Unlike some PTEs and some Counties, Derbyshire, faced with limited resources, has removed its complete timetable library from its on-line site for bus timetables. The hard-pressed staff would be pressed extremely hard to the point of disintegration if they tried to keep up with the frenetic pace of changes.
Instead, there is a list of email links to all the operators.
Depressing but sensible. Maybe some of Mr Shapps Postal Order could be diverted to struggling local authorities top enable them to maintain a one-stop timetable service?
fbb has just spotted a couple of omissions in the otherwise complete GoTimetable set for Sheffield. A "please get it sorted" request has gone to the techy team because the tables are there but the indexing isn't because they are new.
A Sombre Service Statistic
fbb has been sent a list of average numbers travelling on First West Midlands buses from Monday to Wednesday last week.
Hand-out definitely needed.
Another Typical Disappearance
Another Typical Disappearance
Reading buses service 7 branded The Tiger is curtailed muchly. This is one service where the "Reading Magic" has not worked. A revised and reduced timetable extract for the changes from January 2019 looked like this:-
Reading Buses took the 7 over from Stagecoach and initially ran all the way every hour.
From Monday the Virus service is reduced to an off peak basic service between Reading and Riseley only.
So no journeys filling the government's please for the preservation of journeys for those who need to get to and from work.
Is the now the least frequent service with posh branded buses?
Might some of these chops be unchopped with the application of a small chunk of yesterday's announced support money?
Tinner Truncated
In Cornwall, First Bus have reduced their prestigious Tinner service by half; hourly each on the T1 and T2 instead of half hourly on each.
Pretty much what you would expect, and probably not worth recording except that buses to Hinkley Point power station have also changed. They will now run ONLY from the Park and Ride sites. Village routes are suspended.
The builders have produced a video explaining the changes and, lo and behold, what turns up at the Cannington Park and Ride?
A displaced Tinner.
From Monday the Virus service is reduced to an off peak basic service between Reading and Riseley only.
Is the now the least frequent service with posh branded buses?
Tinner Truncated
In Cornwall, First Bus have reduced their prestigious Tinner service by half; hourly each on the T1 and T2 instead of half hourly on each.
The builders have produced a video explaining the changes and, lo and behold, what turns up at the Cannington Park and Ride?
Heathrow Maps
Having created a nice tidy diagrammatic straight line diagram with smoothly curved corners, the next challenge is to work out what to add in the way of place names. Transport for London does not make it easy.
Where, for example, is Southall Town Hall?
As is so often the case, "difficult" places are on the edge of the map or (sometimes) buried down the fold in the middle. So here is Southall ...
... and here is an enlargement of the junction of South Road, The Broadway, Margaret Road and High Street.
And there, clearly NOT marked on the map, is Southall Town Hall.
It is where the public conveniences logo can be found.
The once centre of local government in Southall was built in 1897 by Mr C.F. Kearley of Uxbridge and Kensington, to the plans of a Southall architect, Thomas Newall. It is of the debased classical style, with a central pediment. It is constructed of white brick with stone designs. In the basement were two store rooms; on the ground floor the offices of the surveyor, the registrar, the rate collector and the clerk; on the second floor were the council chamber and the medical officer's room. Attached to the building was the caretaker's lodge.
Only it ceased to be a Town Hall in 1965.
For sure, residents of Southall will still refer to it as "The Town Hall" but such an appellation is hardly helpful to an outside or, even worse, an amateur cartographer.
The 482 terminates thereabouts ...
The 482 terminates thereabouts ...
... although exactly where is not clear. The 105 passes by but the non-town hall gets no mention as a time point.
These maps, by the way, are highly provisional - much standardisation will be needed.
Then TfL (and its predecessors) make much use of pub names at time points. So route 111 is times at Hanworth The Swan. And there it is, next to the pond.
The pond is gone, the pub boarded up in some Streetview shots, private residences in others, but the building still stands on Swan Road ...
... and the pond is now Swan House.
So what do you call it on a bus route map?
Then TfL (and its predecessors) make much use of pub names at time points. So route 111 is times at Hanworth The Swan. And there it is, next to the pond.
MOf course, the Heath was much bigger way back in the 1920s and 1930s ...
Which brings us neatly to the complications of Hounslow.
Sorting all this out is a very useful way of filling the time freed by no Christian Meetings to prepare, although a replacement mini-leaflet for our monthly Sunday effort went out, mostly by post, on Thursday.
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Short Thought
It is, says Moses (on behalf of Yahweh, the I am God), a simple choice.
The command that I am giving you today is not too difficult or beyond your reach. It is not up in the sky. You do not have to ask, ‘Who will go up and bring it down for us, so that we can hear it and obey it?’ Nor is it on the other side of the ocean. You do not have to ask, ‘Who will go across the ocean and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and obey it?’ No, it is here with you. You know it and can quote it, so now obey it.
Today I am giving you a choice between good and evil, between life and death.
Choose Life!
Powerful words from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy.
Believers today would insist that the choice has not changed. The words may be different; some of the concepts may be understood differently in today's so-called enlightened world, but the choice doesn't change.
Accept The Covenant centred on those two groups of five "terms and conditions" a k a "commandments" and hang on to it like glue.
It is, says Moses (on behalf of Yahweh, the I am God), a simple choice.
The command that I am giving you today is not too difficult or beyond your reach. It is not up in the sky. You do not have to ask, ‘Who will go up and bring it down for us, so that we can hear it and obey it?’ Nor is it on the other side of the ocean. You do not have to ask, ‘Who will go across the ocean and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and obey it?’ No, it is here with you. You know it and can quote it, so now obey it.
Today I am giving you a choice between good and evil, between life and death.
Choose Life!
Powerful words from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy.
Believers today would insist that the choice has not changed. The words may be different; some of the concepts may be understood differently in today's so-called enlightened world, but the choice doesn't change.
Accept The Covenant centred on those two groups of five "terms and conditions" a k a "commandments" and hang on to it like glue.
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Next Heathrow blog : Sunday 5th April
I understand that the timetables on Derbyshire's excellent website come from registrations. This allows time for staff to make a few changes at a time. Even if they haven't been seconded to other duties, there is no way they could keep up with the current pace of changes.
ReplyDeleteTo take one example. trentbarton last Sunday ran a one-off timetable, different to a normal Sunday but not the same as they plan for tomorrow. On Monday (30 March) every route was either suspended or reduced to a special timetable. Some of these were tweaked on Wednesday and there will be further changes next Monday. Meanwhile Arriva posted timetables for this coming Sunday yesterday and one route still says "TBC".