Thanks muchly to correspondent Julian, fbb has been able to investigate this technology. The "frame" shown above at the R S P B centre near Edwinstowe is anonymous - fbb does not know who has installed it (Nottinghamshire Council?) but travel to Newbury and more information is forthcoming.
A similar thingey is fixed to a bus stop pole on Park Way. That road name baffled fbb, but, as it is some time since he visited, he guessed something significant had happened in the town centre.
It had.
A large chunk of the main Northbrook Street has been pedestrianised ...
... and those nasty buses have been banished to a parallel road, Park Way, to the right of the shops shown above.
Wharf Road is buses only ...
... and leads across the Canal ...
... to the new bus station. The old bus station, located, helpfully, near the railway station ...
... in now being redeveloped.
The new bus station (better known as the new large bus shelter) ...
... has no facilities except some draughty benches, no toilets and, apparently, no real time information.
The green monoliths are filled with good old paper displays ...
... so we have to go to the first stop out from the Bus Shelter, the stop on Park Way that is closest to the main street, and there we find ...
... and electronic timetable "frame" with a lady in blue shorts looking at it. Or is she, maybe, searching for something in her carrier bag?
A close-up shows what it shows.
Papercast is the company that produces this stuff.
So it relies in a data feed from Reading Buses (and NOT Traveline - hooray!) but currently cannot give any info on "other operators". fbb likes the panels headed "Local Buses" and "Vodaphone Buses" and presumes that another panel will include longer distance services to Reading etc.
It would be even better if the departures were in route number order rather than time order. A passenger is looking for "the next service 6" and not for any old bus leaving in 6 minutes!
But these screens can be programed to show anything and everything. It all depends how well young Gavin can manipulate the software which, presumably, is included in the cost (considerable?) of the deal.
Papercast shows all sorts on its web site including simple one line route diagrams and route maps.
fbb will explore the technology further tomorrow and (with apologies to all those who were looking forward to a visit to the town of the twisted spire) will be calling in at Chesterfield.
While You Are Eagerly Waiting ...
A Twittered picture which fbb enjoyed.
Two advertisements that fbb did NOT like at all.
No, not at all.
In literate English the apostrophe before "s" shows either possession (e.g. "the fat bus bloke's corpulence") or the omission of part of the verb (e.g. "It's fbb talking drivel again" instead of "It is fbb" etc.).
The apostrophe and S is NEVER used to designate a plural. If the typesetter does not (doesn't) like the look of 92s and 45s then just keep the heading as singular (CLASS 92 and CLASS 45).
The perpetrator here (RAIL'S OF SHEFFIELD) is not the only advertiser to misuse his punctuation!
22 Years Old!
The December edition of Modern Railways arrived yesterday including a "supplement" extolling the virtues of Virgin Trains' "ownership" of the West Coast main line.
Is it really 22 years? Wowsers! fbb was but a callow youth of 52 when Uncle Richard began his reign.
Virgin West Coast is 50% Stagecoach, also former holder of the successful South West Trains franchise, now First Group's South Western Railway.
In a few weeks (8th December to be precise) First Group in partnership with Trenitalia will take over West Coast and begin the preparations for High Speed 2 at the same time? Is this too big a job for First, indeed for ANY franchise holder?
Never mind. DaFT will micro manage it from behind closed doors and leave First to take the blame if it all goes wrong. (WHEN it all goes wrong?)
The general view is that the franchising system has had its day and something different is needed. Why, even Boris has promised change; whilst Jezza wants to re-nationalise.
The apostrophe and S is NEVER used to designate a plural. If the typesetter does not (doesn't) like the look of 92s and 45s then just keep the heading as singular (CLASS 92 and CLASS 45).
The perpetrator here (RAIL'S OF SHEFFIELD) is not the only advertiser to misuse his punctuation!
22 Years Old!
The December edition of Modern Railways arrived yesterday including a "supplement" extolling the virtues of Virgin Trains' "ownership" of the West Coast main line.
Virgin West Coast is 50% Stagecoach, also former holder of the successful South West Trains franchise, now First Group's South Western Railway.
In a few weeks (8th December to be precise) First Group in partnership with Trenitalia will take over West Coast and begin the preparations for High Speed 2 at the same time? Is this too big a job for First, indeed for ANY franchise holder?
Never mind. DaFT will micro manage it from behind closed doors and leave First to take the blame if it all goes wrong. (WHEN it all goes wrong?)
The general view is that the franchising system has had its day and something different is needed. Why, even Boris has promised change; whilst Jezza wants to re-nationalise.
It's all on line 279 : Friday 22nd November
Since the third entry on the papercast display is for the 1 to Reading, "local buses" would seem to cover everything that isn't a Vodafone service (which I understand are not available to the general public).
ReplyDeleteIf as implied other operators are excluded, then routes to Andover and Basingstoke run by Stagecoach would be omitted anyway.
How I agree with you about the greengrocer's apostrophe (or greengrocers' apostrophe)! Unfortunately it often crops up in other well-respected transport blogging......
ReplyDeleteThe use of an apostrophe to mark a plural numeral is actually a perfectly acceptable variant usage. Apostrophes can be used to mark plural numerals, letters or other unusual words, purely to make it easier on the eye. See (by way of example) http://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/apostrophe/plurals. Even Fowler's begrudgingly accepts it where it clears confusion, albeit prefers to omit it from numerals.
ReplyDeleteAs the confused schoolboy might write, "People in glass houses' shouldnt throw stone's"