Firstly, It's All On Line
Potential bus passengers seeking information about services in Bicester can search on-line for the "current" Oxfordshire bus map but they might wish to treat the information contained thereon with a certain amount of polite suspicion ...
... as it is dated 2009!
Helpfully (??) Oxfordshire also publish an on-line map of Bicester town services ...
... which is dated 2012. Is this fully up to date? It is reasonable to assume that it will be more up to date that the 2009 version. Here is the list of routes shown on the map ...
... and your knowledgeable author can tell at a glance that the S5 is wrong and the X5 doesn't run to Cambridge any more.
And here are the routes helpfully (??) NOT shown on the map.
There is, therefore, strong evidence that things have changed a bit since 2012.
Consistency? Just what passengers need!
In case you were wondering, the two routes in GREY are excluded from these blogs because they are designed to get eager shoppers to and from Bicester Village which, as its name suggests, is not a village but a huge retail shopping paradise - giving a whole new meaning to the word "paradise"!
And it's not even all under cover!
The BV1 links the "village" with the two railway stations ...
... and the X16 brings customers from Aylesbury but only on a Saturday.
Bicester itself has a population of around 30,000 souls so is an obvious candidate for a proper bus timetable book and some sense of co-ordination in providing information. But, of course, it hasn't got either of them.
Buses are provided by a wide selection of independent operators with the mainline routes to Oxford and other "nearby" towns being the province of Stagecoach Oxford, recently having been stripped of its local management structure in favour of a merger with the Cheltenham and Gloucester operation.
Excellent customer service now available more remotely NOT.
The BV1 is in now the hands Of GoAhead's Oxford (City) Bus ...
... and Grayline Coaches run a similar liveried express service from London.
The X16 is run by Arriva The Shires.
And a minor fbb bludner to report. The 94 should be in grey as this service from Charlton-on-Otmoor does not serve Bicester, although it is indexed under Bicester by Traveline.
Looking in detail at the local bus route map, we might be able to link 2012 with 2021.
Glory Farm
Is still served by the S5 (MAROON on the map extract).
Langford
was half of the cross-town 22 and 23, but has become ...
... the new 27
Highfield
looked a complicated mess in 2012 ...
... with 21 (PALE BLUE), 25, 25A (DARK BLUE) and an occasional S5! The 21 remains, augmented in part by route 250 which runs via Middleton Stoney and Heyford continuing into Oxford.
You can see why the town really needs a good map! Almost everything has changed in one way or another, presumably to reduce services, reduce costs, increase confusion and thus reduce passenger numbers even further.
This tale will continue in a later blog, possibly Monday.
Twitter Says "This Sunday" ...
... but which Sunday?
Twitter Shows London ...
... a powerful and beautiful mixture of new and old. When it was built The Tower was the tallest building in London, and hugely taller than anything else.
Another For The Livery Collection
fbb has commented before on the fascinating policy of decorating its buses adopted by Go Ahead East Yorkshire. There is plenty of variety, but each version has a distinct "flavour" but a family likeness to all the others.
One of the latest ...
... has more blue than the standard - if there is such a thing as standard.
Blue is for Coaster, presumably! And very different from the East Rider angular shapes!
fbb prefers the swirls - looks more like much of the East Riding countryside!
Next Variety blog : Saturday 14th August
Google will find old files which have not been deleted.
ReplyDeleteOxfordshire does not currently produce any bus information, but directs you to operators and traveline. However they do partner with operators to run oxontime.com which offers live departure times from every bus stop in Oxfordshire. Put in Bicester and you get a list of routes, mostly by Stagecoach (SOX), who do have a 2021 area map.
Are they files that have been deleted or old files that have not been deleted by the original posters . . . so many out of date timetables can appear in answer to a web query !
ReplyDelete