And Things Were Going So Well
And fbb has not taken to drink - yet! But the theme of our quiz and meeting is 'Grapes, Wine and Vineyards in the Bible', with preparation going very well for the meeting on Monday afternoon. But yesterday the new Raspberry Pi graphics computer would not start.
The old Raspberry Pi started up fine and dandy; at least it did when fbb found the correct cables. But the back up "thumbnail" stick of fbb's Monday afternoon's work would not work. fbb may have to redo three hours work - possible but very frustrating!
Technical help has been requested from No 3 son.
Getting ready for the fellowship meeting is, of course, urgent, SO, blogging time may be curtailed.
Bournemouth; The Story So Far
Remembering the two staircase Walsall bus ...
... fbb was surprised to see that the idea was tried in Bournemouth with boarding at the rear and exit at the front. Quite what the benefits were in practice is unclear, but whatever the intentions, it didn't work!
Successor to Bournemouth Corporation Transport, rebranded as Yellow Buses, collapsed with huge unmanageable debts four years ago.
But that was the end of a sad and sorry saga. In 2005, the privatised company was sold to Transdev, an arm of the corporate octopus that is the French government.
And please don't ask fbb to explain Tranasdev!
In 2006, Tranasdev decided to reorganise, well, everything.
Traditional routes and route numbers were thrown in the bin. ensuring that Bournemouth folk, like most municipal bus users, were pretty much totally dissatisfied.
But worse was to come.
In an unfathomable bit of French government financial necromancy, Yellow Buses found itself owned by RATP, a k a Paris City Transport.
And, obviously, that presaged another reorganisation. This was about as popular as The Black Death.
For no apparent reason, routes gained prefix letters based on geographical areas. So buses to Christchurch gained a prefix 'P', obviously, for Christchurch Priory.
Obviously!
One of the simpler changes was that route 1 became P1. In fact that was probably the only simple change.
The bus livery was changed as well, naturally.
These changes reputedly resulted in a significant loss of passenger revenue. So much so that the whole network was re-reorganised and put back to "normal".
At vast expense.
But worse financial deterioration was caused by the decision to compete with GoAhead's MoreBus (formerly Wilts and Dorset, former formerly Hants and Dorset) on their very busy trunk route between Bournemouth and Poole.
The incumbent threw more resources at the service, matched by Yellow Bus until both were losing money by the bus load. 
But GoAhead was big enough to stand the extra costs.
Yellow Bus wasn't
R A T P got out quickly by selling to a management team, reputedly for 1p. This still left accumulated debts to be "serviced".
The logo ...
... becomes plain and simple ...
... "Yellow Buses".
Inevitably the cash ran out.
To be fair, the final network remained well presented ...
... the excellent enquiry office remained open ...
... and things looked fine on the surface.
But years of damage had been done, the inevitable collapse soon came with More Bus waiting in the wings to take over. 
Buses and drivers were drafted in from other parts of the GoAhead empire thus disruption was short lived.
STOP PRESS
Technical assistance suggests that the Miniature SD Card may have become dislodged due to general chaos in Peterville model railway involving moving the computer systems repeatedly and/or excessively.
Miniature SD Card? fbb has no idea!
P.S. More Freightliner tank wagon is postponed due to computer excitement.
P.P.S. The Miniarure Sd card is fine ...
... so the new Raspberry Pi is busted.
A re think is necessary, maybe a re start and a re do is re alistically the only re source re quired. Re ally!
Next Bournemouth blog : Thurs 3 Sept
