All On-Line (Episode 286½)

Mayhem in Manchester (1)

fbb has been known, on rare occasions, to be critical of Travel South Yorkshire (TSY) - the withered publicity arm of the Passenger Transport Executive. It used to produce timetable leaflets for every bus service in the county and, usually, they were available between one and two weeks prior to any changes.

It now produces nothing in print, leaving it to the bus companies who, as the blog has reported on numerous occasions, are, on a good day, useless.

But at least you can find on-line timetables in a similar (and printable) format to former leaflets.

The TSY home page, this time, has a huge banner directing you to the "official", but often incorrect" list of timetable changes from September 1st ...

... offering the same content as the printed booklet which was generally available for about a week before the dire date of doom and destruction.

The on-line list links direct to the changed timetables. fbb THINKS this is the first time a block of changes has been well announced on the home page.

If you want to examine or download any particular timetable. you can do a bit of click-looking and ...

... "timetable finder" takes you to a search box into which you can type a route number or a location. 

The definition of "location" is mysterious; but it appears to be using the route description from the timetable leaflets.

TSY says that it is the collection of "Stopping points" which it most definitely isn't. One former TSY employee suggested (hopefully) that it might be a list of roads which have bus stops on them, plus a smattering of District names - mostly in the wrong order. But it is sustainably created by the TSY deep throat confuser, so it must be correct.

But "Timetable search results" will get you to a timetable, or selection thereof, IF you know the route number or IF you happen to hit on a prescribed location.

So, with many uncertainties, you can find a timetable on the TSY site.

And so to Manchester.

fbb was doing a bit of research to augment his snippet about Diamond Bus North West and knows that the "sitz im leben" for transport in the city is known as Transport for Greater Manchester - of TfGM for short.

The home page of the their web site cheerily tells you it is ...

... and offers encouragement in a limited way.

Part of the "adventure" of tram travel is headlined ...

... but what fbb wanted was a timetable for a sample route now operated by Diamond, but previously by First Bus. His aim was to contrast and compare PTE presentation with that of the bus operator. But no sign of a simple "timetables" search.

There always USED to be a clearly labelled "Timetable Library" where copies of TfGM's printed timetables were indexed in route number order and were all available to download and print.

The main "headings" did not mention anything as useful as a timetable ...

... with "Plan a Journey" and "Ways to Travel" being the only likely clicks on offer. "Plan a Journey" seemed interesting ...

... as it showed a purple blob at fbb mansions alonside journey planning boxes.

Could fbb plan a journey from home to somewhere in Greater Manchester?

Surprisingly, no!

From Sheffield?

Surprisingly, yes!

So it looks like it was accessing Great Manchester bus data plus the National Rail stuff. The 1624 departure looked odd ...

... and was EXCEEDINGLY odd, proving, as always, that you simply cannot trust journey planners! Likewise cycle all the way takes 4 hours 24 min whereas cycle and tram takes one hour longer - you simply can't trust them slow and uncomfortable horse driven tramcars!

You do really need timetables; and fbb was struggling to find Diamond North West's service 2 in amongst the TfGM clutter.

That struggle may reach a conclusion in tomorrow's blog.

Where Do Our Buses Go?
Whist you are waiting, a couple of Sheffield Changes snaps from Roy's album ...

... and another 10A with a bigger "A".

First, and minor, problem is that TSY and the "Partnership" a k a Buses for Sheffield have adopted a policy of lower case "a" for "A" routes.

No matter, Powells are not part of the club! (Yet!).

But even Powell's (based at Hellaby in Rotherham and run by Hackney Community Transport) really ought to know that their buses run via

 Heeley 

and not

 Healey 

While looking at Powells, their web site (Its All On-line - of course) is still showing the X7 timetable from March 2018.

The times changed earlier on in 2019 but have never appeared for public viewing. More importantly, the times changed again from 2nd September.

Rather significantly!

The service now runs peak only, "peak flow" Monday to Friday only.

But Powell's want you to stand all day by the roadside in futile and unfulfilled hope.

Yep, It's All On-Line.

 Next hunt-the-timetable blog : Tuesday 10th September