A Fantastic Non-First First with Fudge [1]

From No 1 son's twit page; dateline Monday 2nd May

 0750 Seaton to Lyme Regis 

The trip turned out to be far more splendid than fbb could ever have imagined. Firstly, No 1 son and No 2 grandson elected to join the old man - voluntarily and under no pressure.

Then as the bus pulled round the corner from Harbour Road in to Marine Place, its driver gave a cheery wave and tooted his horn. This was going to be a good trip!

There were already three passengers about plus the ebullient driver, Dylan, who stars in a Sidmouth rock band. The passengers were Eve, Helen and a gent whose name fbb forgot to take so overcome was he with excitement. Dylan had found some balloons (printed with "First Birthday", so not entirely accurate) and Helen had brought string, so the vehicle was appropriated decked out on the lower deck.

(Eve, with camera, at the foot of the stairs.)

What excited Driver Dylan beyond measure was that No 1 son (£4.90 return) and No 2 grandson (£1 return)  paid fares - with real money. 

This was deemed "a very fair fare" by son and heir.

All other passengers were "seniors" and all were taking the return trip to Sidmouth. For the record, no other person boarded throughout the round trip and back to Seaton.

Helen is a bit of a bus travel enthusiast; in memory of her late husband who drove 9s from Exeter to Sidmouth in Devon General days. More intriguingly, Eve (with camera) is a "community photographer" for the local rag, The Sidmouth Herald. She took several hundred pictures and details of who fbb was and why he, and part family, were riding to Lyme Regis and back.

Without stops, the outward journey was uneventful with views of the glorious Devon (and a bit of Dorset) countryside impeded by think sea mist.

So fbb herewith adds a piccy of a typical approach to Lyme from Streetview (over enlarged).

Turning a bus round in Lyme is tricky in the extreme, so the 9A nips into a block of housing just of the Charmouth Road.

Despite the efforts of Traveline, the bus runs in a one-way loop via Anning Road and Queens Walk to a its terminus, returning via Kings Way (two words). Here Driver Dylan photographed the happy inauguration ...

... and did Eve and fbb.

The shelter was not installed for the 9A, but for the near incomprehensible Sidmouth local service 71 (operated by Damory, a GoAhead company) ...

... whose timetable was there for all to misunderstand.

The PDF is easier to read than the one in the frame but note that Kingsway (sic!) appears three times.

There was a real party atmosphere on board the 9A, sadly lacking the champagne and nibbles, but with much merry banter and jollity. It was soon time to set off back towards Seaton, Sidmouth and Exeter.

What thrills would entertain your chubby blogger on the return run?

For such delights our readers must wait until the morrow.

 Next 9A blog : Wednesday 4th May 

Hip Hip Hooray : It Starts Today : The New 9A

If Only We Had a Timetable!

Soon after the 9A was registered with the traffic commissioners, fbb contacted his chums at Stagecoach Devon, the chums, that is, who invite him to bus launches, and asked them to send him a big bundle of timetable leaflets so that he could distribute them liberally amongst the denizens of Seaton.

Nothing has yet arrived.

But what of the town's tourist information centre? There used to be one. It was a splendid brick-built building with loads of room to display stuff ...

... but it was demolished and replaced with a portakabin.

The site was required for the construction of the exciting and ground-breaking visitor attracttion recently opened by Princess Anne/Royal.

Two thirds of the new building are full of Dinosaur "stuff" and one third is an extensive cafe.

Somewhere in there is the Tourist Information Centre, as can be gathered from the signs at the entrance.

Or not, as the case may be.

Well, it must be in there, because the TIC's web site says so.

It really is there; as fbb observed when he popped in a week ago to deliver some GoTimetable Seaton leaflets. Centre? No, it was a shelf as part of the Seaton Jurassic pay desk; and quite a small shelf at that.

Thus it was that fbb re-popped in on Sunday last to obtain a timetable leaflet for the new 9/9A which starts today.

No shelf! Gone! No Tourist Infromation people! Gone! The shelf turns out to be a trolley which is wheeled into a locked office when The Tourist Information Centre Shelf is closed; namely at weekends when Seaton Jurassic is at its busiest. Brilliant?

The removable shelf is replaced by an utterly pathetic alcove almost completely hidden from public view.

But there, in the middle, was a rack displaying Stagecoach 9/9A leaflets alongside adverts for a well know timetable app.

In passing, fbb noted that publicity for other bus services (including Stagecoach 20 to Taunton) was very much absent. But at least Seaton's non-motoring visitors could get to Lyme Regis, Sidmouth or Exeter.

The leaflet is a typical Stagecoach publication, all of it taken up with the timetable and with no map.

But at least it was available.

Once outside the Tourist Non-Information Centre, fbb can report that the lads from Exeter had been around in their little van and erected new bus stop flags ...

... and posted new timetables in the frames.

It is, perhaps, a pity that Stagecoach staff had removed the old timetables leaving possible confusion over the Bank Holiday weekend. You would have a long, long wait from Saturday to Monday for a 9A bus to Lyme Regis!

Nevertheless, fbb was able to spot that the first ever Stagecoach service 9A to Lyme Regis would leave Seaton at 0750 this morning (Sunday service on a Bank Holiday, one presumes?).

In his pre-offspring youth, fbb (accompanied by an equally youthful Giles Fearnley!) specialised in doing "first buses" or at least "first days" when resident in Sheffield. This would be his first first day for many a long year.

The outcome of this exciting expedition will be revealed tomorrow.

 Next 9A bus blog : Tuesday 3rd May 

Another Lymington Loss-Maker?

Ferry Interesting - Again?

The London and South Western Railway replaced small local boat owners on the route between Lymington and Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. Passenger ferries begat car ferries ...

... which begat bigger car ferries named (as you would expect in the Solent area) after anglo-saxon kings.

Then along came the big expansion into even bigger ferries ...

... named Wight Light, ditto Sun and ditto Sky. Excellent names for boats but nowhere near as superb as Boaty McBoatface.

But there has always been a problem with the :Lymington Yarmouth passage. The boats cannot manage a round trip in an hour. The approach to the pier at the mainland side is via a winding channel with lines of moored boats.

Speed needs to be veeeery slow. Consequently three boats have been required to maintain a summer half hourly service. The winter schedule of once hourly still needs two working boats.

Then in 2015 came this announcement from Wightlink.

With customer statistics revealing that the number of people using the Yarmouth-Lymington route has fallen by almost 15% in the last four years, Wightlink will re-locate one of the three W-class ships that operates in the Western Solent to the Fishbourne-Portsmouth route in early 2015. The vessel will replace St Helen which will be retired. This decision will not affect the first or last sailings each day and services for commuters will not be altered.

The service would remain hourly (two boats) all year.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch there has been a small flotilla of failed ferry companies trying to outWightlink Wightlink for the foot passenger business.

Puffin, normally found chugging round Lymingtoin Harbour, had a go and failed.

Reviews on-line were never particularly favourable. But the pasengeris in question were expecting a cruise!

When you hand your money over at the booth, it's explained that the advertised 'Scenic Cruise' is basically a ferry service to the IoW and back. Super. 

Immediately a little underwhelmed, we boarded and neither we nor the many other passengers were greeted by the staff. The 'captain' was clearly far more interested in his young blonde assistant who was equally keen to lark about and flirt back with him. 

Very occasionally interrupted by some spectacularly dull tannoyed 'facts' about the scenic scenery  all delivered with a degree of boredom and a low level resentment that we've never experienced before. And we've been on some BAD boat and bus tours over the years. At this point the staff tips bucket on board became an increasingly irrelevant piece of cargo. 

Then, last year came the meteoric rise and equally meteoric fall of Scoot.

The growth and inevitable collapse of the new company has been well documented in these blogs.

But the local press recently broke the news of yet another venture from mainland to the western end of the Island.

The heading says "mornings and evenings" but ...

... the service is very limited indeed. How will it be fundeded? Will there be enough fare paying passengers at these unsocial hours? Do people commute in their droves from Yarmouth IoW to London on a Monday and back late on a Friday?

Here we go again! The company is "supported" by an existing boat operation ...

... and reportedly used a converted ex-Bembridge Lifeboat. The company web site supplies the times and fares.

So there is an earlier departure from the Island than the first Wightlink boat but on Mondays only, and ...

... a later return from Lymington.

The return trip from the Island costs £40 (out Monday, back Friday) which compares very unfavourably with the car ferry's passenger fare of £20. OUCH

The service will run, it is said, for six months experimentally. fbb (and his Island correspondents) give it a much lower chance of survival. As more of a fixed-time taxi it may yet fill a real need.

Our man on the spot is watching carefully. Thanks Alan!

 Next Bank Holiday bus blog : Monday 2nd May 

Technology Traumas

Three Chairs : Hip, Hip Hooray!
Or maybe four? Mrs fbb had a whim. The Bible Study held at fbb mansions has attracted a "gate" of up to 12, thus extra chairs are needed. Four folding chairs are available ...

... but they are not popular with people or their posteriors. So, decided the spouse, let us purchase two folding "director" chairs suitable for the "more ample" form.

It was Tesco Direct that could deliver the twosome (£30 each, total £60) to the local store and thus, summoned by email, Mrs fbb nipped automotively to collect.

Upon opening the first box, there appeared TWO chairs. The text on the box only referred to "chair" singular. The second box was left unopened whilst much fervent email searching was set in motion. Has Mrs fbb ordered one box twive by way of an over enthusiastic clicking? If so, had she paid £120?

The young girl at the end of the Customer Service phone was less than "au fait" with the problem but offered a £10 reduction by way of compensation as the price had been reduced to £50 since the original order wended its way over the airwaves.

Being of an honest disposition Mrs fbb returned the unopened box of two to the store.

Conclusion. Tesco have been inadvertently selling two chairs for the price of one because they did not know what was in the box. No wonder profts have been down!

"Caveat Venditor" as they very rarely say!

Axminster Station

You don't think of humble Axminster Station as a hot-bed of high-tech technological "stuff"; most people buy their tickets from the man at the window or, if that facility is closed, from and equally helpful man on the train.

Some us the self service ticket machine at the front of the station ...

... which also sells car park tickets. That is good because yestrday the car park machine was busted - again!

fbb has never seen anyone using the smart card reader.

Or should that be dullcard reader. Compared with, say, Oyster, Southwest Trains's piece of plastic ...

... is nothing more that a piece of plastic. You load your ticket on-line or at a station machine and it becomes a plastic version of the standard card jobbie. No discounts, no bargain "cap", unusable in the London Travelcard area and not available between Axminster and Exeter. Click on the screenshot below to take in the huge benefits.

But Axminster has gained another technological box.

It is located just outside the Gents (and Ladies); it has a bright red light on it; the keypad says it is ready ...

... but a sticky label says that it isn't.

What it doesn't do is take cash - cards only. 

According to the company's publicity, these will allow the user to speak to a real person (at Basingstoke) for help with buying a ticket. Now that wouldn't be part of a plan to remove the man from the ticket office, indeed remove the ticket office, would it?

Of course not, says SouthWest Trains.

Well not yet, anyway; says fbb! Beware!

Bicycle Bonanza

Not really technology but just an observation. Here is Axminster Station's bike rack photographed at 1600 yesterday.

It was occupied by one push-bike and one motorbike. Just behind the fence in the background is the new bike rack.

It is double deck with bike gutters which tip and slide bikes into a high level as well as for normal platform-level storage. fbb counted over 30 bike slots.

Who is paying for this over-provision? Well it's an "initiative" from the department of transport; so we taxpayers (presumably) are footing the bill, not Southwest Trains. fbb had nothing against cyclists, far from it; but instead of over-the-top bike racks, how about keeping the toilets open for longer?

Or even shell out a few pence on an up-to-date onward travel poster?

Priorities?

 Next Ferry blog (plus) : Sunday 1st April