Going Up To The Trinity
Were you to walk interchange between the bus station and the railway station via Boar Lane in Leeds city centre, you might well pass a few splendid buildings. The Corn Exchange is wonderful outside ...
... and joyous beyond the imagination inside. 
As you stride purposefully along Boar Lane, you also pass Holy Trinity Church ...
... undergoing some up-fettling when Streetview chuntered past. It is equally splendiferous internally.
Buses go that way as well, but it is a challenge to fond the right one.
However, between Boar Lane and The Headrow lies pedestrianised Albion Street ...
... with "The Trinity", a shopping centre which takes its name from the Church. It has all the shops that you would find in any other city ...
... plus cinema and, on the top floor, the obligatory food court.
Trinity Kitchen, it tells us, specialises in "Street Food". fbb can barely resist the temptation to visualise chewing on a kerbstone or tucking in to a bowl of piping hot asphalt, but is intrigued by some of the trendy trading names on offer.
The mind boggles. But, if you were hoping to reach the dizzying heights of the Trinity Kitchen by public transport, i.e. an escalator, you might be disappointed. It might be busted.
But you would not be disappointed at the associated notice.
But Some Notices Are Unhelpful
Looking at the National Rail plan of Rotherham Central station, you would never know. Neither would the list of the facilities from the same source tell you.
You are welcome, of course ...
... but even the slab with the logo is uninformative.
But check the electronic departure board and you will find that here be trams.
They will take you a short distance northbound to Parkgate retail park (lovely); or southbound to Tinsley for the Meadowhell shopping centre (even more lovely?) and on into Sheffield, terminating at the Cathedral.
At Rotherham, trams use a little bit of low platform tacked on to that used by real trains.
Here you will find a variety of pieces of paper telling you about the tram times. South Yorkshire PTE (which owns the tram system and contracts Stagecoach to operate it) has a departure list.
It shows three trams an hour at not quite every 20 minutes. It is an impressive service, especially as loadings are usually what is euphemistically termed "light". (When fbb and chum David last travelled, mid afternoon, he was one of four pax arriving at Parkgate. He and David were the only departing souls!).
But Some Notices Are Unhelpful
But look again at the proper timetable (hooray!) below. It is displayed in the same poster frame.
Aaah? Two trams an hour.
So which is right - and what do the electronic displays show. And are they right?
How to inspire confidence in Public Transport in two bodged lessons!
McGill's Tease
McGill's Tease
These days the system appears to be that you post a "hint" on Twitter; then you reveal what you are going to do on Facebook and then, if you are lucky, you get a "proper" timetable on the full web site. On very rare occasions printed leaflets are profusely available.
So here is a tease from McGills of Paisley.
The progenitor of today's route 26 dates back to Western Scottish days ...
... then to the split-off Clydeside.
With Clydeside, the 26 was much longer than the present service - which is long enough!
Clydeside collapsed and in came white knight Arriva with a 26 much the same as todays route ...
... and the number and service was maintained by McGills.
The company has been investing in new vehicles with an element of route branding as here for the 23/X23 ...
... so the tease implies that the 26 is about to get a similar treatment. Currently the route runs direct from Glasgow to Renfrew via Govan, then travels through Paisley to a terminus at Nethercraigs ...
... using a splendid turning circle at Craigielinn Avenue.
The leaflet proudly announces 8 buses an hour; but that is a bit of a porkie-pie.
All right, it does say Paisley to Braehead in very small print!
It is eight buses an hour between Nethercraigs and Braehead, but only every 15 mins into Glasgow.
Whether this is changing or whether Switch 26 is just a "brand", fbb cannot tell. We will all have to wait and see.
Where's The Mug?
After all the kind and supportive things fbb says about First in Sheffield (??), you would think they would send him one of their new mugs.
The last freebie fbb received from the City of Steel was one for the "Buses for Sheffield" campaign.
Like the campaign itself, the graphics slowly faded into meaningless obscurity ...
... so now the old man has a dark blue anonymous mug.
There is a bit more about Sheffield on tomorrow's Variety - and extra "mixed bag" to compensate for the efforts needed to run the two duplicate Christian meetings, described by a chum as "Sunday School for old folks". As you asked, yesterday's went very well indeed!
The leaflet supports the meeting and vice versa. The fbbs have kept the leaflet going for those who are still a bit nervous about meeting in the close proximity of the lounge at fbb mansions.
Next Variety blog : Tuesday 7th September
A correction for fbb - Clydeside didn't collapse. It was hewn from Western SMT in readiness for privatisation but when battered by Strathclyde Buses, the two halves were put back together. However, on privatisation, the Clydeside business was again split out from Western and sold to the management but with support from Luton and District (25%). LDT was subsequently bought by British Bus who then purchased the rest of Clydeside and then it was later rebranded to Arriva.
ReplyDeleteIt may have had some problems but it never collapsed.