Anglo German Annoyng Grumbles

"Anglo" : Impossible Arriva Information

The main road from Leicester to Burton upon Trent used to be the A50. The village of Groby, where dwells long term chum David, is by-passed by the route to the M1 at Markfield. Services 29 and 29A used to run all the way.

Then came a big changes. Service 9 ran from Burton to Coalville and the 29/29A continued on a much shorted section to Leicester. The buses were so branded.

More recently it had changed again, seen below in the from Leicester direction.

There were two buses and hour with an extra short working to Coalville.

The 29s now run to Swadlincote with the route 9 between there and Burton. This change came about because Arriva no longer runs beyond Swad to Burton. These services are now in the hands of Diamond Bus whose 9 extends from Ashby de la Zouch to East Midlands Airport.

Nice map, Diamond. 

Sorry that Arriva can't be bothered with a proper map.

The routes in the Coalville area are indirect as here between Ashby de la Zouch and the town centre.

Beyond Coalville it is still far from direct!

Of course, there is no printed timetable information available these days, so David decided to download and print out the latest version.

Most of the download was straightforward ...

... despite the implication that you need a change in Coalville with only a couple of minutes to find you onward bus. SCARY!

Actually it is a lie - the buses run through.

But David was far from happy with the Monday to Friday panel.

Service 29 buses visit Markfield twice after a backwatds through time link between Linford Crescent and Glenfield! Then all buses serve Leicester between Whitwick and Glenfield.

Crackpot.

Remember; buses should start at Leicester then run via Whitwick, Coalville and Ashby to Swad.

It is not just the timetable nonsense that infuriates, but the fact that the potty timetable has been available on-line since February.

Nobody at Arriva has noticed and, even if they had, nobody cares.

"German" : Baffling Beautiful Bus Station

Remember that horse tram outside Mainz Kastel railway station.

The first baffle is to ask why Mainz Kastel is not part of Mainz.

It's complicated!

So now you know!

Today's "Kastel" station is somewhat less impressive an edifice than that from the early 1900s.

But it does have a bus stop outside but only in one direction.

Surely, being super efficient German public transport, we should expect some sort of "interchange" or bus station very close to the railway station.

Indeed, Mainz Kastel does have a very spectacular bus station at the north Western end of the Rheinbrucke, the bridge which carries bus services between Mainz and Kastel.

And here it is, "Kastel Bruckenkopf",  seen from the point of view of a bus crossing from Mainz.

And there it is c/o Google Earth.

The V shaped "tent" covers two sets of platforms, for straight on and for a branch left. Here is a view of the "straight on" stop looking towards Mainz.

There is a standard bus stop sign for each platform ...

... and below, the left hand fork routes.

There are also electronic screens.

Which leaves one simple question.

How do you get there by foot to catch your bus?

You might think there would be a lift and some steps from the end of the station platform?

But there is no link - well, no signposted and obvious link. 

You can go round to the back of the station and stride off through the old goods yard ...

... where the unappealing environment soon turns into a narrow road ...

...which delivers you to a short dash across the pedestrian crossing to enter the tent.

There are multiple footpaths and tunnels under the road junction. They are spooky but offer no link up to the bus station, occasionally and enticingly spotted far above. Here is a typical view of the glorious gloom ...

... and a selection of steps ...

... none of which ...

... take you into the bus station.

From all of these anonymous ascents you still have a busy road, with fast moving traffic, to cross.

Streetview did spot one very faded directional sign with four fingers - none of which mentioned the bus station.

It certainly is NOT ...

Vorsprung Durch Technik

Tomorrow we return to the sanity of the Mainz public transport network, notably that with wheel on rail technology!

 Next Mainz tram blog : Fri 13 June 

Strassenbahn Mainz (1)

 

fbb's brain hurts! 

It's complicated!

There is an English Wikipedia page helpfully entitled Trams in Mainz, but it shows only the present situation and even that is in summary form. Also available is a Wikipedia entry in German called Strassenbahn (literally "street way" with "rail" implied) Mainz.

It is a bit beyond a simple one-day blog and considerably beyond fbb's "O" level German, passed 66 years ago! To add to the blogger's woes the button that allows Google to present the German site in English appears and disappears at some kind of electronic whim!

But the Mainz tram network begins with privately operated horse trams, running between 1883 and 1904. The horse tram below is standing in Leichhof ...

... a little square in the town centre. "hof" literally means "yard" as in back yard.

The "hof" is now part of a wide-ranging pedestrian area, BUT buses enter and stop nearby.

Leichhof is the "pin" bottom right. And here is a 57 doing it!

Most of the buildings are original so below we see the horse tram stop as it appears today.

Note the roundel above and to the right of the present door.

The well embellished hut is now a tree plus bench!

Next historical comes the Steam Tram running from 1891 to 1923.

German Wikipedia provides us with just one picture.

The above view can be roughy reproduced today ...

... with current trams 50 and 51 following part of the steam tram route. Yes, it is he same church!

There were two steam tram routes going their separate ways after the "Central Station" (now Hauptbahnhof) as per this map.

These steamy routes were eventually handed over to one of the suburban railway companies and they passed them on to the municipal tram company. Here is a Wikipedia extract about these services.

Back to the horse trams; and one nugget of particular interest. One route crossed the Rheinbrucke ...

... the main link to the rest of the sprawling urban area.

It terminated just "on the other side" at Mainz Kastel railway station. Mainz Kastel is, as it's name suggests, in Wiesbaden!

It's complicated!

Here is a horse tram at Mainz Kastel station.

Back then, the Rheinbrucke was a toll bridge and a toll was added to every tram fare.

Later electric trams made the same crossing but toll-less..

It became a complex junction on the Mainz riverbank with a spectacular viewing and sheltering edifice.

Trams last ran across the Rheinbrucke in 1957. Below is a night view of the bridge today with gardens replacing the shelter above.

In case you are a bit confused, the old maps extracted above do not face north!  Here is the bridge today from Google Earth, correctly orientated on a broad bend of the river.

And here is where the two steam tram routes diverged east of the main railway station.

Back then, this was open country and the right hand fork set off across fields, eschewing the road, where the shiny new buildings are on the right.

A good point at which to pause.

Today's tramway system will be examined in  Friday's  blog.

Tomorrow's blog will consider how not to present a timetable and where not to build a bus station.

 Next Anglo-German blog : Thurs 12 June 

Seaton's Surprising Sabbath Service

379 Full Round Trip (mini blog)

Axe Valley Mini Travel has run route 885 for many a long year. Its latest manifestation connects Beer and Seaton seaside communities with Colyford, Colyton, Whitford ...

... Musbury and Axminster. As far as fbb knows there has never been a Sunday service since AVT's predecessors Western National was the provider. Since April, and thanks to support from a rail campaign group, Stagecoach have held the contract for the new Sunday service 379.

Yes it is daft to have a separate number from the Monday to Saturday route, but at least Devon Bus' roadside publicity merges the two timetables.

On Sunday last, fbb presented himself at Seaton sea front to join the short working to Beer.

There were FOUR passengers, one of whom paid actual money - well not proper specie but a bleep on a mobile phone!

This was the end of lunch break for our affable driver.

The 1510 departure from Beer was, for the 379, quite busy ...

... with six passengers and a dog! The dog, fbb noted, enjoyed his ride. None was travelling any further than Seaton and, yet again, one paid an electronic fare.

A couple of boarders had availed themselves of an ice cream from the adjacent village shop. 

And so back to Seaton

Five boarded at the sea front stand, of whom three alighted in the suburbs (one was waiting fot a 9A and had no idea what a 379 was) ...

... whilst one paid a fare to Colyton. One remained as far as Axminster. There were no passengers for Colyford, Whitford or Musbury and none joined at Axminster station.

The one long distance passenger alighted before the bus delved into the Millwey Estate.

There were no takers for the return from Millwey ...

... but our driver, affable still, alighted for a "vape", the slightly dodgy alternative to an even more dodgy fag or ciggy!

He carried a rather swish camera and, in discussion with fbb, revealed that he shared your blogging ancient's frustration about the total lack of promotional publicity for this new service. The driver was hoping his pictures might be used by Stagecoach to get a PR lift for the service.

Apparently a bus passenger who lives on the Millwey estate has been plastering the 379 on "social media", so, tech savvy Axminster folk may well know about it. But, sadly, Seaton, Beer and the intervening villages live in a sea of omniboligical ignorance.

But., back at Axminster Station ...

... fbb was in for a surprise.

Three boarded having alighted from a train! They all travelled to Seaton.

fbb has noted previously the new display screens at Axminster with relatively illegible scrolling text. 

Why "Beer Cross" but just "Weymouth"? 

More significantly the departure time was shown as 1608 when the actual set-off time is 1615!

The return journey to Seaton was uneventful and lacking any extra passengers except one local (who paid CASH - shock horror) from Colyton and, like fbb alighted at The Underfleet in Seaton.

Both fbb and the driver (more aff!) expressed the view that passenger numbers were small, but remarkable as there had been no advance or printed publicity. How much more the service could have been used if either Stagecoach or Devon Bus had distributed a leaflet.

But that would be too much trouble.

Readers may wonder why Axe Valley is not running  the Sunday service on their route. Apparently, Auntie Frances (AVT proprietrix) was offered the job (on a de minimis deal) but turned it down as "we do not run buses on Sunday."

Pity!

Worryingly AVT did not run the bus to Sidmouth on Saturday 7th.

Unusual, as AVT is renowned for its reliability!

And another black mark for Devon Bus.

Nowhere is there any mention of the 379 on the County's bus stop flags. Back in the day, you could simply bolt on the Devon equivalent of a London Transport "C" plate ...

... but now ...

A contractor will have to tender, the Council will have to review the tenders and the work will have to be scheduled. New route numbers will mean that the stop flags will need a compete rebuild, so the correct routes will probably appear in the week before the service ceases for the winter.

Good, innit!

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It Used To Be Called Whitsun

fbb usually marks the big Christian festivals with a "thought for the day" and, horrors of horrors. he forgot about Pentecost Sunday on 8th June. Were he of the Roman Catholic persuasion, he might have been spending all night in the confessional box.

Whilst some illustrations of this powerfull event are difficult to interpret; the Bible says that "what looked like" tongues of flame appeared above the disciples ...

... as the Holy Spirit "descended".

What is absolutely and historically certain is that a group of frightened men, hiding indoors for fear of arrest and execution like their Master, became powerful preachers and teachers of the Christian faith, facing, in come cases, horrific persecution, even death.

The video makes a very good attempt to communicate what reallyhappened and how.

Yes it is "supernatural" - but so is God, so what would you expect?

Millions of people, your author included, will attest to the Power of God's given Spirit as a boost to call upon in serving Him.

It's about Making A Difference.

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 Next Mainz tram blog : Weds 11 June