London Country Revisisted : Hitchin (3)

An fbb Bludnet - Nay A Howler!

Above is all tht is left of the now-closed hospital in Hitchin. Until 1972 it was called The Lister Hospital. In 1964 is was served by a London country bus route 808 as duly recorded in yesterday's blog. In that fateful year of 1972, the hospital in Hitchin was renamed as The Hitchin Hospital - neat name, eh?

The newly opened hospital at Stevenage was named The Lister Hospital. (This Lister guy gets around a bit. There'a another one in Chelsea, London!)

So fbb's reference to a 1973 bus route 800 ...

was misplaced, erroneous and more wally-featured that most of the old man's occasional slip ups. The 1973 800 was taking its out and in patients out to the new Lister Hospital and in Stevenage and had nothing to do with Hitchin.

Sorry, pardon!

1973 Versus 2024!

fbb will start with the easy ones first.

304

This becomes Hitchin to St Albans 304 ...

... but running to a much more understandable timetable, albeit reduced in frequency.

Centrebus is the operator.

Yep! That's all the easy ones! The 364 had disappeared from the green bus collection by 1973 and the 386 ...

...  had gone soon after 1973.

So we can now tackle the 303

No such through route exists today. You now need FOUR separate services to complete the old 303 excursion if you were foolish enough to want to get from Hitchin to New Barnet by bus!

Hitchin to Stevenage 100/101

The two offer a bus every 15 minutes compared with 1973's every 30. Arriva is the operator.

To add to the fun, Stagecoach is operating their 9B once an hour over a similar route as far as Stevenage.

Stevenage to Hatfield 301

Another Arriva Operation ...

... but running "through" only every hour compared with the 303.

Hatfield to Potters Bar 610

This is in the hands of Uno ...

... although with better vehicles these days! Again only hourly.

Potters Bar to High  Barnet 84B

Central Connect is the operator ...

... and if you wish to continue to New Barnet Station, like the 303, you will  need a Transport for London bus. As a weary slacker, fbb could not be bothered to battle with TfL's poor information to add the details.

So FIVE bus routes from FOUR different operators replace one simple London country bus service.

It is good to enjoy the benefits of modern public transport!

383

This one hurt fbb's brain! 

Sometimes, even back in green bus days, bus schedulers  knitted together lots of unprofitable bits of bus route in the hope that the sum of the parts would make a shilling or two, or perhaps lose a bit less. 

fbb thinks this 383 is one such operation.

A few buses started from Stevenage (usually n7mbered 386)  and found their way to Great Wymondley, where Church Green has a large amount of twee.

The 383 itself started in Oakfield Estate where the 1964 route, back then the titular 383, ran via Nine Springs Way.

Buses then trundled into Hitchin and back out again to Purwell Lane estate which just creeps into the 1973 Hitchin town map ...

... above, centre right. Occasional journeys then continued as on the 1963 map to the village of Weston, also served direct from Stevenage by an 807 back then.

Stevenage to Weston 391

Centrebus 91 ...

... goes thataway, but on Saturdays only, terminating at the Red Lion where Hertfordshire thoughtfully provides a stop with flag, a shelter and a very small layby.

The lady is walking dogs and baby, not waiting for a 391.

Hirchin to Oakfield Estate 80

Oakfield Estate now gets a respectable and tidy service of hourly buses to both Hitchin and Stevenage, much better than in 1973.

Again Centrebus does the honours. Which leaves us with Purwell Lane Estate.

Hitchin to Purwell Lane 97

/

Puwell Lane Estate has expanded significantly since 1973 and the time point is noted as "opp Chaucer Way" where there is little evidence of any "facilities" like, say, a bus stop sign or little luxuries like a timetable.

Arriva provides the 97 ...

... on this route with a number that looks suspiciously like that applied on a former United Counties scheme in the same area.

Again it is a much better service, tidier and easier to understand, than the former 383.

Conclusions

It would be fair to say that (almost) everywhere served by London's country buses in 1973 still has a service is 2024.

Most services offer something better than 50 years ago which should be encouraging.

The problem, however, is the mess of different operators exacerbated by the devious wiles of the tendering authority, Hertfordshire.

There is little evidence of a printed route map and printed timetables.

The mess definitely needs a rethink to re-establish an obvious network that fits together and makes sense to newcomers to Hitchin and its district bus travel.

Perhaps network franchising really is the answer - if the money is available which, according to Rachel, it isn't!

fbb has every intention of looking at buses radiating from Watford in a later series of blogs. That will be after a week in the sanatorium to recover.

And a reminder. There is no Green Line 716 these days.

Sigh, again!

 Next Variety blog : Saturday 31st August 

Sunday Variety

Hapless Happenings at Honiton

Honiton Tunnel : Eastern Portal

fbb arrived at Axminster station at 0950 yesterday to collect No 3 son off the 1003 arrival from Waterloo. Son was visiting for the holiday weekend and dear papa was surprised to see a train in platform 1. 

Trains in opposite directions pas each other at Axminster just after each hour. They do not normally park there!

What was slightly more discombobulating was that there was a train in platform 2 as well. Being  bit dozy, fbb did not spot tha platform 2 train as it was hidden behind the above.

Back in 2022, Notwork Rail instituted a huge amount of work on the eastern portal of Hointon tunnel.

This is because of unstable land in the embankment to the right of the tunnel mouth.

So on Tuesday last (20th Aug) there was a landslip at Honiton tunnel.

The slide was temporarily supported by very large sandbags ...

... and all was well until ...

Except it wasn't all well. South Western Railway's service of dark green class 800 bi-moses (sic!!) was disrupted again from Thursday of last week. Or so one on-line news feed thought!

It was this disruption that greeted fbb yesterday.

This time it was more of a sludgelip than landslip.

The Notwork Rail team opined that the problem was less with land coming down from above, and more with water seeping up from below. So the track had been excavated!

Either way, no trains could run  between Axminster and Honiton.

No 3 son was on the 1003 arrival from Waterloo and the very nice man at the station informed fbb that it had left Crewkerne, previous stop to Axminster.

But with trains on both platforms at Axminster there was a bit of a snag. And the line between Crewkerne and Axminster is single track!

So the 1003 arrival had to wait until the 1006 Departure had left from platform 2. Thus No 3 son was held at the end of the Crewkerne double track section until the departing 1006 could ease past.

Here comes No 3 son (and a few others) arriving wrong platform at 1025.

The dead train on platform 1 then sprang into life to form the 1106 to Waterloo.

Meanwhile, with a bevy of taxis ...

... and an anonymous grey minibus ...

... passengers were being conveyed westbound. 

fbb thinks there was a train every two hours from Honiton to Exeter St Davids, the one unit having been trapped at Exeter.

Who would run a railway, eh?

Beastliness at Burton

For many a long year there has been a nearly non stop bus service between Derby and Burton upon Trent. For many a long year it has been "joint" between Trentbarton and Arriva, the latter as successors to Derby corporation.

fbb thinks (unreliable brain cuts in and quickly cuts out again!) the "joint"ness was a response to early post-deregulation competition. Again, fbb thinks (with no time to check in his Great Britain Bus Timetable collection) that the service used to run every 15 minutes with operators alternating.

Currently the service is every 20 minutes with an unfathomable 50:50 split between operators as shown on Trent's web site.

Blog readers may be able to guess what the code "A" might mean. 

Trent's posh leaflets simply show an unallocated 20 min headway with no mention of the "other" operator.

The leaflets used to be very posh ...

... but recent editions have beem more mundane.

Here is a Trentbarton bus for the X38.

And Arriva?

By comparison, Arriva's leaflet is utterly stunning!

Yep, there isn't one!

Arriva's on-line timetable, as we might expect ...

... doesn't mention Trent journeys. Here we see old and newer Arriva livery.

And a response!

The boss of Trent has become almost apoplectic on line, because ...

... as from August 31st Arriva has registered a 20 minute service on the X38. Arriva has, arbitrarily and one-sidedly, broken the joint agreement.

Horrid Arriva!

In response, Trent has registered a 15 minute service on its X38, at the same time extending it from Derby city centre to the bus station. The new times are on the Trentbarton web site but with no mention of the bus station.

Has fbb got it wrong - again?

On Arriva's web site we can see the new timetable ...

... NOT. The only mention of Trent is in the blurb about tickets, which pre-dates the kerfuffle.

So from next weekend there will be five buses every hour running almost non-stop ...

... Between Derby and Burton upon Trent. And there simply will not be enough passengers to make either of the services commercially viable.

Who will crack first?

fbb suspects Arriva will have withdrawn completely by Christmas. Surely the new investment bank owners will not tolerate such wasteful activity?

Watch this space!

Hello Doctor Yellow But Goodbye

Dr Yellow is the nickname of certain trains on various bits of the Japanese high speed network. There have been many Doctors Yellow over the years ...

... the most recent looking like this.

These are standard very nigh speed trains carrying passengers, but they are fitted with a range of monitoring and recording technology to inspect the track and overhead catenary, but at the scheduled high line speed.

In practice, these trains are simply substituted for a standard passenger train; slipped almost at random into the timetable.

Because of this unpredictability, they are seen by the Japanese populace as being harbingers of good luck. If you see a Dt Yellow, good fortune will harbinger and fill your day.

fbb prefers the  reliability of God for His more sustainable "good fortune".

The latest units on these routes are N700S stock ...

... and they are very snazzy indeed.

2+2 seating in these wide bodies trains is for "first class" passengers ...

... with 2+3 for the "lower orders". In a 2+3 coach, two sets of single seats are removed to make way for wheelchairs.

There is still room for the trolley! 

These trains are as stunning as they look.

N gauge model company Kato has a set in its catalogue.

But the point of this excursion into the N700S trains is that a small extra fleet as been ordered, each unit to include an even more extensive collection of measuring and sensor stiff than on the Dr Yellow stock -  which will then be retired.

It is not made clear whether the N700S technology trains will be panted yellow. If not, there may be a shortage of good luck on offer for the superstitious Japanese rail watchers. No harbingeing!

And tomorrow ...

 Next Monorail blog : Monday 26th August