Seasonal Snippets 21/12

CHANGE OF BLOG FROM THE INTENDED

BUT STILL "COMPLETELY DIFFERENT"

FROM CONSETT!!

Brylaine Travel (Interlincs) started as a small family run business in 1980, with 4 coaches, running private hire and local services from Old Bolingbroke near Spilsby.

It derives it name from the founders and owners of the business ...

... Bryan and Elaine Gregg. Clever eh? Better than Elaian!

In 2020 we are proud to still be a local family run, local business with depots in Boston, Skegness, Coninsgby & Lincoln.

Along with our team of drivers, fitters, front of house and Directors we now total nearly 100 team members. All of which are dedicated to providing Lincolnshire with the best possible rural bus services, for you the general public, schools and colleges.

Brylaine (Interlincs) runs an integrated network of bus routes which stretch from Lincoln, Woodhall Spa, Coningsby / Tattershall, right the way down to Boston, Stamford and Spalding across to Skegness, Spilsby & Horncastle.

With Town Services in Boston and Spalding, we can without doubt, get you to where you want to go or as near to it as a bus service can possibly get.

The company has a mixed fleet of double ...

... and single deckers, mostly "pre-owned".

The bus above was previously with Stevensons of Easingwold ...

... and Blue Bus in Manchester.

Ownership order may not be correct!

Brylaine run a wide variety of services from inter-urban ...

... via routes into the country ...

... and humble, but essential school routes.

Like all operators, their services have been upheld during the pandemic by Government grants but state beneficience does not extend to providing driving staff. Some operators have struggled to keep going, dropping services when there is no one to drive them. Others have re-reduced frequencies, as indeed has Brylaine on Saturdays.

But this has now appeared on the company web site. It is quite lengthy (for a blog) but worth a careful perusal.

Saturday Bus Service Cancellations

01/01/2022 - 31/03/2022

It is with regret we inform our passengers, due to a significant reduction of drivers within our team and an extreme shortage of PCV drivers in Lincolnshire, we will be unable operate any Saturday bus services from the 01/01/2022 - 31/03/2022.

This action is not in anyway taken lightly and we hope that it is temporary; it is a big decision for a local family business as we fully appreciate both the disruption and inconvenience it may cause to loyal passengers. It is being taken with our best intentions to ensure Brylaine are able to fully operate ALL SERVICE between Monday to Friday on the days they are most needed by the communities we serve. 

All Monday to Friday daily commuter and education services will be unaffected by this action. 

We want to ensure consistency for all passenger using our bus services during the week between Monday and Friday, so that they can be assured there will be no changes to their midweek service timetables. 

Many of our passengers are elderly or vulnerable or walk substantial distances to wait for hourly or half hourly services. Many don't have access to digital or social media ...

How wonderfully sensible and considerate of Brylaine. It may be all on line but if you don't have a line to be on it's no use whatsoever. First, Stagecoach and Arrive (and others) please note and learn.

... many don't have bus shelters to wait in and as a rural operator, it is without doubt in the best interest of passengers to ensure they have clarity on what is and isn't available before setting off. 

Clarity is key as we hope LCC will now step in and support our Saturday services with their own Teckle Company - Transport Connect and the funded Call Connect DRT services.

Porcine aviation, perhaps?

The bus driver shortage is a national issue escalated by the impact of HGV recruitment, online shopping delivery roles - with PCV drivers choosing less stressful employment options. Without regional funding and support for the operation of rural bus services; rural operators like ourselves simply cannot reach wage levels that compete with HGV, or indeed many of the local warehouse distribution operations and online delivery services, here in Lincolnshire. 

Substantially increasing fares to meet the professional wage deficit is not an option, given we serve some of the lowest socio-economic and sparsely populated areas in the country, whilst also delivering some of the longest bus service routes. 

A driver training academy has now been created at Brylaine and we would welcome applications and interest from people who would like to consider PCV driving as a career step. It is a fantastic job, a job for life especially in the communities we serve.

Marrianne Garbutt, Managing Director

Whether the withdrawal of all Saturday services is entirely staff related or mayhap just a teensy bit profit orientated (i.e. lack of it!!) is a matter for speculation. Either way it is bad news for passengers and a sure sign of things to come.

Boris' Building Buses Back Better is beginning to look just a tad ...

... unattainable.

This headline on the Scotland on Sunday web site seems to agree.

Another snippet below.

 Next "Just The Ticket" blog : Wednesday 22nd December 

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We can all agree that the events of the Biblical first CHRISTmas were UNUSUAL! A birth in the humblest of circumstances, the arrival of some smelly shepherds, the encouNter with the old expectant temple dwellers - and another lot still to come. And that's before we come to angels, Herod's rage and infanticide, displaced persons in Egypt and then near silence for 28 years or so.

We can, so easily, gloss over the key words of many of our Christmas hymns and carols.

Peace on earth, and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled

Mild he lays his glory by

Born that man no more may die

Born to raise the some of earth

Born to give them second birth

And our eyes at last shall see Him

Through His own redeeming love

For that child, so dear and gentle

Is our Lord in heaven above

And He leads His children along

To the place where He is gone

Just two extract, from Once in Royal David's City and Hark the Herald Angels Sing, explain the reason for the season. Of course the Christian Faith is about peace on earth and goodwill to all men, but that is a simple human desire. Peace and Goodwill to those with whom God is pleased is a much bigger seasonal thing.

Christmas is all about the ULTIMATE, about what happens to us after this brief earthly existence is terminated.

The pictures man has created about the "Up There" and the "Underworld" can, so often, be ridiculous; but we need to remember that in both cases this is the human mind trying to explain the unexplainable, trying to grasp that which is beyond human understanding and experience. 

Until we get there!

Whatever the images, one thing has to be absolutely clear. We can never get to heaven unless we are totally pure, totally clean, utterly perfect. If we were not so impossibly prepared, we would corrupt the perfection of heaven and that would be even more impossible! Here is a verse from another hymn:-

UNCTION? It means "ointment" or "anointing oil". To resolve the destination equation, we need God's "ointment", his soothing, loving, gracious, forgiving "unction" for our repeated failures to live up to His standards.

Paul, when writing to the "Romans" put is quite succinctly:-

For the wages of sin is death;

but God's free gift is eternal life

in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

That, just about, sums up the reason for the season!

But the last of the visitors have still to arrive!

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Livery Delivery

First Solent was a brand used for interurban services between Portsmouth and Southampton.

Other brands were Star for outer suburban services north of Pompey ...

... and, of course, Eclipse for the recently extended busway.

We now have a new-look "Solent" brand in all blue with an added little yellow bit.

fbb is disappointed; it is somewhat bland compared with others First Bus versions nationally.