Death of fbb!

And his near-instant resurrection!

A letter received today from the Halifax bank was addressed to the "representatives" of fbb "now that he has died"!   fbb agrees wholeheartedly with Mark Twain who was obliged to write "rumours of my death are somewhat exaggerated!"   When Halifax were contacted they profusely apologised, saying that "someone" must have entered the wrong initials into the database. 

Can we trust the computer?

SHOCK HEADLINE!   Over the past few days First Bus have withdrawn from all of their services in South Yorkshire bar one...

... showing just a single result in their on line list of services.   A couple of clicks and their last remaining service group is revealed as the 11/11A/12 from Sheffield to Stannington.   And that's yer lot!

This dramatic change in company policy seems to have been ignored by the media and by the burghers of Sheffield, and by all the drivers who must be working for nothing!

But, worry not, anxious reader, a click on the "forthcoming timetables" button reveals not a single forthcoming timetable but some of the current timetables, mostly only for Rotherham and Doncaster!   So the plot thickens!

And this, from Stagecoach Yorkshire:-

 They last operated this service 23 in January 2009 but there it is, all resplendent in their list of current timetables.  [STOP PRESS on 12th Jan : at last , this wrong timetable has mysteriously disappeared, two years late.]

And on the Isle of Wight, for some time before the Southern Vectis January change,
you could click on the revised  service buttons and, you guessed it, get a second copy of the OLD services.

Now, anyone can make mistakes [even fbb - most definitely fbb!!], but in areas where the internet is the only reliable source of timetables - someone should be monitoring and correcting them before they lead some unsuspecting traveller up the proverbial garden path.   And even if there is an alternative source of information, errors like these hardly inspire confidence in the information provider, do they?

And we must not forget our favourite generator of inexcusable errors, Travel South Yorkshire

fbb, now arisen from his death bed, wishes to remind TSY that the 82 (either old or new version) does not, indeed has NEVER, NEVER in the history of the motorbus in Sheffield, operated via Greystones.  [STOP PRESS on 13th January - the 82 now runs via Banner Cross and not Greystones - a result for fbb or just a coincidence?]

How to Ruin a Bus Service (Lesson 3)

Lark Rise to Confusion [from a contributor - adapted]
see also "How to Ruin a Bus Service (Lesson 3A)"

The long-running pantomime produced by Northamptonshire County Council.

Once upon a time Stagecoach ran a service 88 from the county town Northampton to Towcester and Brackley, the seventh and eighth largest towns in the county. About four buses each day continued on to Bicester and Oxford as service X88.

The service was supported by Northamptonshire County Council and so, when it came up for retendering, Stagecoach announced "The section from Northampton to Silverstone is commercially viable because we can provide an hourly frequency with two buses. If we go on to Brackley we shall need a third bus and some subsidy."

"The nasty big wicked bus company is holding us poor little County Council to ransom", cried Northamptonshire in abject horror, and together with neighbouring Oxfordshire went off and found another bus company to run the Oxford to Silverstone section for fewer pennies.

Oxfordshire liked this because the new Silverstone to Oxford service now went round all the pretty "Lark Rise to Candleford" villages between Brackley and Bicester.   [Fringford, below, is a typical example]  The service is still nominally numbered X88 - X for Xceedingly slow!   So the replacement tendered through service is now run by two different companies with no through fares and definitely no guaranteed connection at Silverstone. Stagecoach publicity at Northampton bus station merely advises anyone venturing south of Silverstone to phone Traveline for information. (Oh dear!)

Northamptonshire's public transport web site offers no interchange information at all on the 88 timetable - well it wouldn't, would it, because the Oxford link is, sort of, in Oxfordshire - so the "not really interested" policy applies. So you have to look elsewhere for the connecting bus and work it out for yourself. There's intergration for you!

The impressive interchange point is seen below. The white coach on the left is the bus to Oxford with Stagecoach on the right returning to Northampton.

Of course, if you want to go from Northampton to Oxford you catch a bus or a train to Milton Keynes Central station and then take the half hourly X5.   However if you live in Brackley and need to get to Northampton or to the local council offices in Towcester, then the journey is potentially more stressful.  It is not unknown for the Oxford to Silverstone bus to run so late that it misses connections leaving the brave through passenger to wait at those splendid interchange facilities!

One Friday afternoon in October 2010 Bus Users UK organised a public meeting at Brackley Town Hall as the worthy local populace were not a happy bunch.  (Appropriately, the afternoon Oxford to Silverstone bus went past; running half an hour late!). They were unanimous that they wanted the return of a through Brackley to Northampton service. 

Will the good folk of South Northamptonshire get their through bus back?  Watch out for Gloucester Old Spots flying over Brackley.

How to Ruin a Bus Service (Lesson 2)

Stop providing information.
Once upon a time, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, it was possible to call into any local bus enquiry office (like the dinosaurs, more or less wiped out by some all-pervasive national disease called the world wide web - ugh, horror!) and purchase a bus timetable.   The latter species is now one of the rarest creatures in the country, only hiding in a few almost secret places.
But there were a few beacons of blinding beauty, one of which was Hertfordshire.

But, alack and alas, never no more (as they used to say - probably still do - in South Yorkshire). Word is getting around that Hertfordshire will be producing no more printed timetable books ...
No more printed maps ...
And no more "Intachange" magazine which gave a regular updates and news of changes.

So unless you re prepared to use your computer as a book, carry around a laptop as a map and download all updates to print out as hard copy, "so much information it will blow you away" becomes "so little information it will drive you mad"!
Of course it will all be available"on line" - although many other counties have even given up their internet presence in favour of the dodgy and over engineered Traveline and Transport Defunct. But, here's the key question:-
Do those politicians, who extol the excellence of an "internet only" presence, ever use the buses? Do they ever despair of finding information away from the comfort of cuddling their computer?
By far the vast majority of bus users would never dream of "logging on" to check whether the 0845 to Tring still rings a bell.  They will no longer be able to find out where the bus to Ware stops.  It will become increasingly tiresome if they are itchin' to get to Hitchin.  And  how many excursions will have a rotten end stuck at Potten End?   The mind boggles.

By far the vast majority of the ordinary bus users don't have easy access to a computer, at home and certainly not "on the go". So where will Mrs Miggins get her information from?   I expect she'll buy a car or, even cheaper, stay at home and be miserable.

Manchester Memories

Piccadilly to Victoria

Now a trouble-free trundle on a tram, the crossing from one Manchester station to the other was by foot (if you knew the way) or by taxi (if you had the money).   Back in the mists of time, when fbb was a student, he was expert in neither directions nor finance so always made a mess of it and, consequently, always allowed an extra hour.

Then the cross city construction craze set in.   Proposals for a metro in Newcastle, the Argyle Line in Glasgow, Thameslink in London and tunnels in Liverpool came thick and fast.   Not to be outdone, Manchester came up with the Pic-Vic line.

This crazy illustration from SELNEC (that's South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire) PTE in 1971 shows a Victoria Line (that's London Victoria) tube train running across Manchester. But the actual plan was to link "proper" train services through a circuitous tunnel with additional stations on the way.
This would then carry "heavy rail" trains from south to north as well as providing a much-needed link between Piccadilly and Victoria.   The dotted (as opposed to dashed) lines on the map above were entitled "passenger conveyor" with no real indication was to what they might be.    But, at least, as SELNEC transmogrified into Greater Manchester Transport, artists had a better idea of what the trains would look like and bosses had chosen a more sensible name!

Of course, it didn't happen.   Too expensive and insufficient cost to benefit ratio - a term used to disguise a sort of economic guesswork.   Instead we got "Centreline" ...

... rather tinny Seddon minibuses at a relatively high fare (12p, two shillings a sixpence in proper money). But it was certainly better than walking.   Now, of course, we have the tram - if you can understand the ticket machines - running frequently from the bowels of Piccadilly to  a former platform at Victoria.

Additionally there are three "Metro Shuttles"; FREE bus routes linking various parts of the city centre and recently upgraded with super-duper greener (and bigger) vehicles.   Mancunians simply don't know they are born, compared with the "good old days".

But in a touch of irony, the problem of the "Manchester Hub" raises its ugly and expensive head yet again. "Manchester Hub" is a neat phrase which roughly refers to the transport facilities in central Manchester.   Piccadilly is full, Victoria needs a rebuild, there are too many people travelling on the trains - so, one solution might be to ...

Guess what?

... build a "heavy rail" tunnel linking the two stations.  Now why had no-one thought of that before?

Blupdates!

Follow-ups (follows-up?) to previous blogs
Sheffield Seasonal Stupidy [read again] : it would appear that certain tendered services did operate a Monday to Friday service instead of the Saturday timings advertised by the two main groups. But, these services did not operate a FULL Monday to Friday service - they stopped at approx 1900 as well.   To make matters clear (!) the services listed as NOT running were, for example, evening tendered journeys not part of the normal daytime operators' timetables.   But then they wouldn't be running after the 1900 closedown anyway.  It's all much clearer now???
Joe's Jubilant Journey (Part I) [read again] : It has been pointed out the there are stops on the "main road" about half a mile from Nasareth village, so a southbound journey towards Porthmadog might be feasible.   Well it isn't!   Connections do not "make it" to Llangadog in time form the bus to Bethlehem.

Lesley's Big Adventure [read again] : fbb met Lesley over the Christmas break - she was most anxious to convey her gratitude to the Stagecoach drivers in particular who were "astoundingly helpful"!
Seasonal Service Surprise [read again] : London Transport operates a Sunday service on "selected routes" on Boxing Day - but there appears to be no way of finding out which.
fbb and Those Maps [read again] : the super big map of Sheffield is currently being updated to include changes from 30th January 2011.
Sheffield Revisited in Despair [read again] : SYT still thinks that the service 83 and 88 terminate at Banner Cross rather than Bents Green - as shown in their Christmas and New Year leaflet.   Generally the lads don't seem to be able to cope with anything that has a loop at the end.
Shhh! Sheffield Secrecy [read again] : Most* of the next round of changes were in place on the TSY web site by 6th January - three weeks before the change (on 30th January).   Still not as good as Derbyshire who were providing their Sheffield area changes on 16th December 2010.   Neither First nor Stagecoach had offered any detail on their web site; First firmly telling us that they have no "forthcoming changes" in South Yorkshire - which is simply a porky pie!  *Most, but not the more significant changes - yet!
And, enjoy an irrelevant picture of one of Harrogate and District's superb vehicles - luxury and quality epitomised.

How to Ruin a Bus Service (Lesson 1)

... make it hard to remember! [miniblog]
From 23rd January, the universally popular First Bus is to revise its service 63 between Havant and Fareham.   For many years this has provided a useful link running at an hourly frequency.   The present timetable continues this practice.

In recent years, however, the Saturday service has been significantly less frequent.   But now, from January 23rd, the Monday to Friday service is to be reduced.   Perhaps to every two hours off peak?   Not so - reduced to what would appear to be an arbitrary selection of journeys at particularly non-memorable and non-repeating times!

Note that there is now no journey for folk to arrive in Havant at a reasonable time to start work at 0900.
Another part of the "how to ruin a bus service" technique is, simply, not to tell anyone that the change is happening.   Checking on the "forthcoming timetables" on First Hampshire's web pages reveals changes in Southampton and Portsmouth due on 30th January but not a dicky bird about the 63 scheduled to be mangled a full week earlier.  [STOP PRESS : revised 63 is now "forthcoming", at last!]
To further discourage passengers; service 63 (which runs from and to Fareham, remember?) is NOT in the First Bus Fareham timetable booklet.   Maybe it it were included, people might travel on it and we wouldn't want that, would we?
If (and it's a big "if") you can delve into the subterranean depths of Hampshire's web site, you can download the "current" (sic!) Havant timetable booklet - which starts on January 23rd and includes the 63 change.
Way back in Autumn 2010, Mr Tim O'Toole, the new CEO of First Group, bravely announced a moratorium on timetable reductions.   Hmm.   Maybe someone should tell him about the 63?
Meanwhile, enjoy a nice piccy of a 63 at Fareham Bus Station.   Catch one while you can - it might not last long!

Sheffield Seasonal Stupidity?

OR, "I don't believe it"

fbb couldn't resist a look at the infamous Travel South Yorkshire web site - oft referred in glowing terms in previous blogs - NOT!

The helpful (!) "changes and disruptions" page was as below at 1100 on 1st January 2011:-

Note that this info was posted at 1847 on New Year's Eve.   As the post was late in the day, are we to presume that it refers to New Year's DAY services?   Or New Year's EVE services?   You pays your money ...

Elsewhere on the SYT site you can download a vast and fairly confusing festive season leaflet which quite clearly (well, fairly clearly) opines that, on New Year's DAY, a special timetable will be provided on selected services; financially supported by Sheffield City Council and operated solely by Stagecoach.   So the above post is a belated offer (or a late correction) for New Year's EVE services.   Belated is the right word as the post was timed barely 15 minutes before the departure of the last buses of the day.

This can be confirmed by visits to web sites as shown below; first First:-

 and second, Stagecoach:-

So far, so good.   The mysterious post must, therefore, refer retrospectively (helpful, eh?) to New Year's EVE and there was no post for New Year's DAY!    But, look closer befuddled friends, and wonder...

First's Saturday service on the 69 - every 30 minutes, as advertised on their web site.   Now look at the last couple of lines on the "Changes" page ...

So, was there, or wasn't there a service between Sheffield and Rotherham on New Year's Eve?   Answers, please, together with a crisp £20 note, to "fat bus bloke; care of the confused bus travellers therapy retreat, somewhere quiet and far away from Sheffield"!   The same, incidentally, applied to service 123 - Saturday service finishing early, according to the Stagecoach web site, but no service according to SYT!

But good news, folks!   There was a Monday to Friday service on lots of routes as listed above and enlarged below...

Great news for the (occasional) users of C1 to C6 buses to Tesco at Millhouses!   C1 and C4 (normally Wednesdays and Fridays only), C2 and C3 (Mondays and Thursdays), C5 and C6 (Tuesdays) were ALL running on Friday - New Years EVE!   Wowee!

And the 43 - is that the 43 to Jordanthorpe or the 43 to Chesterfield? - was running; as was the 53 to Low Edges - or it might have been the 53 to Mansfield.   All these routes running to a normal Monday to Friday service and thus right through to late evening in some cases.   The X7, normally a peak hour "commuter" service from and to Maltby was conveying a happy band of workers to their overtime in Sheffield on Friday, New Year's Eve.   Hmmm, maybe?

As Victor Meldrew said, often; and with vigour ...

"I don't believe it!"

Dear Mr Brown - director of South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive - does anyone check this information?   Does anyone use this web site?  fbb is (like Dickens' Mr Barkiss) "ready and willing" to sort it out.

Oh, yes!   A Happy New Year to our reader; hope you're not still stuck at Gleadless, waiting for the Saturday version of the 2A!

P.S.  Just in case you feel that fbb was being a bit picky - perish the thought - herewith tram information from the Stagecoach web site:-

And herewith, tram information from Travel South Yorkshire, also for 31st December!
Your opinion Mr Meldrew?  "I still don't believe it!"