Hythe Ferry's Hopeful Future
This lengthy and unhappy saga seems to be taking on yet another plot development.
fbb is not sure what the "assets" might be, but the article implies that the boat is one of the assets. fbb doubts it!
The Pier Company is most famous for the wacky pier train.
Again we don't know how strong the "foundation" might be. The local Councillor is upbeat ...
Cross With Cross Country
... a territory called "Other".
The trouble with CrossCountry is that its services interact with so many other operations as its trains run, for example, from Penzance to Edinburgh.
The slightest disruption at Plymouth can be turned into a huge disruption by Newcastle. And, all too often, it is!
In his more active past, your noble blogger has travelled occasionally from Exeter to Birmingham and Sheffield and an on-time journey throughout its length was as rare as some of these.
Here are some if the actual figures.
Could do better?
Confusing Comment
The picture is of a vehicle on the Hereford Zipper service. This runs, free of charge, in a complex circuit of city centre destinations, usefully calling at the railway station.
The service is currently operated by the troubled Yeomans, which is most definitely "a private firm".
So what is going on?
Yeomans is the holder of the contract to run the service which is "owned" by Hereford City Council. The Council cannot really afford it as, these days, councils struggle to afford anything.
The idea may be to get "a private firm" to own and run the service. If the route is to remain free, someone needs to find the money. That'll be the Council, then?
So what's different?
Loopy Loop Labelling
A recent arrival in the Lynx Bus catalogue of Kings Lynn bus services is route 44, called "The Loop".
Because it isn't!
Buses start from the bus and train stations and run to Tesco after making a 120 degree obtuse angle turn top right on the above map. The two ends of the loop are never joined. It is a straight line route but with a very sharp bend in the middle.
So why us the timetable shown like this.
The summary route description at right angles to the tinetable does not imply anything loopy.
It would help the eternally confused passenger if the timetable were shown as separate outbound ...
... and inbound tables,
The on-line software-generated timetable is equally confusing ...
The little black blobs are symbols of outstanding helpfulness to the enquiring passenger. They tell you that passengers are only permitted to board the bus at the start of the journey (no changing your mind and getting off) and then, full of disappointment, they must alight at the end of the timetabled journey.
Disappointing?
Going Bats About Stats?
Wots This About Bots?
The above is a screenshot from the statistics of fbb's blog taken at about 1600 yesterday. The grey numbers summarise a log of "page reads", i.e. if any one or any thing looks at the blog, however briefly, it registers as a "page read".
A few days ago the blog generated ...
70,215
... page reads, an utterly ridiculous number
In recent weeks a high percentage of these "readers" came from Singapore and Hong Kong, but, yesterday ...
.... Google generated the above pie chart of weekly page reads. The majority of are now from ...
No 1 son, who knows about all this, tells fbb that the pages are being 'read' by "bots", little bits of electronics that gather data and store it in gigantic AI data warehouses.
This data, partly sucked from fbb's blog, will allow "AI" to generate unreliable results for us all to enjoy - and using huge amounts of power threatening the stability of the National Grid.
Good, innit?
One thing is 100% certain; any statistic relatung to on-line use is total nonsense.
Anyway, fbb has been able to secure a picture of these data devouring "bots".
Scary, with some being more scary than others.
Be afraid, be VERY afraid!
Next Variety blog : Sunday 21st June
Ah, the curse of one way terminal loops. Lynx service 44 is shown that way so that journey planners can cope with both people starting their journey and those finishing their journey on the loop using the same stops. The same thing happens in Exeter. Look at Stagecoach service A (City Centre - Alphington) which is definitely a there-and-back route with a one way meander round the houses at the outer end. The timetable shows it as a there and back circular. This also messes up the PIDs in the bus stops. Wait in the High Street and the next A bus will be shown as going to City Centre via St Thomas, Alphington and St Thomas.
ReplyDeleteIpswich Buses get over the problem by numbering the services in pairs and giving both start and finish points as the bus station: https://passenger-main.web.urbanthings.cloud/pdf/UK_TNDS_NOC_IPSW/9-10/9_10_8pp_Leaflet_Web.pdf
DeleteIn other news, we travelled from Cardiff to Birmingham yesterday by Crosscountry. Outbound we ran to time - in fact this service is an excellent timekeeper, due to fairly lengthy dwell times at one or two stations. On the return journey the train arrived at New Street on time but was then delayed by late-running local services. As a result we were 17 minutes late at Cheltenham but only about 10 down at Cardiff. Both trains were crowded, which I think is the biggest complaint against XC. Sadly the East Midlands 222s are going to Scotrail rather than XC.