Partnership Bonny in Yorkshire's Donny? [2]

More Service Improvements??????

Although, to be fair, the pre-partnership publicity was less effusive about service improvements, focusing on nebulous "benefits" and "pie-in-the-sky" access to Government funding. There was also more talk of "matching services to demand", a typical euphemism for cuts.

In 2011, one of First's other incursions into Stagecoach territory was on the route to Scawsby. In 1985, the 189 was up to every 12 minutes.

As a resul of First's 2011 attack, their route 41 ran every 20 minutes ...

... shadowing Stagecoach's 42, also every 20 minutes.

The services terminate at the turning circle complete with blue shelter ...

... which was replaced by a new version between noddy car visits.

But six buses an hour was too much and, subsequently common sense prevailed and the competitors reduced their services to half hourly. Not only that, but they are evenly spaced around the clockface.

TO BE CONTINUED

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

It was at this point last evening that Travel South Yorkshire's web site declined to deliver any timetables; which completely messed up the rest of this blog. It has not been as good week for fbb and technology. First the printer broke, then the lap top started behaving oddly.

Finally nothing would work from the desktop. Restore - ineffective; virus protection - nothing untoward. Even fbb's genius No 3 son could not sort it out remotely. For a week now the blog production has been in "safe mode".

And now the PTE's web site throws a wobbly.

The computer SWAT team is on its way and today, Tuesday, a complete rebuild is planned.

If no blog appears for a day or two you will know that it, too, failed.

So, a few arbitrary bits and pieces to replace today's messed-up offering!

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

For starters, , we take a look at the nely announced Devon Ranger ticket. Introduced "from April 2016" this is publicised by an attractive leaflet.

(which won't spin round in "safe mode"!).

There is a disappointing map with no route numbers. Why not? Is Devon County trying to economise by producing a leaflet that won't age. If so why print April 2015 on the front?

Prices look reasonable with the family deal being particularly attractive. This should easily beat "normal" fares for 2 adults and three kiddiewinkies, even over quite short distances.

Effectively, the children travel free.

There is a panel of operators' logos ...

 ... which looks pretty comprehensive.

Stagecoach are accepting the ticket on the whole of their network, even over the border to Saltash, Bude, Taunton and Lyme Regis but NOT on the South West Falcon coaches, even within Devon.

Shame!

But which operator of buses in Devon is missing?

Is there not a half-bit minor company operating between Lyme Regis and Exeter in competition with Stagecoach? And does not the same outfit run between Axminster and Lyme Regis and between Axminster and Taunton?

If only fbb could remember the company name? fbb predicts "trouble at 't'mill" when Mrs Miggins, enjoying her holiday in Lyme, tries to board an X52 back from Exeter. If Stagecoach is prepared to accept the Devon Day ticket for cross border routes, you would have thought that this other lot would want to.

And talking of printed publicity ...

GoTimetable Seaton flyers are now available at Seaton Tourist Information shelf, a poor replacement withing Seaton Jurassic for the former well-stocked office which was demolished to make way for the "attraction" More about this downgrade in a future blog. Also holding the leaflets is Seaton's main newsagent, W H Smith Local whoase owner Marcus is a town councillor.

So they are in the Council Office foyer as well.

Progress.

With the usual apologies for poor blogging, fbb hopes to be back to normal tomorrow.

 Next bus blog (maybe, possibly) Wednesday 27th April 

Partnership Bonny in Yorkshire's Donny? [1]

Passenger Benefits or Profitable Bonus?

The Sprotbrough area, and almost all of the land around it, was owned by the FitzWilliam family for many years. Sir John Fitzwilliam erected a cross next to the church during the reign of Henry V of England. Into the cross were carved these lines: 

Whoso is hungry and lists to eat,

Let him come to Sprotburgh for his meat,

And for a night and for a day,

His horse shall have both corne and hay,

And no man shall ask him when he goeth away.

Sprotborough had a railway station which opened by the Hull Barnsley and West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company in December 1894. Thius was a rather obscure single track line from nowhere much to nowhere much.

Its success at attracting passengers can be measured by the fact the it closed in 1903. Amazingly the station building and stationmaster's house (both in private hands) still stand

For more info visit the Disused Station site (here)

he old village still remains although now surrounded by more modern development. The view of the church in 1960 ...

... is still much the same today. The shop is now a Spar but the bus stop is still there hidden behind the modern street lamp.

A real person awaits a bus to Doncaster!

In 1985, a few months before deregulation brought chaos to many of our towns and cities, buses to Sprotbrough were in the hands of Yorkshire Traction, a former BET company, by then part of National Bus.

Service 149 was the "local" route running to the village only ...

... joined by longer distance 194 and 294 striding across the former coalfields to Mexborough. Services were co-ordinate to provide a twenty minute headway.

Roll forward to 2011 and things have changed. First Bus, successors to Doncaster Corporation are running route 49 every 15 minutes ...

... in competition with Stagecoach's 225.

A long distance 219 also calls every hour.

For a while, then Sprotbrough enjoyed nine buses an hour.In May of that year, First had made aggressive inroads into Uncle Brian's territory by "attacking" the Rotherham to Mexborough and Barnsley corridor, The Doncaster to Scawsby local route and by returning to Sprotbrough.

Pausing to enjoy a jar at the Ivanhoe Inn (here in 1955) ...

... we notice the increase in motor cars ...

... and a much reduced bus service from the heady days of 2011.

First's 49 is now running every 30 minutes but the former hourly 219 is now ...

... every 30 minutes. So in 2016 Sprotbrough's service has dropped from nine buses and hour to four. Given that nine buses an hour was just plain daft, today's four seems more sensible.

The 319, incidentally, is an occasional service to the delightful village of Cadeby.

So, tarran-tara, along comes the Doncaster Bus Partnership ...

... with the PTE's and operators' enthusiastic offers of better things to come. The local press forecasst cuts, but reported that this would bring benefits.

Oh, yeah?

It was claimed that Doncaster will be ‘left behind’ if a partnership approach is was not adopted. Sheffield and Rotherham already have a similar arrangement in place.

Steve Shannon, strategic infrastructure manager at Doncaster Council said: “Doncaster’s bus network has suffered over the past few years with passenger numbers going down. We’ve seen in Rotherham and Sheffield that already have partnerships are bucking that trend and now have an increase in patronage.

“There are many benefits to being in a partnership and one is the ability to tap into funds that can improve the quality of the buses and bid for funds directly from government.”

So what benefits do we have for the residents of Sprotbrough via the Partnership, just like in Sheffield and Rotherham?

You would have searched in vain for the 49 on the "consultation" map because its fate is sealed in an innocuous note against the existing 219 and 219A which are, effectively, unchanged.

Service 219/219a will operate to Sprotbrough. Service 49 will no longer operate.

The map shows the 319 (to Cadeby) unaltered ...

... but the on-line timetable list suggests that one 219 in each direction will divert to provide a Monday to Friday shopping link into Doncaster. There is no 319 from 15th May, the due date for implementation of the grand plan.

Thus we see the citizens of Sprotbrough responding enthusuastically to the benefits of the Doncaster Bus Partnership.

 Next Doncaster (etc) blog : Tuesday 26th April 

Exeter Airport Experience [2]

Car Parking Costs Plenty!

fbb was struggling with the correct way of collecting Mrs fbb's friend Jean from Exeter Airport.

Booking
Complete booking form above or telephone: 0345 303 7397
On the day of travel drive to the car park
The barrier system will recognise your car registration
When the barrier lifts, please enter and park
Use the barrier call button if any difficulties are experienced
Passengers may wish to walk to the terminal if close to the entrance
However, Car Parks 3 and 4 are served by the shuttle bus
Use the bus shelter call button to request pick-up from the car park
When returning to Exeter the car park shuttle bus
     will depart from the front of the terminal
Use the Car Park 1 call button if any difficulties are experienced

fbb said that airports are scary. The above is the simple (?) introduction to parking. Google also has a separate parking web site. Actually there are over 100 links that purport to sell you a parking places at the airport.

Trying the first site on this extensive and baffling list was just as scary as everything else.

fbb should have read the whole page, but in his panic and inexperience, decided to fill in the form that appeared on the screen. (dates shown are one week later than reality)

The cheapest quote in response to the form was ...

... £23 with a massive on-line discount of £1.01 which seemed a bit steep for picking up of setting down the honoured Scottish guest. But that what what the quote was!

Airports really are scary.

Fortunately, after a sniff of the smelling salts, fbb read further down the page. Spot the appropriate answer.

Parking is free in P4 for a whole ten minutes; OK for a quick drop-off, but not realistic for pick up. Perhaps planes are never late - chortle chortle? P4 is half a mile from the terminal but the shuttle (mini)bus is free.

But, hooray, P1 offers a £1 minimum fee; but for how long? Elsewhere (if you are lucky enough to find it) it explains out that this allows 30 minutes parking. But what happens then? Does the fee leap to £20. Nowhere does it tell you.

Which is why fbb was lurking in the Tractor Spares company offices in the misguided belief that it was a motel.

Pick-up was thus effected for the minimum charge of £1. The system, again, was utterly baffling. At the entrance to the parking "lot" you take a ticket and on exit you pay. fbb had his pound coin ready, all to no availa as he had to use a debit card. For £1 purchase! Those queuing behind were not the most pleased as fbb grappled with this.

But collection was effected and fbb was for-warned for drop off last Thursday.

Whilst two elderly ladies toddled off to share in fond farewells ("Haste Ye Back", as they are wont to say north of Hadrian's wall) ...

... your brave blogger set off to investigate further and (risking arrest and deportation to the Antipodes) take a few furtive pictures. And you can pay with money! Another facility hidden from internet enquirers.

Fees for all four parking areas are displayed (but after you have parked in one of them!) and the prices for "more than 30 minutes" were graduated, thus taking significant more off you if the plane was late.

Somehow that seems unjust! Certainly it makes a cheap flight not.

To add to the bafflement there is a big "thing" at the pedestrian exit to P1 offering what seems to be cheaper prices for a long term stay.

How you get the price down to £6 a day is another mystery. Stay for six months, perhaps? Never mind, the company (APCOA) has won awards.

You might be wondering what the acronym APCOA means.

APCOA Parking AG is Europe's longest-established full service parking management company. It manages over 860,000 parking spaces across 15 countries, and employs approximately 4,500 people. It is headquartered at Stuttgart Airport in Germany.

So it is obvious, isn't it. APCOA means, or more correctly used to mean, the Airport Parking Company Of America. Seemples!

Of course you could go by bus. For the fbbs and/or guest Jeasn this would have involved a 52A from Seaton to Exeter and a service 56 thence to the airport ...

... where Devon Council (who subsidise the service) display full and accurate timetables.

But it would take two hours and fortyfive minutes! The car journey was 38 minutes.

The airport is the "egg" top centre

The 56 combines a standard route out of Exeter, a quick nip into the airport and a rural route from terminal via Woodbury Salterton to Exmouth.

It runs hourly Monday to Saturday with some horrific oddities at peak times.

The 1625 and 1740 departures from Exeter perform a loop-the-loop and call at the airport on the way back to the city, taking one hour for the journey instead of an off-peal trip of just 30 minutes.

The bus stop flag offers a mysterious 60B and, as you might expect, there is a non-working (un)real time display at the shelter.

The positive note, however, is sounder at Exeter St Davids railway station where the 56 is announced on the platform and displayed on the departure screens. Such integrated initiatives do not extend to the National Rail journey planner ...

... but are shown correctly on "national" Traveline.

Perhaps when fbb next visits Exeter Airport he will be better prepared and less scared.

One exciting possibility emanated from Jean's visit. She and her hubby David have a second home on Rousay.

Now that would be a trip and a half. Axminster to London, sleeper to Inverness, bus or train to Thurso or Giils Bay or John o' Groats, ferry bus and ferry to Rousay.

It is on the list!

Mundanely, we next look at Doncaster and a sort of capitulation in Rotherham.

 Next "partnership" blog : Monday 25th April