Languishing At Llandudno - 1

Topless And Traditional Tours

Traditionally the lump of limestone rock that sticks out to the west of Llandudno is known as The Great Orme althugh its correct apellation is shown on the above map extract. Less acknowledged is the Little Orme to the east of the town.

Apart from walking (doubtless outside of fbb's comfort zone) there are FOUR varieties of public transport that climb up the rock, all of them of interest to a determined and committed blogger.

Traditional Tramway

By far the most interesting technologically is the so-called Tramway ...

... which it isn't. Despite the trolley poles the "trams" are not powered by electricity. Technically the cars should be described as a Funicular Railway. Even more pedantically, the "tramway" is, in fact, TWO Funicular Railways meeting end-on at Halfway Station.

The tracks do not join. Each separate railway is cable hauled with the cable in a conduit between the rails.

Here is Halfway Station c/o Google Earth.

The winding equipment is here for both lines. To add to the linguistically challenging verbiage, both lines have a passing loop halfway! Here is that for the lower section ...

... and a similar loop on the more exposed upper section.

The track looks different. That is because once in open country and away from roads shared with other vehicles and pedestrians, conduits for the hauling cable were no longer necessary. So the rope and the rollers which guided it are very visible!

It is a glorious near-silent ride - but expensive.

Here the cars are seen approaching the upper track halfway point (quarter way?)

The cars are joined by a wire rope which raises one carriage whilst lowering the other; hence the need for a loop at the halfway point on each line.

Chilly Cable Car

Equally expensive is the Cable Car!

Compared with the size and luxury of typical mountain cable cars in e.g. Switzerland ...,

... that on the Great Orme is just a tin bucket, open to the elements and offering just a few seats.

Its lower station is quite high up above the pier ...

... not in the town like the tram. The lower station has no parking, just a trudge up the hill from the Pier.

It's the white building up the hill.

Here are the prices.

Presumably puppies are not allowed to travel - only adult dogs?

Topless Tours

Alpine Coaches, based in Llandudno, holds the City Sightseeing "franchise" which offers four possible trips.

Here is the map from the leaflet.

The main open top bus tour (RED) takes you to Conwy.

It runs full season from Easter to October half term, but with three different frequencies.

The company has various double decks including a semi open ...

... with fully glazed roof. More conventional open toppers also operate.

A secondary service (YELLOW) runs east to Rhos-on-Sea but for a much shorter season.

It is a shorter ride and a bit cheaper.

The other long-season service (BLUE) is the third option for the Great Orme. This is the territory of an unusual vehicle. It looks like a fairly norman minibus ...

... seen above at the Summit car park. But it can be converted to a semi open topped minibus.

The rather crude diagram on the leaflet shows us some of the places visited by the tours.

As well as the Summit, this intriguing Great Orme vehicle will take you to the Copper Mines and the Distillery. Again it runs for a long season.

There were seven trips when fbb was looking and this reduces to five throughout October. Let's hope they keep the lid on as it was when fbb snapped the bus at the summit.

The PURPLE tour looks a bit feeble - because it is! It simply takes you round the private toll road that encircles the Great Orme. 

The views are superb and there is a stop at a wonderful viewpoint ...

... but it is the vehicles used on the tour that bring joy to the seasoned (but wealthy) traveller.

Like the Rhos open top tour this is a short season operation. Note that the Great Orme tour price is for the tound trip to match the Marine Drive ride's fare.

So it looks as if a trip up the Great Orme will cost you between £10 and £14!

Why not a bargain "Orme-Rider" Rover Ticket? Four single trips on any of the three "modes" at £30 would surely be an attractive deal for tourists and create some additional revenue for the stolidly separate rides currently available.

However, the fbbs ascended the large lump of limestone for just £2.60 return each, a grand total of £5.20 - and they had a tour of Llandudno included.

See tomorrow's exciting episode!

 Next Llandudno blog : Tuesday 18th September 

Saturday Variety

  F  Is For Ferry!

Pictures of Sydney Harbour will often include the well known ferries painted green and cream. They offer an extensive network of 10 routes ...

... all under the auspices of the New Soith Wales Transport Authority and thus appropriately branded.

They all operate out of Circular Quay ...

... meaning that interchange between ferry routes is very straightforward.

Services extend westbound along the Pramatta river ...

... although F3 only gets to the very end once an hour!

As we have come to expect there are full PDF timetables for every route as here for that to Manley running every 15 min seven days a week!

There are train ...

... and Light Rail connections at Circular Quay ...

The Metro is not too far away on Martin Place ...

... and there are buses nearby.

fbb thinks it is called "integrated transport"!

Maybe we should try out the idea in the UK?

Coming on Monday ...

Mr Hand Is Banned

Way back, fbb got some stick for expressing concern about the operations of City Fox in Bristol.

Then came Fox Star in Newport South Wales ...

... with buses branded as "The One".

These operations failed in various catastrophic ways. Their young entrepreneur ...

... has most recently been MD of the Transpora Group with various operations in various locations.

Things have not gone well.

The result has been a disqualification of holding an operators licence.

The background to this ban is well recorded in the public domain and fbb will leave his readers to come to their own conclusions.

One thing is certain; these failed activities do not bring any credit to the bus industry.

Gorgeous Glider Goodies from Gilmoss?
Steve Rotheram, franchise King and Mega Mayor of Merseyside ...

... has revealed the future of bus travel in the area.

He has borrowed, hired, bought (unlikely the latter!) a shiny blue Glider from Belfast and painted it yellow. Without much involvement of bus professionals he has announced that this "may" be the shape of future bus travel in Merseyside.

The above report goes on ...

Originally lined up for new routes to the Wirral Waters development in Birkenhead, young Steve is commiting the authority to run them to Liverpool's two football stadia and to the John Lennon Airport. (Who was he?)

Not everyone is over the moon with the trendy looking vehicles in Belfast.

I would like to share my experience of using the Translink G1 Glider from Glengoland West Belfast to Wellington Place City Centre.

I arrived at the bus stop to get the glider at 8.20am (March 21). The glider that arrived a few minutes later was full, with the doors opening and people literally falling out the door. There was no room for me to enter. I decided to wait for the next Glider as I had already bought my ticket. I waited 30 minutes, but at 8.50 the next Glider was cancelled.

At this stage there was a large build-up of people waiting with me. Another 20 minutes later, at 9.10am, a Glider arrived and again the doors opened with the bus at full capacity. When the doors opened there was physically no room to step on to the bus.

With no choice as we all had to get to work, we physically pushed our way on to the bus as people shouted 'There’s no room!' When we got to the next stop it was the same

Whether the fault is of the buses, the timetable or management is unclear, but there has been a stream of problems with this much vaunted bus system. Does Steve know?

Gilmoss, by the way, is a Liverpool bus depot and is here used for alliterative and literary reasons. It is not yet decided which bus company will operate these buses IF they ever materialise.

Snippets

Old Street, New Phone, High Price

So that's why TfL renamed Old Street underground station and confused tens of thousands of passengers. They did very well out of the mobile phone company that was presenting its over priced and over-spec product.

If the advertiser can afford to spend nearly half a million quid on oromoting their expensive new phone, they are charging too much for it!

Fares Freeze Failed?

Apparently this offer, which we all though was to increase passenger numbers after Covid, was actually aimed at modal shift. It was supposed to get Scots commuters out of their cars and on to the trains.

Just a little thought for the Scottish Transport Minister. To achieve modal shift is often a slow slow process and needs much more that a small fares reduction. It needs cheap comfortable park and ride sites, free parking at stations and a good network of buses for onward travel from station to workplace.

£40 million is just a drop in a very big bucket and the "experiment" had hardly had any time to have a meaningful effect.

The cancellation couldn't be because the Scottish Government finances are in a big mess and there is is desperate to save money? Or could it?

Surely travellers have not been misled by politicians?; That would never happen!

Remember This?

A while back, fbb bought an old Hornby Travelling Post Office coach. It was an awful model, largely because it was arrayed in all red plastic.

The only relief from its unrealistic rubicund regalia was the transfers and the black plastic "net" of the working mailbag flinger and catcher.

fbb painted the roof grey, the ends black ....

... and reduced the blackness of the net by a replication the red panelling underneath.

Door furniture was picked out in black and a suggestion was added of the lights which would have been turned on to show that mail was to be dropped or uplifted. 

Total cost including the paint, £22.

fbb could buy a much better model from Bachmann.

In a slightly different older livery this has just been re-released at a whopping £73

Some retailers are discounting this price as above.

Is the difference worth it?

More bits and pieces tomorrow including "Brotherliness gone for a Burton".

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 25th Aug