Monday 31 January 2022

Monday Variety

Buxton Bludner!

As readers will know, fbb manages the data for GoTimetable Sheffield and always welcomes feedback. Correspondent Simon pointed out a serious booboo on service 65, Sheffield to Buxton. Once in the hands of T M Travel and later (competitively) High Peak, the service has now been run  by stagecoach for some time.

Simon pointed out that we were showing the wrong operators.
And he was right. Although your aged blogger had punctiliously kept the timetable up to dater, her had forgotten to change the operator name. Bad house point to fbb and yet another bedtime without any tea!

This is being corrected as fast as the technical people can do it!

But it was the rest of the email that intrigued fbb.

I looked it up, because I have noticed several 65’s running out of Sheffield indicating ‘Tideswell for Buxton’. I wonder if this is something to do with the weird and wonderful way Stagecoach present their timetables – further evidence is that the hopeless TSY journey planner offers lots of cunning ways of getting to Buxton, none of which involve the direct bus, or even one with a change at Tideswell!

At its heart this is our old friend "the split registration", an adminstrative tweak to avoid the more expensive EU drivers' hours regulations but operating the route in two halves and offering fake connections.

Despite this nonsense, Stagecoach shows the timetable correctly on its web site as a through service with none of this "connection but no change of bus" twaddle. But the Stagecoach index is utterly potty.
Eight tables but click on any one of the eight and you get the full timetable ...
Crackpot! And it includes service 66 journeys as well.

But Simon is  very right when he says Travelinr gives daft answers, so fbb asked about the 1745 from Sheffield Interchange. There it is on Travel South Yorkshire ...
... and ditto from Derbyshire.
But here is the nearest answer offered by the loony traveline.
T M Travel 218 to Bakewell, then Transpeak to Buxton.

And why?
Traveline only shows the 65 as running between Tideswell and Sheffield and vice versa.
There are no times from Tideswell to Buxton.
But, yet again, all together now ...

IT'S ALL ON LINE

When I'm Cleaning Windows!

You've heard about my capers with windows full of spots
Now I'd like to say before the eyes there's lots and lots

I've seen some buses on the road with Contravision overflowed
You can't see past the spots at all, so I'm cleaning windows
In Sunderland and further norf, Go Ahead are scraping orf
 The spots that block the view and all, so I'm cleaning windows


Clearly the late great George Formby was not a fan of Contravision - and neither, nowadays is Go Ahead North East.

Here is "The Angel" route  branding with "Angel of the North" graphics ...
... and it looks like solid lines, not even spots! And all over the windows.

But here, in the workshop is the first "Angel" with a revised paint scheme ...
... completely removing graphics from glass.
Have a chocolate peanut, Go Ahead!

Charing Cross - A P.S.
And take a wander along Craven Street.
Craven Street runs parallel to Villiers Street on the opposite side of Charing Cross "Main Line" station. It links the Embankment via Northumberland Avenue (one of the pink/purple ones in Monopoly).
Next to Next is a strange building, tall and weird ...
... with pipes!
Looked at from inside and below, you can see what it is.
Can't you?

It is a ventilation shaft for the Jubilee Line - the Underground route that no longer runs to Charing Cross. Doubtless the ventilation provided still benefits the line.

Impressive engineering!

fbb Threatened!
We all need to remember that the internet is unregulated and anyone can bung anything into the word wide web. Emails like this should be binned without the slightest consideration. The aim of the scam is that out of 1000 emails someone will have a secret to hide and to hide it will send money - or bit coins!

Beware.

Consultation In Progress
Mr Tubbles expressing heartfelt concern about the unstable future for the UK bus industry. Life is challenging for a cat of the domestic variety.

And Retractable Buffers

Arthritic Update
After a real grind through the rusty gears of the NHS, Mrs fbb has a formal assessment on Thursday which should result in an appointment for a hip replacement at some time in the future.

Both the old crocks need much Prayer, Perseverance, Painkillers and Patience during the grind.

Please be patient yourselves if blogs are not up to the usual standard of quality, quantity and anything else you can think of beginning with Q.

 Next mystery*** blog : Tuesday 1st February 
          *** It's a mystery what will be in it!            

2 comments:

  1. Is it a vain hope that Split Registrations will finally be dropped in the forthcoming 'Bonfire of EU regulations'?

    Let's hope so, in the name of sanity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hear Hear!!! We can only hope . . .

    ReplyDelete