Did You Spot Citylink?
Yesterday we met Citylink Ireland, but readers will be more familiar with Citylink in Scotland. The brand was created in 1985 to absorb express services operated by companies in the Scottish Bus Group.
Competition with Stagecoach led to a joint venture under privatisation until quite recently.
Under ComfortDelGro ownership the Stagecoach bit was bought out by the slightly more senior party, so it is all now under the ultimate authoriy of the Singapore based conglomerate.
By way of revision, Citylink operates some stunning frequencies on the 900 between Glasgorw and Edinburgh ...
... plus an equally stunning headway from Glasgow to Edinburgh Aiport.
Services from the two big cities to Aberdeen and Inverness have been improved progressively over the years, but the delights of Citylink are the routes to the Highlands and the Western Isles.
These combine luxury coaches with what are, effectively, the local buses, as here with the sevice between Inverness and Skye.
The fleet is regularly updated with some stunning motors.
The batch below was celebrating the 40th birthday!
If you have never done a tour with Citylink, then you really should. You will see some glorious scenery in excellent comfort, with reliability and good value fares.
The Other Biggie - Metroline
This was one of the companies set up in preparation for the privatisation of London's red buses. It was a management buyout and expanded by acquiring several smaller companies that materialised in the early days of the big change from the gargantuan London Transport.
The lure of big bucks in the pocket led to its sale to ComfortDelGro in year 2000. Further acquisitions followed including Armchair, Westbus and three First Bus depots. Current operation includes part of the Suoerloop network.
Keep Westbus in mind!
In a rush of blood to its corporate head, Metroline won a contract for a large heap of Bee Line routes in Manchester. The win was largely at the expense of Stagecoach which threatened to sulk! Bus watchers are of the view that Metroline overbid and may struggle to make money.
Unlike in London, there is no mention of the operator name on the vehicles.
fbb was very excited to find a Metroline page on-)ine packed with helpful stuff for passengers (?) ...
... which proudly promised timetables!
There aren't any!
Transport for Manchester posts them for its area, if you can find them; whereas Transport for London maintains its usual cloak of secrecy.
Independent Web site providers do better.
And Westbus?
Confusingly you will find pictures of this operator's vehicles, but beware; there is (more correctly, was) a Westbus in Australia, also part of ComfortDelGro.
The UK Westbus, as its name suggests (?), runs coaches ...
... and has been around for yonks in various guises.
Whilst it may have run buses in the past, it is now a high spec coach operator ...
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This blog snippet is about:-
B elief and the B ible
Quirky Answer : There are 66 'books' in the Bible, of which 39 come before Christmas in the Old Testament; 27 are in the New Testament which sort-of starts with Christmas. There are 929 "Chapters" in the Bible, but some, like Psalm 117 are very short.
That's it - but you could hardly call it a "chapter" - it is a single verse Hebrew song. Psalm 119 is defined as the longest "chapter" and it is a VERY long ditty at 176 Bible verses, all about how good and important the Scriptures are for peoples' wellbeing.
But it does go on a bit!
There are 23,145 "verses" (i.e. small chunks). Some are very small as in "Jesus Wept" (John's Gospel, Chapter 11 verse 35), others are much longer.
The divisions into Chapters and Verses came long after the text of the Bible was written and were added to help readers find their way around. They are not part of the original.
Of the 929 chapters, only four tell the "Christmas Story"; Luke has two which focus, amongst lots else, on the Shepherds ..
Whilst Matthew is a Wise Men man.
Despite the Bible words being very clear on the page, most illustrations get it completely wrong. The shepherds did not see the star and the wise men did not visit the stable.
That's the big trouble with the Bible. Most people only know little bits of the stories and, over the years, those little bits have been modified, prettified and falsfied.
And how come we have turned those four Christmas chapters (out of 929) into the mega knees up that fills our shops, fills our lives, fills our stomachs and empties our pockets from October each year?
To make sense of the nonsense we need to understand more.
And a warning; what we might believe doesn't change anything!
To make real sense of our beliefs we need to understand more.
Quirky Quiz Question : What did God create on the seventh "day"? Answer tomorrow.
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Next Comfort blog : Wednesday 3rd December
