Missed The Bus Part 2

 Remember Z Cars?

The series happened in Newtown which was, appropriately, the new town of Kirkby. Occasional reference was made on-screen to nearby Seaport (Liverpool) with many reports coming in about escapees from justice along the East Lancs Road. That is the A580 which just by passes St Helens.

Can you name the first four PCs who drove the Z Cars?

Today's blog offers an overview if the busiest route from St Helens, franchised to Stagecoach from 6th September.

Nothing much has changed in route description so fbb can provide a map from a leaflet dating from ten years ago in 2016.

We begin in Liverpool city centre ...

... with buses serving Liverpool One bus station ...

... and the massive Queen Square interchange.

fbb has visited Queen Square and is feeling better now! It is very busy and quite scary.

Queen Square is close to the gloriously beautified Lime Street railway station. It used to look like this ...

... but now looks like this, by day ...

... and this by night.

There is a bit more alongside the section above!

This was the prestgious North Western Hotel, now a Radisson RED "branch:.

Buses to St Helens strike off eastbound ...

... passing the turn to Huyton, where we lose a 10B.

The 10 and 10A continue in tandem ...

... until the 10A diverts via Rainhill - and, yes, that is the Rainhill of early steam loco trials where Rocket trounced the rest.

In 2016 Arriva service 10, NOT via Rainhill, ran at a respectable every 15 minutes.

The 10A, however, joint between Arriva and Stagecoach, offered a bus every 6 minutes.

Which leaves the 10B to Huyton. Oddly, this is presented as a sort if "circular" service - which it isn't.

We have a bus every 10 min to Huyton.

If fbb's grasp of "the new math" is correct, that gives 22 buses an hour between Liverpool and Page Moss!

Steve's Super Scheme

We can now look at the franchised operation, which, for the 10 and 10A is in the sole hands of Stagecoach. This is what the Metro web site tells us about the "new" 10 and 10A

10 No change of route or number

Was Arriva.

Stagecoach Franchise

Town Centre St Helens – Liverpool 

every 15 Mon to Sat daytime

No change of timetable

10A route curtailment

Was joint, Arriva ...

... and Stagecoach.

No longer runs through to Liverpool ONE

Stagecoach Franchise 

Town Centre St Helens – Liverpool

every 10 min Mon to Sat daytime

Timetable reduction

fbb does not know whether the 10A still ran every 6 minutes prior to F-Day; but both routes now go no further than Queen Square. Sadly the PTE's list of timetables says the 10A still runs to Liverpool One.

But, we hear you cry, what has happened to the 10B to Huyton?

Here we experience one of the consequences of the current style of franchising. The 10B is not part of the St Helens scheme, despite sharing a route number and a common set of roads for most of its length.

So the 10B now has its own non-franchise leaflet ...

... which includes the few 10S journeys.

Note that the 10B is no longer shown as a "circular".

fbb guesses that, between Queen Square and Page Moss, there may be some fare and ticket anomalies until the franchise scheme is complete.

There are now only 16 buses an hour from Liverpool to Page Moss!

The 10 group is relatively little changed: passengers will have no difficulty in finding their bus stops or their buses.

It might not be so simple with some other St Helens routes.

 Next St Helens blog : Weds 23 Sept 

Missed The Bus Part 1

Steve, Stagecoach and St Helens

St Helens Chapel appears [upper left, above) on a 1610 map, But the development of coal mining and glass production characterised the town during The Industrial Revolution. The borough's Town Hall gives some idea of the industrial status of the community ...

... wealthy and proud!

Its municipal transport followed a normal pattern, starting with horse trams ...

... then electric trams ...

... followed by trolleybuses.

The town's motor buses ...

... were later absorbed by Merseyside PTE.

The PTE was privatized on its sale to Arriva. Until recently, the main operator in the town has been the blue of Arriva.

But, earlier this month St Helens became the first Merseyside area to become a "franchise".

From Day 1, Arriva buses disappeared ...

... replaced by buses in "Metro" livery and operated by Stagecoach - although you would never know! The transfiguration is almost 100% complete.

An occasional bus from Stagecoach North West has been spotted ...

... dating from before this first contract was awarded.

Mostly, the new St Helens network was in the hands of "Metro" owned vehicles devoid of an operator fleet name.

There has been much hype to accompany the change ...

... with some prominence given to big cheese Steve Rotheram. That's him on the right, below.

At least he has no aspirations to be Prime Minister - as far as we know!

St Helens also gained a temporary enquiry office to ensure that folk were fully aware of the changes.

And many, many changes there were! There was, of course, a bright yellow gazebo as well.

There were plenty of headlines for the press to promulgate.

Real people have been around to help!

So why has this effort been more obvious, more "in yer face" that down the East Lancs Road at Manchester?

Quite simply, there have been significant changes in routes, route numbers and timetables throughout St Helens.

In Manchester there has been little change, except Bees and yellow paint.

Unfortunately, lacking a correspondent in the area, fbb mussed the September 6th launch. Not only that, and thanks to Mr Rotheram's efficient team, all activity before 6th inst has vanished from the interwebnet!

fbb cannot do his usual contrast and compare when big changes happen. He really missed the bus.

But at least your incompetent blogger has the "Metro" list of changes to peruse.

So, tomorrow, the old bloke will begin with trunk route 10. Sadly, his historical knowledge of route 10 is slightly less than nil. One thing we do know is that the road between Liverpool and St Helens was the subject of substantial competition.

 Next St Helens blog : Tues 22 Sept 

Sunday Variety

 Who Pays?

It now appears that the NATS shambles was "a software fault". We are not being told what particular part of the ginormous wodge of computer code threw a wobbly BUT it has to be worrying that a collections of electronic 1s and 0s should be so destructively disruptive.

The total cost to the airlines and the travelling public must have been eye-watering.

The airlines want some money to cover their losses.

How much did an administrative delay add to those costs?

But who will pay?

At the moment, it looks as if NATS is not liable ...

... which is daft!

(W)Hole Loada Bovver In Durham

It doesn't seem much of a pothole, IF the picture is genuine, easily rectified by a bucket of asphalt and a mini roller.

Or is fbb and the author of the article missing something?

The shiny new bus station ...

... is certainly shiny and new!

But where are the bus timetables?

Each stand has a departure list ...

... plus a next bus departure screen ...

... for each stand.

Also there are a few of these dotted around ...

... as usual in time order. What is really needed; what would really help the passenger, is a list of bus routes in numerical order with each departure alongside each route.

So, no timetables, no maps and no enquiry office; a first class example of how NOT to encourage bus travel.

BUT, on the positive side ...

... the toilets are lavishly lavish. As well as two Ts (unisex cubicles) we have THREE extra facilities.

Which begs the question, "What or whom changes in the Changing Places room?"

Does a weary shopper change into "something more comfortable" for the Arriva ride home? 

The mind boggles!

Actually it is a superior "accessible" luxury super-loo ...

... with loads and loads to vandalise.

The superloo room looks just about the right size for an enquiry office, leaving the "accessible" toilet to be accessible.

For the record, fbb's conclusions are based on videos posted on YouTube soon after opening. Maybe the missing essentials have now been found?

Durham County produces no meaningful public transport information, having ceded that onerous (?) task to ...

... whose web site claims to provide "timetables".

It doesn't!

Yet again we simply have departure lists.

If you can find them, Arriva has on-line timetables, but the finding is less than easy. It would appear that Arriva no longer supplies printable on-line timetables.

Good, innit?

Arriva used to have a high quality Bishop Aukland map!

Used to have.

And Now, Chiltern

When will we notice any real difference?

Andy's Snack "Thing" Taste Test

Accompanied by a mixed salad with fbb's patent dressing, a sauce being a melding of salad cream, vinegar, whole grain mustard, sugar and a good dash of Henderson's relish.

The salad was delicious; but the Prime Ministerial favourite was, to put it mildly, disappointing. All four corners were empty. The minimalist chunks of 'sausage' were tasteless; which leaves the beans and cheese.

Imagine a dessert spoonful of mashed baked beans with a sprinkling of mild cheese all crushed into a soggy pulp. fbb's 'parcel' did nor include a recognisable bean, not a bean!

fbb does not think much if your taste, Andy!

Who Remembers?

fbb can convince himself that he can remember, but, honest injun, he is probably conning himself!

Electrified services from Liverpool Street to Clacton started before the blue/grey era. So here is a class AM9 in British Railways maroon livery as applied to all main line coaching stock on the Eastern, North Eastern, London Midland and Scottish regiions.

So, logically those were the paint pots taken from store to decorate the Clacton Express 100mph units; and yes, it was an EMU doing a ton in the early 1960s!

Not only did the units become TOPS code 309 and blue/grey but those delightfully sexy curved windscreens fell foul of safety requirements.

Their replacements were ugly and cost a lot to create, involving some drastic bodywork work.

Somehow that front end looked even more ugly in Network Southeast colours.

The same re-jig applied to the Glasgow electric class 303 "Blue Trains".

Their photogenic curved windscreens ...

... were also replaced with flat glass but lacking the extreme ugliness if the 309s.

Tomorrow we grapple, somewhat belatedly, with another yellow livery.

 Next St Helens franchise blog : Mon 21 Sept 

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