Saturday Variety

First Cable : First Dangle

It was light blue ... then it went red ...

... as sponsorship was obtained from Emirates and branded as Air Line.

It then went purple with a much lower sponsorship from tech firm IFS. Dangle cars have been red ...

... and are now IFS purple.

But recently, the purple brand has had a refresh at the two stations.

Publicity has a distinct taste of the Bearded Bus Beautifier from the Bush about it!

Every detail is  now brightly purpled!

But the big question still remains. Is it a success?

Financially it appears to be a disaster with ridership being well below what was anticipated. One huge problem is that it is not easy to get at. The London Eye ...

... is very much in evidence on the South Bank whilst the Cable Car is out on a limb and, from a tourist point of view, round by the bins.

Here is an unofficial video asking the question.

But from this weekend there is a major change to the structure of the Cable Car.  The beast is owned by Transport for London (who probably wish they didn't); it is sponsored by IFS. But from this weekend it will be operated by First Group.

Anyone for a Barbie dangle car?

Perhaps not!

Talking of Branding

When London Underground rebranded Bond Street station as Burberry Street most commentators thought ot was a step too far.  The impression given by TfL was that they understood peoples' concerns and would not be doing such a drastic "rebrand" ever again - not ever - no never.

So they've just done another one!

To get us in the mood fbb will introduce his readers to an advert for a mobile everything imaginable

Apparently, you can also make phone calls on it - but they cost extra! fbb did find a short video (most are 20 minutes long) about the Samsung Z fold 6. The video was by an American gentlemen who was so enthusiastic you would think the phone had just saved his life - several times. And, of course he called is the Zee Fold 6!

Hang on to the fact that this phone unfolds to double the size. Mr excitable was keen to stress that it had a strengthened hinge, although as the product is new, it is not clear how he knew.

Now we go to a London Underground station.

Yes, folks, it is a rebranded Old Street on the city branch of the Northern Line.

Some of the station names are untainted by this stupidity as in this picture ...

... which would seem to add to the potential confusion. But a short promotional video does encourage viewers to visit Fold Street, carrying their folding phone. 

Whilst so doing such excited travellers can enjoy more hilarious folded things.

A Street lamp ...

... a bench ...

... and a phone box.

Chortle, chortle!

Hey, fbb has just had another jackpot idea.

Ideal for dangling rides in windy weather!

Beer Brand for Bradford!

Yes, that is a Trans Pennine train on the can. The company has commissioned it own brand of beer.

The mind boggles.

You'll Never Get fbb on One!

Yet another driverless tram, circumnavigating the depot very slowly.

A bit more about this tram.

Hmmmm?

A Puzzle Picture

Where might these palm trees be?

Somewhere on Lothian Buses route 16?

Answer tomorrow.

And more variety tomorrow!

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 28th July 

Going Loopy At Luton (Part 2)

Loopy Routes With Loopy Loops

Contrary to popular opinion, it is NOT "illegal" to reverse a bus with passengers on board. There are plenty of locations where this happens on a daily basis. 

Not far from fbb mansions is the village of Otterton. 

Here the Stagecoach 157 does a double run through the very attractive village and reverses on Ottery Street. Here there are clear warning signs ...

... and obvious road markings!

Whatever? Everybody knows that the 157 reverses here every hour Monday to Saturday and four times on a Sunday.

But, in general, reversing is less than ideal. The Traffic Commissioners don't like it (If they ever notice as they apply their rubber stamp to a registration!), the Police don't like it and bus operators don't like it - all on safety grounds.

So you either persuade someone to build a turning circle or you use a loop of roads.

Another reason for using a loop is that you, as an operator, perceive you will be serving more cash customers for the same amount of time and fuel - often a misplaced optimism. Confusion can lose passengers!

And so to Lutin Airport.

Arriva Route 100

This is part of a 15 minute frequency (Monday to Friday) between Stevenage and Luton.

The 101 just serves Luton Interchange whilst the 100 serves the other Luton Interchange (!) before trundling on to the airport. A naive blog reader might suppose that it runs direct like the A and the F70/F77.

Aha, that would be too easy. It loops, but not for reasons of safety or ease of turning the bus around.

It runs OUT via Wigmore and returns direct before hurtling off back to Stevenage.

Wigmore? Why?

The answer is A Simple Diversion Aimed at shoppers.

So if you were inspired to travel from Stopsley Inspire to ASDA, you would have to trek via Luton Interchange! 

Convenient, eh? 

But having shopped, you may wonder how to get home.

Don't expect Arriva to tell you!

There are no route 100 buses from ASDA to anywhere! ASDA does not exist.

 

Good, innit?

Arriva could, if it were a VERY clever company, put an ASDA time on the top of the TO Hitchin table at xx57 amd xx27. But that would be helpful!

Thinks! Might it not make more sense to have the 100 hang a left at Stopsley Green ...

... and tun via ASDA and the airport on the way into Luton. It surely wouldn't add much to the through running time compared with grinding along the Hitchin Road! and it would make the timetable simple. 

But that might be a bit brave and risky for Arriva!

Then, if you were aiming to use service 100 on a Saturday ...

... the combined service has been reduced to every 20 min with buses to ASDA and the airport every 40 minutes. This follows the well known rule that, if you want to reduce your passenger numbers even further (to the square root of nothing)** then run a bus every 40 minutes.

You might carty more passengers if you made it hourly!

But fbb does have a really loopy loop for his excited readership! And loopy in several different ways.

Stagecoach MK1

This is already loopy in concept as it is a concatenation of buses from Bedford to Luton and Buses from Milton Keynes to Luton, the together-route being a huge "V" shape.

Actually it is not a straightforward one-way loop at Luton, It is just that the route follows an unconventional "hook" via the airport but in both directions.

Let us approach from Bedford.

In we come to the Luton Interchange ...

... which is huge! The MK1 then ought to run direct to the airport, but it doesn't. It, too, runs via Wigmore ASDA. Having arrived at the airport and deposited/embraced its airborne passengers, it sets off to Milton Keynes.

But NOT via the Interchange.

It zooms via the A1081 New Airport Way to join the M1 well south of Luton. So if you were travelling from Luton to Milton Keynes, you could enjoy a jolly trip via ASDA, the airport and beautiful Bedfordshire countryside, pylons and all. 

At least Stagecoach shows the full "V" shaped timetable in one go, so you can work that out.

Oh dear! Despite the blue lines on the map, the timetable shows the MX1 returning to the Interchange via the direct route. 

Confused.com?

So what's with the pylons and the additional joy of the extra bit of the M1? What's with the full blue line loop?

Sadly fbb cannot tell you, as Stagecoach East does not provide their customers with any route map of the Luton area. Actually Stagecoach East is sadly lacking in useful maps of any kind.

But you wouldn't want your potential customers to know where the buses go, would you?

Stagecoach LAX

But they do have yet another route from Luton to the airport!

Yes it does! on a very small blind display!

The LAX combines with the MK1 (please note the easy to follow route numbers) to provide a bus every 30 minutes at Luton, to and from the airport.

The table is headed Bedford - LAX ...

... because it doesn't serve Bedford! It runs, as does the MK1, via Wigmore. The table indexed for the opposite direction ...

... shows the service from Luton to the airport again.

There is no timetable for buses FROM the airport which, logically, should run in the opposite direction.

Who knows?

From a commercial point of view, fbb wonders why Stagecoach is wasting a whole bus plus drivers, plus positioning journeys from Bedford, to provide a 30 minute frequency from Luton to the airport - when Arriva runs direct, there and back, with EIGHT buses an hour.

Now that IS loopy!

** Fbb is indebted to correspondent Julian for the phrase "the square root of nothing" which undoubtedly will describe loadings on route LAX!

 Next Weekend Variety blog : Sat 27th July 

Going Loopy At Luton (Part 1)

fbb Suffers Computer Outage

Fortunately this was not a second version of the CrowdStrike versus Microslop event of a week ago. This was probably Colin or one of his staff tripping over a wire in the Server Room in the company's offices on former railway land at Watford.

fbb's "devices" were happily reporting connection with the server but, sadly, also reporting that although connected to the gubbins, the gubbins was not connected to the interwebnet.

This encroached somewhat on blogging time hence today's posting is split into two parts.

Part One : A Is For Arriva

The majority operator between Luton centre and the the Airport is Arriva with eight buses an hour running direct Monday to Saturday. These come through from Dunstable and use the Busway.

Route A

At just ten minuted from Luton bus and rail interchange to the airport bus station this is the quickest (not quite!) and easiest link to understand.

Route F70/F77

It is joined on the busway by Arriva F70 nd F77 from Milton Keynes, routes that we met a while back. Until recently, these terminated at the Interchange, but have now been extended.

The bit of busway south of the interchange is not "guided" but it does whisk, unimpeded, under the A6 as per this Google Earth picture.

Here is a view of the bus only road from the A6 bridge.

Should that taxi be there? Here are the signs at the unimposing end of the busway ... 

... where everything joins the ordinary road network for the dash to the airport terminal.  F70/F77 follow the same route; and readers will remember that Arriva; presentation of the timetable is potty ...

... looking like four buses an hour rather than two.

In a weird quirk of timetabilation, route A is given 10 minutes for the journey from town to plane but the F70/F77 only gets a paltry 8 minutes for exactly the same stops and route.

Maybe F70/F77 buses are crewed by faster drivers or have turbo charged engines?

Maps of the busway routes have yet to be amended to show the extension of the F70/F77.

No rush chaps! Notice that the above on-line map shows route A as calling at Luton Airport Parkway station.

It doesn't, or, at least, Traveline thinks it doesn't!

It is all a bit loopy!

Route 757

Before moving on to the loopiest of loopiness, fbb should record that Arriva (trading as Green Line) ...

... runs every 30 minutes from London to the Airport ...

... and on in to the town. The 755s form Monday to Friday "commuter" journeys NOT via the airport.

There are several London stops well explained on the high quality map.

Now every 30, this service was once every 20!

Routes A1, A2

Additionally, National Express runs A1 and A2 coaches giving a half hourly service from common points. NEx offers a very poor quality map ...

... and a rather poor timetable layout. ...

... with too much "white space" making reading the times more difficult.

The coaches are nice, though,

In addition to the A1 and A2, there are many longer distance services that run via the airport. National Express claims it runs an average of three coaches every hour.

 To Be continued Thurs 26th July.