Horrors At Harlow (3)

 PLEASE NOTE

Tomorrow's blog will be a very special edition and something of a more personal posting from fbb. The reason will be revealed tomorrow.

BANK HOLIDAY QUIZ

Answers will appear on Saturday

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Since the evaporation of almost all competition in Harlow, Arriva have regained dominance with their town network; although inter-urban routes are very much reduced compared with London Transport Country Area (green buses) days.

From this coming weekend (Sunday or Monday), the company has announced significant changes to their operations based on Harlow.

508 509 510 to Stansted Airport

As we saw yesterday, this group of services has had a variety of brands over recent years, but fbb was intrigued to know what the difference between the three routes might be. There is a problem, however.

Harlow is in Essex. Stansted Airport is in Essex.

But the road used by the Arriva routes is the A184 which, with Bishops Stortford, is in Hertfordshire.

Arriva's inter-urban map is, of course, useless.

Thanks a bunch, Arriva.

Their on-line route map offered with a PDF of the timetable is equally unhelpful.

Essex County has an "interactive" map ...

... which really only works well if you already know the answer to your question!

What about Hertfordshire?

Its map does help with the three different routes through Bishops Stortford, but, obviously, the map does not go as far as Stansted which is (a), in Essex, and  (b), where there be dragons. Likewise it only shows routes in Harlow that originate over the border in civilised Herts.

Anyway, the three together provide a very encouraging ten minute combined frequency six days a week..

But as part of Arriva's post pandemic bus service improvement, encouraged by the £2 maximum fare and after significant amounts of printed and on-line publicity ...

... Oh? Sorry, there hasn't been any!

The above note is all that was available earlier this week when fbb began his dutiful and thorough preparation for these blogs. No new timetable for the 33% reduction on Saturdays could be found.

Service 86

As you can see from the above network map (repeated from above), the 86 runs from Harlow to Waltham Abbey and Waltham Cross. Oh, you can't see it because it isn't there!

It does appear, briefly, on the Harlow Town services map ...

... but it is anyone's guess where it actually goes. At its "Waltham" end it actually performs a loop as you can seen clearly from the timetable.

Oh! You cn't because there is no timetable msp!

It matters not as it will run for the last time tomorrow **.  There was no Saturday or Sunday service.

Arriva took ver a small block of services when EOS went bust back in 2019. The 86 is the last of these still being operated by Arriva. You might have been lucky to get a double deck from the previous operator ...

... but Arriva's vehicle of choice suggests that passenger numbers are not huge.

And so to the town services. fbb will just proffer a few.

Services 2 and 3 Staple Tye

Once blue and branded (but no longer - of course - you wouldn't want to encourage passenger growth post-Covid, would you? 

Currently these run every 20 minutes each way round the lollipop.

They too are reduced by 33% to every 30 minutes on 2 and ditto on 3.

Service 8 Old Harlow

Currently every 30 mins the 8 is reduced ...

... to just one bus every hour. That is a 50% chop.

Now have a look at route 9. 

Here it is on the Arriva Network map.

... and here it isn't on the new map from this coming Sunday.

Unbelievably Arriva is simply ...

... withdrawing the route completely with no replacement **.

** PLEASE NOTE - as yet no replacement tendered services have been offered for the 9 or the 86. Indeed, Essex County tells its council taxpayers in Harlow that alternative services are available for those currently using the 9.

Indeed. Part of the route (a very small part!) is also served by the hourly "Central Connect" route 420. (on the map below in YELLOW)

Service 10 is also available for another small part.

Thanks a bunch Essex County.

This last chop has shocked even hard-nosed bus managers who have contacted fbb. The whole attitude of Arriva seems to be "take it or leave it, we don't care".

It cannot be long before Arriva simply packs its corporate bags and leaves Harlow and its environs completely. fbb's April Fools Day "gag" might yet be true. Mind you, the old man's suggestion of further expansion for McGills seems very unlikely after what is happening to the McGills East Lothian network.

More on that next week.

 Next Very Special blog : Friday 14th April 

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Non-believers and cynics struggle with the "Ascension" of Jesus, namely his final departure from earth. It is not unnecessarily repetitive to remains cynical readers that the miraculous and the super human (beyond human) are perfectly feasible if you postulate an entity, a God, who exists outside of our space and time and who is therefore not restricted by the technology of this cosmos.

Then Jesus led them his disciples out of the city as far as Bethany, where he raised his hands and blessed them. As he was blessing them, he departed from them and was taken up into heaven. They still had their eyes fixed on the sky as he went away, when two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them and said, “Galileans, why are you standing there looking up at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way that you saw him go to heaven.”

They worshiped him and went back into Jerusalem, filled with great joy, and spent all their time in the Temple giving thanks to God.

The idea of Jesus taking off upwards as if propelled by a rocket is surely a weak human attempt to describe the indescribable. Indeed the "men in white" asked the disciples why they were looking up! A more helpful, but none the less challenging image is to consider the human Jesus dissolving into a divine form.

But it is not the end of the story. In a real sense it is the beginning of the modern age; which will end when he comes back.

When he does come back there will be a lot of very surprised and frightened people!

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