

Then we have a picture of the City Bus Station in more recent times.

The trees have grown and the minibuses have flown!!

More tomorrow.

 Next Hereford blog : Friday 7 August 

Integration Frustration (1)

Birmingham to Bewdley

Easy peasy innit?

You get a train to Kidderminster (map upper right) and change there for a train to Bewdley.

Once upon a time there was a good (?) train service as seen in this extract from a 1930s working timetable.

Don't try to understand it; such a table included paths for goods trains, gave timings at places which weren't stations (e.g Kidderminster Junction) and was not for public use. Basically, Bewdley was an 8 minute ride from Kidderminster.

Trains also ran via Bewdley to Bridgnorth.

Trains to Bewdley, once the haunt of the Great Western Railway ...

... finally ended in 1970.

The former rail routes are now served by Diamond Bus, with the 292 ... 

... taking the Ludlow route ...

... and the 125 ...

... replacing trains to Bridgnorth.

It would be nice to think that the two routes gave an integrated 30 minute headway between Kidderminster and Bewdley, thus encouraging easy-to-remember local travel. But the 292 offers a sort-of potty 45 minute headway!

Hey ho!

But one of the rail routes via Bewdley is now the home of the Severn Valley Railway; a typical summer timetable is given below.

But, leaving the SVR (expensive!) to the tourists and enthusiasts, how might you get from Birmingham to Bewdley today?

You have a train every 30 minutes from Birmingham Moor Street and Snow Hill ...

... operated by West Midlands Railway.

But to get to the Bewdley bus is less than easy. Kidderminster bus station (big bus icon below far left) ...

... is a good trot from the railway (above bottom right). Traveline suggests a 13 minute walk which fbb thinks is optimistic - it would be VERY optimistic for an arthritic octogenarian.

So it is a walk to the bus, therefore a lengthy effort from railway station to Bewdley!

That is roughly half an hour for what was once an eight minute train ride!

You wouldn't want to make the effort regularly!

But someone has had a jackpot idea!

Why not run trains from Kidderminster to Bewdley?

So they are going to have a go!

Beginning on 1 September 2026, the trial will see heritage steam and diesel trains operating over the three-and-a-half-mile section of the Severn Valley Railway between Kidderminster and Bewdley, connecting with West Midlands Railway services to and from Birmingham. Passengers will change trains at Kidderminster to complete their journey.

The arrangement is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the UK, with main line rail ticket holders travelling over part of their journey on a heritage railway, hauled by heritage locomotives and operated by heritage railway staff.

Yahoo! Integrated ticketng!

The trial forms part of a longer-term project to assess the potential for introducing regular passenger rail services between Bewdley and the wider West Midlands rail network. If demand is demonstrated, it could pave the way for selected services that currently terminate at Kidderminster to be extended to Bewdley in future.

So the ultimate wheeze would be for West Midlands DMUs to run through to Bewdley.

The weekday commuter service will operate on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the trial, with two morning departures from Bewdley at 6.40am and 7.40am. After connecting at Kidderminster, passengers will arrive at Birmingham Snow Hill at 7.46am and 8.46am respectively, with a total journey time of just over an hour.

Evening return services will leave Birmingham Snow Hill at 4.46pm and 5.46pm, arriving back in Bewdley at 5.57pm and 7.02pm following a change at Kidderminster.

The change at Kidderminster is far from ideal.

Above is the relatively new West Midlands Railway station. A Bewdley commuter will need to trek via car parks and in to the splendid SVR building ...

... hardly a slick operation.

The SVR has its long standing DMU available in regular use on heritage journeys ...

... and more recently they have bought a spare!

But one on-line account of the plan reveals ...

... The SVR expects its resident Class 108 DMU to be used for the morning trains, with two inbound workings arriving back in Bewdley at 17.57 and 19.02. These are to be steam hauled when possible, SVR says ...

... presumably integtrated with the Heritage timetable on full operating days.

And in a final fbb ramble; didn't the Keighley and Worth Valley try diesel "commuter" trains way back? Maybe not with through tickets however?

The idea does reappear every so often.

And didn't the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch run a train for local schoolchildren?

The kiddies are commuters, after all.

This is from an on-line item from 2012.

As a former Southlands Student who used the school train service, I remember when it used to be 15-16 coaches in length and not a spare seat to be had! Remember the days when if no's 12 or 14 were unavailable then there was 2 steam locos at the front and one more banking!

Anyway, today I was stopped at Jefferstone Lane level crossing for the service to pass and it had 4 coaches, of which the first and third coaches were completely empty and the second coach had 5 people in it and the last just one person. My question being is this cost effective to the railway to run?

Indeed, it is the same question we might also ask of the Severn Valley Railway.

 Next Herefotd Happenung blog : Thur 6 Aug