It is worth, at the outset, emphasising that chum Peter is a gent of "mature-ish" years and a former senior bus manager, so he is far from an amateur in matters omnibological. But he found himself in Middlesbrough bus station to wave farewell to daughter who was travelling further north.
The bus station opened in 1982 ...
... and was to fairly spartan design. Recent refurbishment has brightened the ambiance up considerably ...
... with lighting effects that are almost festive!
Sadly, you are unlikely to be able to enjoy them at the moment as the Council web site tells us that the doors close firmly at 1900!
It is a horseshoe in shape with bus layover areas in the centre of the U. Cleverly the stands on the outside of the U ...
... are served by a roadway that goes "up and over" the passenger circulation area.
This occupies the closed end of the U and means that folk can get to or from all stands without being run over or intimidated by threatening "keep off the roadway" signs.
But there is a problem with the layout as operated which flummoxed chum Peter. Whither departs his daughter's bus to Newcastle?
He knew it was an X10 - indeed one of GoAhead's superb monsters was grazing peacefully in the layover area.
There were departure screens; but one for each arm of the horseshoe.
And these were positioned at the end of the walkways that gave access to HALF the stands ...
... so a goodly distance apart and not viewable together.
The usual silliness applies. Information was in departure time order and showed about 30 minutes of activity. So, not only did you have to guess which screen the X10 might be on, but you had to wait until it appeared - which might mean you missed it if it was on the other screen.
Please, technology people, show departures in route number order because that is what your customers are looking for.
Notice also another techy stupidity, viz service 34 departing from Middlesbrough bus station every 20 minutes and travelling to,
ahem,
Middlesbrough!
ahem,
Middlesbrough!
Please, technology people, show sensible destinations - in this case "Billingham" would be more helpful.
If there was a plan displayed at the bus station, Peter did not find it - but, of course, all together now ...
If there was a plan displayed at the bus station, Peter did not find it - but, of course, all together now ...
It's All On Line!
Including a list of what leaves from where ...
... including the X9 and X10 from stand 19.
But Peter had another problem to deal with. Being the helpful, loving father that he is, Peter had bought his daughter an all zones day ticket for travel via GoAhead ...
... a real bargain at £7. There are lots of zones, all colour coded on line.
But Peter had made a serious error of judgement.
You see, he thought that an ALL zones ticket would be valid for ALL zones.
How utterly foolish can you be?
Because, unknown to Peter, lurking at the bottom of the above multi-coloured marvel was a bit that wasn't in any of the ALL zones. Yes, you've guessed it ...
... There is another Zone.
This includes Middlesbrough, Billingham and Stockton, PLUS the Tees Barrage ...
... whereat the X10 does stop nearby, amazingly.
Once you realise that ALL zones doesn't mean ALL zones, you can then find your way to special tickets valid for ALL ALL zones including the Twilight Zones of the X9 and X10.
This unhelpful and unfortunate interpretation of the difficult word ALL ...
... meant that Peter had to pay almost as much again to get his daughter from the non-ALL zone of Middlesbrough to the ALL bit of GoAhead's ALL zone ticket.
What a clever way to rip off unsuspecting customers; but, as fbb has discovered - join in the chorus again -
It's All On Line!
And that does mean ALL.
Or nearly ALL?
Testos, by the way, is a roundabout - not a misprunt for a large supermarket chain!
Motorists who approach the outskirts of Sunderland will find themselves confronted with Testo’s Roundabout, but why is it named thus? Well, there used to be a petrol station and caravan dealership there called Testo’s and even though it’s long since been flattened, the name remains. Best of all, it was owned by Alfred Testo, arguably the UK’s leading flea circus ringmaster of all time.
Tomorrow we go to Leeds
The Great Carriage Shed Rebuild.
Not a lot to report. The family (fbb's sons etc) were down for the weekend AND there's tram updates for GoTimetable Sheffield, but a bit of detail has been completed.
The footbridge from the store/warehouse building is complete as is the fence round the pump house. If you look closely, you can just spot a party of visitors making their way round ...
... to be shown the beam engine inside.
Maybe one day fbb will make a beam engine, but, fortunately, you can't see through the windows from the normal viewing angle!
Testos, by the way, is a roundabout - not a misprunt for a large supermarket chain!
Tomorrow we go to Leeds
The Great Carriage Shed Rebuild.
Not a lot to report. The family (fbb's sons etc) were down for the weekend AND there's tram updates for GoTimetable Sheffield, but a bit of detail has been completed.
Next Leeds Publicity blog : Thursday 23rd July
When I was last in Middlesbrough Bus Station, last May, I'm sure there was a full printed display on the back wall of the main passenger area next to the information office in route number order which indicated which stand each route ran from. That said its location, caused by the U shaped layout of the bus station, partly down one of the access walkways means that if you entered from the other side and walked slightly too far across to look at the buses you may not spot it behind you.
ReplyDeleteThe issue with using the electronic displays to list all routes is you either need multiple screens, larger screens (or smaller letters in the display) both increasing cost or you more risk people missing their bus as they wait for the route to appear in the long list across several pages whilst routes not due for hours are listed. At big and busy bus stations, like Middlesbrough where pretty much all routes in the town serve, the number of routes will be high with many on relative low frequencies so the lists will be long and the proportion not due any time soon will be high. Also in many cases, it has happened to about half the places I have lived, passengers have a choice of routes which don't follow the same route so don't run from the same stand so being able to quickly spot which service is leaving first is more useful more often. As stand allocations don't change as frequently as timetable, nor do they normally vary by day, it makes logical sense for stand lists to be paper based fixed displays (which can be done in route number order and alphabetical destination order for passengers to find the information needed) whilst real time timing information is provided on electronic displays in time order so passengers can spot their next journey if you can't go the whole hog (Leicester Haymarket Bus Station actually has the full set, electronic displays in departure order from the ceiling, electronic displays in route number order attached to the wall next to each entrance and paper displays in route number & alphabetical order attached to the walls near the enquiry desk).
Exactly as dwarfer1979 says there is a very good and logical reason why electronic departure screens are set up in this way a busy interchanges like Middlesbrough.
DeleteMaybe it’s just the way my brain works, but I don't get all this twilight zone nonsense. The Zones map – that for some reason has been clipped into bits by FBB – clearly shows there are four fare zones (termed GoZones), coloured Purple, Yellow, Green and Red. Within each zone area there are smaller "local" GoZones shown in lighter shade. You can buy day tickets for a local zone, a full zone, or that covers all four zones – all tickets seem very good value to me, especially the combined GoZones ticket at only £7 per day.
ReplyDeleteMiddlesbrough (and other locations in Teesside) are clearly shown not to be within any of the zones, so I'm not sure why Peter or FBB think any of the zone tickets would be applicable. To me it seems no different to London's (1-9) travel zones – I can buy a ticket for a zone, zones, or all zones – but I wouldn't expect that to cover travel outside the travel zone area.
FBB says "What a clever way to rip off unsuspecting customers"
I think this an entirely unfair comment – the usual FBB frothing hyperbole. Words like "clever" and "rip-off" suggest this is some underhand, Machiavellian deceit – rather than the honest truth – that Peter thought he knew best, didn't read the information properly and dropped a clanger. He made a mistake, not the company ripping him off (would his daughter had made the same error if she’d been able to buy her own ticket?).
I think Martijn Gilbert (Managing Director of Go North East & East Yorkshire) would be mortified to hear that he has been accused of setting up deliberately misleading fares in order to swindle customers.
Personally, looking at all of the day, week, month fares and fare zone they look to be exceptionally good value and well-structured.
It's the way my brain works as well. Middlesbrough is quite clearly show not to be in a zone, and therefore the "all zones" ticket wouldn't be valid.
DeleteWhat's more, having checked the GNE website, it is made really quite clear that you need a non-zones ticket for the X9/X10 not just once, but multiple times.
I agree with dwarfer: Leicester Haymarket has the best departure indicators I have seen in a while. Compare Spalding bus station where the 505 to King's Lynn is not mentioned on any display (there was a paper timetable at the departure stand some months ago but it has disappeared).
ReplyDeleteTo echo the sentiments above.... It is all on-line. In fact, it's remarkably clear in terms of both maps and text. Were it to be a paper leaflet, I'm not certain if the outcome would be any different
ReplyDelete"Please, technology people, show departures in route number order because that is what your customers are looking for." For once I disagree. From High Wycombe to Hazlemere, where I live, I can take either a 1, 1A, 48 or 31. I don't mind which, and will thus take whichever one has the earliest departure time.
ReplyDelete