Today fbb is at Guildford, at the launch 12 days after it launched, of First's RailAir 2 from Guildford to Heathrow. Rather than start a new topic, your considerate blogger has assembled some of his accumulated assemblage of amusing anecdotes (?).
Electronic Effectiveness NOT!
Readers may remember that a new bus stop has been created outside Eastbourne railway station where once there was none.
The reason is simple. All the bus stops on Terminus Road (straight ahead beyond the station) have been turfed out to prettify the road and make is more pleasant for pedestrians. In so doing, the planners have made it less pleasant for bus passengers, who now have longer to walk to the new stops and even longer to the temporary stops until the new ones are ready.
The new station stop is a permanent facility ...
... equipped with an electronic departure screen ...
... which was impossible to photograph! No matter, the bus stop has an identical information source in the timetable frame.
What the electronics show on-screen is simply printed out, departures for every route that calls there in time order. fbb has oft complained about the unhelpfulness of this style of departure list. Who walks up to the stop thinking, "Aha, 'tis 1234; I wonder where the next bus along is going. Might I board it and go for a ride?"
Of course not. The passenger is likely to want to know when the next service 1 to Shinewater might be. No probs if there is a separate list of service 1 departures, but somewhat frustrating if you have to plough through the whole sheet of everything. And it is easy to misread by one line and get into a fankle!
What is worse, this frame/screen lists every bus that is terminating, and in so doing will continue onward for just one stop.
54, 51, 55 and 98 are unlikely to attract large numbers of passengers; indeed while fbb observed, not a single solitary soul boarded ANY of these routes, but there were plenty of takers for the 1, 1A and Loop.
"Hang on a sec," our observant reader may cry, "buses with destination Loop also terminate at the town centre, so why are people boarding?"
Please note that "town centre" and "Eastbourne town centre" are, of course, the same place - hence the different name!
Please note that "town centre" and "Eastbourne town centre" are, of course, the same place - hence the different name!
But the "Loop" is just what it says on the tin - a loop. Off via Seasde (an Eastbourne road name) and via Langley to Hampden Park (such a long way to travel for those important Scottish football matches - snigger snigger) ...
... continuing via Willingdon Trees and the District Hospital back to town.
It is a genuine "circular", quite rare in bus operation terms, with buses circling via the loop or, if you prefer it, looping via the circle.
Check the times and you will see they are identical at the Hospital (19, 39, 59) with a five minute "layover" at "Terminus Road" where, as we know, there are no stops. "Terminus Road" does not mean "Terminus Road", it means, currently, the stops at the far end of Cornfield Road, by the roundabout (map below bottom right).
It is just the same in the opposite direction.
Because the electronics is part of a mindless computer system, programed by a mindless software developer, it is JUST PLAIN USELESS for service Loop at the station - as are the printed displays.
In the anti clockwise directions, once the bus has left Willingdon Trees the screens should scroll horizontally "Hospital, Town Centre, Langney" with "Hospital" dropping off at the hospital. From the town centre stops it should then show "Langley, Hampden Park, Willingdon Trees" and so on.
While they are at it, the printed timetable really should show "Willingdon Trees Hazelwood Avenue" to match the map.
It must be possible for a passing seven year old with a bit of computer knowledge to write a bit of code to do this. It may be computer science but it is not rocket science.
Mind If I Smoke?
Most steam locos in the USA are fuelled by oil. This produces some "interesting", but less than environmentally acceptable, funnel outpourings when said loco is working hard.
Save the planet? Air quality? Who cares; its way out in the wide open +spaces that are America. It will soon blow away! None of these pictures carries a date, so they may be ancient.
Something Odd Under a Tram?
But what? Or who? And where? Apparently a moggy.
It appears that the foolhardy feline had fled, forcing open its loosely locked cat basket. Having successfully escaped, fear overcame the animal and it ran to the nearest place of refuge.
There may be room for a cat, but without maintenance pit or a set of bogie jacks, there is insufficient bum or belly room for the average human animal.
Eventually the distraught animal was prodded and coaxed from the depths of darkness in the trammy underworld and reunited with its equally distraught (and very embarrassed) owner.
The local press did not elaborate on the consequences of the delay!
See cat scram!,
Pussy’s under the tram.
Who let her go?
Owner did, just so.
Someone coaxed her out?
With gleeful joyous shout.
Oh the careless owner's fault,
Who failed to slide the basket bolt,
The pussy suffered little harm,
And went back home to happy feline balm.
And you thought it was a rhyme about a naughty boy throwing pussy down a well. Now that would NEVER happen - but a cat under a tram ...
Croydon Tramlink Ltd is now owned by Transport for London and the system is operated by First Group under a contract which extends to 2030.
Rail Air Launch blog : Saturday 13th July
According to Companies House, there is no such company as "Croydon Tramlink Ltd" and never has been.
ReplyDeleteTfL is however the ultimate parent of a company called Tramtrack Croydon Ltd, the annual report for which states that "operations are outsourced to a fellow subsidiary of the TfL Group, Rail for London Ltd".