Many thanks to several blog readers who sent in corrections to sort out fbb's floundering! Much appreciated. Here's hoping today's efforts will be better!
And Again - Buxton ...
fbb has been informed that one bus company has offered to sort out and tidy up presentation in Buxton. They asked Derbyshire, who refused to allow them to do a clean up. Shame on yourDerbyshire; your good reputation is tarnished somewhat.
And please NEVER do this ...
... it is useless! The idiot computer (or they who program it) produces a departure list in time order with all the services mixed up. "Aha," thinks Joe Public, "it's 1118 and I have some time to spare. I will go to an arbitrary bus stop and see where the next few buses might be going."
Really?
What is more helpful is to have separate blocks for each service or group of services.
What is more helpful is to have separate blocks for each service or group of services.
And On 8th / 9th September ...
All over the country, towns are holding a "Heritage Day" when splendid locations are open for visitors, all FREE of charge. Northampton correspondent Alan dons his uniform (?) to conduct some of the special buses on "heritage" tours and services.
Buses are routed to take people to places that are open tomorrow or Sunday or both. Some really juicy vehicles will be running from 0930ish to 1700ish. Here is a 2016 selection.
Full Northampton programme is (here).
Up High To Hungerburg
The road from Innsbruck to the suburb of Hungerburg (on the north bank of the River Inn) is steep and wiggly. IVB route J runs that way.
In 1912 a hotel was built beside a small lake.
It had an observation tower and the lake (a former quarry) was available for fishing and boating.
The lake is now empty and grassed with the hotel a much altered residential training and conference centre.
The observation tower still stands, forlorn and inaccessible!
Hungerburg continued to develop as a residential and leisure area. Another distinctive hotel was the Mariabrunn ...
... rebuilt somewhat as here in the 1950s ...
... and now an uninspiring but distinctly orange block of flats.
But all this development needed something better than a wiggly road (which may not even have existed!). And the mountains were the big attraction.
So it was that in 1906 a funicular railway was built which would link to two further cable cars as we saw in Wednesday's blog. Two cars are hung in balance on one long cable and they pass in the middle of the line.
Its base station was on the northern edge of the town near the chain bridge across the Inn.
Note the Mariabrunn Hotel to the left of the upper station. The chain bridge has also been replaced.
Cars crossed the river on a splendid girder bridge ...
... and had one intermediate station serving the Alpenzoo.
The bridge still stands today ...
... as does the lower terminal building seen below, front ...
... and zoomed from across the bridge.
Nothing much remains of the Alpenzoo stop ...
... but the marvellous viaduct higher up the line (Mariabrunn's tower again, upper left) ...
... can still be seen from woodland paths.
Despite encroaching woodland, views as the car climbed were splendid.
Pictures of the upper station are rare, so fbb has had to over-enlarge a chunk of old postcard.
But, as is obvious from some of the pictures above, this funicular is no more. It closed in 2005, just short of its 100th birthday. Here is the last arrival at the base station back in December of that final year.
It is what replaced it that will from the content of tomorrow's blog.
Cars crossed the river on a splendid girder bridge ...
The bridge still stands today ...
Next Hungerburg blog : Saturday 25th August
Personal opinion presented as fact, again (and with unnecessary "shouting" capital letters).
ReplyDeleteThe style of display which so upsets FBB is in use all over Swindon and no one complains. Indeed, what is the difference between that type of display and that used on real times screens and indeed digital departure lists at railway stations? The only difference I can think of is that the printed display shows departures 24/7 when the electronic probably shows just the next few.
Of course, it could just be that FBB is presenting only part of the story to support his view (remember the Andover - Newbury 7 where the note was deliberately cropped to make a point which wasn't?). Does the departure list shown not have a header of route diagrams which give average running times and explains the colour codes? Almost certainly so! You can even "make your own" in this style via Traveline...
Lancashire county council controls the bus stop displays throughout the county (or at least the part of it that it administers). In Lancaster, the routes that serve the University all have different timetables for term time and vacations. Lancashire's approach is provide a departure list in time order with every journey coded UT (University Terms) or UTH (er...University Holidays). Needless to say no information on term dates is given. Their staff agree that it would be easier for everyone if times were shown as two separate lists, but "the computer won't allow us to do it". They use Omnibus software, so if anyone knows how to do it using that can you please leave a comment.
ReplyDeleteCardiff Bus don't seem to have a problem, and I think (but am not sure) that the info. is on the stops too: https://tinyurl.com/y72qyjc8
ReplyDeleteThe only justification for "real time" screens is as a comfort to passengers waiting. Timetable (unreal) time is pointless as that information is already available in a printed departure list or a timetable usually at the same stop as the electronic display.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous (top), in his desperation to belittle fbb's genuine concerns, seems happy to obfuscate when fbb's suggestion would clarify. Which as always is fbb's point. The Buxton displays are poor in every way. They are still poor wherever they are if they use this particular bit of badly designed (or badly used!) software.
As I've said before, I think there's a real problem with electronic screens when they show a mixture of "real time" information (eg 1 to City Centre, 8 minutes) and "timetable" information (eg 2 to Crematorium, 14:38). People don't know the difference and assume, I think, that they're all "real time" - which they're not.
ReplyDeleteWe have a problem here in that one operator uses "real time" and the other doesn't, so we get this mixture.