Merseyside Is Happening!
Bet Liverpudlians are really excited - especially after the non-event in Manchester. fbb has ignored paragraphs of over-hyped hyper hype.
And so to the practicalities. (click on the image for an enlargement)
What we do not yet know is what the detailed networks will look like. Will they just be the existing networks but with yellow buses? Steve Rotheram wants to be like London but might end up being like Manchester.
They can share yellow paint!
GoAhead Grabs All (Part 4)
Thanks to Keith Shayshutt's book, fbb can append a National Bus Company (NBC) map of the Falmouth Redruth Truro triangle. Have fun trying to read it. It is a pre-MAP map with MAP being the NBC's massive "Market Analysis Project" adopted in an attempt to bring losses under control.
It didn't work, so they tried privatisation! (Cynical, eh?)
Note most services are numbered in the five hundreds. This is because Western National, Southern National and Devon General had a combined route numbering scheme.
Even if the detail is too cluttered, it offers an interesting comparison with Cornwall network map of the area today.
There is quite a bit missing these days, notably in the Frogpool area, but colour and better print quality makes what's left easier to read!
Today we look at the long standing 'main line' route between Falmouth and Truro. Historically there were many variants with all sorts of diversions off the main road. 
Nowadays there is only one route, still with a few wiggles to reach passengers just off the main drag.
At first the brand was a minor 'UNI' addition to First's standard livery ...
.... with just U1 and U2 on the route diagram. The full all-blue livery followed, then the U4 was added later.
We know that First Bus cut the frequency of the U2 to hourly and, in the same rush of blood to the head, decided to devalue the 'U' for University by extending the U1 north to Newquay.
To cope with the diversions of half the service via St Agnes, the route U1A appeared ...
... thus devaluing the simple brand still further.
But it didn't last and things returned to something like normality.
fbb thinks those short working to the Uni campus (now renamed Tremough Falmouth from the better known Penryn) only operate during term times.
Then comes the GoAhead competition from September 2025.
But, instead of cloning the U1, GoAhead created a route 32 (DARK BROWN) ...
... which involves a small diversion via ASDA at Penryn. The 32 only runs hourly.
Why are they not part of the new 32, one may wonder? fbb guesses that the new 32 is more complex and confusing than it's U1 predecessor, so adding in the ASDA trips would blow the passengers' comprehensibility fuses. It certainly blew fbb's at first!
From the February timetable change the existing 32s join the Falmouth to Redruth table as 33A, running only as far as the Uni Campus.
Hmmm.
We still have two buses an hour but it is beginning to look as if bus operators are steppig away from serving the campus. Would that be because the hallowed halls of academe are no longer coughing up the cash for previously lavish U services.
Anyway, here is the new 32.
Muddled, innit, compared with First's U1?
One other change to note is that the non-Uni 32A trips are extended to Threemilestone. GoAhead does not tell us that in its blurb and fbb is not sufficiently familiar with passrnger needs as to hazard an explanation.
One thing is very clear.
In general, GoAhead is providing a worse service that that of the ailing First Bus.
It is equally likely that Cornwall Council's aspirations to take over the county's buses as in Manchester and Merseyside are off the agenda!
They ain't got the money!
How Much?
We are all well aware of the excruciatingly expensive model railway stuff, so costly that only the well-heeled ex investment bankers can afford it.
So, how much might you pay for this OO 3-car Azuma ...
... complete with large oval of track, a siding c/w buffer stop, rerailing ramp, controller, power pack and coloured 'track mat' on which to lay out the layout?
And the train has working headlights (white, two) and rear lights (red two) which automagically swap over when the unit reverses.
Answer tomorrow.
Peterville Castle
Landforms are added between 'white' and 'black' castles with 'soil' and undergrowth to follow. The distant hills (!) now have their rolling skyline but the colour is still wrong. An artist friend suggested that fbb should add some purple to show 'distance'.
The undergrowth is also too green!
fbb may get the obligatory Round Tuit while you are reading his pearls of ferroequinological and omnibological wisdom, so maybe a bit more tomorrow.
Disappointment At fbb Mansions
fbb was catering supremo for yesterday's not-very-fine dining. Menu is a bought-in chicken and leek pie, tinned sweetcorn, a pack of gash asparagus from Seaton Library and multi-coloured carrots from Aldi. No spuds!
Orange, yellow and purple carrots were in the bag.
But ...
... the purple carrots were orange in the middle. Disappointing.
And a further disappointment. The purple dye in the carrots turned the orange and yellowl beasties a muddy brown colour - adequately flavoured but not attractive to the eye.
Ah well; you live and learn even at nearly 81.
Next Variety blog : Sunday 25th Jan
Some of the Cornwall situation is more subtle than you think
ReplyDeleteFalmouth Uni Campus gets a 15 minute service from Falmouth made up of 3,32A,33, 33A
The 32A extension to Threemilestone passes Truro Hospital and Truro College.
Helston Sainsburys is the depot. Buses will probably change drivers. Buses out stationed next door often refuel at the Sainsbury's Petrol Station.
The Mousehole route using normal buses will please the locals along the route, who wont have to scrum onto a packed mini bus.
The new 4/4A to St Just covers roads and communities that are currently not served.
And other tweaks.
Some of the frequencies are reduced, but hopefully they can be increased once the network has started and they have sufficient staff and buses locally. Cornwall's attitude to employment is different due to the lack of work and low pay.