Far Away At Farway
fbb's daughter-in-law has worked on the Oxford Astro Zeneca virus and is thus somewhat sensitive to matters viral! Thus it was that No 1 son and family came to stay far away at Farway for the weekend; and called in to see the "old crusties", suitably protected.
Farway is a hamlet near Colyton ...
... which does have a bus service!
It is hardly frequent.
Sensibly, the family have a car.
News From Northampton
Alan sent details of his local stop temporary replacement.
Very professional!
Also, Stagecoach are still using borrowed buses. The former East Coast Buses (Lothian Regional Transport) have gone back to Ensign; but have been replaced by ex Edinburgh City liveried vehicles.
As Alan points out ...
Should you be waiting for a Stagecoach service 1 or 2 bus in Fellmead Road, Rectory Farm, they come in many colours.-
Fleet livery (old).
Fleet livery (new).
Stagecoach Gold.
Coventry Unibus.
TfL Red.
Lothian Madder and White.
And of course there is service 21 in pink from "Uno who" too.
Customer service, what's that?
Glas-Go Partnership P.S.
In response to fbb's cynicism and comparison with the pointless Sheffield Bus (non)Partnership, a senior industry inside writes ...
So it's about getting government money, then?
With the big guns on side, maybe something positive WILL happen/
FlixBus P.S.
They are still talking big!
Viel Glück Flixbus!
FlixBus P.S.
Es ist ein sehr halsbrecherisches
Geschäft da draußen.
Yorkshire Tiger Trapped and Taken
Yorkshire Tiger do not offer the luxury of a network map, but there is a list of services grouped by each urban "hub".
Although there are duplicates in the above list, there is quite a lot for Trandev to get to grips with. An oddity must surely be a service in Keighley ...
... but it is also on the Halifax list. The web site announcing the service ...
... tells us that the 502 co-ordinate with the 524 and 526 along Ovenden Road (Halifax).
Of course Tiger (i.e. Arriva) wouldn't mentio the 522 and 523 (currently sduspended) along Ovenden Road, would they. Of course not because they are run by F**st B*s!
Incidemntally, two routes in the Tiger oeuvre are not being taken over by Transdev. These are the 231 ...
... and 232 ...
Yorkshire Tiger Trapped and Taken
Yorkshire Tiger operates a number of services centred on the towns of Halifax and Huddersfield.
Our distinct orange buses with tiger stripes are a familiar sight across the West Yorkshire area. We are an agile business with a large portfolio of tendered services which run under contract to WYCA. These include our network of minibus services in Calderdale which are branded The Calder Cubs. 
It is spelled with a double "S" if you put the wrong panel back!
If you'd like to know more, visit our Yorkshire Tiger website
Yorkshire Tiger do not offer the luxury of a network map, but there is a list of services grouped by each urban "hub".
... which revert to Tiger's current parent company, Arriva. Nobody is saying why.
These services have a long, chequered. Before Tiger, there was Arriva until then rebrand ...
Previous to that the routes were in the hands of Centrebus holdings ...
... who bought out Stagecoach.
Stagecoach had bought the privatised Yorkshire Traction ...
... which had earlier bought out County Motors of Lepton.
Bus watchers will be wondering what new owners Transdev will do with their acquisition. The deal is not due to be completes for a few months - but thereafter we shall see.
Puzzle Picture
The Gaussian Blimpoid (obviously?) is a Lego-style construction kit, part of a range launched by Hornby.
Yer what?
Last year Hornby introduced a series of "Steam Punk" OO gauge models ...
... being ordinary Hornby mouldings with bits stuck on.
Now comes the free-standing range of assembly kits of which the Gaussian Blimpoid is just one.
These are sold under the Basset-Lowke brand name.
Wenman Bassett-Lowke ...
... one of the greatest model- and miniature- railway engineers EVER will be turning in his grave at the thought of such trivia bearing his name.
It could be that some of our readers do not fully understand about "steam punk"? Neither does fbb!!
The Tree-Dwelling Iguana
Another top story from the BBC News web site.
And it is well past April 1st.
You do wonder whether any news spewed out by so-called responsible providers can be considered worth considering.
More Variety tomorrow : Sunday 18th April
Yorkshire Traction didn't exactly "buy out" County Motors, as they already part-owned it. County Motors was formed in 1919 and was bought out in 1927 by a consortium of Yorkshire Traction, Yorkshire Woollen and West Yorkshire as its services operated across the territories of all three. It continued to operate independently under the County Motors identity until the creation of the National Bus Company in 1969. This brought all three of the owning companies into a single Government organisation and County Motors was then incorporated into Yorkshire Traction.
ReplyDeleteCorrection - the third owner was West Riding, not West Yorkshire.
DeleteThe service in Keighley is not an oddity. The service has always run from the Halifax end, before tiger by Yorkshire Rider/West Yorkshire PTE. Originally Hebble route 2 which ran from Halifax to Bingley.
ReplyDeleteAnd also for many years, Yorkshire Woollen ran a long cross-West Yorkshire route No. 2 from Ossett, through Dewsbury, Brighouse, Elland and Halifax, to Keighley.
DeleteI remember seeing the bus as a child, and wondering where on earth Ossett was!