ShrOHsbury or ShrOOsbury?
The town has loads of spectacular buildings ...
... a superb river ...
... the world's biggest signal box (by volume) ...
... from Select Services.
The direct route via the A5 is Arriva's X10.
A longer distance route, to Ludlow, is run by respected independent Minsterley Motors ...
... and they have been around for a long time.
Arriva has the contract for Shrewsbury's three Park and Ride services ...
... the town being one of the early pioneers of this mode of bus travel.
Meole Brace? That's where Mrs Miggins lives, see above!
... and the late Percy Thrower ...
Each bus service is listed in a huge blue panel which provides an email "contact", BUT NO TIMETABL! So Mrs Miggins of Meole Brace can plan her journey using 'Revenue Support Funded' buses only - just what a typical customer needs.
... its former "Parks and Recreation" star!
It's main bus operator is Arriva, a poor replacement for Midland Red ...
... but there are now many others.
Once upon a time, you could obtain a bus timetable book ..
... but, in recent years, information has been more diffuse and far less easy to find. Shropshire County provides it's enquirers with a full list of the county's bus services grouped, helpfully, by how they are financed.
That is so very helpful, Shropshire: actually a very Salop-y information service all round. [Chortle, chortle!).
But all has now changed, thanks to the indefatigable Keith Shayshutt.
The authorship is shared with Gary Nolan ...
... one-time boss of First in Sheffield, then off to senior management posts in Stagecoach.
Before looking at this worthy publication, fbb must apologise to its progenitors. Your aged blogger was wrestling with his 'tablet' yesterday afternoon and the results were poor. Usually results are good ... but for some reason ...
fbb will try to do better with part 2!
The book is A5 size and a modest 24 unnumbered pages. It aims to include all 'normal' bus services that enter the town, but eschews school-only routes.
Town services are mainly Arriva but with a couple of exceptions.
Arriva does not hold everything longer distance, however. So here is route 96, the back way route to Telford ...
There are a few intriguing but infrequent longer distance services available to tempt the more adventurous omnibologist.
Such is route X48 ...
... an apparently unbalanced service with no journey all the way FROM Builth Wells to Shrewsbury. There is a possible change (outward) to the train at Craven Arms, or a wait from 1316 to 1631. The 2115 return journey runs all the way but, depending on the time of year, most of the attractive ride would be in the dark!
Celtic Travel would be your service provider.
The X48 was provided by Transport for Wales to offset reductions in the Heart of Wales railway service to Shrewsbury. There strange timetable is because the buses are filling big gaps in the rail service.
There are other bus options on route 48 at the Welsh end. (Click on the timetable below for an enlargement)
The above has been a selection of what you will find in this informative slim volume.
Later fbb will look at the design of the book itself and the information available therein to support the inexperienced Shrewsbury bus user.
'Later' may be tomorrow but today is the fbbs' monthly Fellowship Meeting and spare time is a precious commodity.
"Sing Something Simple', BBC radio programme of old, might become "Blog Buses Basic" for Tuesday!
Sing Something Simple was a half-hour radio programme, which featured Cliff Adams and The Cliff Adams Singers, with Jack Emblow on accordion. The programme, which featured arrangements of popular easy-listening songs, ran for 42 years from 1959 until 2001, initially on the BBC Light Programme and later on BBC Radio 2, and earning itself the title of the longest-running continuous music programme in the world.
Ah, The Light Programme, those were the days!
Nostalgia ruleS O.K.
Next Shrewsbury blog (or something else) : Tues 6 Oct
For those of us of a certain age, Sing Something Simple was part of our weekend listening for all of those forty two years.
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