Various Bits (four of several)

Where's White Bus of Winkfield?

Correspondent Julian got in touch to remind fbb that the White Bus Company has its depot in Winkfield and operates a notable and unusual service. The company's address is ...

... on a familiar road. It turns out that White's garage is only about 200 yards from the now closed Squirrels pub.

And, lo, there it is on aerial view ...

... and seen from the road.

Julain tells fbb that when he used to visit there in his youth to look at the buses, having ridden by bike from Slough, there were more buildings.

There is more to White Bus than meets the eye and fbb will take a look at the company's historic route that ran and still runs between Ascot and Windsor in due course.

It looks oh so easy to follow!

So the depot's address is "Winkfield" but, without a doubt, North Street is in Cranbourne!

Confused. com?

There are many Winkfields to choose from.

Winkfield Street

Winkfield (real!)

Winkfield Row ...

Winkfield Place

Winkfield Plain

and Winkfield Lodge.

And somewhere in the middle of the map above is our good friend Cranbourne.

But fbb has, at last, got it sorted and will reveal the whole truth about Cranbourne in tomorrow's blog.

More Good News

In today's unprecedented crisis, it is good to see bus companies having the simple sense to work together rather than trying to compete for the very few passengers that are needing to travel to get to and from their work.

Beaumont Leys before the 1970s was mainly farmland and a sewage system ...

... but it began to be developed by the council and local private housing companies. The area was largely built from the 1970s onwards, and continues to expand into the surrounding countryside. It includes several large housing estates, industrial areas (including the main factory for Walkers) and a large area of modern housing (some of it known as "Anstey Heights")

First Bus and Centrebus have both run varieties of service 54 (YELLOW) from the city centre to Beaumont Leys.

Currently, both operators are working jointly, each company showing both sets of times.

Shock horror!

The same applies to part of Centrebus 22A/B and First's 22.

Helping the public - it will never catch on!

On The Other Hand ...

This is T M Travel's "highly successful" service between Sheffield and Bakewell. T M T have developed the service until it runs every 30 minutes seven days a week in the summer.

Only on Sundays does the frequency drop to a paltry once an hour in winter.

Once the crisis began to bite, and whilst other operators were standardising on a Saturday timetable on Mondays to Fridays and Saturdays, TMT came up with this shocker.

There were just eight journeys to Bakewell with four short working running locally in Sheffield itself.

But barely a week later, by which time most other services were being reduced to Sunday schedules with extra early morning trips Monday to Saturday, TMT announced a further cutback ...

... to an unbalanced provision.

Nothing now on Saturdays to supplement the nothing on Sundays.

Finally, from this week the service is suspended completely. TMT have said they will be providing an "essential" school trip from Sheffield and back serving Lady Manners School in Bakewell which remains open for "vulnerable" pupils.

This is due to return at the end of the month i.e. after the Easter school holidays.

There may be any number of reasons for this draconian reduction to zero. Certainly the route was popular with visitors and walkers at all times of the year and Chatsworth House is, of course, closed.

The service is largely commercial, so there is little or no tender money to pay the bills; but has the industry not been promised support from Government (i.e.ultimately from you and me!!!) to keep routes needed by essential workers going?

Presumably there are no essential workers who need to get from Bakewell to Sheffield or vice versa?

Or is T M Travel teetering on the brink of collapse?

One thing is certain - it is tough out there.

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Short-ish Thought

 1  There is no doubt that God has largely been airbrushed out of Public Life whilst many individuals seem to think they have no need of God. Many have been "persuaded" to reject God with little or no idea of what they are rejecting.

 2  Everyday life is packed with idols of all shapes and sizes; money, celebrity, status, the me, me, culture. We are encouraged to follow all sorts of spiritual "crazes" as a more "meaningful" alternative to God.

 3  Misusing God's name is normality for the majority - OMG indeed! But we wouldn't "swear" using Allah because that would be offensive!

 4  There is a growing concern over mental heath, stress and allied problems. Yet God gave us a scheme which involved one day's complete break from the weekly grind but we have managed to fill it with more of the same.

 5  It is interesting that it has taken this crisis to encourage us to support "our neighbour" in the broadest sense -  but, in general, we have not been very good at putting others first - and if we have shown great consideration it is only after we have made sure we are OK!

Of course, the above may be viewed as cynical generalisations.

But, one way or another, we have been pretty bad at even considering the acceptance God's Covenant.

On Sunday, Maureen, an elderly (even more elderly) friend of the fbbs was watching the 1956 epic "The Ten Commandments" on the telly.

It is a highly unrealistic over-the-top representation of what the Bible actually says (e.g Moses staggering down the mountain with a couple of gravestones) but it retells the overall narrative well.

Maureen commented to her daughter that today's crisis reminded her of the Ten Plagues (remember the Biblically incorrect green dust?) and made her wonder whether the mess we are now in (and seem to always be in!) might have something to do with not keeping the Ten Commandments.

Maureen is not a committed church-goer.

What would God offer as his "half" of the Covenant if we did keep to our side of the deal?

Of course, there have always been doubters.

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At The Bus Stop (5)

Computers are wonderful things, we are told - but they are ineffably stupid. All these beats can do is add 0s and 1s as follows:-

Of course, they can do their sums incredibly quickly and the hardware and software gurus can use the 0s and 1s to do exciting things, like draw pictures and print text.

So if Mr Derbyshire County Council uses software to print out his bus stop departure lists (he would never think of using enlarged pages from his timetable book) the incompetent confuser will only deliver what it has been told to do, or, even worse, what the software designer has decided he wants.

So the instruction reads (in simplified form) ...

So let's see how that system works out at a bus stop. Come with fbb to Castleton's so-called bus station.

It offers a small yard for turning, a shelter and access to public conveniences. When Google Streetview first trundled past, you could see a large display frame which contained, wait for it, enlargements of pages from the County's timetable book ...

... very useful for the potential passenger.

But the Council, sitting lonely at the office desk, spoke only

That one word, as if their soul in that one word they did outpour.

    Nothing farther then he uttered - not a eyebrow then he fluttered -

    Till We scarcely more than muttered “Friends have understood before -

A timetable they have viewed, in frame at stop in days of yore.”

       But the Council said “Nevermore.”

[Extract from "Mr Raven's Bus Ride" by Edgar Allen Poe]

The two support poles still stand, but each one now supports a standard timetable frame.

Presumably the old big frame was busted? And no one has seen fit to replace it?

Now for the fun? What do we learn from these new computer generated displays?

The 2C is something of a mystery as it doesn't even feature in Derbyshire's timetable library but Traveline reveals ...

... a college day journey.

173 is an infrequent local services of considerable importance to folk in the neighbouring villages.

It takes you, amongst other delights, to the magnificent Monsal Head.

The 174 is a positional journey to get Mr Hulley's bus back to its shed for an overnight rest.

But now it gets really silly!

Four headings for one service; that 's two different operators (First and Hulleys) ...

... each with two route variations withing Sheffield City (271 and 272).

Then look for the actual times at the bottom of the frame ...

... with a significant clutter of notes.

Oh for the clarity and comprehensibility of a proper timetable!

But we plough on with developing gloom.

The 273 is orange, to distinguish it from the 271 which is orange. No doubt they were different colours on the computer's palette, but they look very much the same behind mucky glass. To save your eyesight, fbb can reveal that there are 273s at 1552 and 1815.

Here is a map to help you.

No mention of the 274?

Has it been withdrawn? Nope, it appears on Derbyshire's timetable page.

It is the same basic route as the 273 but it doesn't run via Derwent Dams. But if we peer very closely at the frame we might just spot this:-

It says "274 & 276 journeys see other display" and, abracadbra, there they are in the second bus stop frame.

As you may have already guessed, the 273/4 has a different operator on Sundays, so the confuser decides it needs four headings when just one would suffice.

And, just to add to the confusion, the 274 and 276 times are separate from the rest.

So, nowhere on these frames can you get a complete picture of buses via Bamford Village and Ladybower - despite the fact they are the same service with a simple double-run diversion.

How to discourage bus usage?

The 276 is a market day shoppers bus.

As Max Millar was won't to say, "Now here's a funny thing."

If Derbyshire were to post enlargements of their printed bus timetables and stick them in the frames they would be more legible, more understandable and TAKE UP NO MORE SPACE.

Derbyshire County has a good reputation for bus information and still produce three PRINTED timetable books (although no longer free!) ...

Information about the books

Each book includes full timetable information for all bus services in the area covered, together with route maps, town plans and a detailed index.

The books cost £2.50 from bus enquiry offices, tourist information centres, public libraries and selected newsagents and post offices in the area.

See the timetable sales points list attached to this page for details.

They are also available by post from us at £3.50 each including postage (UK only).

To order a timetable book please tel: 01629 536732. Payment can be made by credit card or debit card.

... but if Castleton is typical, the roadside publicity is RUBBISH!

Very disappointing.

 Next Weekend Extras blog : Saturday 28th September 

Bewildering at Beauchief (2)

fbb has, in an earlier blog, marvelled at the changes that have occurred to bus services between Sheffield and Bakewell. For Sheffield Transport and its PTE successor two sporadic routes were operated.

The 40 (later 240) ran via Ecclesall, A625, Fox House, Grindleford and Hassop ...

... whilst the 37 (later 237) used the A621 via Baslow. The service pattern remained pretty constant (and uninspiring!) over the years. During the winter, single decks were the usual motors ...

... but in the summer, the double decks were common and there was much duplication on sunny Sundays.

Both routes were popular with Sheffield folk.

Indeed on the big bank holiday Bakewell market days, the road to the station was nose-to-tail with Sheffield Transport buses! No doubt drivers were happy to be paid take a load to market, have time off to enjoy the fun, then be paid to take folk back.

A few years ago, T M Travel shocked Sheffield and Derbyshire bus watchers by increasing their hourly 218 (the equivalent of the old 37/237) to half hourly seven days a week for the summer season. One bus every hour diverts via Chatsorth House.

Only the Sunday service drops to hourly for the winter.

Publicity was (and still is) excellent and plentiful ...

... putting to shame the Sheffield Bus Partnership a k a Buses for Sheffield which produced absolutely NOTHING in print for the recent (April) Sheffield changes! But it is the latest timetable that has caught the eagle-eyes of some Sheffield users and bus historians.

It all began with this note in the Travel South Yorkshire (TSY) non-leaflet.

Not only is the syntax poor but it is almost impossible to work out what it actually means. Clearly it is a "setting down restriction", a principle that was common on the good old pre privatisation days.

"Minimum fares" (i.e no local fares) were applied on some routes OR "no passenger will be set down before XXX", both designed to keep "inner city" passengers off the bus and ensure that longer distance travellers could always get a seat.

Presumably T M Travel's inbound restriction is to help speed up the journey. It is unusual, whatever it means, because companies are usually happy to grab any passenger's money!

But we still cannot work out exactly what it means and the TSY non-leaflet is of no use.

By combining the 215 and 218 in its oddly titled "areas served" list, it succeeds in confusing the passengers. The 215 is an "odd journey" actually following the old 40/240 route. It is, in effect, a Lady Manners School bus which also runs during the holidays!

The "Matlock" place served refers to a peak hour "coomuter" journey staring from Mtlock and returning there in the evening. Should occasional journeys be given the same emphasis as the core timetable?

The TSY map does not show the set down only restriction ...

... as usual it doesn't show very much at all. The T M Travel map is so much better (TSY please note) ...

... but, again, it does not show the restriction. [The use of "Nether Edge" for a stop some distance from the traditional city bus route of that name is misleading on both maps. A Sheffielder would refer to "Broadfield Road" or "Sheldon Road (traffic) Lights"]

Fortunately there is a much better note on the timetable itself.

Which leaves on final conundrum!

Which Archer Road?

Archer Road appears TWICE on the Abbeydale Road, once near the former Millhouses Station ...

... and, nearer the city centre, its second appearance is opposite Bannerdale Road.

At least the second manifestation has a road name to help us!

Where does the restriction begin?

The bus industry does not make it easy for its customers. Even with his encyclopaedic knowledge of roads and bus routes in Sheffield (?), fbb still does not know what this note actually means.

But there is worse to come for the 218! And we return to Beauchief and to the "to city" stop.

There is no doubt that the 218 does stop here; if you are lucky enough to the there at the right time, it will appear on the electronic screen.

TSY doesn't post any timetables at stops, merely a list of departures. They are posted in a rotating spinny thing  and the "front" of the "carousel" at Beauchief shows departures for the 97 and 98

Although it tells you that the 97 and 97 have different routes (between Southey Green and Hillsborough - fbb map explains) ...

... the bus stop display does not tell you which way each bus goes.

Below the 97/98 poor information comes the times for school bus 781 ...

... but, where are the times for the 218?

All together now, "THEY'RE BEHIND YOU!", i.e. on the back of the carousel.

On no, they're not!

In fact there are no times for the 218 at the Beachief stop, none at all; unless you happen to be there when the electronic sign is showing a passing T M Travel journey.

Could it be that the TSY (South Yorkshire PTE) confuser gnomes have misunderstood the "setting down only" restriction and expunged 218 times from this ...

... Abbeydale Road SOUTH stop?

They couldn't be that incompetent, surely?

For a complete contrast (and thanks to No 3 son), a bit more tomorrow about international bus services in Switzerland.

 Next Basel blog : Wednesday 9th May