normal Service
will be resumed
as soon as possible
fbb has had a busy trip to the Isle of Wight, two additional and unexpected speaking engagements plus Christmas updates for the GoTimetable Sheffield site. Add this to the usually full-on preparation for the season and the fuses are close to blowing.
Time has run out to research the next few intended blogs. So to give the old man a breathing space, he has brought forward a couple of rounds in his Christmas Quiz.
This is just for fun and the answers will follow later this week. Here goes.
All except one have featured in fbb blogs, both ancient and modern
1. a picture of what?
2. where is this "junction"?
3. where and why?
4. What was launched with salty fudge?
5. where would you go for a pick-me-up?
6. once industrial now recreational - where?
7. translation, please?
8. What route number is this bus?
9 . trialled, where?
10. what and where?
A thanks to those who have forwarded information about Christmas Eve shut downs (shuts down?). The position is somewhat better than fbb had thought at first - but very patchy and illogically so.
Why shut down early in Sheffield and not in Bristol? What is the difference. Is the city itself different or do the bus company management teams have a radically different philosophy. Of particular interest is a group of Stagecoach towns (same operating company) where the policy is quite inconsistent.
Why?
More when fbb's sanity returns.
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ADVENT CALENDAR 10
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It was later writings in the prophetic Bible book of Isaiah that really opened up the understanding of EXACTLY what God's Messiah would be like.
It was a concept which the people of the day found difficult to understand, but it was a style of messiahship which was revealed, spot on, at the first CHRISTmas.
When your blogging author was Head of RE in a large comprehensive school in a fairly unholy district of Sheffield he used to read some of these sentences out to his class without revealing that they were from the Bible, let alone an Old Testament prophet.
It was the will of the Lord that his servant
grow like a plant taking root in dry ground.
He had no dignity or beauty
to make us take notice of him.
We despised him and rejected him;
he endured suffering and pain.
No one would even look at him
we ignored him as if he were nothing.
He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly;
he never said a word.
Like a lamb about to be slaughtered,
like a sheep about to be sheared,
he never said a word.
He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die,
and no one cared about his fate.
He was put to death for the sins of our people.
The sproglets in fbb's class were all agreed that the words were all about Jesus and his death on the cross.
Imagine their surprise when fbb revealed that they were written around 580BC!
This would be a VERY different messiah from "yer bog-standard" messiah.
But Isaiah went on to make it very, very personal. His prophecies ensure that events in first century Bethlehem are even more challenging. CHRISTmas becomes a much more precious story.
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Next undecided blog : Tuesday 11th December
Not a comment on Christmas Eve but I notice that the whole of Stagecoach South is running a full* Sunday service on Boxing Day this year. I can't say I've noticed anyone offering that level of service before (they may have done but if so, it has by-passed my orbit!).
ReplyDelete*There are a handful of exceptions which I guess are contracts: Hoverbus, Guildford P&R, Basingstoke Centre Shuttle.
Meant to say a Sunday service on BOTH Boxing Day AND New Year's Day, not just Boxing Day.
DeleteSouthern Vectis have run a full Sunday service on the Isle of Wight on both days for some years now, as well as services on main routes all day on Christmas Day and no early finishes on Christmas or New Years Eve.
DeleteGood luck to them . . . . . we're running a skeleton service on Boxing Day and New Years Day . . . . in previous years there simply hasn't been anything like enough passengers to justify anything more. We'll run up to normal last bus times on Xmas Eve and New Years Eve, mind you . . . . finishing early saves 5/8ths of next to nothing in costs, so we might as well.
DeleteOn New Years Day in around 1980 I was driving a bus from 0630 to 1100 before I saw any passenger at all . . . . there's nothing to change that now!!!
You can run a full service all you like, but you can't force passengers to travel!!
I hope your skeletons enjoy their service. Unfortunately the public do want to travel on these days but generally can't because there is no service. If you don't run buses at the difficult times of day when there are still people who need to get around you might as well keep chasing your diminishing customers and prepare to pack up shop. The first year we introduced a Sunday service on Boxing Day it was the busiest Sunday operation that winter. New Years Day is useless but you have to live with that. There are still a few souls wandering home from parties, assuming you start before lunchtime of course, but there are still people who need to get around to work, apart from any leisure travel.
DeleteThe attitude of the local trade union branch might have a lot to do with when services shut down on Christmas and New Year's eves.
ReplyDeleteThe Sheffield shutdown began c1980 as part of an industrial dispute- but evenig services were never reinstated, except in 1989 to (I think) 1992 when (happy days!) there was spare money in the tendering kitty and the whole lot was put out to tender. In 1989 much went to independnts such as Northern Bus resulting in Bristol REs turning up in strange places; in 1990 (I think) East Midland won the lot. Loadings were generally pitiful, and even by teatime in the early 90s buses (and the City Centre) were very quiet. In the 1960s many workers did a full day on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve; outside retail that is now rare and it is notable how little car traffic there is. This is a demand that has evaporated. By contrast Boxing Day hads got much busier as reflected by the increased, if moderate, service now offered in Sheffield on that day.
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