Tuesday 10 September 2024

The Lengthy One, The 321 - Two

If any blog reader may be thinking of diversifying into criminal activity during the fbbs' absence, please note that fbb mansions is protected by Mr Tubbles and, perhaps more significantly, by next door neighbours and their lap dog - a huge husky.


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Can't You Tell; It's An STL

The AEC bus, STL class, numbered over 2000 vehicles and was in use thoughout the 1930s ans into thr 1940s, serving in the red bus and green bus fleets. 

Is the STL below showing a genuine destination? You can never be scertain with preserved heritage vehicles.
It would seem likely hat the northern destination of the 321, in Luton, was served pre WW2. fbb guesses, because routes did not change vey much well into the 1960s, that 321s may have been running between Luton and Uxbridge since the mid 1930s.

The standard double decker would next be the RT ...
... and this one, standing at the Luton terminus, is going to Maple Cross, always a short working. And this Green Line liveried decker is on its way to Rickmansworth.
The atmospheric picture below may well be on an RT running day, but it is pictured on its customaty toute at Croxley Metropolitan Line station.
And the picture below has Rickmansworth as an intermediate point on the blind ...
... so, risking the wrath of London's green bus enthusiasts, fbb is goung to state that the 321 has run between Luon and Uxbridge for many a long year.

It was definitey serving Uxbridge in Leyland National days ...
... and the same marque briefly wore the Watfordwide branding.
TPL 449T is preserved in the Watfordwide amended National Bus Company livery of the 1970s.

The National Bus Company was formed in 1969, so the abive livery would begin to appear in the early 1970s.

The 1977 bus timetable is a typical Londin Transport size and style but wrapped in a cover based closely on the standard NBC design adopted theoughout England and Wales.
15p (three shillings) was a lot to pay for a timetable book in 1977.

The timetable page that concluded yesterday's blog is from the above booklet..
We will look in more detail at that timetable in tomorrow's blog.

The collection of route maps, supplied to fbb by Julian Peddle, offers more clues as o the stability pf the 321.

Here is 1948 in the Watford area ...
And tenty years later.
Both maps confirm the 321 as running south beyond Maple Cross and, off the map, north to Luton.

It was certainly lengthy!

As well as a close look at the 1977 timetab;e, fbb will eventually look at what happened when rhe National Bus Company was progresivey privatised post 1986.

And finally for today's 321 exploration ...

Here is an early STL as originally deliveresd to the General Onmibus Co pre London Transport ...
... and a later preserved version in red bus livery.

More From Sheffield
fbb is now sufficiently awake (after Sundays lengthy coach journey) to expand yesterday's short report in the public and mayoral reaction to First's revised netwok which happend on Sunday 1st Sept.

Fact Check
fbb has analysed ALL the Sheffield changes amd can confirm that there are no sognificant improvements in any services. Where frequencies appear to be better, they are at the expense of wothdrawals and reductions in parallel netwoks. 

The changes have caused untold disuption to existing services.

The changes have been badly publicised; indeed some would claim, in the ansence of printed timetables and a new network map, there has been no helpul publicity at all.

The Press Speaks

The Sheffield evening paper, The Star, is not renowned for pto bus articles; furthermore it is often wrong in what it writes, largely because its authors do not know where the buses go and cannot understand the changes anyway.

But AGAIN this time ...

“Passengers will be left confused by these big changes to our local bus networks, especially as they are being introduced with very little advance warning (actually published less than a month in advance and badly explained as well, with no maps - even fbb struggled to understand!) and sometimes wrong or misleading information” said Fran Postlethwaite, convenor of the BBSY campaign.

“Bus apps like Moovit and even Google Maps had been inadequately updated and were still showing routes that had been withdrawn as late as 1st September, the day of the change! What’s more, even Travel South Yorkshire’s Journey Planner was advising passengers to travel on buses that were no longer scheduled!

“Changing routes and timetables on such a scale is difficult for existing passengers to understand, let alone those trying to use the bus for the first time.  For most passengers there is no improvement to their services whilst others have seen a big reduction.”

In case it's too small to read, the caption to the above reads ...

These changes seem to have been brought in for the convenience (and financial benefit - fbb) of the operators rather then the passengers.

Why should we be surprised at that?

But Mr Coppard (South Yorkshire Mega Mayor) thinks it is OK.
The changes, which came into effect on Sunday, September 1, have been welcomed by South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard as a ‘step towards... getting back the world class bus system we once had’.

What kind of dream world are you in, Olly?

“I’ve been committed to radically improving our public transport network since day one; because ultimately, if we want people to stay near and go far in South Yorkshire, we need a better public transport system.  

Could we have a list of the improvements you have implement, please. 

Here are those that fbb has logged over recent months
But never mind, eh? With Olly off his trolley, he has announced that he will have a county-wide franchise scheme (just like Manchester's non-event by March 2025 .

“And while these changes will not solve all the public transport challenges we face; they are a step towards us getting better buses and getting back the world class bus system we once had."  

What kind of dream world are you in, Olly?

 Next 321 Blog : Wednesday 11th September 

9 comments:

  1. It seems to me that the Sheffield changes have played right into the hands of those in favour of franchising. That you Mr Johnson for enabling this.

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  2. The Sheffield changes are a mixed bag. Improvements include Loxley and Wisewood gaining a Sunday service, introduction of an evening service on the 57a to Stocksbridge via Worrall and a better service to AMRC. Negative changes include longer journeys from Sheffield to Harthill and significant reductions in service on the Gleadless Valley - Heeley Green corridor which now only has the 252. Ongoing frustrations include there being no evening service to Bradway.

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  3. Route 321 has linked Luton with St Albans and Watford since 1934; previously the northern terminal was at Oaklands in eastern St Albans (in early LGOC days it was Route 1). The southern terminal has varied many times . . . Uxbridge was the furthest, although sometime during the 1950s there was a 351 between St Albans and Uxbridge instead, with 321 going no further than Maple Cross.

    In 1961, the Saturday PVR was 6 RT from LS Garage and 20 RT from GR Garage . . . I believe this was the highest PVR of any Country area route, with a maximum frequency of 10 BPH between Garston and Croxley, although 480 in Gravesend had a higher frequency. Luton always ran 6 PVR; the GR number gently reduced over the years.
    The picture of the RT at Croxley is genuine . . . GR had a couple of RTs available until 1976, and NBC flags started being used from around 1974.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The 321 terminated at West Hyde, south of Maple Cross before the Second World War. The 321 was first extended to Uxbridge in 1946 replacing service 309 which had operated between Rickmansworth and Uxbridge.

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  4. London Country maintained a garage in Luton until the mid-1970s; it was coded LS, supposedly as it had been taken over from an independent operator called Strawhatter (after Luton's most famous export, after Stacey Dooley) but I can't verify that.

    London Country's big advantage in Luton was that the London Transport Act of 1933 gave it its Green Line services a monopoly on coach routes between Luton and London. On the other hand, London Country services could not both pick up and set down the same passenger within the Luton Borough, which protected the municipal operator (the only one that London Country services came into contact with until 1980).

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  5. Other Sheffield improvements include an improved frequency between Waverely and City, the new 75a link between Lane Top and Fox Hill, and slight improvements to the appalling evening service to High Green. On the downside the evening City-Walkley frequency is down to a dire 45 mins. Greystones now has 3 buses an hour instead of one, with evening and Sunday services restored. A couple of routes have regained clockface frequencies replaucng the AI-generated nonsense that First splashed a fortune on. But publicity is dire and the TSY online route maps weren't updated in time.

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  6. HGC229, seen in the head-on view, wasn't an RT but a late version STL (Regent 2) - they were complicated! When withdrawn by London Transport it was bought by Dundee Corporation and ran for several more years.

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  7. The pictures of early STLs are in fact of STs. The STs were AEC Regents with a length of 25 feet and were built from 1929 to 1932. The government then altered the regulations to allow 26 feet long buses and London General took advantage of this and the ST became the STL. Some of these lasted into the 1950s and the last was not sold until 1958 and so lasted until after I was born.

    Oliver Coppard said that a decision on franchising will be made by March 2025, not that such a scheme will be introduced by that date. (From an online Sheffield newspaper).

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  8. Can't you tell it's an STL? Well quite clearly you cant! One easy way to tell the difference between an ST (in many of the photos) and and STL is that they are clearly marked as such on the engine cover- also shown in the photos.

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