Its South Yorkshire Party Time!

Celebrating Change from 24th July

Sunday marked a whole raft of significant changes to services from Travel South Yorkshire [TSY]. The "official" launch of Optio Orange was decidedly underwhelming, but fbb is able to bring you some splendidly exciting party games to help you celebrate.

1. Hunt the Thimble Timetable

First Bus runs a service 73 from City to Margetson Crescent. It runs every 10 minutes as seen here ...

... but enquiring via  TSY's web site, this is what you get:-

Another 73 runs to Clowne, but only Derbyshire seems to want to reveal the timetable:-

It starts at Crystal Peaks shopping centre, hardly an insignificant location in the County; and the only link from there to Clowne. TSY doesn't admit to the 74 either. 

Also, the Sunday 257, from Deepcar to Holmfirth, remains a total secret. Only the operator, (Tate's Travel), seems to know that it runs. Passenger paucity probably pervades!

Do feel free to take a copy, SYT.

2. Truth or Consequences

After nearly 100 years (blog in preparation) we are told that the bus service along Rivelin Valley Road is at an end.

Certainly this is what the "forthcoming timetables" told us as late as 1730 on Friday 22nd July. But is that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

NO! There is a replacement. It's easy to find. All you need to know is that it's numbered M64. But no mention on the old 64 pages, or even as a "new service". Another chance to play an information guessing game.

fbb gathers that the leaflets may be ready in about 10 days. Might not have heavy loadings for a while yet? Once again, TSY doesn't want passengers to tarnish its shiny new service.

Stop Press : The website still gives service 64 as "current timetable" on the morning of 25th July. It last ran on 23rd!

And the 49 to Killamarsh has been withdrawn; Seach for it on-line and, see, it's no longer on its leaflet with the 25 and 27.

Of course, as you might have guessed, the 49 still runs every 30 minutes, albeit somewhat revised. You can find it by looking for service 50. Obvious, silly of you not to know that!

Stop Press : The 49 HAS now appeared (a.m.Monday 25th), at last, indexed under "49". Well done chaps! 

3. Follow My Leader Timetable (if you can)

Services 206 and 216 are very different from the X5. Their route in Sheffield is on traditional ex Sheffield Transport served roads via Attercliffe (206) or via Manor Top (216),

 

whereas the X5 uses the non-stop Sheffield Parkway. TSY doesn't bother with road names on its maps, but fbb promises, that's the way they go. 

But the printed timetable in the leaflet does not recognise any route variation. How very helpful!

Notice the huge and obvious difference in time points between the 206 journeys and those for the X5. Presumably you have to guess when the bus might drop you off at Attercliffe or Darnall. As clear as mud.

4. Ghost Hunt

Also on the X5, please note that Stagecoach [SSY] operates some evening journeys, as here, whereas First runs the rest [FST].

Look, the Stagecoach journeys call at North Anston but the daytime service doesn't. Now that creates a tricky problem, because to get from South Anston to Dinnington, you are obliged to pass, and call at, North Anston The Cutler. For some reason or other, First Bus decides to by-pass that pleasant suburban hostelry. 

fbb pored over copious maps to try and check the route. The leaflet suggests that First ...

... and Stagecoach use exactly the same roads!

 Good of TSY to print the same information twice!

Then a chum sent a picture which explains all. THIS is how First manages to miss out stops at The Cutler. Sorry it's a bit fuzzy, but the bus was moving very fast indeed. The landlord of The Cutler issues hard hats to all his regulars.

It does, however, make for a spectacular ride! 

Its fun, fun, fun, all the way; at Travel South Yorkshire's timetable change party.

Next blog : due Tuesday July 26th  

What's Brewin' in Glen Fruin?

A Breach of the Official Secrets Act?

Mrs fbb was trained as a caterer with (as she reminds fbb from time to time) a certificate in French Cuisine. Long before fbb was an amorous ache in her bones (?) she worked here (c 1967) ...

... as a cook. It was St Andrew's School (for naughty boys) at Shandon on the banks of the Gare Loch,

a substantial inlet off the Firth of Clyde. Like so many lochside communities, Shandon's public transport was, historically, by paddle steamer.    

Most roads were primitive in the extreme but, slowly, motor buses took over as the usual mode of transport. Shandon was served by Garelochhead Coach Services, who ran shiny green buses, mostly second hand, from Helensburgh and round the loch.

The future Mrs fbb often changed shifts early in the morning. The clippie (conductress) was renowned for oversleeping, and it was not unusual for the Mrs-to-be to "bell the bus" round the "scheme"; that's Scottish for "estate".

Some years later (1972?) when fbb was in Scotland "a-courting", the lovebirds (!) took a drive from Milngavie to Shandon. Eschewing the main road via Helensburgh, the route was via Loch Lomond-side and Glen Fruin, very much the narrow back road.

The journey was along a narrow and isolated lane, but every so often, strange, highly secure, buildings were evident ...

... and as the route approached the Gare Loch itself, through woods and under the West Highland Railway line ...

... there were mysterious watch towers, with the occasional glint of binocular lenses. Very spooky. Our somewhat nervous suitor asked of his young lady, "What's all this about?"

"They keep the bombs up here," she replied, casually, "in underground bunkers; the warheads for the missiles to arm the Trident submarines. It's highly secret!"

 

And, on joining the main road to Shandon there, indeed, was the high-security fence surrounding the highly secret Faslane submarine base.

There was a highly secret nuclear submarine parked in the Loch but, apart from that, you would never notice anything unusual on the banks of the tranquil and secluded loch, unless you were a local.

A drive through Glen Fruin today, courtesy of Google Street View, would suggest that the watch towers are no longer to be seen. Perhaps they have been "airbrushed" out. Perhaps they have been replaced by highly sophisticated satellite spy technology. Perhaps we can't actually afford any live warheads. Perhaps fbb will be arrested for revealing state secrets. Perhaps fbb's future financée was merely re-telling an unsubstantiated local rumour. Who knows. Perhaps it was all a dream ...

Garlochhead Coach Services still run some of the journeys to Shandon,

but sadly not with nice green secondhand double decks, although these were still green and almost shiny in 1980.

Shandon School was closed in 1986; the beautiful building is in disrepair (as seen above) and the former cook now only tends to the gastronomic needs of herself, fbb, family and friends.

A future blog will take us on a ride round the Gare Loch and on a ferry across the Firth of Clyde to Gourock. In a strange twist of fate and history, that ferry has a link to (a) a previous blog and (b) an operation very close to fbb's South Coast home.

If you are busting to know more about the history of Shandon School there is a superb article here. Sadly it doesn't mention the "cookie" who was to become Mrs fbb; but it does mention Willie Strang, whom she remembers very well indeed.

Next blog : due Monday July 25th  

Six Sail from Southampton ...

... on Saturday the Sixteenth,
or Sunday the Seventeenth.

En route to Wantage, fbb and Mrs fbb were approaching Southampton aboard the Red Flannel ferry when the master, the big cheese himself, came onto the loudspeakers to inform us of a record breaking event. There were, he announced with due English reserve, SIX cruise boats parked (docked?) in Southampton. Here is a picture of four of them ...

The photo shows from left to right: Grand Princess, some cargo ship, Balmoral, Artania and Celebrity Eclipse. At 0930 fbb ran up to the open deck but the problem was more to do with seeing Southampton, let alone parked cruise ships. The all-pervading foggy drizzle somewhat spoiled the spectacle! The weather improved later.

fbb is indebted to Alan, a dedicated blog reader, for supplying details, U-Tube link and photographs.  

Grand Princess berth 38/9 QE2

 

Balmoral (Fred Olsen) berth 104

 

Artania, 102 berth; first visit after renaming, formerly Artemis, formerly Royal Princess

 

Celebrity Eclipse on berth 101 City

 

Crown Princess berth 106 Mayflower

 

Ventura (P & O) berth 46 Ocean

More than 33,500 passengers in total were handled over the weekend.

fbb and Mrs fbb share with Billy Connolly a less than overt enthusiasm for the idea of cruising.

 

"The Big Yin" described the experience as like "being in prison with the added option of drowning".

But clearly 33,500 good folk were either leaving or joining their imprisonment over the weekend of 16th and 17th July with substantially more enthusiasm. Perhaps imprisonment is a little unfair; fbb doubts whether Her Majesty's hotels can offer luxury like this. On "Grand Princess", in addition to SIX different restaurants you can "snack" at any time, anywhere ...

Now that's a real problem for fbb when travelling with Red Flannel. The full cooked breakfast is scrumptious but the chubby one simply cannot "maximise his pool time". Very sad.

On second thoughts, fbb MIGHT (just!) be able to slum it in a stateroom with balcony; in the interests of internet journalism, of course.

All donations gratefully accepted. There would be plenty to blog about.

The "four together" picture at the top of the blog is by courtesy of U-Tube; view the video here

Next blog : due Sunday July 24th  

Peace in our Time - Again!

Co-operation at Croxteth
Happiness at Halfway
and now ...
Kisses at Kidlington

Kidlington, north of Oxford, once looked like this ...

... a quiet village straggling along the Banbury Road. Now it looks like this ...

... and the quiet village has become a massive "dormitory" suburb with the much busier Banbury Road packed with traffic day and night. From  post-deregulation times Oxford City Bus and Stagecoach have run head to head along this busy corridor. City Bus's predecessors have been there for years but predator Stagecoach arrived by taking over Harry Blundred's minibus business in Torbay and here in Oxford.

Each operator had run every 5 minutes from Oxford Centre to Kidlington shops with various wiggles in the "village". This, service 7 etc. from Stagecoach ...

... and this from Oxford City.

But in early 2010 we heard of rumours of  co-operation rather than competition. Cynics put this down to a threat by the City Council to further restrict bus access to the centre unless "something was done". The brave new world was scheduled to burst forth amongst the gleaming spires in July 2010.

But nothing happened, apart from the arrival of a few trendy green buses for Stagecoach.  See "Oxford Oddity, the Sequel" (read again).

Indeed, a look at the "revised" Oxford City Bus timetable from 24th July suggests apathy is still the order of the day. Much the same as before.

But, not so fast, cynical peruser of pcv passenger promises, there is a map ...

... an Oxford-wide co-ordinated fares offer ...

... and, of course, a trendy name and logo!

But where, we hear you cry, is Stagecoach in all this? S3, S5 and 59 on the map above are Stagecoach routes; but where is the publicity for their competing service 7 (etc.) to Kidlington? The mystery is solved with a glimpse at the Stagecoach web site; for their revision to the 7 group from 24th July.

And it's numbered 2! Their timetable makes it clear that the two operators, formerly at gear-stick brandishing loggerheads, will share the five minute frequency ("O" for Oxford City Bus, "S" for Stagecoach).

Thus we have a reduction of 50% in buses along the Banbury Road to Kidlington and another example of the benefits (?) of the free market bites the dust in favour of sanity (and profit).

The above, traffic hold-ups permitting, should be a thing of the past. Of course, a real thing of the past might be buses like this ...

... perhaps not any more.

Timetable co-operation applies on three corridors where both operators ran unnecessarily frequently. fbb will be asking his Oxonian correspondent to pop out of his ivory tower from time to time and see how things are going.

Poor Sir Brian; cosying up to Arriva in Liverpool, First in Sheffield and now GoAhead in Oxford. What ever happened to the Draconian Destroyer of Darlington? They don't make bus wars like they used to! As in Sheffield, it all kicks off on Sunday 24th July.

"Do you remember the day peace broke out, granddad?"

Next blog : due Saturday July 23rd