That Puzzle Picture
If you keep up with Ray Stenning's twitterings, you will have seen this "thing", but for a fuller report you would need to be a keen reader of Roger French's blog. Both referred to a jolly outing to visit what is left of the Kingsway tram subway,
The subway provided a physical link between tram routes south of the Thames and those operating in the north thereof. The entrance was on the embankment alonside Waterloo Bridge. This picture shows work to raise the roof to allow the operation oif douible deck trams.
By the early 1960s part of the tiunnel had been used for a roadway.
The road tunnel re-apperas just north of the junction with Aldwych showing the distinctibe frontage of Bush house behind the slope.
This motor transport tunnel obliterated the tram station named Aldwych.
Entry was via two stairways in the middle of the road.
At the northern end of the tram tunnel where it came up for air is the road named Holborn and the so-named Tube Station.
Just south of this exit ramp was the Holborn tram station, similar in design to its southern end counterpart.
Once again there were two fairly narrow stairways.
It is Holborn Station that can be visited on trips organised by London Transport Museum.
fbb knew straight away what the puzzle picture was, but search as he might via Streetmap, he could not identify the structures. All that he could finf were two ventilation gratings ...
... remarkably similar and utterly uninteresting!
Then, in a flash of inspiration, the penny dropped!
Part of the grating lifts into a vertical position revealing the former steps down to Holborn undergound tram stop. A view from below confirms this beautifully.
So when you are next exploring the Holborn area of our fascinating Capital ...
... you can bravely (or maybe suicidally!) stride out into the narrow central reservation and peer knowledgeably through the grating. Probably the most you will see is a few scraps of litter on the steps, but you can imagine Londoners descending to catch their undergound tram.
Contrast And Compare : Out West
Covid, maybe but Brexit? Surely that excuse is no longer valid? And this struggling small operator, unable to keeop its services going ...
Yep. Tin-pot company called Stagecoach.
Contrast And Compare : Out West
Apparently Tesco have banned their staff from taking their mobile phones on to the till positions. Sensible. This means they don't get pinged! Whatever the marginal benefits of the App, it seems plain daft that parts of the UK economy are being damaged as a result of non-clinical diagnosis by mobile phone. DELETE THE APP.
If it really IS a problem for Stagecoach, surely it would be better to reduce frequencies "for ther duration" rather than relying on various electronic devices to communicate. Many of Stagecoach's regukar and loyal passengers are old crusties who either do not have the technology, of, if they do, leave it safely in the drawer at home.
They are just stranded!
Meanwhile in East Yorkshire.
Excellent timetable booklet with local map ...
... longer distance map ...
... timetables ...
... and a launch for the lovelty revised locals.
And there's a new bargain day fare of £3 as well.
And In Sheffield
Changes to bus, tram and train services in South Yorkshire
Last updated on 19 August 2021.
There will be service changes to some First and Stagecoach services on Saturday 28, Sunday 29, Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 August.
Approximately 30 services are flagged as changing. Some revert to earlier more frequent timetables on Monday to Friday, some are retimed on Mondat to Saturday and for some there are less than a handful of changes prompted by the need to serve schools.
It is a right hoych-potch inadequately described, presented in a mixture of styles, even within the same service group/
But the timetables are all available on the Travel South Yorkshire site.
Or are they?
In order to update GoTimetable Sheffield fbb aims to source timetables from the operators. First Bus have been consitently supportive. As for the rest ...
Instead of receiving nice tidu files a couple of days ago, this email arrived.
It appears that the list on the PTE site is NOT the final story.
Poor people of Sheffield; maybe they should move to Beverley?
Next Variety blog : Sunday 22nd August
Brexit is still an issue in driver shortages because all the EU drivers who went home after we left are still there. They only got driving jobs in the UK in the first place because the industry was struggling to recruit staff.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for alerting me to the fact that Tesco check out staff will no longer know whether they might have been infected at work. I shall avoid Tesco from now on to prevent being infected by them myself.
The changes mentioned in "There will be some service changes" may be for the bank holiday period only rather than permanent, for example running weekend services on the Monday - or does "on" mean "on and from" in South Yorkshire?
DeleteStagecoach South West is short of drivers due to low pay at £10 ph whereas plenty of other jobs including at other operators such as Plymouth Citybus or First or van driving are available - simple!! Nothing to do with Brexit or Covid! Pure lies! Treating passengers like fools!
ReplyDeleteIf it were just Stagecoach South West you might have a point but since First Cornwall are having similar high-profile issues as well as many companies across the country. The COVID issues are just drivers being pinged or getting ill and having to self-isolate but the 18-month pause in training leaving companies behind the curve, older drivers who after being furloughed found they didn't mind the inactivity as much and so retired and the issues around the DVLA in Swansea who reportedly have a license backlog going back to May meaning new recruits can't enter the training school on time. These training issues mean companies that normally rely on training their own staff are poaching them from other operators with sign-on bonuses and other special incentives.
DeleteBrexit has shut off the flow of trained drivers from Europe that was propping up the industry. My employers lost around a dozen drivers due to Brexit combined with COVID, the European drivers quit to head home before the borders shut in 2020 and none have come back leaving another hole which due to the issues around COVID has been harder to fill.
The underlying issue is we, as a society, do not value buses enough - we aren't prepared to pay the money (whether through fares or subsidies via taxes) to mean operators (in general rather than any individual specific example, there are always exceptions) to pay the wages the drivers deserve to reflect their skilled job. The top-line high-volume businesses, largely urban & high-frequency, may make decent profits to pay decent wages but many smaller & more rural businesses are struggling on fine margins and have no spare money to increase rates by enough to actually make a dent in the shortfall in drivers.
First didn't have enough drivers for its expanded leisure services and then a load left unhappy with new duties leaving it short.
DeleteAnd Stagecoach South West is in a far worse position to any other operator in the West Country with unadvertised missing services, at least First managed to cover most scheduled mileage & formally suspended some leisure services rather than keeping us locals in the dark.
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