Seen around

Tuesday 28th February 2023

Welcome to February’s compote of miscellany I’ve encountered on recent travels but first a couple of plugs for two recent publications.

UK National Rail Map

Alex Nelson and his nationalrail.com website has updated his brilliant map showing every railway station in the UK (yes, it includes Northern Ireland too). If you like maps it’s a great purchase and will keep you fascinated for hours as you marvel at how Alex manages to include every single station even in Greater London.

The 2023 map obviously now includes the Elizabeth line and the extension of the Overground to Barking Riverside as well as new stations such as Reston.

Stations within a PlusBus zone are highlighted as are all the different Train Operating Companies each with a different colour. Alex has even included stations earmarked for opening this year including Reading Green Park for example.

The map costs just £11 + postage and packing extra and can be ordered from Alex’s website here. It’s a great purchase.

Western National Working Timetables 1996

If you’re fascinated by how schedules for bus networks work, especially in a rural area, then Keith Shayshutt’s latest book is just for you. Western National Working Timetables 1996 Volume 2: Devon Division is the follow up to last year’s publication of Volume 1: Cornish Division and once again provides a detailed snapshot of how Western National organised its driver duties, vehicle workings and outstations for a week in May 1996 at the start of that year’s summer season.

You’ll be able to trace what all 25 buses based at Tavistock outstation did during the course of their working day, and at the other end of the spectrum the workings of the lonely Mercedes minibus based out at Moretonhampstead.

Times were about to change for Western National under First Group ownership with parts of South Devon and East Cornwall soon to be abandoned eventually leading to the sale of the rump of the operations to Stagecoach in 2015. As Keith observes “1996 could be regarded as one of the last years of the traditional West Country style of operations that had been unique to Western National. Sit back, indulge, transport yourself back to Plymouth in 1996 and enjoy. It was the end of an era.”

The book is just £18 and can be purchased from all the usual online outlets including eBay and Browns Books.

Bargain Birmingham fares

As passengers in England get used to the £2 maximum fare during the six month promotion bus users in the West Midlands are well used to the idea of a £2 fare and even a £4 all day fare. which is even cheaper than the much heralded TfL cheap fares in London.

Know your bus routes TfL

Someone at TfL needs to brush up on their bus routes. It’s all very well taking a double page spread in the Metro newspaper recently to promote half term activities accessible by bus, which TfL did in a recent edition, but it doesn’t quite work when you include bus route numbers that have been cut from the network…. by TfL.

As Mike Harris pointed out on an online forum “Among the delights we are encouraged to visit are the London Transport Museum at Covent Garden which can be reached via a leisurely ride on “routes RV1, 13 or 23” …. which haven’t served Aldwych since 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. If theatre is more your thing then jump on a 414 and alight at Little Venice for the Cost Children’s Theatre. Except route 414 was cut back from there over a year ago.” Mike also points out route UL1 listed for the Discover Children’s Story Centre at Stratford “is an occasional Underground replacement bus.”

Cubicle Number 2….

I was intrigues when visiting the toilets on the eastern side of Paddington railway station last week to see the installation of a new system to let you know how many cubicles are free as well as a red and green light above each one showing which are occupied.

What will they think of next? An App to tell us in advance the status of cubicle occupancy?

Amazingly as you can see there were more female cubicles empty than males. Usually it’s the other way round with queues commonplace outside female toilets at mainline stations.

Read the small print

It always puzzles me why bus companies insist on displaying notices behind the driver which are pretty much impossible to read due to being in such small print size. I wonder when they expect passengers to be able to read them and take it all in. You don’t see it as you board, and if you stop to read it as you get off you’ll hold up anyone wanting to alight behind you as well as holding the whole bus up.

This example I saw a couple of weeks ago while in the north east has one notice that’s over three months old and the other one seems to be a notice for staff rather than passengers.

Doesn’t anyone check these things?

Gatwick Express ticket buying

Back in December’s Seen Around blog I featured the lack of a ticket office at Gatwick Airport station as it reaches the final stages of its refurbishment and expansion. Interestingly at the other end of the line at Victoria the bespoke GatEx ticket office which used to be by platforms 13 and 14 has now closed as part of the expansion and remodelling of the gateline and retail space at the terminal.

But, instead of doing away with it, five (yes, five) of the main Southern branded ticket offices windows have now been repurposed as Gatwick Express.

This seems a bizarre move as firstly you’d think a ticket office was more pertinent at the Airport for incoming visitors unsure about what ticket to buy than at Victoria, and secondly why differentiate it from the ticket office windows under the Southern branding, bearing in mind it’s all one company and each ‘window’ should sell all tickets whatever the branding of the train.

I can’t help thinking this is a sneaky way of maximising revenue from passengers unfamiliar with the complexities of the various tickets for the journey from Victoria to Gatwick Airport.

Where’s Inverness?

It seemed a bit odd that Inverness rail station doesn’t get a mention on the home screen of the ticket machine at the new Inverness Airport station. Maybe they’re expecting passengers to catch the Stagecoach bus from the airport terminal; and perhaps that’s why the footpath isn’t signed from the airport end.

It says “Quick ticket selection for popular destinations” but come on ScotRail I can’t believe Edinburgh is popular for people flying into Inverness Airport. They’d fly into Edinburgh.

Integrated departure signs at Berwick-Upon-Tweed

It was good to see Borders Buses’ route 60 between Berwick-Upon-Tweed and Galashiels having one of its six daily departures advertised on the departure boards at Berwick-Upon-Tweed railway station, but it’s odd that other departures equally as important don’t get a look in – for example route 253 towards Edinburgh and Arriva’s X15/X18 to Newcastle both of which serve communities isolated from the rail network. It’s almost 70 years since you could get a train from Berwick-Upon-Tweed to Galashiels (now served by route 60) confirming these quirks in the rail sector never cease.

Euston’s congestion

I’m not sure the bright new departure screens at Euston are achieving the objective of reducing the congestion caused by passengers staring up at it forlornly. And it might just be my eyesight, but I find them much harder to read than the old style.

Hidden information at Bristol Parkway

On my recent trip to Bristol to take a ride on new bus route m4 I was impressed to see pocket bus maps for Bristol on display to take away in Bristol Parkway’s station ticket office/foyer, except they were well hidden behind other posters.

As was a display giving details of bus departures. It could hardly be seen unless you squeezed your way through, which was a shame.

But in better news, posters giving train departures to each station in alphabetical order were back on display.

Restoration at Invershin

It was sad to see the ruins of a once fine station at Invershin on the Far North Line. But sadly it looked even beyond the resources of the wonderful Rail Heritrage Trust who do so much great work preserving the railway’s heritage.

Skelmersdale’s bus shelters

I’ve seen some awful bus shelters in my time but on my recent trip to Skelmersdale passed by this specimen. Does the local authority really think this enhances the image of bus travel?

Berwick Upon Tweed’s lovely bridges

And finally for this round up, to end on a brighter note, some photographs of the three bridges which cross the Tweed in Berwick.

Roger French

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