Saturday Variety

Nah Then - 'Eidi's 'Appy 'Announcement

Heidi, Tracy and various other West Yorkshire glitterati are pictured near the road bridge the crosses Bradford Interchange railway station. It does show that there is a bit of shelter, but not much. Below, same platforms, same bridge, opposite direction ...

It is certainly not the epitome of Norther Grandeur that it was when it was called Bradford Exchange.

There are two stations in the City. Interchange on a new site a little to the south of Exchange, and Forster Square, a few frustrating streets to the north.

Hints are being made that the new Interchange will become a  through station, thus eliminating the tedium of a reversal for cross-Bradford services. Here are some on-line snippets explaining the proposals.

The key phrase above is "several locations are under review" but apart from emotional hype, there are no actual plans!

Then this:-

Hmm. fbb is not sure that a through station in itself will eliminate delays. The Trans Pennine upgrade is supposed to be doing that already.

Then we have the oddest piece of inconsequentiality.

Surely a new station will not speed up trains as much as the above. A through station would reduce cross-Bradford times, but have little effect on journey times from the City to Leeds or Manchester.

Years ago, there was a proposal to link Exchange with Forster Square, which would create TWO through stations, but wouldn't be much use for the Trans Pennine route.

There's quite a lot of stuff in the way ...

... with Forster Square upper left and Exchange bottom centre.

So it would have to be a tunnel. Here us an old "Clearing House" map which, ironically ...

.. shows an even older proposal (GREEN dashes) to link the two stations. But if we look at those junctions south of Exchange, we spy the obligatory smear of foliage in two places, one making a sort of triangular junction.

Further south is the remnants of a second line, seen more clearly on a street map. This one looks a possibility for a new through station.

Bradfordians eagerly await the Revelation!

Completion is offered vaguely for the 2030s, so don't hold your breath!

Express Nacional

News is breaking that the much loved bastion of British scheduled coach services is selling itself to Spain.

National Express owner in talks over £282mn take-private deal

 

Mobico has received 46p per share offer from Spanish company Autobuses de Leon

Wrong picture choice! "Alsa" (in blue) is already owned by National Express..

The owner of National Express is in talks with a potential Spanish buyer over a takeover that could value the company at about £282mn, potentially adding to a wave of delistings from the London stock market.

 

Mobico, which also operates bus, train and coach businesses across Spain, Germany, Morocco and the US, said in a stock exchange statement on Wednesday that it had received an approach from Autobuses de Leon (AdL), a Spanish company backed by CMC Group, which is Mobico’s largest investor.

 

The 46p per share cash offer is at a 55 per cent premium to Tuesday’s closing price and close to double the level seen several weeks ago. Mobico’s shares jumped 31 per cent after the company revealed AdL’s approach.

 

Mobico said it considered the offer “to be at a value that it is minded to recommend” to its shareholders. It has given AdL access to its records “to progress towards the announcement of a firm intention to make an offer”.

 

They Are Buying Debt!

While the deal would value the company’s equity at £282 million, Mobico also has more than £1 billion of debt that is due to be refinanced in the coming years.

 

If it proceeds, the deal would mark the latest delisting from the London Stock Exchange. A number of companies have been snapped up by private equity firms and international buyers in recent years.

 

Alsa, Cosmen and CMC

CMC Group, the business owned by Spain’s Cosmen family, first invested in Mobico when it sold Spanish coach operator Alsa to NatEx in 2005. It now owns about 26 per cent of Mobico’s shares.

 

Alsa has been a bright spot for Mobico, whose mixed performance in other divisions and heavy debt burden have resulted in its credit rating being downgraded.

CMC is an investment company that makes money by buying and selling companies. First Bus, of the UK's biggest, is the only one left actually owned by its bus operating Limited Company. 

And, yes, it us all a far cry from making money by making something for people to buy or providing a service that people need.

The Mystery Of Route 81

Eagle eyed correspondent Andrew was concerned, 

When fbb was writing about the Hydrobus (81) linking to Red Jet (no route number), bus from ferry to Southampton station (81) and headcode 81 on the above, Andrew was uneasy.

Surely that train was not a route 81 from Southampton as the type of train (multi-door outer suburban) was not right for the Southampton fast service.

After expressing his unease, a second email arrived confession that all was well with the headcode, even if the train were a wrong 'un!

It's Clapham Junction quoth he.

So fbb checked, first looking for "Granada". The ever reliable interwebnet had pictures of said palace of cinematographic delights, now repurposed.

And now to Streetview.

First a view in the same direction, but satellite provided ...

.... with the terrace of houses in the 81 picture visible just off the bridge. From the opposite direction ...

... we see the ex-Granada!

Thanks, Andrew, for creating and resolving a non- mystery!

Light Bleed : Likely Bodge

To prevent internal lights bleeding through plastic walls, you can use paint but it needs to be dark and thick! So fbb uses cereal boxes.

Cut the card roughly then trim to fit, The long bit goes outside at the back because the building is right tight up against the backscene.

It looks better when it is trimmed ...

... and with the roof on!

Painting next.

And fbb has received a "letter" from "The Blogger Team" - details in tomorrow's blog.

 

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 25th Oct 

Peculiar Pan Progress (5)

 Say It, See it, Sorted? - Possibly

fbb has sorted it! Most readers will have already lost the will to yesterday's baffling, and badly broadcast, blog. The old man understands fully what has happened in the housing areas west of Newport town centre. He has created a table allowing his enthusiastic readers to compare the old 38 and 39 with the new.

The letter indicate points of the compass with direction being conceptual rather than geophysically accurate!

No, you really shouldn't bother!

It does show how much detail has changed since the end of September; and why at least 50% of the passengers that shared journeys with the fbb/Alan expeditionary force did not know where they were going.

Badly designed, badly presented in a "take it or leave it" manner and useless individual route maps ...

... combine to make the recent changes less than enthusiastically received.

Wednesday was a grim day. It started with a huge frustration fest as fbb fumbled with fascinating (?) functionality while he sought to apply for a refund for his two hour delay on returning to Axminster last Thursday.

Whilst most of the South Western Railway claim site was in HUGE text and graphics, the "tactful reminders" (?) when you missed a box to fill in, we're in small barely legible red text.

fbb was told to enter his five digit ticket number.

Of course!

It was all like that! You cannot help thinking that the train companies are trying to put claimants off!

This was followed by the angst of the East Devon car parking annual ticket. It ran out in September, but the fbbs received no reminder. It is a telling comment on the "policing" of East Devon car parks that the aged couple had not been "done" in the unpaid interim.

The Council has no system for back-dating payment so the happy couple saved five weeks of fees! This was but a minor compensation for an eternity listening to options on the Council's patent AAAC ("Always-Avoid-A-Customer") phone system.

Then came East Newport!

ASDA Angst : Barton Bother : Combination Confusion

It used to be very simple. Service 39 ran a reasonably diddy circular route; out via Barton (Mayfield Drive as illustrated).

North of Staplers Road (pronounced 'stap' as in 'slap' not 'stape' as in "grape') the housing is private development. South of the main road we enter the realm of Council build.

An hourly service has been pretty much standard on route 39 for many years, although route numbers have varied.

More recent newcomer was the DARK BLUE line, once hourly, now every 30 min. Service 8 runs from Newport to Sandown, then the long way round via Bembridge to Ryde.

Although the 39 is still hourly, it's service period is now pathetic ...

... but buses do serve ASDA, of which more anon.

39s don't  look like the above these days!

The latest version of the 38 now also runs cross-town and every 30 minutes, an unheard of frequency for Newport town roites!.

Here is a timetable extract ...

... where there is even a Sunday service every hour. fbb was flabbergasted to see that the largely empty 38s were double deck buses!

On the East side of town, the 38 runs first to a newish ASDA ...

... with a stop well hidden from the store entrance! It's up there, top left of the ASDA site ...

... although, to get there, you do have a glorious view of the embankment with the car park on top.

You can also enjoy the delights of a view of Newport Retail Park, built on the site of Newport Town's footy club ground.

It's a good place to find even more purveyors of coffee once you have exhausted the dozens such back in the town.

The 38 returns to the bus station via new build on Godric Road ...

... then via Pan, just like the 39 and just like the 8.

So how's about this, student of daftness that is today's bus service planning? Pan Estare Furrlongs (remember?) ...

Has one 39 inbound (GREY), two 38s inbound (PALE BLUE) and two 8s inbound (DARK BLUE) noting that the 39 has limited hours Mon to Fri only. That is FIVE buses an hour!

Outbound, direct from the bus station, all you get us two 8s, very unreliable as the long route via Bembridge is renowned for horrific delays.

Is that unbalanced or is it unbalanced?

Because of horrific delays on the 8 fbb and Alan were obliged to curtailed their recent tour. Their bus arrived 25 minutes late and without apology or announcement, skulked off to depot.

This poor regard for the passenger would never have happened when "The Vectis" was managed by Island people from offices in Newport.

Indeed, there is a rumour that the office block ...

... is to be demolished to make way for more bus parking.

Sacrilege!

Southern Vectis is now managed remotely ...

... by GoAhead from their "Deep Throat" bunker in Poole.

Sacrilege!

 Next Variety blog : Saturday 24th Oct 

Town Routes : Confusing At Carisbrooke (4)

Vectis Early Days

The Vectis Omnibus Company had a depot at Somerton, south of Cowes until it burned down. In the good old days there was no bus station with services terminating in St James' Square.

The company became part of the Southern Railway, of course, but there were other operators way back. The most well known was Seaview Services whose route into Ryde was the first motor bus to offer a public service on the Island.

The company ran buses well into fbb's residency!

Colsons ran from Newport to Carisbrooke ...

... passing along the grand Mall as it left Newport.

But Newport, although the County Town, was the smallest urban area on the Island, second smallest if you include Yarmouth - definitions are unclear!

This map from the 1930s (?) ....

... shows the block of property that we now call the town centre, based mainly on the quay on the River Medina. Apart from development along the main roads there was little else.

Later Southern Vectis town services ran to Gunville via Carisbrooke, ("unville" on the map above) and Camp Hill where be the Island's Prisons.

But look at the town now!

Nowadays, buses run from developments in the West, via the bus station to housing in the East.

The most recent on-line map is out-of-date (Well done, Vectis)** but allows us to follow development of the town services in a much simplified way.

Later And Recently

The Carisbrooke and Gunville route ...

... plunged into the estates, latterly running anti-clockwise via Whitepit Lane as route 38.

A newer development, Sylvan Drive, was opened up ...

... along a cul-de-sac road. The two parts of the housing were eventually joined and a revised 39 ran clockwise via Carisbrooke Road and Mountbatten Way (LIGHT GREY) ...

... returning via Sylvan Drive, the excitement of the hospital and Riverway industrial estate.

Joyous!

But Recently

From 27th September 2026, it has all changed; which is why, when fbb visited with chum Alan on 14th Oct., there was plenty of confusion from passengers at stops and on Newport bus station.

Remember, the 38 had been running anti-clockwise round the  Western areas of the town, the 39 clockwise.

As we don't have a correct town map, we will have to manage with the whole Island network offering to follow the revised routes.

But it doesn't  tell you which way they go.

** WRONG! When fbb downloaded the network map at 1500 yesterday, he was surprised to find it was not correct. His confusion was worse because he has definitely looked at the correct Newport map (again on-line) whilst on the Island. When he looked again, dragging himself away from "The Bridge Of Lies" (sad old man!), the correct map appeared.

The two versions seemed to appear alternately or at random!

Old Map

New Map

So, for no apparent reason, the 38 now run anti-clockwise! The 39 runs clockwise! As we can see from the now-appeared correct Newport town map.

Here is the estate area on the new map.

But it is even more complicated than that. On the estates, the 38 mostly follows the 39 route and the 39 follows the 38 route.

It is no wonder that passengers were still confused a good two weeks after the changes.

Having downloaded both maps and scrutinised the current timetables, the old man is screaming with frustration, but silently so as not to wake up Mr Tubbles.

Today, while our readers are being utterly befuddled by Newport town services, fbb will sort out his head, the maps, the route numbers and the timetables (which are baffling in the extreme) and publish the results.

Travelling by bus is so straightforward!

 Next Newport  nonsense blog : Fri 23 Oct