It could be that the cheery chappie above is the one has chosen to link Derbyshire's Hope Valley ...
With every milligram of goodwill, fbb finds it hard to justify the comparison, even with the added "mini".
Scanning through the report, it becomes clear that the mini label does not refer to geography, but does refer to public transport. Even then, as we saw in last Friday's blog, there is no comparison!
What Mr Abelman is suggesting is that the Hope Valley should have public transport which could be a microcosm of that in Switzerland.
We all know how excellent public transport is in the land if cheese, cuckoo clocks and lederhosen! Everything runs on time and everything connects!
Both are generally true, but there is a price to pay. Switzerland is an expensive country in which to dwell, an expensive country to visit and a hugely expensive country in which to eat and drink. It's the taxes, innit!
Whilst transport does connect well with itself, that is often at the expense of speed as trains linger longer at interchange stations than, for example, in the UK.
But let us review train services on the Hope Valley line.
Transpennine runs hourly between Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Cleethorpes.
Apart from some peak hour stops for commuters between Dore and Sheffield, trains ignore the Hope Valley local stops, as does ...
... East Midlands Railway also running every hour.
It's a long straggly table which fbb has curtailed at Nottingham. Again there are some local calls at peak times.
If this were Switzerland, you would expect the fast services to make at least one call in the Valley itself for the tourist trade.
But all the study area gets is ...
... with an hourly stopping service between Manchester and Sheffield.
It's presentation is a right mess, as is the "printable" timetable.
The layout is made even more complicated because timings are slightly different Mondays to Fridays versus Saturdays,
Such a nonsense would NOT be tolerated in Switzerland.
Wisely, the report is not proposing changes in any rail timetable. The aim is to improve bus services and offer full integration with the Northern stopping service.
In passing, it is worth noting that within living memory (well, fbb's memory) the ONLY stopping passenger train service via the Hope Valley was an irregular timetable between Sheffield and New Mills with connections (often inadequate) on to Manchester.
Mr Ableman is more interested in the bus services.
Currently these are on offer, in order of "significance".
One bus was branded by First! The 272 was historically joint with North Western Road Car, but more recently with the doomed Hulleys of Baslow.
It runs approx hourly and offers double deck vehicles. 
The replacement for Hulleys is High Peak Buses ...
... which used to be Trent. Former Trent "Skyline" branded single deckers have often appeared. The route is main road all the way to Castleton ...
... with buses diverting via Bradwell either on the outward journey or the return.
Next is the 257. This runs due west from the City as far as the reservoirs, then drops south to Bamford, Hathersage and Bakewell.
Once a very infrequent 44 (later 244) by Sheffield Transport, it was often worked by this vehicle ...
... with conductor, of course. As a nostalgia snippet, the lunchtime departure from Sheffield was STD's first ever one man bus! It carried more staff (inspectors, observers and trainees) than genuine passengers.
The route was developed massively by Hulleys and is now hourly ...
... but with much diversion on Schooldays!
The operator is now Andrews if Tideswell ...
... having taken over from Hulleys.
In a sense, the 257 merely crosses the Hope Valley at Bamford and Hathersage ...
... but, as we shall see, does feature in the Switzerland report.
The 173 ...
... Andrews, formerly Hulleys ...
... is a delightful country route.
Then there is High Peak 62 ...
... not renowned for its frequency.
These two are best examined in conjunction with the Ableman report as, if the plan were implemented, they would see the most change.
So how would Mini Switzerland seek to improve these services?
Tomorrow's blog will reveal all.
Next Mini-Switzerland blog : Tues 24th Feb
No comments:
Post a Comment