Frankly Farcical Fares (2)

 Three More For The Collection

Arriva has a special "zone" for its 158 from Leicester to Nuneaton now in companionship with Stagecoach 148 which continues from Nuneaton to Coventry. By changing from Arriva to Stagecoach you get a 15 minute frequency between the two cities ...

... that is, if you don't mind an enjoyable 15 minutes at Nuneaton bus station!

It's changed a bit since the above picture was taken!  Or has it?

But here are Arriva's fares for "Zone 158".

Note that these are significantly cheaper than HMG's much vaunted £2 maximum fare for one single journey. 

And Stagecoach?

It does look as if the two former competing companies are charging the same fare.

But are fares the same on the X3 (Arriva) and X7 (Stagecoach) which share the road between Market Harborough and Leicester?

And are bog standard single and return fares the same?

Nobody wants to tell you!

And So To Centrebus

Its big boss-man is Julian Peddle, who has, pretty much, lived on a diet of DERV and crank cases for all of his working life. He understands buses and (heaven forfend) he understands the people who might want to use the buses.

Sadly, that level of commitment to the passenger and potential passenger does not extend to the company's web site.

Fom the fares point of view, it would seem that their web designer has taken fares information for all their operating areas and thrown the panels into a tumble dryer, removing them and sticking them on-line in some arbitrary way which fbb cannot fathom.

Here is a selection as presented in fbb's laptop,

All picturesquely intermingled is information for Melton (presumably Mowbray), Hitchin, Leicester, Luton, Stevenage and Grantham - and it rolls on like this for screen after screen.

fbb did try to make a list of Leicester fares but he soon lost the will to live and went back to a railway modelling project - twice as challenging, but at least there was an end product.

It looks as if Centrebus fares are similar but not always the same as Arriva and First for their Leicester area.

fbb did find a price for a Leicester day ticker ...

... and a Leicester weekly.

First's equivalent are £5 and £18.90 respectively : Arriva offers £5 and £19.00.

But there is hope for sanity ...

Leicester Buses Fair Fares (Or Are They?)

The Leicester Buses consortium has yet another set of fares - and they are all higher that any similar offers by the constituent companies!

So there is an extra 30p for the day ticket and (ludicrously) an extra £3 for a week compared with Arriva.

Why should a passenger have to pay an extra 30p just so he/she can travel on a BLUE bus to Thurnby Lodge (remember) ...

... or a bus with a purple front to Thurnby Lodge ...

... using the same ticket and paying the same price.

Is it a partnership or isn't it?

What do "easy" and "great value" actually mean for the modern day "Ratae"?

fbb is absolutely certain that there is a supposed "good reason" for these senseless anomalies. But how much better would it be; how much nore would it encourage ridership; how much cheaper would it be to administer ...

... if there were one simple set of fully inter available fares at the same price for ALL users WITH NO SILLY COMPANY ANOMALIES?

Modelling Progress ... Of A Sort?

And don't forget the shaving foam cap!

Mrs fbb thinks fbb's modelling idea is silly!

She has a point, and, yes, that is the end of fbb's breakfast!

REMINDER

fbb is being treated for ARMD (look it up!) which affects detailed vision. He tries to spit trooping errors as they happen, but often fails - especially at the end of a busy day.

Corrections continue a.m. while Mrs fbb's morning cuppa is brewing. (fbb also indulges, of course).

He doesn't always spot them all.

Don't shoot the pianist blogger; he is doing his best!

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 THE FIFTIETH DAY - 2 

Sometimes artists who try to capture Biblical events in a painting have a lot to answer for. Is this really what happened?

If course it could have been like that. God can do what he likes; by definition he is not bounded by the physics of this universe. He is God.

In the Biblical accounts, there is no evidence for Jesus ever wearing white**; angels are always given male attributes and Mary never had a permanent Colgate ring of confidence. Anyway, she wasn't there.

(** His clothes "appeared" white at his "Transfiguration".)

This is what Matthew records in his Gospel.

The eleven disciples went to the hill in Galilee where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, even though some of them doubted. Jesus drew near and said to them, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

The final departure of the human Son of God is far less important for Matthew than Jesus' "Great Commission" to his small band of followers.

The miracle is that a world-wide caring and loving Faith should have been spread by a rag-bag of Jewish blokes and blokesses. It is amazing that it ever happened at all.

Their enthusiasm was not universally held!, "even though some of them doubted'.

Luke's Gospel goes a little bit further.

As he was blessing them, he departed from them and was taken into heaven. 

All the resurrection appearances are challenging, so perhaps those present at any or all of them simply struggled to explain something "super" human, i.e. beyond normal human experience.

Likewise we still struggle today!

But Luke has more to say.

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 Next Variety blog : Saturday 27th May