Plans for today's blog have changed for a number of reasons. Yesterday fbb reported that the late running road layout changes to allow diverted Sheffield buses to get back to their normal route were not ready for the advertised Sunday opening.
The unfinished bus gate opened at 1030 yesterday, still unfinished by useable - just ...
... although, according to Sheffield chum, David, nobody had told the bus operators. some buses went the bus gate way via Furnival Gate ...
... but others were still taking the lengthy diversion via Moorfoot, Cumberland Street.
Such are the benefits of the modern technology that equips the centralised control room! Plonking an inspector at the end of Rockingham Street ...
... to tell the drivers that they could turn left was a solution way beyond the management skills of First Bus and Stagecoach.
The temporary "dolly stops" which should have been installed just beyond the bus gate remained resolutely in the naughty corner!
But another little problem has emerged, also starting yesterday. One week after the Council confused all the passengers by moving routes and stops with inadequate warning and poor advance notices, First Bus appears to have lived up to its derogatory nickname of Worst Bus.
On Friday fbb spotted notes like this on the Travel South Yorkshire (TSY) list of "temporary" service changes.
No probs, thought the old and chubby one, that will be enhancements to some First Bus services from Sunday 21st, increasing from every hour to every half hour during the main part of the day.
A quick email to the very nice man from First (who is very helpful) provided the timetables for the Sunday increase first thing on Friday morning.
And, emailed the very nice man, we are making some minor changes to the Monday to Saturday timetables for some of the routes that were diverted from 14th.
No mention on the TSY list.
fbb could find nothing on First's web site. Up to Sunday you could browse the "forthcoming" timetable section, searching diligently for your service. The changes both to Sunday's schedules and the "minor changes" for the rest of the week were all there. But from Sunday onwards the "forthcoming" section disappears and the changed timetables become "normal" timetables.
How will the potential passenger know his service has changed. There is no headline to warn users.
Sunday brings extra journeys, but the hourly service has been in place since the start of lockdown has not changed as such. So not a disaster if you don't know it is happening.
But what about this?
Here is a sample from the former Monday to Friday timetable.
So, you have just visited granny at Millhouse and you hurry out to catch the 1208 to Totley ...
... only to find that your bus left 5 minutes ago and you now have 25 minutes to wait!
Earlier departures without warning are not good for customer confidence.
But fret not; all the journeys are annotated SD which means "schooldays only".
But fret not; all the journeys are annotated SD which means "schooldays only".
Good 'ere innit?
And Now Our Film ...
Many weeks ago, fbb attempted to watch "Ring of Spies" on the Talking Pictures channel; which specialises in old films. As sometimes happens, the signal was poor and fbb had to give up. But a few days again it popped up again.
The film dates from 1964 and is redolent of the cold war "reds under the bed" scares of that far off age. It was an adaptation of a true story which headlined as "The Portland Spy Ring".
A disillusioned diplomat (actor Bernard Lee) is pushed into an obscure job at the Navy's Underwater Research Unit at Portland. He is approached by a Russian Agent (William Sylvester) ...
... with a view to obtaining "documents" of interest to a "foreign power". Said disgruntled civil servant enlists the help of a slightly seedy single lady (Margaret Tyzack) ...
... in return for riches beyond their wildest dreams.
Secret agent takes the goodies to an unassuming bungalow in Ruislip ...
... whence the secrets are dispatched to the Kremlin by equally unassuming secret agents (David Kossoff, Nancy Nevinson).
Of course, they are caught by the obligatory dogged policeman (Derek Francis) and duly given lengthy sentences.
James Bond it is not!
There are small parts played by Paul Eddington, Philip Latham and Geoffrey Palmer, all three in the bloom of their youth.
Blog readers may just be wondering what on earth this has in connection with public transport.
The initial contact between the baddies needs a coded message, despite the fact the everybody looks so obviously like the cinematographers stereotype of "a spy"!
The coded message is, "What time is the next 406 bus to Epsom?"
The significance of this coded message would have escaped fbb completely had his July edition of Buses magazine not flopped through the letterbox at fbb mansions.
The 406 is 100 years old this very year.
The Epsom and Ewell history Explorer web site ...
... has an excellent history of the route which you should read in full (here) - despite the tag line, it falls well short of being Anorakish!
A few snippets to whet the appetite. Started as independent S26 ...
... it became part of London Transport in 1933.
Later served by the ubiquitous green London Transport country area bus ...
... its Routemasters became part of the National Bus Company, swapping "country" green for the bog standard NBC leaf green.
Then came privatisation as London & Country ...
... and decline under the Arriva buy-out.
The 406 was "rescued" as a "proper" red bus route and is currently operated by Quality Line, the buses arm of Epsom Coaches.
Obviouly London experts will know that the history is far more complex than fbb has summarised, but the above will do!
The 406 could well be regarded as one of the routes that has continuously mirrored the fortunes of greater London Transport and may well be trundling along its core for for many years yet.
Again, thanks to the Epsom and Ewell historians, we read this:-
A Bus Operator, Nostalgiabus, from Mitcham, started running Route 306 during 1997 and 1998 from Epsom to Kingston using mainly former London Transport Routemaster Buses which of course were Crew-worked with driver and conductor/conductress.
Route 306 ran alongside One-Person-Operated Route 406 – the 406 by then being worked by London & Country the new name for London Country Bus Services. The wheel had come full-circle and it was lovely to see those superb traditional Routemasters on Route 306, but so sadly Route 306 could not last and it was taken off.
In one incident, the spies opted to use the 406 and ended up at Epsom Racecourse. Sadly, there were no shots of the bus or its route.
Tomorrow we try for the Afon Hafren again.
Postponed Crossings blog : Wednesday 24th June
The 406 was my bus to work. The route used to run to Redhill and this involved traversing the Epsom racecourse road. Sitting on the upper deck one one Derby Day, I witnessed a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce slowly and silently rear-end another chauffeur driven Rolls, resulting in the rear car's bumper falling off. I did chuckle!
ReplyDeleteInclusion of "Sheffield (HS2)" as a timing point for the 96/7 seems a little premature, but as it seems to offer no service on these routes there maybe isn't a problem (yet).
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