Sunday, 3 June 2018

Omnibological Archaeology - Scarborough (2)

Health Warning!
fbb is no expert on Scarborough or its three main bus companies. These posts were deliberately headed "archaeology" because the aim is to dig around for evidence of former transport infrastructure; on-line evidence helps but much of it is anecdotal slipped in to admiring articles about bus types and design.

So let's start looking. And first to Vine Street (streetmap, top)...
... an unassuming street of terraced houses some distance north of the Station. 
This is, at first glance, an unlikely location for a busy bus garage.
But the premises at the end of this cul-de-sac, now occupied by a firm of auctioneers, was once the home of East Yorkshire.
As well as a garage, it did serve as a sort of bus station as is shown by these happy holidaymakers exiting from their arriving bus and setting off, maybe for the trek to the beach.
Was the white-capped EYMS employee there to blow his whistle to warn ambling visitors of the approach of an exiting bus?

The vehicle entrance was at the other end of the building on Trafalgar Street and was equally narrow.
But it is all still there, as witness by an aerial shot via Google Streetview.
It was likely that the difficulties of ingress and egress led to the removal to a better site - of which more in due course.

And so we move to Vernon Road (upper right) ...
... somewhat closer to the station.

Here, the prestigiously named Palm Court Hotel ...
... owns (?) a multi-storey car park.
Unzoom a little and the building may evoke a few bus-user memories ...
... as this was United's bus garage.
It has lost its pitched roof favour of open air parking and gained an extra floor. But the former bottom deck where coaches used to relax between duties ...
... still remains.

A least one on-line article suggests that there was, at one time, a bus garage on Aberdeen Walk, near the Post Office ...
... but fbb could find no further pictorial evidence. There were, in addition, depots for the coach hire and tour companies but these are outside the scope of fbb's archaeological dig.

Next for investigation is Scarborough's bus stations.

But before then ...

Higham's Horrific Happenings
The national media has made much of the present chaos on Northern Rail and Thameslink, both operations of which are beset with cancellations and chaos.

Yesterday, fbb heard from a correspondent, Dave, concerning the appalling situation at Higham in Kent.
It is a pleasant little station that is blessed with a half hourly service seven days a week, run by Thameslink between Rainham and Luton.
The blue line indicates occasional peak services run by South Eastern. So this is the record of cancelled trains last week.

Friday is the left-hand column, Monday on the right.
The numbers after the times are the minutes late at Higham. The orange shading shows each day's cancelled trains.

But yesterday, if you turned up at the station ...
... you were offered a bus to Strood (that's travelling AWAY from London) where, half an hour later, you can catch a South Eastern Javelin to St Pancras ...
... which whizzes happily through Higham whence you have just travelled.

Or, for TODAY, using the much vaunted Journey Planner, you got this ...
... showing a half hourly service which will NOT be running!

Beyond belief.

How long has the expanded Thameslink been in the planning?

REMINDER
Due to technical problems (laptop behaving stupidly) blogs may be shorter than usual because it is taking up to three times longer to fight the keyboards - using two thereof and tapping whichever set of keys decide to produce the right letters.

BUSTED KEYBOARD UPDATE
Technical Support logged in to the fbb confuser last evening and pronounced it OK. But it might not be. Warnings will still apply for the time being.

 Next Scarborough blog (plus) - Monday 4th June 

Saturday, 2 June 2018

Omnibological Archaeology - Scarborough (1)

fbb has always been more interested in the operation of buses (routes, timetables, publicity) rather than vehicle types, so a picture from Sheffield correspondent Roy set the old blokes fact-digestion juices going.

In bus terms Scarborough has always been a border town. Dominant operator was United who arrived from the north and from 1931 took over the town services from the Scarborough tramways ...
... as at the "Aquarium" above and Westborough below.
United (now Arriva) still "come in from the north" but with only one route, the X93 from Middlesbrough.
Back in the early 1970s, fbb was in Guisborough spending a while with a chum of Mrs fbb and thither travelled to Whitby via the coast and back on the X93. Then it was a rather tired single deck semi-coach in red, but now you can enjoy coast and moorland scenery from the top deck of an Arriva "Max".
Buses run hourly with extra journeys in the summer (shaded in yellow).
Arriving from the south west is West Yorkshire from Leeds via York. Their historic route 43 was operated by luxurious double deck coach-style buses ...
... now the 843 of Transdev's Coastliner network.
The timetable is another of Transdev's secrets!
Arrivals from the south have been in the hands of East Yorkshire. Service 121 ran all the way from Hull every hour and recently carried "121" branding.
From the beginning of May this year this bus endurance challenge has been split at Bridlington, still every hour from Hull ...
... but between Brid and Scarborough, you now have service 12 and 13.
The timetable pattern gives two through journeys every hour plus short workings.
This pattern incorporates former "local" Scarborough journeys.
Services 12, 13, X93 and 840 all terminate at or near the railway station ...
... because Scarborough no longer has a bus station.

Tomorrow, however, we wind back the clock to see how this lot fitted itself into the centre of the town in days gone by - and it's complicated!

REMINDER
Due to technical problems (laptop behaving stupidly) blogs may be shorter than usual because it is taking up to three times longer to fight the keyboards - using two thereof and tapping whichever set of keys decide to produce the right letters.

Parcel News
Parcel tracker told fbb it had arrived in Seaton yesterday morning after a lengthy holiday in Warrington ...
... and a Royal Mail man in a red high-viz tabard delivered it at 1000. More in a later blog. Excitement!

To Clarify Matters
This from Southern Railway's web site.
Yes, but why are they not available? There is no station called "St Pancras" ...
... but the journey planners do recognise the abbreviated name.

 Next Scarborough blog : Sunday 3rd June 

Friday, 1 June 2018

Some Follow-Up Stuff

Pathetic Print Provision
Yesterday fbb "scooped" a story from a Sheffield bus manager passed on by a responsible bus watcher. It challenged the motives behind the much extended service reductions, claimed to be provoked by the mass exodus of students. One Sheffield resident and a regular correspondent to this blog is equally uneasy.
The piece above also hints at poor publicity.

fbb's "informant" also quizzed "the management" about printed publicity. He was right to do so as, although the "reduced" (sorry - "revised") timetables are on the Travel South Yorkshire web site as non-leaflets, there is nothing to draw you to them. You have to know they are happening and most Sheffield people don't.

Following the obfuscation of emails is tricky, so fbb has highlighted and coloured the relevant bits.

He hopes you can grasp the points made!

Operator

I am aware of the issues with the two timetables on the TSY website you refer to. That for the 83/83a was a result of an error on our part which was quickly spotted and corrected. The timetable for services 7 and 8 is also now correct to the best of my knowledge. Paper timetables have been produced to complement the on-line information.

PTE

I have looked at the Travel South Yorkshire website this morning and all the latest timetables appear to be on there so please let me know if your experience differs from that.

Correspondent

Regarding the printed timetables to which you refer: For which services are they available and are they available at the PTE Travel Shop on Arundel Gate? If not, why not? Or are they only available on (some) buses? As an aside, Arundel Gate still have on display timetables for 57 dated September 2017. Well out of date!

Regarding publicity, you do not say why neither the roadside publicity nor the on-line timetables say that the timetable changes are for the Summer period or give an end date.

The on-line timetable for 7/8/8a IS still incorrect: some pages are missing and others are duplicated.

fbb

The 7/8/8a timetable has been changed for the second time but is STILL WRONG! Pages in one direction are still missing.

Correspondent

Stagecoach advise me that there are printed timetables available. If so are they available at the PTE Travel Shop on Arundel Gate?

Correspondent (later)

As at 1545 Wednesday : No new printed timetables anywhere, in spite of the promise in the email above. Out of date 57 leaflets have been removed!

For the record, the 7/8/8a  is still WRONG. The first journey is about two hours too late - a "page" is missing.
It is anybody's guess what it should be as the old timetable has been removed.

Stagecoach, who simply use the TSY tables, are showing the previous and even more incorrect version.

As our blog comment writer said above - again - "You couldn't make it up!"

STOP PRESS

Early afternoon yesterday an email from fbb's "informant".

1215 Thursday:

New Stagecoach 88 leaflet (27 May 2018) available at Arundel Gate enquiry office.

FIVE DAYS after the service changed.

Interestingly it terminates at a mysterious "Brincliffe, Lay-by". No mention of the destination (and terminus) Bents Green except in the table headings and on the front of the leaflet. At least we have a printed timetable, but on the 88 on which I travelled there were only leaflets for 86 (29 April 2018) not the new 88 ones.

As before, "You couldn't make it up."

Celebrating Bus Rides

In response to fbb's piece on Coastline route 840 a correspondent, Peter, emailed fbb (fbb@xephos.com) thus:-

Seeing your blog and the piece on tv about the Coastliner 840 reminded me of the fan club for service 58 way back in the early 1980s. BBC regional news did a piece on it and I captured it on tape (heady days!)

The 58 was reintroduced by me between Macclesfield and Buxton about 1980 and because I was at East Midland it was operated from Chesterfield. Previously it as a North Western operation abandoned some 13 years earlier.
A weekend service only at that time, it grew to be operated also on a couple of weekdays in the summertime and extended to Chester; duplicates were often provided on those days.

The advent of the rural bus grant circa 1998 gave an opportunity to introduce seven day operation, and later, an increase in service to hourly. Despite funding cuts that frequency is still operating.

Indeedy it is, every hour between Macclesfield and Buxton ...
... with journeys to Chatsworth on Summer Sundays.
It is operated today by High Peak.
fbb is going to try to embed Peter's video, but if it fails you can link to it (here).

Nope - failed!

Note that the East Midland single decker trundling around is totally passenger-less!

Ta Ta Timmy!
First Bus has posted its annual figures and they are less than encouraging!
PLC accounts are a mystery to most of us. There is a reduction in "operating profit" but that becomes a significant loss at the bottom of the figures. And a massive overall accounting loss.

So chairman Tim O'Toole has "resigned" with immediate effect.
The Guardian breaks the news as follows ...
... and hints that Mr O'Toole might be OK financially.

O’Toole, who was paid £1.26m in the previous financial year, will receive a payoff which will be revealed in FirstGroup’s annual report next month. The company would not comment on the level of the payout. However, O’Toole’s contract stipulates a 12-month notice period, so he will be negotiating a portion of the £1m he receives annually in pay and pension because of his sudden departure.

Will he manage?

An Important Notice
The fbb laptop is poorly. The keyboard functions erratically and illogically. Letters E and T sometimes don't work at all, number 1 is unreliable and the space bar is dodgy.

"Plug in another keyboard," advises 14 year old grandson. (irritating, these know-all teenagers!)

fbb did and immediately said keyboard, which works perfectly on fbb's Risc OS Raspberry Pi, starts working erratically and illogically.

Similarly odd fonts and text colours have appeared. Crayzee!!!

So it's more than gunge under the buttons.

Our technical support works in Switzerland, so handling repair/replacement could be tricky.

Because this aggro increases blogging time by a factor of three, please understand that shorter postings will apply until he problem is solvd!!!

Thank you for your patience.

Parcel Tracker Update
Still in Warrington?


 Next Scarborough blog : Saturday 2nd June