But Before Bicester - Hot News
Oddly, fbb has never discovered what the "extensive activity to turn round" these depots was. He must have missed the house-to-house leaflet distribution, the racks of publicity in the enquiry offices in the main towns, the special fares offers an the powerful branding all designed to encourage lapsed passengers and new customers to a well publicised network.
Oh? There hasn't been any? Just some service cut backs? But it was all on line.
This is a hefty chunk of withdrawals.
Surely it cannot be long before Arriva ceases to exist?
Watch this space!
Traveline Bicester Route 24...
... which, thanks to the crackpot reliance on electronically created PDF timetables doesn't even feature Bicester in the heading. But it does feature Weston on the Green TWICE in a confusing timetable!
There is also an all stops version of the above ...
... and, in a cornucopia of omnibological beneficence, an HTML version as well which is far too big to be shown on a humble blog. It is also too big to be read on-screen; in fact it is not clear what its use might be.
Readers may remember that this route's predecessor, the 250, ran through to Oxford every hour (admittedly via a different route), so the new service is paltry by comparison.
Hallmark was taken over by Rotala and branded Diamond.
But there are no maps on Traveline.
One useful feature is that a Traveline timetable offers a link to the bus operator, in this case Grayline Coaches. If searching independently make sure you get the right line of gray.
It is the slightly tatty one you want.
But there is no bus information on the Grayline site whatsoever.
Great!
So no map anywhere for the 24.
Belay that adverse comment, fbb; Roger French has drawn one.
The Grayline vehicle that Rog rode upon, prior to his "in yer face" blog, was certainly better looking than the Grayline web site!
The bus carries "branding" for the E1 which runs from Bicester to Elmsbrook - nother splodge of new housing.
But there is a mystery with the route of the 25 into Oxford. This is what Roger wrote ...
... implying an official non-stop run into the city.
But Traveline shows all stops ...
... and Grayline's bus stop timetables (NOT departure lists - HOORAY!) make no mention of any restricted travel along the line of route.
The notes are all about days of operation.
If you did search the wrong Gray Line, this is where you might go ...
... but you probably wouldn't start at Bicester!
Despite the poor and unclear publicity, fbb supposes that the positive, a replacement service and NOT an "Uber style" DRT but a real bus, will be welcomed by the few passengers who have not moved away, bought a car/bike/horse or died since the 25/25A ran that way.
Tomorrow, its the turn of the 25 to Heyford Park.
Next Bicester bus blog : Thursday 2nd March
Bus Times .org is far better than Traveline in usability and even has a map. It does of course use the same open data source so has the express route of the last 24 into Oxford on the same map as the normal route:
ReplyDeletehttps://bustimes.org/services/24-bicester-weston-on-the-green-kirtlington-oxford