Taking The Pulse (2)

700 : This Is How It Was ...

The above leaflet is dated 1992. At this time the main towns each had their very own leaflet. How sensible with a long and complex route!

This is how it was in 2011; a rather splendid FWT map with lots of additional information. We see Portsmouth to Chichester ...

... continuing eastbound from Chichester to Littlehampton ...

... with lots of wiggles in and around Littlehampton. Note that some journeys did not call at Yapton and part of the service ran to and from Arundel.

Then the route completes the trajectory to Brighton.

Between Worthing and Brighton, the 700 ploughed indefatigably along the A259 coast road with a slight diversion to Palmeira Square in Hove  then on into Brighton.

All of the above cartography is reflected in a typical hour's extract from the timetable.

Three services each running every 30 minutes form the basis if this very well designed timetable.

Two buses an hour run all the way from Portsmouth to Brighton taking over four hours!

They are joined by two buses an hour from Chichester to Brighton.

Two buses start from Arundel and join the other four at Littlehampton., continuing to form a ten minute headway to Brighton.

Now look at how buses serve Yapton (see map above) and there's one doing it in the picture below, about to turn right to make its way back to the main road!

And here is the very clever timetable extracted from the full jobbie above.

From Bognor there are four buses an hout spaced evenly at a 15 minute interval. Two of these (actually the full route length journeys from Portsmouth) divert via Yapton taking 28 minutes. The other two do not Yap and take 23 minutes.

The five extra minutes via Yapton ensure that all six buses are running on a clock-face timetable from Littlehampton to Brighton; an excellent example of the bus schedulers art (or science)!

Put that in your £4 million AI software, First, and see the garbage that exudes from its incompetent chips!

700 : Ths Is What It Is Now!

Until April 6th this is the schedule using the original map above as a guide.

Was every 30 Portsmouth to Chichester and Brighton

Now every 20 Portsmouth to Chichester only

Was every 15 Chichester to Littlehampton and Brighton

Now every 30 Chichester to Yapton only

And every 30 Chichester to Littlehampton only

But note that the new 500 also runs from Yapton to Littlehampton.

Was every 30 Arundel to Littlehampton (via Wick) and Brighton,

Was every 10 all together Littlehampton to Brighton

Now every 12 Wick to Littlehampton and Brighton

700 : And This Is What It Will Be

Starting on Sunday 6th April showing the Mon to Fri or Saturday times below.

Portsmouth to Chichester NO CHANGE

Chichester to Yapton or Lottlehampton NO CHANGE

NEW 

Wick Littlehampton Worthing Lancing

Service 701 every 15

Currently every 12 Littlehampton to Worthing

NEW Durrington Worthing Brighton (700)

Currently every 12 Worthing to Brighton

So, in simple terms, a through trip from Portsmouth to Brighton will soon involve FOUR separate timetables at:-

every 20

every 30

every 15

every 12

Showing no fear and without PPE, fbb has calculated a typical journey from Portsmouth the Hard to Brighton compared with the through timetable shown above.

So, 47 minutes slower, some of which may be accounted for by increased running times generally, but some will be the extra time needed for interchange, assuming all four "legs" run to time which is very unlikely.

Obviously, only an idiot or a bus enthusiast (which one would fbb have been umpteen years ago?) would want to travel all the way in one go. But certainly journeys that involve two different timetable legs would be longer and more stressful.

How about an X700 every 30 minutes Portsmouth to Brighton?

Maybe not.

Back to the phrase "in simple terms" above. 

It is most definitely NOT that simple.

 Next Littlehampton mini blog : Thur 13 Mar