Surveying Sensible Swansea (3)

We Go To 2 and 2A, Too

Although the heading says its terminus is Newton, the last time point is Slade Road. Is that the same place? Even more confusing is the inbound route which seems to have some extra point times.

Note that outbound the Oystermouth stop is at "Castle" whist inbound it is Mumbles Oystermouth Square. Is that the same as just plain Oystermouth Square?

But then we turn to the much better timetables accessed via (helpfully) the "route maps" link; and we find outbound buses now terminating at ..

... Picketts Mead (W) and, again, the inbound timetable ...

... showing different point times includng Oystermouth Square. There is now no mention of Slade Road.

On Sundays it is a 2A ...

... to Bracelet Bay ...

... with nary a mention of Picketts Mead or even Slade Road.

What's going on?

Does the map help?

Possibly, but we need a closer view - well fbb does, anyway!

Immediately we can glean that Picketts Mead is the same as the Newton of the timetable heading and we can guess that Slade Road is somewhere in that estate.

But we can also see that, despite a lack of acknowledgement on the inboard leg of both versions of the timetable, the Monday to Saturday 2 does call at Bracelet Bay. But First Bus aren't telling!

Furthermore, the 2/2A map doesn't mention Oystermouth at all, Castle or Square. Oystermouth Castle is a very unimpressive red dot!

In fact 2/2A buses turn right just before the "Square" to a stop called Newton Road on Google Maps.

There's the Castle, top left.

And, while fbb is unravelling mysteries, there is no such place as Picketts Mead! The time point is at a small piece of public open land ...

... called Picket Mead (one "t" and just one Picket!) confirmed by a local web site campaigning to maintain the Mead more carefully and thus keep it tidy!

So, although the timetable presentation is apparently better that the usual First Bus web site offerings, it is less than adequate at correctly informing the potential passenger.

Here is how the outbound time points should be shown. Outbound runs all the way TO Bracelet Bay ...

... and in bound from the realistic start of the loop.

And the good news for all sun lovers is that Blackpill Lido (is it Lie-doh or Lee-doh?) opes on 4th May!

Whilst the presentation of the timetables is better in the "route maps" section, there is still too much evidence of weak thinking in the detail. Far too often the public timetable is based on a computer driven output from scheduling software with very little thought for what the user needs.

Swansea is therefore better in parts, notably where First Cymru strays from "official" web site standards, but could be even better!

But how was it in National Bus Company days?

 Next Swansea NOT Simple blog : Thurs 25 Apr