Partnership Proposals Promulgated [1]

------------------------------------------------------------

Senior moment No 345

Whilst staying at No 3 Son's flat, fbb was aghast to spot a nasty spillage in the bathroom. Some noxious blue fluid (toilet cleanser?) was seeping over the window cill.

Uncertain as to how this domestic crime had been committeed, fbb sought to redress the balance by cleaning up the mess. Having removed the bits of bathroom detritus, the chubby one espied ...

... that the stain was a seahorse-decorated tile! Such is the joy of being old.

------------------------------------------------------------

A little levity to prepare us for the horrors to come.

fbb thought it would never happen ...

... two giants of the bus industry working together to provide the public with a better service. Initially, two corridors were "co-ordinated" under the Optio brand and some "read again" blogs can be accessed from a short list below. But from the end of this month the whole of Sheffield's bus network will undergo something of a revolution. For the historians amongst our loyal readership, this is the biggest network change since October 1968. Then, the alterations were provoked by a need to save money, but today's plan ...

Back in November 2011, fbb was "summoned to the headmasters study" to meet South Yorkshire PTE Director David Brown (DB) ...

... and senior people from Stagecoach and First. The summons was in response to fbb's blogs (so they do read them?) and accompanying letters to DB about the poor quality of printed an on-line publicity in South Yorkshire.

DB was adamant the the new Partnership deal would bring significant improvements all-round and "many of the things that you point out will be resolved as we progress with a positive attitude of working together". Really?

So, a series of three (at least!) exciting blogs looking at the publicity for the new services; to see how much better things are under the new regime. We will take each of fbb's repeated "moans" in turn.

 Wrong timetable information  e.g. service 88

fbb blogged (and others have commented, by letter) that the information was misleading as it showed buses terminating at Banner Cross, not Bents Green.

This meant that on-line journey planners insisted that you alight from your 83 or 88 bus and wait for the next one to complete your journey. Bents Green is over a mile from Banner Cross. Daft.

Route 83 will no longer run to Bents Green under the new cunning plan, but the 88 remains largely unchanged. So let's look at journeys TO Bents Green after the October revisions.

Oh look, there aren't any! The terminus is still at Banner Cross and it's still  WRONG . Of course, you can travel in the opposite direction VIA Bents Green on your way back to town ...

But the basic frequency will be only every 10 minutes, so instead of Traveline telling you to get off and wait seven minutes before continuing on the next bus to the terminus, the partnership will insist that you wait for 12 minutes, thus "providing the public with a better service."  no improvement 

 Wrong timetable information  e.g. service 83 

And talking of loops. The new plans continue to provide for an excellent service to Ecclesfield, and as a special treat some service 83 and 83A journeys will take you to on past Morrisons to the High Street. Now that's very nice for those that live near there.

Instead of being unceremoniously dumped off the bus at Morrisons on Ecclesfield Common ...

... the privileged few (apparently) can ride round the loop to the High Street (pictured below), but only on certain journeys in the evenings.

 WRONG  All service 83 buses run via Ecclesfield High Street but the leaflet helpfully only tells you the  times for buses that finish their day's work there and skulk off to their depot. For the record, the two buses shown as not going to the High Street (above) arrive there at 2127 and 2227.   no improvement 

 Misleading maps   e.g. service 42

Maps are produced using a piece of bought-in software from a Swedish firm called Kartor. By all accounts it is expensive and difficult to use; and when it goes wrong it needs considerable skill to make it work properly. A chum who knows of its use with another operator proffers numerous expletives deleted at its very mention! When the "Partnership" was announced, fbb wrote to DB offering to create "proper" maps showing road names and a better selection of useful destinations. His offer was politely but firmly refused.

So here's one to try for yourself.

For a small and utterly worthless imaginary prize, your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to explain the route of the service 42 using the map supplied. All will be revealed tomorrow.

Or you could cheat and download the timetable leaflet. In the meantime, some background reading:-

Summoned to the  Headmaster's Study (read again)

Optio Red Revealed (read again)

Oh, Oh, Option Orange (read again)

 Next Bus Blog : Tuesday 9th October 

Hidden in Harrogate [2]

The Lost Line. See "Hidden in Harrogate [1]" (read again).

This is leafy Langcliffe Avenue in Harrogate, North Yorkshire; and it hides an intriguing secret, not well known even by locals. Under the tarmac and between the lines of up-market respectable dwellings, lies a barely buried tunnel; part of the ferroequinological history of this elegant spa town.

The York and North Midland Railway opened in 1839 largely financed by George Hudson (subsequently disgraced because of fraud and bribery) who invested a substantial inheritance in the North Midland, becoming a director. Having completed the York line, Hudson turned his attention to Harrogate, proposing a branch to the town from a junction with the Y & NM at Normanton with stations at Stutton, Tadcaster, Newton Kyme, Thorpe Arch, Wetherby and Spofforth and a terminus at Harrogate. Local people and businesses initially opposed the railway fearing an influx of people from Leeds and Bradford would lower the tone of the area but this opposition was overcome and the line opened to a temporary terminus at Spofforth 10th August 1847 and was extended into Harrogate Brunswick on 20th July 1848.

The line veered slightly left from the route of the current tracks, just north of Hornbeam Park Station. Almost immediately it entered a tunnel ...

... following the line of Langcliffe Avenue until re-appearing in daylight just past the present junction with Leeds Road. At the time of construction there was no housing as such in the area, the line proceeding through largely open country.

The map shows a milestone (MS) 1 mile from the present centre of the town and today we would find a roundabout and a substantial built up area at that point.

It was the construction of this roundabout and its associated road "improvements" that obliterated any remains of the north-western portal of the tunnel. The south-eastern portal remains on private land, much overgrown and approached via a near-amazonian bog!

It was at Leeds Road that entrances were constructed when part of the tunnel was rebuilt as an air raid shelter during World War 2. Needless to say this has been explored and explained on-line.

These steps led up to a now-blocked-off exit at the road junction and explorers have created a plan of the subterranean facilities.

Having emerged from the tunnel, the line then curved north,  along the line of the present Park Drive continuing behind this row of trees on the left.

The terminus was roughly where the present Methodist Church was built (in 1879). It was a wooden, single storey building and photographs are rare.

All that remains, on the edge of The Stray and just across the road from the very grand church, ...

... is a small plaque.

In 1862 the present tracks were opened linking Hudson's line with the new Harrogate station and Brunswick was no more. As usual, it is amazing that a piece of railway history that lasted only 12 years still leaves its indelible mark in the 21st Century.

The name "Brunswick" may well be derived from the neighbouring hotel as explained on this plaque ...

... and here is the corner of the Brunswick (Prince of Wales) on the left and the spire of the Methodist Church and thus the site of the station on the right.

And finally, here is a map of the line overlaid on a present-day aerial view.

Sadly, after a weekend of nostalgia, there's a lot of eminently bloggable modern "stuff" on the horizon. 

Readers have already been warned about the onslaught of on-line publicity for the big timetable and route changes due in Sheffield at the end of the month. So we need to see how much things have improved; as promised to fbb last November at a high level meeting in the great City of Steel Snooker.

Wonder what we will find?

Fat Bus Bloke's Bible Blog does a bit more thinking (read here).

 Next Bus Blog : Monday 8th October 

Hidden in Harrogate? [1]

--------------------------------------------------------------

Another one bites the dust.

This was to total content of the company's web site yesterday:-

From the end of Service today, Thursday the 4th of October 2012, RH Transport Services will cease to operate All Oxfordshire County Council Bus Services and School Contracts. Any one who has booked Private Hire's with us should make other arrangements. Oxfordshire County Council are currently working on finding replacement Bus Operators. For further information please contact the County Council's Transport Department 01865 816000 We would like to thank all our Passengers for there Custom over the years.

The BBC's "South Today" bulletin at lunchtime yesterday (Friday) made great issue of the problems that schoolchildren faced, whilst illustrating the piece with footage of R & H buses on stage carriage services. Apparently the fact that the latter had also ceased without warning was not considered newsworthy.

Once again the age-old question has to be asked. Is the policy of accepting the lowest bids for tendered services really in the interests of the general public? What price stability and reliability?

R & H Buses in now in the hands of the Official Receiver.

Meanwhile Oxfordshire has sorted it out and ...

Users of the 14 R & H bus services will travel free-of-charge on Monday 8 October following the inconvenience caused as a result of the family-run West Oxfordshire company having entered administration on Friday October 5. New operators will follow the exact same timetables as the previous RH buses.

click to enlarge the above list

Oxfordshire has done a really good job under difficult circumstances. Well done Oxon!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Back to Harrogate.
Spot the railway ...

...crossed by the main Harrogate to Leeds Road. That's easy peasy, it's here near Spacey Houses and with Pannal Station just about visible in the distrance.

Pannal is an unstaffed halt on the line from Leeds to York, via Harrogate, all  that is left of a much more extensive set of lines reaching out to Pateley Bridge, Ripon, Boroughbridge and Wetherby. Here is Pannal Station in 1900 ...

... and more recently with the buildings much extended and forming the "Railway" pub and restaurant, replacing the former station appurtenances.

Rumour has it that this building has now been demolished. The villages of Pannal, Burn Bridge and Rossett Green are merged into mainly modern and converted housing, mostly up-market. Traditionally, Harrogate and District and its National Bus company predecessors have provided a service to the area but latterly this (tendered) service has been run by Harrogate Coach Travel as service 110.

This follows a twiddly route picking up several "odd and ends" of previous services ...

... terminating in a large one-way loop at Pannal just off the bottom of the map. Traveline's rather weak map system only allows scrolling in "jumps", so fbb couldn't get the whole of the route on one screen. Passengers from property around the station would sensibly take the train or, more likely, the frequent service 36 which travels along the main road (green on the map).

Pannal should not be confused with Pannal Ash which has long been served by a frequent Harrogate Town route, currently the No 6. Indeed, that number dates back to the very early days of the privatised Harrogate and District ...

... nowadays with vehicles of much superior quality.

Our intrepid blog readers may like to attempt to match the service 6 map with that for the 110!

But, going back to the title of this blog, we are looking for a hidden railway, not the one that obviously and currently runs through the town. It was a railway (and a station) that was short lived, but yet can still be traced above ground today. Not only that, but persons unknown have explored the underground bits and fbb will quote some of this intriguing information in tomorrow's blog.

  

Full timetables for the services that will be provided from November 18th under the Sheffield Bus Partnership scheme have now been published on-line. fbb will assess the material next week.

 Next Bus Train Blog : Sunday 7th October 

Investigating Ivybridge [3]

Which would you choose? Two bus companies competing for business between Plymouth and Ivybridge.

 Plymouth City Bus  style.

Simple cover with one male bright young thing giving a piggy back to one female bright young thing. fbb is unsure whether he could manage a piggyback for Mrs fbb; they might just have to walk onto the bus. 

 First Bus  style.

fbb is not sure why we are only allowed "partial" X80 timetables. Surely it would be helpful to potential passengers to include all X80 journeys plus the infrequent 180 offering. Then Ivybridgers could then plan their expeditions with full information. As it is, the X80 journeys only seem to be included at times when the 88 isn't, i.e. evenings and Sundays. Odd?

 Plymouth City Bus  timetables. 

Presentation is always a matter of subjective and personal taste, but fbb considers that Plymouth's corporate red is too harsh; there is too much of it! Their on-line non-leaflet presentation is easier to read.

Both versions seem to make it more complicated than it need be. The service is simple, every 30 minutes starting at 0610; so why not simply say that. Why publish some of the times in full but not all. Perhaps the leaflet designers feel that they must fill all available space. Not necessary.

 First Bus   timetables.

A more complicated pattern of service made unnecessarily confusing by adding in the X80 intrusions. A separate and full X80 timetable, please; at least for journeys to and from Ivybridge.

 Plymouth City Bus  bit of a bludner.

There is a panel all about fares; standard offers only, nothing special. But one super bargain item is shown here:-

Sounds a really good deal? But fbb thinks that word "to" should not be there. A glance immediately below it reveals a single fare of £3 from Plymouth "to" Ivybridge.

Leave out the "to" and the £1 fare anywhere in Ivybridge makes sense.

 First Bus  two bludners.

"Cole Lane, which is close to Ivybtidge rail station"; really?

This is the path, creepy and unlit at night, which runs alongside the railway line between Cole Lane and the station.

Not ideal; and certainly not a positive marketing ploy. Then there is the embarrassing map bludner.

Leaving aside the leaflet cover which implies that buses run via Waterslade Drive when they don't, the map suggests an hourly service via Filham Moor Close. Oh reallly?

It is highly unlikely that the residents of this quiet cul-de-sc would appreciate an hourly bus service reversing all over their manicured lawns and pranging their parked cars whilst so doing. The bus runs along St Peters Way and stops near the close. Perhaps First should get a local to draw their maps rather than relying on computer derived inaccuracies.

 Plymouth City Bus  and finally ....

How refreshing to have a local number for local enquiries. Most 0845 numbers are now "free" or relatively cheap for the majority of land-line users and it is really good to be able to talk to the people who run the buses. Assuming, of course, that the calls aren't diverted to Wigan.

 First Bus  and finally ....

Whereas! You have to pay a premium to find out what First Bus wants to sell you. At the risk of being repetitive (why not, fbb, you are an old man?), there would be an uproar if Tesco made you phone up to find out what brands of beans they sell. Mind you, their profits are 12% down, the first drop in 20 years, so maybe ...

And surely, telling you when the buses run is part of customer service, isn't it? There's a clue in the words.

 conclusion 

City Bus has a simpler route and a very simple timetable. There is also an hourly Sunday service and telephone information should be heaps better. But First makes a better effort to go where the passengers might be. But you are left with the overriding impression that City Bus is a local bus for local people; First is a big conglomerate that doesn't quite know where it is going, not if their maps and blurb are the basis for an opinion. 

 Next Bus Blog : Saturday 6th October