Seen Around

Thursday 29th June 2023

As another month has the finishing line within sight it’s time for a recap on some of the things that have caught my eye while travelling around over the last few weeks which are not worthy of a full blown blog (with apologies to Twitter followers who may already have seen some of what follows).

EXTRA LARGE station signs

Travelling along the Reading to Basingstoke line to sample the new Reading West station I was intrigued to see the huge station name signs on the platforms at Bramley and Mortimer.

I thought they must be the largest such signs on the network making me wonder if residents in this part of Berkshire are predominantly short sighted. And then I remembered Motherwell which has a similar sized sign at the end of the platforms. So perhaps it’s more common than I thought.

EXTRA LARGE bus stop signs

And while on large signs, I couldn’t help notice the difference in bus stop flag presentation between Devon and Nottingham on recent visits. While Devon helpfully adds the destinations for each route it does tend to make for very small print size …

… whereas Nottingham displays just route numbers with colour coding for each route corridor and different size numbers depending how many need to be displayed.

There’s certainly no mistaking the one route displays.

What connexions?

Travelling on a very busy Stagecoach bus on route 157 between Exmouth and Sidmouth…

… I was puzzled by posters promoting a 30 minute frequency “connexions” brand…

… which seemed to be for a service between Exeter St David’s Station and Exmouth via Exeter Airport.

But cursory research indicates this former route 56 no longer runs with Exeter Airport now being served by a 20 minute route 4A from Exeter which doesn’t continue onwards. It might help reduce confusion if such out of date posters were removed.

Out of date posters and timetables

And talking of out of date information, last Saturday I spotted this notice at the bus stop outside Didcot Parkway railway station where buses depart for Milton Park advising Going Forward is no longer going forward and hasn’t done for the last three years…

… while Julian Peddle sent me the attached 11 years old out of date National Express timetable he spotted in Swaffham.

Meanwhile in the foyer of Enfield Town Overground station I spotted a very helpful map …

… showing bus stop locations and bus routes listed by index of places served.

Except it’s almost 16 years old and therefore not very helpful. Although many of the bus routes haven’t changed it’s confusing if you look up, for example, Crews Hill and decide to wait for a bus on route W10 – which was renumbered 456 and extended to North Middlesex Hospital in 2020.

And TfL score “nil points” for its bus stop flag displays on Kings Head Hill coming out of Chingford where passengers thinking they might wait for the Saturday only route 505 shown on the bus stop flags would be in for a very long wait. It hasn’t run to Chingford for at least a decade.

Hop doing well

After that lot, let’s have some positive observations and good news from Andy Gibbons at Leicester City Council. Andy is the Council officer behind the revolution in buses making that city an exemplar for what can be achieved in partnership – even without BSIP funding (the City didn’t qualify). Andy sent me the good news that the Hop! service is doing very well, gaining passengers week by week in its first two months.

Excellent booklet and leaflet

More good news with the Coast, Lakes, Dales & Fells combined rail and bus timetable booklet out again for another season – from May until December. This really is an excellent publication and well done to Lee Render for his continued work on this and to Northern for its backing.

And well done also to Peter Brooks and the ABFLY (Abbey Flyer Users Grourp) working with the Abbey Line Community Rail Partnership who have filled the void of printed rail timetables with this very colourful timetable leaflet promoting the Abbey Line beytween St Albans Abbey and Watford Junction. Hopefully other CRPs and user groups will follow this excellent lead.

Urinal to hand basin to hand dryer ratios

I’m often intrigued by the science behind decisions taken determining the number of hand basins and hand dryers to install in toilets on stations compared to the number of urinals and cubicles.

The most extreme case I’ve come across is in the toilet block on platform 1 at Paddington where, at the far end, there are 11 urinals …

… with two large circular washing basins giving 12 taps of cold water (six on each basin) but there are only two hand dryers – and the old sort that take for ever to dry your hands too.

At the front end of the block there are six cubicles with five individual sinks close by but just three hand-dryers.

No wonder you see men returning to platform 1 with wet hands.

Oddity over waste bins too

There’s also an oddity at Paddington (and probably other main termini too) where it’s virtually impossible to find a waste bin. In fact I reckon these are the only two rubbish bags in the entire station concourse – and they’re right at the back in an obscure location in the shopping area….

… whereas many smaller stations with just one platform have more bins …. but there are receptacles for coffee cups around Paddington’s concourse which are probably the commonest item of litter these days.

An SWR Class 701 Aventra on the tracks

While passing through Clapham Junction a couple of weeks ago I spotted one of SWR’s brand new Class 701 Aventras built by Bombardier (now Alstom) out on the tracks. Maybe they’ll soon be in service carrying passengers – after all they were due into service four years ago in mid 2019. I hear they’re not likely to be carrying passenger until at least December with training for most drivers yet to start.

Taunton’s long awaited rail/bus interchange

Talking of delays, I passed through Taunton at the beginning of the month and found the bus stop installed right alongside the southbound platform to make for easy connections with the bus to Minehead still not in use – it must be at least two years since this was installed. But in more encouraging news, comments on Twitter confirmed it opened shortly after my visit.

No longer sanitised

I’ve noticed TfL have withdrawn all hand sanitisers from the London Underground and most rail companies have followed suit, so I was impressed and pleased to see GWR still had some on display. Except they were empty. It looks like the days of free provision of sanitiser are at an end.

TfL’s latest route branding

TfL never seem to quite hit the mark with its dalliances with route branding. The latest for route X26 is particularly odd coming as it does just after TfL announced the new Superloop brand which will include this very route covering the entire south west quadrant of the “loop”.

You’d think they’d have taken the opportunity to launch the new branding as displayed at the recent media launch of the upcoming Superloop project. But then I heard news the £70,000 branding costs (how much?!!) was part funded by Heathrow Airport (£40,000) with TfL picking up the other £30,000, so perhaps that’s why it emphasises Heathrow in the brand.

Presumably the branding costs also include equipping the additional buses which will arrive for the route at the end of next month when the frequency doubles to every 15 minutes.

Rogue Roundel

And talking of TfL branding I wonder what that organisation’s brand police make of this use of the roundel I spotted at a bus stop in the grounds of North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple?

Gold lives on

Despite the awful school bus yellow livery dominating former Stagecoach Gold branding routes across the country I was pleased to see buses on route 57 between Exeter and Exmouth still give you a Gold welcome as you board.

You can’t keep a good brand down.

Cash only here

Following my highlighting of North Yorkshire Council’s restrictive policy of only accepting cash on board its buses in a recent round up I came across a similar approach with Somerset Council’s bus operations in Taunton. The rather unfriendly notice indicates “we cannot allow you to travel” if you only have contactless cards. Rather a contrast with London where the opposite is the case.

Interesting that the Council is looking for “Relief PA’S” too, whatever they are, or do.

Leading a sheltered life

The standard of bus shelters varies across the country but I liked the design of the one’s installed by the local council around Exmouth.

Shame about the graffiti on one.

Meanwhile in Brighton the iconic listed bus shelters in the Old Steine alongside the Royal Pavilion have long suffered from graffiti and broken windows …

… but sadly these will soon cease being bus shelters as the city council has plans for a traffic management scheme which will divert northbound buses to the east side of the war memorial and no longer observe these long established stops.

It’s just been announced they’ll be converted into a micro café and “flexible use” spaces following the granting of planning permission. Just what we need then.

No pee here

I’ve noticed an increasing tendency for TfL to cease providing public toilets in its bus stations.

The latest to succumb is Walthamstow Central where they’ve been converted into staff only toilets. Where are passengers meant to go then?

That’s it for this month.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS