Sunday Variety

No Ferry : No Trains

As well as losing its ferry from Southampton, news breaks that a proposal to bring a passenger train service back to Marchwood and Hythe has been rejected.

Seems a pity not to get something going on the branch which has remained in situ serving the Marchwood military depot, and, at one time, the Fawley oil refinery.

Intending passengers have Bluestar buses ...

Both the 8 ...

... and the 9 are a long way round compared with the ferry ...

... and oh, so slow.

Definitely an opportunity missed.

fbb guesses that Aliiance Rail would make its money out of the through journeys to Waterloo. The branch line would not generate enough revenue for a fully commercial service.

But isn’t that the sort of thing we are promised from Great British Railways?

Promises, promises.

Leyton Gets A Lift - Two Of Them!

We all applaud the desire to make our railway stations "accessible" by those of reduced mobility. At 81, fbb is getting that way, preferring a lift to stairs any time!

Leiyton is on the Central line of Lindon's Underground, lower left on the map below ...

... one stop east from Stratford.

The station was opened in 1856 by the Eastern Counties Railway but rapidly became part of The Great Eastern. The lines gave up their steam trains post WW2.

Broadly speaking, the station has remained unchanged since the halcyon days of passing trams.

Although the frontage has been "improved" (?).

There is little architectural merit in the 'upgrade' results ...

... although the shape of the building is unchanged.

Now work is under way to provide lifts and a new entrance, replacing the existing stairs down from street level.

The new construction is squeezed in atop the retaining wall ...

... which prevents the station from falling into the A12 Eastern Avenue dual carriageway which now parallels the track.

London Transport provides us with artist's impressions of the new entrance ...

... which has no empathy with the original building!

Maybe the long-term plan is to demolish the original and stick to the new utilitarian.

To be fair, the new entrance will be brighter, broader and more beautiful compared with the existing rather gloomy platform access.

The route across the new footbridge is better shown on the diagram below.

And below, the new footbridge looking back towards the old building.

Southampton Tram's Superb Transformation

This is how it was ...

... and this  is how it is!

How folk enjoyed the luxury of a tram ride in the good old days!

And this is the celebration.

fbb does not think the tram ran under its own power - no electric overhead - but the refurb (complete rebuild?) is superb.

Congrats all round.

Remember Toy Trains ...

... that looked like this?

But only if you had wealthy child+indulgent parents! Now wealthy old men collect old models and fill every space on their layout with track and trains.

Scenery, what scenery?

Now you can do the silly things with your layout that you could never afford in your youth.

Look, trains so long that they would never fit in the sidings!

The wagons are probably a rake of these.

This was one of the first plastic bodied SD6 wagons nade by Hornby Dublo. But all SD6 wagons used the very poor quality chassis dating back to 1938. No wonder Hornby collapsed in 1966.

Tomorrow fbb hopes to return to Wuhan, but he will also be looking at this.

  Next Wuhan blog : Monday 18th May 

Saturday Variety

Bridgwater Corporation Transport!?

So far it is only the former PTEs that have embraced their new powers to "Franchise" their bus services, with Manchester's Bee Network begining the the only one to actually happen at the moment.

Cambridgeshire has made the appropriate noises.

But Bridgwater, a small market town in Somerset ...

... has aspirations.

This is what the on-line article says.

So, what would the new municipal bus operator actually operate?

Not a lot. 

Here are maps from First Bus, no longer branded as 'Buses for Somerset'.

Service 14 is a relatively unfrequent rural service which fills a few occasional journeys via Haygrove. Journeys also extend cross town to the hospital.

The pale blue and dark blue are inter-urban services from afar and to afar which are unlike to be devolved to the Town Council.

Which leaves the B1 town service. This offers forgettable frequencies at irregular times past each hout with the best of a bad lot in Mondays to Fridays.

And yes, there used to be a B2 until First merged the two into a mega wiggle!

On Saturdays and Sundays times are less frequent and not at all memorable ...

... at every 65 minutes throughout most of the day.

Things were much better before yet another of First's  cutbacks.

Perhaps the town ciuncil has aspirations to provide a half hourly service in the B1?

As yet there are no details, nor any clue as to where the money will be coming from.

AB1 Autonomous Bus

Abandoned Bus

A piece of news that fbb missed earlier in the year.

The driverless bus with driver plus customer care assistant ran from Edinburgh Park (above) to Ferrytoll Park and Ride (below) across the old Forth Road Bridge to the Kingdom of Fife.

Anyway it all ended!

If fbb remembers correctly, the driver had to take over anyway at the two termini as the autonomous technology was not auto enough!

Needless to say, Roger French enjoyed a ride a while back and published copies of the enthusiastic leaflet ...

... which included the enthusiastic timetable (over enlarged by fbb)

Unfortunately nobody really wanted to go from the Park and Ride to the a terminus in the western fringes of Edinburgh.

So, whilst technically it worked for most of the journey, it was hardly a roaring success passenger-wise.

Try again, folks!

Again the key question, "Where's the money coming from?"

Hythe : Hopeful or Hopeless?

After being ditched by the new owners of Red Funnel, the Hythe Ferry Company went into administration. 

The Parish Council has hopes...

... but, where will the money come from to fund this perennially loss making service?

It will be very sad to lose the really weird pier train at Hythe!

But it only ran to connect with the ferry.

A Nearby First Bus Cutback?

fbb has no idea where the above First Solent branded double decker is parked or is operating. But further research reveals an on-line item headed by a picture of red single deckers for Southampton city services ...

... operating under the brand of 'City Red'.

First no longer operates the city network in Southampton, leaving the business to an expanded GoAhead's BlueStar.

So what's  going on in Gosport?

Here's  the map.

This shows the Gosport end of bus routes between there and Fareham. The main direct link between the two towns is the busway routes E1 and E2 branded 'Eclipse'.

And the buses are electric! Wow!

The traditional "round the houses" service is currently provided by the 9/9A.

Together, these two provided a combined 20 min headway.

Without access to the revised timetable it is not entirely clear; but the plan is to divert the existing 9A journeys via the 9 route giving a 20 minute frequency throughout.

The application is that some 9A roads will lose their service but many passengers will have an improved frequency.

Whether that warrants the negative headline is a matter of conjecture. You would guess that depends in whereabouts along the route you live!

Historically the nearest to the 9/9A would have been Provincial's 8 and 8A.

And a route 8 bus in the depot yard at Hoeford.

Nice!

Isn’t The Internet Wonderful No. 471

You might think that after 60 years, the press could get the logo the right way round!

For a while the arrows were so presented on Sealink ferry vessels.

But only on one side. The top arrow pointed to the front of the boat!

fbb is not sure how that worked on the Yarmouth to Lymington ferry ...

... because the boats did not have a front!  Photos suggest that the arrows were consistently for left hand drive on both sides.

More tomorrow including giving a lift to an Underground station that is over ground.

  Next Variety blog : Sunday 17th May