Change of Plan:- The blog from County Durham will now appear on Monday (or even Tuesday) next week. There is plenty of other stuff to infrom and excite our readers.
Diverted Diversion Another P.S.
fbb did add a "Stop Press" to yesterday's blog, reporting that the usual Travel South Yorkshire departure lists were eventually posted at the revised stops on Rockingham Street.
The use of the word "usual£ is deliberate; because often TSY get things utterly wrong.
So a bit of revision. One of the joint services (operated by First and Stagecoach) is route 120. During Monday to Saturday daytime Stagecoach runs every 10 minutes from Ranmoor via the city centre and on to Halfway.
TSY doesn't want you to know that Riverdale Road Notre Dame, a school well hidden from the road ...
... is actually Ramnoor Church, reasonably easy to spot.
First Bus also operates every 10, on an overlapping route from Upper Fulwood (where once lived fbb) to Crystal Peaks.
Both routes call at the new stop on Rockingham Street.
Were you to look at the display in the frame, you would see this.
The bottom block is for Stagecoach journeys which, sort of, shows the correct frequency, EXCEPT that the phrase ever 8 to 10 minutes appears - which is utter nonsense.
But go up to the top panel and you will see TSY's "interpretation" of First's ten minute frequency. The only journey to Crystal Peaks shown is at 0900. The times in RED are for the evening service. For evenings and Sundays the operators share frequency on the whole route from Upper Fulwood to Halfway.
What appears at the stop is so ludicrously wrong that heads should rill, and roll a very long way - say all the way from Upper Fulwood to Halfway.
It is beyond belief that South Yorkshire PTE, with its enormous budget and enormous self importance should be so hopelessly incompetent.
It is beyond belief that the operators should continue to tolerate this atrocious service from the PTE. fbb has suggested many times and at various levels right to the top that operators should declare UDI and create a joint publicity and marketing company; then rip anything provided by the PTE out of the frames and replace it with something useful.
Will they do it? Of course not - because the PTE is the money bags and they are too frit to offend them
Thus here is boss Nigel Eggleton's "tactful" email to the PTE.
I wonder if one of your team would be good enough to quickly deal with this incorrect information. We continue to operate a 10/12 minute frequency.
Do let me know if there’s anything we can do from our end to avoid such hiccups in the future.
fbb suggests "SACK THE PTE"!!
Grab The Tiger By The Tail
More on this tomorrow.
Flixbus a P.S.
No sooner had fbb put finger to keyboard than David (Sheffield lad) emailed a query.
Thandi? He queried.
The licence held by Thandi Coaches (Red) Ltd is revoked with effect from 0001 hours on 1 January 2021. The revocation is pursuant to Sections 17(1)(a) and (b) and 17(3)(aa) of the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 (“the 1981 Act”).
The good repute of transport manager Amardeep Thandi is lost and he is disqualified for a period of 12 months, from 1 January 2021 until 1 January 2022, pursuant to Schedule 3 of the 1981 Act, from acting as a transport manager under any operator’s licence.
Thandi had appealed against the revocation but David was unsure of the outcome. Then this appeared, twitter-side from Whippet ...
... which confirms fbb's quoted list. Is Thandi operating to Birmingham and Manchester and, significantly, does Whippet have coaches in Flixbus livery? And if so how many?
When Flixbus first started up in the UK, contractors used their own vehicles in their own livery - nothing appeared in green for UK internal services.
Something Afoot in Glasgow
The above headline was for a cycling event, but it appears that Glas-Go is the (un)original name for something that the bus operators have cooked up.
Let's hope that it is a little more successful than the various Sheffield Bus Partnerships!
Glasgow bus operators join forces to transform the city’s bus service .
Yep, they did that in Sheffield. It was transformed with reduced frequencies, no printed material and fares increases.
Leading bus operators from across the Glasgow city region have joined forces to create Glas-Go, a new bus alliance formed to improve sustainable travel in and out of the city whilst increasing bus patronage by 25% over the next five years.
Wowsers!
As part of The Glas-Go Bus Alliance, a manifesto has been created which captures a multi-operator vision and lays out a commitment to delivering and investing in sustainable, reliable and customer focused bus travel.
Heard it all before. Don't believe a word of it.
Meaningful engagement with current and potential customers, affordable and easy to use ticketing, and improved and simplified travel information will be instrumental in encouraging more people to ditch the car and hop on a bus.
Will there be a well-stocked and well staffed enquiry office as there used to be not that long ago? Or will it be left to another moribund PTE?
To deliver in areas outwith the bus operators’ control - congestion, road infrastructure, bus priority measures and on street travel information - the Glas-Go Bus Alliance will work in partnership with the region's local authorities and SPT through the Glasgow Bus Partnership Steering Group.
More talk? More meetings? More wordy platitudes? No doubt they'll have a web site, so that's all right then.
Or will Glaswegians see a better bus service?
Guess?
Cynical, moi?
U-Turn On Carriage Shed Roof
The infrastructure manager of the Peterville Quarry Railway is justly proud of the upgrade being made to the carriage shed cum paintshop. It has lighting ...
... gutters, down pipes ...
... including some twiddly ones on the workshop building.
But, as fbb reported, the long skylit roof did not seem to fit properly. What could be done; would there be some sort of Divine inspiration?
In the end a giant hand appeared out of the heavens, lifted the roof into a fourth dimension, turned it through 180 degrees and plonked it back down on its girders,
It fits much better now - or it will do with a copious application of glue.
Seemples!
It would appear that fbb was less punctilious in his plastic preparation for poster part of the roof. No one can see it! The whole had been spun round, almost by accident as the recent upgrade began, and the back edge did not fit the front wall.
The U turn ensures it looks OK again!
Puzzle Picture
fbb kids you not - but you will have to wait until tomorrow for more information.
And From The B B C
Yet another news item that fulfils the Reithian principals of "inform and educate" that form the noble core of the BBC's news output.
fbb is mightily shocked!
Maybe it's because many families have been Gnome Schooling?
GROAN.
Next Variety blog : Saturday 17th April
"Giant hand from Heaven" . . . ah yes, the Modellers Best Friend!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, fbb . . . there was a full-blown guffaw over the toast and Marmite this morning!!
There's more than one Thandi, one of the best known families to spectators of the West Midlands bus scene (and at times the Traffic Commissioner) for many a decade
ReplyDeleteI would dispute Sheffield bus partnership saw increased prices when the opposite actually happened - cost of commuting was slashed! First Week tickets were significantly reduced in price and Travelmaster introduced cheaper all operator tickets for Sheffield (City bus and Citywide)
ReplyDeleteFBB is critical of TSY for its use of the designation 'Riverdale Road, Notre Dame' rather than 'Ranmoor Church'. However the First timetable from which an extract is shown above uses 'Notre Dame Sch' while Stagecoach buses which terminate there show on the front 'Ranmoor NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL'. To use 'Ranmoor Church' would be at odds with the designation used by both operators, so not such a good idea.
ReplyDelete