Oh! Oh! Optio Orange ...

... with the usual SYT mistakes!

To be scrupulously fair, not as many as usual. Optio Orange leaflets were released on Friday 1st July on-line and in hard copy. For the "big change" on July 24th, the cover lists the services included in the scheme ...

... confirming that Optio is much more expansive than the very limited scheme in Liverpool. On Merseyside a group of services numbered 14, with assorted suffix letters, run from city centre to Croxteth, where they diverge. "Joint operation" only applies between City and Croxteth. Operators there are Stagecoach and Arriva.

The Sheffield scheme is very simple on the west of the city; it is travelling south east to the Mosborough area that the substantial scope of the network becomes obvious.

Services 42, 44 and 123 via various routes to Crystal Peaks shopping centre are fully involved.  Service 49, 50 and the two-hourly 53 become part of the scheme when they cross the South Yorkshire boundary, once passports have been checked. fbb sees potential for validity punch-ups there!

But have you spotted the notable exception? The one key Stagecoach service that is EXcluded from the scheme?

To continue, what do you  get for your super co-ordinated money? 

For most passengers, it's simply a one-day or seven-day rover valid on selected routes of both operators. From First's point of view the price is the same as its current route specific deals. Change the title from "FirstWeek" to "Optio".

The bonus is, of course, Stagecoach "joint" availability. You get the 123, an even more (circuitous) route to Crystal Peaks, plus the 50 and 53 "main road" routes to Mosborough village. Stagecoach's present route specific "dayrider" is the same at £3 but the Optio weekly price represents a £1.20 reduction, but again only for these specific routes.

So, after all the hype, the branding and the noble statements from "spokesmen", its not a particularly "mega" change. Indeed, once you need to step "off-piste" and change to another group of services, the lack of inter-availability hits home. There are, of course, Travel South Yorkshire multi-operator rovers, but they are more pricey.

 

You pays your money and you takes your choice! [phrase from a Punch cartoon, circa 1846] It will be interesting to monitor the "spin" at the official "launch", coming soon.

The most noticeable manifestation of co-operation, however, is with joint service 120.

During the day, Stagecoach will run from Hallamshire Hospital to Halfway whilst First operates from Fulwood to Crystal Peaks.  On Monday to Friday each will run every 8 minutes (every 10 on Saturdays)...

but in the evenings and all day on Sundays the frequency is shared throughout the whole route. 

F = "First",   SSY = "Stagecoach South Yorkshire".  The present best frequency (service 40, 41 and 120) is every 3.8 minutes end to end**, so frequency is at least halved in the outer limits.

Notice the Travel South Yorkshire silliness on the panel above; a 2356 one-off journey to Hallamshire Road. WRONG! They ALL run to Hallamshire Road, this one gets an allocated time only because it happens to terminate there. Silly, as usual, and unnecessarily confusing.

As predicted in "Peace in Our Time" (read again) the extra Stagecoach loop via Redmires Road, the future of which "a spokesman" said was not confirmed, is, of course, withdrawn.

What's missing? Have you guessed what it is yet? Here's a clue!

The Stagecoach Supertram runs from Halfway, via Crystal Peaks and the city centre to the University and onwards. Service 120 runs from Halfway, via Crystal Peak and the city centre to the University and onwards. But your Optio Orange ticket is NOT valid on the tram, even where the route is common.

So co-ordination is not complete. There may be good reasons; but are they GOOD reasons? This restriction does somewhat tarnish the shine of what might be an excellent "first effort" scheme. 

So:-

Will it work amicably or will one or other operator start complaining about lost revenue?
Will confused Crystal Peaks commuters attempt to travel "Optio Orange" by tram?
Will the scheme extend to all of Sheffield? All of South Yorkshire? The whole country? The planet Zog?

Time + Fearnley + Souter =  Delight OR Disaster?

Meanwhile fbb and SYPTE need to tackle the big question for those grasping the Optio opportunity. "Help, where the heck is Hackenthorpe?"

All will be revealed tomorrow.

** For Pedants : First does not run end-to-end at the moment. Service 40 (City-Fulwood) and 41 (City-Halfway) are separate operations.

The Travel South Yorkshire blogweek continues : Tuesday 5th July 

Look, Smart Trams! Kool! [4]

Seaton, Supreme and Superb.
This series of blogs concludes ... 

Firstly, an acknowledgement.  Much of the early history on this series of blogs came from a more detailed account of Claude Lane and his first miniature tram. It is well worth reading and can be found here. A full account of his life and work is covered in the book, "Next Stop Seaton!", published by the Seaton Tramway (web site link below).

But first, we celebrate tram No 6, once a toastrack at Rhyl, ridden on by fbb at Eastbourne and now the "senior citizen" of the Seaton System.

 Now join fbb for a bloggers' ride.

Our tour starts a Colyton, where the station offers a bookshop and gift store, a very friendly cafe and restaurant and a pleasant place to sit and watch the trams trundle in and out. Normal service runs every 20 minutes but on busy days that schedule can be doubled.  So there isn't long to wait.

The first stage of the trip takes you though pleasant farming country ...

... then over the main Lyme Regis to Sidmouth Road ...

... and into Colyford Station.

Break your journey here for a quick one (or several slow ones!) in the adjacent White Hart (but, beware! don't try this on busy days as most trams run through full.) The final stage of the ride takes you along the Axe estuary ...

... with views of a wide variety of wild life.  Special nature trail trams are run at certain times.  The track no longer runs into the old branch line terminus, but takes a sharp right at the extensive depot ...

... then skirts the site of the former Warners holiday camp.

But, alas, Warner's is no more and here we see ...

... the line entering the aerial shot top right and following the edge of the now demolished camp to the Underfleet terminus just off the edge bottom left. Even this aerial view is now decidedly out of date. The whole Warners site is now a "blasted heath" of raised land ...

 ... in peparation for the completion of a new Tesco store in November. There's something rather quaint in the idea of, possibly, catching a 55 year old tram from Colyton to do some shopping in Tesco's shiny new 2011 emporium.

The line terminates at Underfleet, close to Seaton town centre.

Things have certainly moved on from Claude Lane's first tiny tramcar at Barnet, via St Leonards, Rhyl, Eastbourne and a closed railway line to Seaton; to a splendidly enjoyable travel experience that is, surely, a most fitting tribute to those halcyon days carrying happy children for 3d [1p] at garden fetes in the early 50s.

If fbb has whetted your appetite for this little treasure, bus connections are available for Axminster at Colyton and Seaton; & for Weymouth and Exeter at Seaton.  Limited free parking is available at Colyton and there is an extensive metered car park at Underfleet, Seaton.

Full details of times and prices can be obtained from the company's web site here. Also available there is a video of the complete line from a drivers' cab.

Just in case you were thinking dark thoughts, please note that fbb has no connection with the Seaton Tramway Company other than being a satisfied customer!

Previous blogs in this short series:-
Look, Smart Trams! Kool [1] here
Look, Smart Trams! Kool [2] here
Look, Smart Trams! Kool [3] here

Thanks for the Memory. Warner's Seaton in the 60s ; Now with hot water in your chalet!

Hi-de-Hi, Ho-de-Ho!


To celebrate the outbreak of a limited peace between First and Stagecoach in Sheffield, from Monday onwards, fbb will be presenting a full 7 days of South Yorkshire blogs ; beginning with "Oh, Oh, Optio Orange" tomorrow. 

Next blog : due Monday July 4th

The Leyland's not for Turning

A paraphrased past politicial point;
pathetically promoting these paragraphs.

A recent blog about bus and tram terminus turning arrangements (read again) encouraged fbb's fevered brain to have a look at similar arrangements for bus services.  Back in the days of Leyland PD2s and 3s, AECs and delicious Daimlers, it was normal for your terminating bus simply to reverse into a side road, as here at Barncliffe Road on Sheffield's long standing route 60. [fbb's local route for many years, remember?]

The 60 had an even more spectacular arrangement at Midland Station, simply a big "U" turn across a busy city road. This would not be a good idea in 2011, even if it were physically possible, which it isn't.

 

Apologies for atrocious quality of these two pics; they come from fbb's rapidly decaying collection of colour slides.  In today's view, only the former Kenning's building in the far background is unscathed by modernity. The "porte cochère" at the station is now the fully enclosed passenger concourse. Rail House (behind the turning bus) has been demolished and replaced by a multi-storey car park.

This was one of fbb's favourites ...

... Blairdardie (Yoker Burn) where Glasgow Corporation route 16 buses simply parked in the central reservation of the Great Western Road before their return trip to the city. The turnaround is still there, behind the somewhat bigger tree, but no longer in use.

 fbb wonders whether today's highway engineers, even today's omnibologists, will know why it was constructed.

Also in greater Glasgow, a long extinct Alexander Midland route to Mugdockbank in Milngavie sped past the reservoirs and reversed here ...

 

... the unsurfaced "bay" being strengthened, then, by old railway sleepers.  The residents of the village of Mugdock then had a long uphill walk back home via a narrow winding road or across fields.

Here in Derby, the service 46 to Grange Road Alvaston reversed into this special nibble, cut out of the grass verge, at its junction with Holbrook Road. (below, right, in shadow)

The estate and the bus route were both extended some 40 years ago, but the mystery nibble remains.

Sheffield Corporation famously provided a "gents" at the outer end of every tram route.  This was an essential facility in the days of open cabs and long shifts with no "layover" permitted in the city centre. When bus replacements came along, they often built quite substantial turning circles with loos as here at Intake, erstwhile terminus of the busy cross-city service 95.

With service revisions taking buses further into the outer suburbs, this turn-round facility is to longer used on a regular basis. Back in the 60s, if fbb remembers correctly, the building also housed a newsagent's kiosk.

Another Sheffield dinosaur remains near the former Norfolk Arms pub on Manchester Road, near Rivelin Dams ...

Here, Sheffield service 54 reversed into the pub car park on a blind-ish bend until 1989.  Twenty two years after the route was curtailed to Rivelin Bridge Post Office, the warning sign for approaching motorists,  "Bus Reversing Point Ahead", still protects the ghostly crews.

From July 24th, even bus 64 to the former Rivelin Bridge Post office is withdrawn, although infrequent longer distance service run past.

And, talking of turning dinosaurs, this little sign reads "Bus Route" in Sheffield Transport yellow and black.

 

It is on the present 97/98 service at Yew Lane.  The original Yew Lane route 89 started in November 1951, but fbb suspects that this historic piece of infrastructure was added when the service was reorganised in 1969. Still there guiding First's drivers, 42 years later!

Back to backing buses.  In todays "elf'n'safety" conscious world, reversing buses is not popular with the authorities. Even so-called safe turns can be a problem.  Again in Sheffield, the facility at the Cross Scythes, Totley, was withdrawn; it could be tricky, especially if pub-goers cars were parked unwisely, leading to some fairly "hairy" jiggles.

This is now replaced by a brand-new turning loop about a mile further out into open country.

It was completed too recently to be caught by google's ever spying eye, but it is here,

near the footpath to Gillfield Wood and few hundred yards short of the City boundary. The extra cost of running buses empty on a two mile round trip to nowhere must really pain the financial philosophy of the Fearnley!

In Sheffield, at least, one reverse still remains and it is at the other end of the previously mentioned frequent service 95. Vehicles originally reversed by turning from Bole Hill Road into the narrow Tinker Lane ...

... but the lads from Sheffield City Council have built a nice lay-by a few yards up the lane, behind some flats. Here is a shot of a 95 having dutifully reversed in to its neat and natty nibble.  Stagecoach's less frequent route 123 performs the same manoeuvre, but not for much longer. The Stagecoach Walkley leg is withdrawn from 24th July when the 123 is diverted to the Endcliffe Student Village.

"Reverses" are now very rare indeed (except, possibly, on quieter rural routes) and fbb would appreciate details of any in busy urban locations.

Hey, there's more to omnibology than eulogising about Volvo B75G Mark 2As or scribbling fleet numbers into a tiny notebook.  There's real social history around if you only look for it.

To celebrate the outbreak of a limited peace between First and Stagecoach in Sheffield, from Monday onwards, fbb will be presenting a full 7 days of South Yorkshire blogs ; beginning with "Oh, Oh, Optio Orange" on Monday 4th July. 

Next blog : due Sunday July 3rd  

Take a Potter to the Otter ...

... but not one of these
(who is obviously enjoying a typical fbb blog) ...

... but the River Otter, which rises in the Blackdown Hills in Dorset, flows through Honiton and Ottery St Mary and joins the sea at Budleigh Salterton. The first "modern" public transport to serve the Otter Vale as such was the railway branch to Sidmouth. The railway was not greatly welcomed by the local big cheeses, who wanted to discourage day trippers. So the line terminated a mile from the sea front, as seen here in Victorian times.  Carriages are lined up to transport the wealthy clients to their summer residences or to "select" hotels.

For railway explorers, the station is almost completely intact, having be used by various businesses since the line closed in March 1967.

The line was never as busy as some of the West Country branches, but offered a modest service to to the intermediate stations at Ottery St Mary, Newton Poppleford and Tipton St John. For the record, a second branch from the branch ran from Tipton St John via Budleigh Salterton to Exmouth.

fbb picks up the story with a recent stay in Sidmouth. While Mrs fbb enjoyed the Sidmouth shopping experience, fbb was given day release for a bus ride.  He chose the service which, effectively, replaces the train. When fbb travelled about 12 months ago, route 382 was in the hands of Stagecoach, having taken over Cook's Coaches, seen here leaving Sidmouth Triangle.

Stagecoach has pulled out of (lost the tender contract?) many of the former Cook's routes and the 382 is run by a rapdily expanding Dorset-based company, Hatch Green Coaches.

 

The timetable is little changed since the Cook's/Stagecoach tenure. The buses run reasonably directly to Ottery, then perform a rural loop via Feniton** and Whimple.

Note the Saturday only journey via Taleford.

As buses on route 382 approach Ottery, they pass the Finnimore Industrial Estate, built on the site of the former station.

But look closely, and just above the "Recycling in Ottery" label, you can see the former station building, still extant and in use!

 

Compare above with the view below from about the same angle taken in 1907.

Ottery is a pleasant little town, but fbb did not have time to stop and enjoy as his mission (and Mrs fbb's permission) was for a round trip straight back to Sidmouth! The driver was very friendly, ex Cook's, stopping at one point to buy a dozen eggs from a farm. Another unscheduled stop was outside a Public Convenience, "I suffer from haemorrhoids," excused the man up front.

Too much information!

fbb's trip was via Taleford which took him up the narrow lane, over the former crossing in the top left of the map. There is little sign of the old track bed, it having been ploughed into nearby fields. But over a couple of bridges (River Otter and former mill race) appears a small cottage ...

... and in the hedge next to what was, indeed, the crossing keeper's cottage (above, top left) ...

... are the original level crossing gates, apparently in good order but now only guarding the road from ghost trains to Sidmouth. The gates were last in use 44 years ago! It was known as Cadhay Crossing as in this track and signal diagram:-

 

And people often wonder why we enthusiasts are enthusiastic. It's little delights like this that fascinate the old and chubby one.

** Sidmouth Junction station closed in January 1967 but re-opened in May 1971 as Feniton, ironically the name it carried when it first opened in July 1860. The Station had a long term identity crisis as follows:-
                ---------------------------------------------------------------
         July 1860 Feniton
       July 1861 Ottery Road
       ???  1868 Ottery St Mary
       ???  1868 Ottery Road (after only 2 months)
       July 1864 Sidmouth Junction
       May  1971 Feniton
                ----------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Feniton Station is somewhat more basic than in the old days ...

 ... as here in the track diagram in its heydey, the level crossing is to the right of the plan.

 Heyho, you're getting old, fbb!

Next blog : due Saturday July 2nd