Grove Park Gallivant (mini-blog 4)

We Have A Spider!

A spider is a cunning creature that spins a sticky web to trap the unwary!

We Have A Spider Map!

A spider map is a cunning feature that spins a sticky web to trap the unwary!

The above map is part of a display provided for passengers at Grove Park station. Whether the display is actually visible anywhere for real at the station is unknown.

A different map is available from the TfL web site ...

Can we glean which one is correct?

The "station" version, presumably curated by South Eastern Railway, shows this ...

... a 136 continuing beyond Lewisham to Elephant and Castle.

The "TfL on line" version ...

... doesn't. But it does.

So it might be right on both; just the design of the map is different.

Why?

Ian Armstrong's London Bus Routes web site does confirm no change for the 135.

The on-line map also mentions an SL4, absent from the "station" version.

This is the Superloop from Canary Wharf via the Silvertown tunnel ...

... and there is no guidance as to where it might deposit or uplift passengers at Grove Park. Streetview shows the buses snoozing peacefully in the litttle bus station (or is it just a bus park?) marked as Stop M on the "station" map ...

...and confirmed by a Streetview view of a couple of SL4 rear ends.

Because the "on line" map has no index, and because the "station" map predates the SL4, new customers for the Khan special have to guess! Ian Armstrong might show stop M.

The guess has to be a good one as stop M is not marked on the map anyway!

Are you thoroughly confused? 

So was fbb; so is fbb whenever he tries to unravel the truth from any Transport for London publicity. You would suspect that, as is usual with London stuff, Spider maps and only really useful if you already know the answer to your query.

fbb's guess is that the "station" Spider is defunct and should not be relied upon at all.

Confused.com

But, for the time being, as this is a Grove Park station blog, we will concentrate on the information that the station supplies.

The encouraging feature at the station is that the Spider does have that full index of places served and stops served at and near Grove Park. The (more recent?) on line version has no index whatsoever. That would make it useless as a work of reference to help the public.

Station Map : The Detail

fbb has never before seen  H&R2  on a TfL index. The rubric explains ...

Marked on the map?

It must be Panto time.

"Oh No they're not!" 

The sections of road are labelled in full text but NOT with the  H&R2  and   H&R1  tags. But, perversely, the other route with  Hail and Ride section ...

... (284, the purple one) doesn't get a pretty   H&R3  logo in the index.

Bearing in mind that most people will be pre-warned by a friend or neighbour and will be looking for a specific bus stop for their chosen route, surely the "centre" enlargement should show route numbers at each stop, particularly for stops at or near the station.

If time and sanity permits, fbb will curate a better "centre" map for Grove Park ... UNLESS ...

Readers may remember that this week's blogs were pre-published to avoid problems with a change in telephone technology which also involved a change in internet technology. So fair, the phones are not yet quite right; but the internet seems stable.

So far?

It is also time for the fbb's monthly fellowship meetings on Sunday 2nd and Monday 3rd November, so the minutiae of blog research and compilation will have to take second place in the queue for the old bloke's ageing brain cells; with Biblical matters coming first.

It is all about revealing how Fire Works in the Bible. Fire Works? Fireworks? Gettit? 5th November? GROAN!

It is all almost as mysterious as a TfL Spider Map.

=======================

Whatever the complex and confusing cartographic content tomorrow, fbb will excite his readers a bit more with a further episode of his toy very plastic tank wagon adaptation.

fbb just knew you would be excited!

 Next Grove Park Map blog : Friday 31st Oct