Topless In Derbyshire.
As a bus spotter, armed with your camera and notebook, you might choose to stand somewhere along the A623 between Baslow and Calver. You may choose to lurk outside Hulleys depot ...
... and watch the comings and goings whilst waiting for FOUR open top bus movements, (three northbound and one southbound) performed by THREE different open top vehicles.
The out and back bus would be Hulleys recently introduced Breezer running at weekends and during the school holidays.
fbb has already drawn his loyal readers' attention to the excellent initiative from the local firm.
The route takes you via Grindleford, the deeply buried Grinfleford station ...
... which, if it is at anywhere, is at Nether Padley just outside the western portal of Totley Tunnel.
It is a steep climb down from/up to the Breezer. The bus route is heavily wooded, so just plenty of trees, until you burst out near Fox House with gorgeous views of the gritstone edge ...
.., and along the valley towards Castleton.
This corner (below) is called The Surprise, for obvious reasons! 
Here is the Breezer coming up the hill from Hathersage on its wau back to Baslow.
One delight of the Hope Valley view is, of course, the Cement Works.
The bus follows the former A625 along the Hope Valley to Castleton where the Breezer terminates in a very small bus station.
When photographed by Sheffield correspondent Roy, there weren't many passengers!
But posters have been ptinted!
It is early days, of course, but Hulleys are to be commended for something innovative and very different for the popular Peak District.
But Two Come Along Together ...
The buses, we are told, are being prepared for the brand new Peak Sightseer service run by Stagecoach Chesterfield. This is a very different operation from that of Hulleys.
Firstly, it is not a bus service but a tour. That means the £2 minimum fare does not apply, OAP passes are not valid neither is the excellent Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket.
Fares are £6 adult, £4 child and concessions. There is a family ticket at £15 reduced to £10 if you have paid to get into Chatsworth.
Fares are £6 adult, £4 child and concessions. There is a family ticket at £15 reduced to £10 if you have paid to get into Chatsworth.
The publicity has a rather poor route map.
The tour cycles continuously throughout the day but for convenience we start at Chatsworth House ...
... being up-fettled when Streetview got no further thn the river bridge. The tour runs north to Baslow Bridge End (one of the many "Ends" in Baslow) and Nether End which might be called the main "interchange" point in the village.
The tour then joins Hulleys as far as Calver ...
... where there is a left turn on to the B6001 to Bakewell. The scenery is pleasant but hardly spectacular!
A stop is on offer at Hassop Station (not at Hassop, of course) for walkers to join the Monsal Trail, a walk along a substantial bit of the old Midland Railway main line to Manchester.
And so into Bakewell where a peckish bus passenger can hop off for a traditional eponymous "pudding" ...
As we saw in an earlier blog, Hulleys offer connections from their other services, as might be expected.
... great if you like a blast of almond flavour. fbb is not so keen!
Bakewell is pleasant enough where the riverside park and walks are far nicer than the summer traffic jams.
And so along the A6 to Ashford in the Water.
Picturesque! And appropriately named although not usually IN the water!
A hairpin right turn takes the open topper through the village.
Picturesque.
And so back to Chatsworth; but remember to hop off at Pilsley ...
... to spend huge amounts of money at the Chatsworth Farm Shop where most of the produce on sale has never seen a farm at Chatsworth! The caff is excellent if you still have plenty of cash to spend.
fbb recommends one of the chippies in Bakewell for better value for money!
Stagecoach's Peak Sightseer is a pleasant ride through rural Derbyshire with plenty of green and pleasant views.
Is it worth £6?
It would be more attractive at £2!
Hulleys scenic route is far better.
But here's a thing.
This tour (it is not a bus service) is being subsidised by Derbyshire County Council using Bus Service Improvement grant money from H M Government - that's from you and fbb.
Is it right that this cash should be used to subsidise a purely leisure tour charging a high price (£6) and going nowhere that isn't currently covered by an existing bus service!
NO IT ISN'T.
How much subsidy does Hulleys receive for their far better service (from viewing the scenery point of view) at a far better price!
SEEMS UNFAIR.
There is considerable disquiet within the bus industry that Bus Service Improvement money should NOT be subsidising a commercial tour.
For the record the Peak Sightseer runs every 30 minutes from 1st July until 30th September ...
... then weekends until Christmas!
Brrr!
Positioning journeys fom Chesterfield in the morning ...
... and back after the end of the non bus service ...
... are included in your £6 fare.
As we saw in an earlier blog, Hulleys offer connections from their other services, as might be expected.
Stagecoach also offer connections (more expense!!) but only one of these routes is run by Stagecoach.
The Stagecoach route is the 65 (Sheffield to Buxton).
The 65 is a glorious ride with far better views of the Peak District than the open topper. It even used to have minimalist branding - but, alas no longer.
And it will only cost you £4 for a much longer round trip!
P.S. fbb thinks that whoever drew the Stagecoach map did not understand where the bus actually runs. It doesn't serve Curbar, Hassop station is omitted and the map at Baslow is probably wrong.
No chocolate peanut for him - or her.
fbb Gets Carried Away
Even more planters for Peterville! There may not be room to plant them!
And What's This?
Business Class? Where?
Maybe the GL in the reg number was intended to stand for Green Line ...
... and somebody changed their mind?
Next Variety blog : Sunday 25th June
The Hulleys service has proved a shambles so far, incredibly unreliable due to an impossible timetable. New timetable with reduced frequency being introduced from 1 July.
ReplyDeleteTo say the breezer timetable is unrealistic is an understatement. They've given it five minutes less than Google maps reckon you need with no stops and no traffic. As the other comment says it's been shambolic so far.
ReplyDeleteTake the rest of this with a pinch of salt as it's all hearsay but my understanding is that the stagecoach tour has been a year in the making and has gone through a fair few variations in that time. From what I've heard it was originally going to run from Mam Tor at the top of the Winnats through castleton as the hope valley explorer did, then the same route as the hulleys breezer, continuing from Baslow through to Chatsworth and maybe Bakewell. This was going to be funded, not sure whether that was going to be through BSIP or just the peak district authority as the hope valley explorer was. This plan had got quite far along when hulleys announced their intentions to run the commercial breezer service covering much of the same route, so funding for the stagecoach service was withdrawn. The current route was drawn up as an alternative which stagecoach were going to run commercially as the provisions for open toppers, branding etc. were already in the works. The commercial service was going to run weekends and bank holidays only and just during the school summer holidays. The BSIP money was then secured allowing the service to run daily and for most of the year as has now been announced.
As to whether BSIP should be used on a service like this I'm in two minds. My instinct is to agree that it's not an appropriate use, the money should be spent either adding services where there isn't one or improving frequencies to make existing routes more attractive. On the other hand I've always thought the peak district needed an open topper, and the funding has allowed it to be a much more attractive option which I think will be well used by tourists, and for many families a shorter loop like this will be more attractive than a return journey on a longer route that takes an hour each way as the original plan was going to be. Time will tell of course whether it's a success, but personally I'm optimistic. I think in the future perhaps partnership with stagecoach and hulleys could allow for a more attractive combined service but who knows.
Also just to note while the Derbyshire wayfarer isn't valid for travel it does entitle the holder to a concessionary fare on the stagecoach service.
This is Peak miserableness from Old Fart Bus Bloke from his flat in Seaton.
ReplyDeleteThe Derbyshire BSIP had a proposal to create and enhance tourism links in the National Park, there has been a desire for an open top type tour in the Peaks for years. Operators were invited to put proposals together but when it came to awarding a tender I understand Hulleys did a spoiler and registered the most scenic bit commercially using their one spare operators disc to stop any other operator running the scenic route.
The Hulleys route has an impossible timetable that a Dick Dastardly at midnight with every traffic light green and no regard for speed limits would struggle to achieve, let alone during the day on a busy summer Saturday in an elderly Trident. Stories of three journeys in a row being skipped are not uncommon, rumour is some of their drivers are refusing to drive it meanwhile they’ve apparently implemented an alternative timetable which they’ve failed to tell their customers, let alone the council and traffic commissioner.
I understand the Stagecoach route was a compromise and they’d spent a year researching the idea but had put too much effort to not do something so registered their route on a commercial basis to not compete with Hulleys and Derbyshire chose to enhance the season with the BSIP money.
on the fares, the rumour is Hulleys are about to pull out of the capped fare scheme. Not surprised as I understand the DfT reimbursement isn’t generous and is paid in arrears so not great for cash flow for small businesses. They charged £8 a trip on their last venture so don’t kid yourself into thinking it’s going to be £2 forever.
As for the Peak Sightseer map - there is a beautiful one in the leaflet produced and now available.
No Peanut butter for FBB, stick to sniffing the glue on the model trees.