No 3 son arrives today to glue a new keyboard onto the fbbs' laptop. To allow for any technical challenges, a few "collection of oddments" blogs will follow, at least for today and tomorrow.
Appropriate Ale
Drone Valley Brewery is situated on the banks of the mighty river Drone that roars from South Yorkshire into North Derbyshire. Our beers can be found in untied Free Houses in the Dronfield area, and across Chesterfield, Sheffield and Matlock. We are the only independent Community Brewery in the UK. The brewery was built by local people. All our beers are brewed by volunteers to award winning recipes. All our beers are brewed by volunteers to award winning recipes. We are run by a Membership who own the brewery. Our profits are passed to good causes in the local area. Membership is just £10 and can attract discounts on our beers.
One of the beers is labelled "Your 43".
It is named after the bus route between Sheffield and Chesterfield via the Gosforth Valley mega-estate aka Dronfield Woodhouse.
It runs every 20 minutes ...
... and some of the beer pumps actually show a picture of a 43 bus!
Nice! And here's the real thing.
Beyond Belief - Yet Again
From 22nd July, High Peak have dramatically reduced their service 65 between Sheffield and Buxton; from 5/6 journeys to just two.
Everyone knows that! Well everyone who reads this blog does.
But that is not the whole story. Derbyshire's web site reveals that the county is seeking tenders to replace some of the cancelled journeys. The "library" makes it clear that the timetable is NOT YET AVAILABLE.
fbb has also heard much the same from a contact at High Peak.
So, a couple of days ago, South Yorkshire PTE published their non-leaflet for the 65. It shows a Monday to Saturday timetable ...
... and here is the - erm - Saturday timetable!
Yet again the PTE has messed it up. They have published a timetable that they know is wrong - that they should know is wrong.
The net result is that Sheffield folk will simply abandon any thought of using the 65. As timetable non-leaflet production is very slow in SYPTE towers, it will be some time before anyone gets corrected information.
So even less passengers for the 65.
Bet High Peak will be thrilled!
Completed Cartography
Remember this?
The graphics below show all the mistakes. They are poor quality, but you will get the idea. Here is a version which can be enlarged by clicking.
Here it is again with the main mistakes shown. Again, a click will enlarge it.
The map claims that it show services running every 15 minutes.
This is a palpable untruth.
The PINK boxes show where routes having a frequency of LESS that 15 minutes have been deleted; a case for the Advertising Standards Authority, perhaps.
The BLUE boxes show serious and misleading factual blunders.
fbb has not attempted to show misleading and unnecessary mangling of design principles - that covers MOST of the map.
Undaunted by the mess, your chubby blogger has drawn his own. It also enlarges! Try it!
At first glance it looks more cluttered than the PTE version. It isn't. It shows the same set of (not very) frequent services. But fbb has added extra useful place names.
It has been designed to allow for an increase or reduction in detail, change of font size etc etc all without needing a major redraw. Easier to take stuff out than try to squeeze it in!
And if folk want thinner route "lines", that is easy as well.
There has been minimum of geographical mangling, unlike the PTE version.
Copies of the fbb "magnum opus" a with senior management at Stagecoach, First and the PTE and fbb is awaiting developments. He has offered to provide his map free of charge (subject to some Terms and Conditions)!!
Will anything happen?
Look - there the go again!
Next Will the Keyboard Fit blog : Monday 2nd July
Can't see anything wrong with the 65 timetable. It is the same as the High Peak timetable for the 65 from the 22nd July to be found here: https://findmybus.uk/uploads/timetables/highpeak/65%20Buxton%20to%20Sheffield%20Mon-Sat%20220718.pdf
ReplyDeleteSimply Derbyshire have not finalised their tendered journeys yet on the 65. The PTE have published what is available to them as provided by High Peak Buses. Nothing wrong other than they are awaiting more information from a neighbouring authority.
And there is no reason why SYPTE would know that a replacement service is to be tendered unless DCC were to tell them which they wouldn't normally do. Also SYPTE can not assume that High Peak would win it if a tender is awarded (in which case the shown timetable is correct for them) or what form any fill in may occur (in this age of slashed council funding there is no guarantee any tender would bear any relationship to what is currently run - for all they know the tendered journeys may not reach Sheffield, many authorities won't fund cross border services) so all they can do is issue what they have. With the timescale DCC are working to (they don't appear to have acknowledged the existence of the consultation period at all and just acted on the reduced registration period) they, and SYPTE, will need to be slick on their end to get the registration in by the end of July - we are three weeks out and the tender has only just closed it is still to be awarded!
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