Friday Variety

Yesterday, the fbbs travelled from Ardgartan (depart - 0730) to Searon (arrive 2000) at which point enthusiasm for blog writing had dissipated! A pre-posted "variety" is the best the old bloke can manage. A Scotish snippet or two may have been added.

Hydrogen Bombs Again

The above fine and splendid personages are just launching some new buses in Mulheim, Germany. The operator is a consortium called Ruhrbahn which seems to have a very well kept fleet in fetching yellow ...

... including some rather nifty minibuses.

But the new buses are  Unterwegs mit Wasserstoff , as displayed modestly above the personalities above.

Readers may be able to deal with "Unterwegs" as "Underway" but "Wasserstoff" was initially perplexing; however, it does literally mean "Water Stuff". And our astute reastiers will have guessed that Wasserstoff is Hydrogen.

But all is not well with Mulheim's Water Stuff.

The article explains ...

The latest hydrogen bus setback in Germany is no surprise. Essen and Mülheim are now stuck with 19 hydrogen buses that need to travel up to 89 km round trip just to refuel after the state of North Rhine–Westphalia withdrew its subsidy for further fleet conversion. The financial burden has left the cities scrambling for alternatives, but the real question is: why did anyone expect this to work in the first place?

This is just the latest in a string of failures for hydrogen buses. Wiesbaden scrapped its hydrogen bus program and pivoted to battery-electric buses instead. London’s hydrogen double-deckers proved too expensive to run, with Transport for London (TfL) acknowledging that the cost per mile was nearly double that of diesel buses, even with subsidies. 

A 2023 report from TfL revealed that the total operating cost of hydrogen buses was around £1.50 per mile, compared to £0.80 for diesel and £0.65 for battery-electric buses. The high costs, combined with refueling challenges and supply chain issues, led TfL to shift its focus toward battery-electric alternatives.

We're Short Of Money - says Chancellor

Really? £700 milion?

£200 million for the North East's mega mayor?

£200 million for new Cambridge South Station.

 

£140 million for a station "refresh"...

which makes £13,000 seem small change.

Truiy, in the broad scheme of things, it is small change, but not the best PR to leak out at the time of a fares increase. Note also that the lads and lasses of the fourth estate could not be bothered to find a picture of the correctly "wrapped" bus.

fbb will oblige.

It still looks brown and not red to fbb!

AI : Creates Atrocious Illustrations

It does admit to a "created" picture which appears to show a large vessel powered by so many batteries that there is no room for cargo.

Prophetic, Eh?

AI : Atrocious Illustration in Chesterfield

The building looks like Chesterfield's Stagecoach depot, once Chesterfield Corporation bus shed. Indeed the east side has a large parking area facing the main road, the old A61.

Now, are you really telling us, an Awful Implication, that Stagecoach have lined up twelve identical single deckers, nose to tail, to illustrate the wonders of electric buses and their charge points?

Presumably they are all going off depot in that precise order. But the left hand four are not next to chargers anyway.

Another Day, Another Livery

Once it was the 747 and 757 ...

Then it became just the 500.

They used to look like this:-

Smart single deckers rode the road between Glasgow city centre and it's airport.

Then in 2018 there was an upgrade, a re-launch and a new livery - all at once.

Distinctive stand-out paint job with ab obvious plane-a-zoomng.

But what did your eagle eyed octogenarian spot as awaited his Lochs and Glens Volvo in North Hanover Street?

You guessed it! A brand new brand for the 500.

Not bright, not distinctive and with a barely visible plane. Well done brand consultants.

The 500 picks up at various city centre stops ..

... Notably Buchanan bus Station and on -street stops for Queen Street and Central railway stations. Daytime frequency Mon to Sat is every 10 mins ...

... every 12 on Sunday.

fbb spotted several 500s at North Hanover Street (stop for Queen Street station). An occasional couple boarded or alighted leaving single figure loads in and out.

Maybe it was not a good time for flights, but First certainly did not cover it's costs on the trips fbb observed.

Maybe the crowds boarded at Central?

Hmmm?

Never mind, eh? The new 500 livery will soon be abandoned and replaced with First's richly memorable new look.

Hmmm?

Hydrogen A P.S. ...

... to an earlier blog.

So it was contaminated hydrogen? Contaminated with what?

Borscht?

 Next Variety blog : Sat 22 Mar 

Integrate? Nae Yet Mate!

 Going Round In Circles

In public transport, there are very few true "circular" services, by which we mean that the vehicles keep going round and round. There may be a short break at least once but there is no terminus. London's   CIRCLE   line used to be one, but it is no more. It does not circle.

It starts at Edgware Road, then does run right round the circle to Edgware Road, continuing to Hammersmith. It is therefore NOT a true circle because, for example, you could not board at Westminster and travel all the way round to Westminster - you would have to change at Edgware Road.

But Glasgow's Subway, renamed Underground and re-renamed Subway, does circle, it can do no other. It opened in December 1896 and was rope worked. Here is the mechanism that hauled the ropes.

A typical rope hauled train is being cleaned for service ...

... and similar as presented in the old museum.

The black and white picture car looks far too long for Glasgow. But it must be right - Wikipedia says so!

But the planners of the circle did not seem keen to provide for interchange with Glasgow's Railway Stations. Buchanan was close, as was Queen Street; Central was not too far away. Even St Enoch which was next door to a like-named Subway station, had no physical link.

A geographcal map does not really provide any extra information, the circles are so simple.

Buchanan Street was just a rebuilt shop front on Buchanan Street ...

... whilst St Enoch was right outside the long-since closed railway station of the same name.

The palatial building was the HQ of the system and appropriately grand. Electrification came in 1935, but the stock remained the same with electric power and electric doors replacing the iron gates. A red livery was adopted.

This was the Subway as explored by fbb as he was a-courting the future Mrs fbb in the early 1970s.

The system remained little changed until the mid 1970s when a complete closure was decided upon. Stations were either rebuilt or at least cleaned and repainted; new stock was provided for reopening and under the PTE the nickname became the Electric Orange.

The 1977 trains are now gone with one car a museum piece at The Riverside!

The recent development has included further upgrades to several stations and brand new trains.

So when Lochs and Glens deposited the fbbs in Central Glasgow, fbb negotiated an extension to his Queen Street station exploration - to ride on the new trains.

He travelled one whole stop from Buchanan Street to St Enoch and back at a fairly pricey £3.50. The Subway has a flat fare system.

Some time ago a proper pedestrian link was created between Queen Street big-train station and Buchanan Street Subway.

Now we have a "travolator" moving walkway!

The Buchanan Street entrance is now much more welcoming, quite impressive, indeed.

The subterranean ticketing area is bright, cheery and spacious. And the ticketing system is fully electronic with barriers ...

... with tap-on ticket checking.

And there is the Puzzle Picture.

St Enoch became firstly an enquiry office, one of the best on The UK; then a coffee shop. Access to the trains was via external escalators ...

... later enhanced with a posh lid!

Very impressive. At St Enoch there is lift ...

... or escalator ...

... down to platform level, depending which side you wish to access. At Buchanan you have escalators down to a mezzanine floor but the last descent is a stairway.

The trains are still small - obviously ...

... but four car instead of their predecessors' orange three.

It is a far cry from the gloom, the noise and the smell of the "good old days".

  Next Variety blog : Fri 21 Mar  

Renewing Old Friendships (1)

Glasgow Queen Street Station

For a long time it looked like this, with its main entrance being on an extension of Queen Street, seen above with tram. Things remained thus for many years ...

... until a new and particularly ugly frontage was added, replacing the traditional block (above) on the left of the main entrance.

Well, it seemed a good idea at the time.

Bur at platform level, the station was getting busier, longer trains were needed and there was a bottleneck at the station throat due to the exit tunnel! All in all, the station needed more space. So the ugly block was to be demolished and the station extended towards the street.

This is an early artists' impression...

.. and this is how it turned out ...

... and at nighttime, real, no longer the impression!

So fbb just had to visit.

Ardgartan Article Monday 17th Part 2

First a bit of very local geography. Below is a chunk of Open Street Map ...

... showing West George Street passing the new frontage, Dundas Street on the western side and North Hanover Street on the easr. Below is a similar area as seen on Google Earth.

At the junction of Dudas Street and West George Street (above lower left) another relatively modern block was demolished. 

This allowed for second entrance to the new concourse, helpfully on the corner.

But the original Dumdas Street entrance was retained and can be glimpsed (above) centre far left. But the entrance on North Hanover Street has not been upgraded in any way. Unredeveloped, it has actually been downgraded.

Once there was a taxi rank,  conveniently part of the station ...

... but now you have to use kerbside taxi ranks nearby! For a while the bus to Central Station left from here. 

The entrance is still there ...

... but the locked gates are hardly welcoming. There is a passageway to the left ...

... but it is far from "nice". 

This is, however, the route used by fbb as his coach had dropped him opposite. It had also dropped Mrs fbb, but for some unfathomable reason, she decided to do a bit of window shopping rather than enjoy the new station facilities. Such are the strange interests of many of our female friends and relatives.

The first thing you see once inside is the new window looking south.

The original station roof is magnificent and unchanged.

From this point, you can look out towards Queen Street itself as you are stranding where the old main entrance stood - see "tram" picture above.

Queen Street straight on. 

On the right is the lift down to street level - unhelpfully out of order when fbb needed it. He was descending one level further to pay a disgraceful 50p2p.

Not surpisingly the toilets were little used.

There is a small booking office with an even smaller enquiry desk and no printed publicity. Very disappointing.

Also disappointing was the main departure screen, tucked away to one side and quite high up on  a wall.

It is definitely too small for anyone with even slightly impaired vision. fbb's ARMD, plus the very tight lettering, makes it hard for him to read. The old screens were larger and easier to read, as well as being better placed.

Minor criticisms apart (one major complaint !!!) the new Queen Street is a vast improvement over its predecessor and a credit to Scotrail.

Despite the Nostalgia, the station is oodles better and oodles busier than in the "good old days"!!

Tomorrow : A Queen Street Station that isn't, some redwoods that weren't and another old friend. 

fbb will also answer yesterday's  Puzzle Picture which should have been answered today but fits better with tomorrow's blog.

Also tomorrow, the fbbs are travelling back to Seaton.

 More Glasgow blog: Thursday 20 Mar