We have been looking at the rail service to Ham, both today and historically and today we turn to buses. Ham is a ton of about 8000 souls a total which grows to 10000 by including two neighbouring and adjoining communities.
But finding our about its bus services is a challenge. Indeed, fbb routinely beefs about poor public transport information in the UK but, as goes the phrase, "you ain't seen nothing yet".
Axminster has a population of 6000 and has a hourly "clock-face" train service seven days a week. Connections to the rest of the network are obtainable at Exeter and London Waterloo. It has hourly buses to Honiton and Exeter, to Seaton (continuing two hourly to Beer), to Bridport (continuing to either Dorchester or Weymouth, a bus every 90 minutes to Taunton and a couple of local shoppers services running one day a week.
Compared with Ham, it is well served by bus.
In the UK we have Traveline; not particularly good and provided at great and unnecessary expense largely by local authorities. But at least it can guide you to what public transport is available in any given location.
France is divided into "Régions" and that for Ham is called "Hauts de France", literally "Heights of France" which is why the surrounding country is very flat. Each region is further divided into "Départements" as per the map below.
Ham is located near the bottom right hand corner of The Somme (LIGHT GREEN) and very close to Aisne (MUD PINK) and Oise (BLUE). As you might expect, public transport is in the hands of the local authority, namely the Département which means that there are three possible sources of timetable for buses serving Ham.
Depuis le 1er janvier 2017, les transports inter-urbains dans la Somme (réseau trans'80) sont organisés et gérés par le Conseil régional des Hauts-de-France, et non plus par le Conseil départemental de la Somme.
Oh yes, the Région has taken over!
The Somme offers four services ...
... branded with a balloon and telling us that it opens up new horizons.
So let us widen our horizons by examining the Ham routes. Here is service 50.
Some things to note.
Most importantly, this route serves the village of Y ...
... which beats Scotland's Ae by one whole letter.
More significantly, however, this whole timetable (there is an equivalent inbound set of times!) only runs during school term times. French schools finish at lunchtime on Wednesdays (Mercredi, shown by a lower case m in the tables above), hence the earlier departure from the school on that day.
There are "shopping" return journeys on Wednesdays and Saturdays which also operate during some school holidays. They are shown in a separate table.
The route is a portmanteau mix of bits of service 50 and 51.
The other three services follow exactly the same pattern; they are simply school buses available to any members of the public who wish to arrive at Ham nice and early ...
... at about 0730 and leave after a thrill-packed day at about 1800. On Wednesdays and Saturdays some of the communities enjoy more sensible timings, but most get no bus at all.
There some services which run during the Summer only (ÉTÉ) ...
... but broadly the pattern in the rural areas of the Somme is similar to that for Ham.
Services to Ham are contracted to "L'Oiseau Bleu" ...
... which advertises school and "regular" travel ...
... as well as a tours and holidays business.
The company does offer private hire as well, with a lovely heritage midi-bus available.
fbb apologises to any Francophiles whose knowledge of the area is superior to his. Please send any corrections via the usual methods.
But you cannot help concluding that public transport in rural France is far worse than most areas of the UK. Best buy a bike.
Maybe things are better over the border in Oise or Aisne?
We shall see tomorrow.
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Uncle Brian Buys (Mega)Buses
Nice wheels, eh?
They are 74 seaters bodied by Plaxton.
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Next Ham Bus blog : Friday 17th November
FBB,
ReplyDelete'Hauts de France' is the 'Top of France' i.e. the most northerly bit, and nothing to do with height, but you know that didn't you,and were just being ironic?
What you have found in terms of timetables based around school timings is alas typical of rural France. Service levels are minimal and were set until recently by the department and from this year onwards by the region. Can’t see that the change will make any difference by decentralising transport organisation even further. Unlike the UK way of doing things there are no commercial ‘operators own risk ‘bus services. The pre-war co-ordination of transport services (skewed heavily in favour of the nationalised loss-making Railway) put paid to commercial non-controlled bus operation. The chink in the armour of protectionism is the recent introduction of some new long distance coach services which had not existed for 70 or 80 years.
ReplyDeleteMany rural German timetables also function in the way that @Countrybus describes. Belgium and Holland have practices much more in line with UK norms.
ReplyDelete