Seen Around

Sunday 31st March 2024

Welcome to March’s month-end miscellany. Odds and sods that have caught my eye while travelling around over the last 31 days but not enough for a full blown blog.

Latest Greater London Bus Map

The excellent news to kick off this month’s miscellany is Mike Harris has updated his Greater London Bus Map so it’s correct as at 13th April. Print copies of edition No 41 can be pre-ordered now at Mike’s busmap.co.uk website for just £2 a copy and for just £1 you can get an immediate download. Mike’s also updated the London Night Bus Map too, available for £4.

The update includes the inclusion of the Superloop network including that section of the North Circular Road previously TfL bus-less. Spot the difference in the extract below.

Us bus map lovers all owe Mike a huge debt of gratitude for his fantastic work keeping the map regularly updated. After all, it’s the only way you can find out where TfL’s buses go. Do support him and buy a copy. You won’t regret it.

Good luck Dan

And continuing the good news it’s a shout out to Dan Graham who’s recently left his role at Go North East to start up a new bus company he’s called Northstar. Dan aims to make Northstar “lead the way in providing high-quality transport solutions throughout the North East” and he’s just purchased the company’s first double-deck Euro V bus which was out on the road for the first time on Friday undertaking Tyne & Wear Metro replacement work.

Following the establishment of Vectare in the East Midlands by young enthusiastic entrepreneurs, Peter Nathanail and Dominic Kalantary, which every year is rapidly expanding in size and geographic coverage, it’s heartening and encouraging to see another keen energetic young manager establish another brand new bus company with plans to become an established player in the North East.

Check out Northstar’s new website here and all the very best to Dan for a successful venture.

Keep the W12 in Walthamstow Village

Readers may recall a blog I uploaded in July 2023 about TfL’s plans to reroute the W12 so it no longer passes through ‘Walthamstow Village’ at the behest of the London Borough of Waltham Forest which seemed to think it would be a good idea to take this bus route away from the area it serves. Local resident Carol Burbidge-Mark got in touch earlier this month to let me know the withdrawal will be introduced in September and she’s set up a petition on change.org to garner support for keeping the route as it is. Here’s a link to the petition where there’s even a QR code.

Are four platforms enough for EMR at STP?

As explained in last Saturday’s blog about St Pancras railway station, EMR has four platforms which should be enough for its three services every half an hour to Sheffield, Nottingham and Corby yet it often seems to be the case spare five coach Meridian trains are kept at the buffer end of the platforms used by the Sheffield and Nottingham trains so the five coach train about to depart is stabled at the far end of the platform necessitating a walk past the stabled train.

And passengers nearly always try and access the out-of-use train. As you can see from the above photos we were all kept waiting until after 10:20 (actually 10:23) before both the 10:32 Sheffield and 10:35 Nottingham were announced meaning long queues build up on the concourse area and everyone rushes along the full length of the platform.

Why can’t the out-of-service coaches be parked one in front of the other on a spare platform, and make the other three platforms for the three departures per half hour?

Sorry, I am broken

Staff at Southern run Sutton station went to great lengths to let passengers know the automatic door wasn’t working to the waiting area which was good of them. Hopefully someone came to repair it as impressively too.

Take a taxi on SWR

There’s no doubt thousands of passengers were inconvenienced on Monday 4th March when all SWR’s trains into London from the mainline were withdrawn following a derailment near Walton-on-Thames. But it seemed too good to be true “customers are authorised to book their own taxi to travel”. I’d never come across such an offer in these circumstances before. Is it a new industry standard? The cost must have run into millions with thousands of passengers taking a taxi for their journey to London, Bournemouth, Weymouth and hundreds of other destinations. I reckon UBER’s surge pricing had a field day.

More TfL misdirection

What is it with TfL and its penchant for removing station names so passengers become confused? This latest debacle has seen some of the signs at Norwood Junction replaced with branding for the London Borough of Croydon’s campaign to promote itself. I know there’s no station called Croydon, as do readers, but what’s a visitor unfamiliar with the area wanting to alight at Norwood Junction to make of this?

What are bus stop timetable cases for?

Here’s more evidence of standards slipping at TfL. This busy bus stop in Streatham High Road has three panels available where nine timetables for the routes using the stop could be posted. Guess how many were actually on display?

None.

In the other direction, at least the bus stop on the opposite of the road was displaying information for two routes – the 250 and 255. So it can be done.

More confusion in TfL land

My thanks to Graham for emailing me the above oddity displayed on an Arriva bus showing North Woolwich as the destination where the new SL3 goes, and the 123 doesn’t.

Unusual bus shelter in Ickleford

My thanks to John for emailing the above photo he took from a bus on Stagecoach route 9A when passing the rather unusual bus shelter outside St Katherine’s Church in the village of Ickleford north of Hitchin. The substantial structure doesn’t have any seats and I can imagine the wind and rain could easily penetrate the front and open rear wall, but that roof is truly something to behold.

When saving money costs you more

I spotted the above cove panel when travelling on First Bus’s route 126 between Weston-super-Mare and Wells earlier this month. It’s advertising a “2-Trip ticket for just £4.30”. But the maximum “1-Trip” fare is currently £2.

LTNs make BBC’s National News

Diligent blog readers and BBC News watchers may have spotted a couple of familiar video clips the broadcaster used to illustrate its news item on its main news on BBC1 on a recent Sunday about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods with particular reference to the renowned, and now abandoned, Streatham scheme.

They had asked me if they could use them.

More ticket gates for Victoria

The project to install a vastly improved gateline in Victoria station is almost complete. I’m told the much more extensive facilities will be open early in April to great relief of passengers who use Southern’s trains arriving in platforms 15-19 where the current facility is now completely inadequate at busy times.

Passing through on Friday the flow of passengers to the platforms has temporarily moved to the east side of the concourse while the final part of the gateline is installed….

… and passengers alighting from trains are directed through part of the new gateline where the new gates are still under wraps.

New TVMs for Paddington

Meanwhile over in Paddington earlier in the month I noticed the bank of eight ticket machines outside the ticket office were screened off but on closer examination in a gap in the hoarding I saw it was for the installation of newer slimline machines.

But when I passed through Paddington on Friday the work had finished to reveal just four machines had replaced what previously was a bank of eight … which seems a rather odd thing to do when the emphasis is encouraging passengers not to use ticket offices.

More toilets at LBG

Over at London Bridge, which like St Pancras, was rebuilt without adequate toilets, it’s good to see work now well underway to install a brand new toilet block which will be a very welcome addition to this busy station.

I also noticed this model of the station (which I hadn’t spotted before) together with….

… a display telling the story of the archaeological finds when the station was being reconstructed.

Which just goes to show what you can dig up underneath a London rail terminus.

Health & Safety issues at Euston closes ticket office

And then at Euston I found the ticket office closed which I understand is due to a “Health & Safety issue”. Temporary arrangements to issue tickets immediately outside include one counter behind a glass panel that takes cash…

… with the other three being card only.

Where’s my Hassocks ticket?

When I was back in Northampton recently to see how the new services taken over by Stagecoach from unō were settling in, I obviously took another look at the “every station ticket display” in the town’s railway station I’d featured in last month’s Seen Around round up …… only to find the ticket from Hassocks I’d taken the trouble to donate hadn’t been included in the display.

Disappointing.

Harlow’s bus station transformation beings

Thanks to John who sent me the attached photo confirming work is about to start on the transformation of Harlow’s downbeat and unwelcoming bus station into a new “Sustainable Transport Interchange and Hub” which will certainly be something to look forward to in 2025. Meanwhile newly rebuilt bus stations will be opening very soon in Crewe as well as Halifax with work also underway in Dudley.

When advertising slogans don’t work: 1

Chaos reigned supreme at Euston station for a couple of hours during the afternoon on Sunday 17th March when a power failure knocked out all the signalling on the West Coast Main Line into and out of the station leading to widespread train cancellations impacting thousands of passengers. And what message did the overpowering advertising panel display to everyone stranded on the concourse for all that time as captured by @Inv_Pete on social media….an apology by any chance….

… no chance.

When advertising slogans don’t work: 2

“Making your everyday journey sparkle”….

… with one of Arriva’s finest to impress its passengers in …. no, not Wigan or Chorley, but Hemel Hempstead.

When advertising slogans don’t work: 3

“Get there in style with Arriva”. No further comment.

When advertising slogans don’t work: 4

No, I don’t want to open up the controversial debate on whether to call a station a ‘Train station’, ‘Railway station’ or ‘Rail station’ …. this is to point out passengers from Gatwick Airport enticed by “Get straight into London” on “GX Gatwick Express” will find just two trains per hour (most taking 31 minutes), which usually don’t operate on Sundays these days, compared to six trains an hour from the same company but using the Southern brand (taking “as little as 32 minutes”) or even Thameslink’s six trains an hour taking just 29 minutes to London Bridge, which in my book is also “into London”. And as previously discussed at length in these blogs there’s the great GX fare rip off too. So in summary that brightly lit advertisement is promoting the worst option for arriving airline passengers to take for London.

What a con.

When advertising slogans don’t work: 5

Goof Friday morning wasn’t good for passengers travelling out of Paddington with GWR. Flooding had closed the tracks west of Newbury resulting in West Country trains being severely disrupted with other problems causing long delays on Bristol bound trains. The concourse was a seething mass of humanity by 10:00 when I arrived. And what information were the good people overseeing GWR’s social media giving out….

… in yet another serious cases of championing froth over substance we were supposed to excitedly search for a hidden chocolate egg. Meanwhile in the real world, seat reservations on the grossly crowded 10:15 to Cardiff were showing out-of-date information (for the incoming journey) until a minute before departure when all the green lights turned red and the update came through leading to arguments breaking out among passengers crammed into the departing train. No wonder the replies to the above Tweet were negative.

And so it went on and on … and then the Social Media person went home. And tough luck if you wanted information on Easter Saturday morning and early afternoon.

Farewell abellio; Hello TRANSPORT UK

Interesting to see the newly named TRANSPORT UK – the management buy-out of Abellio’s transport interests in the UK – is now making its presence felt.

Why do local authorities do this?

There’s nothing more annoying than electronic departure signs which switch between other displays just when you arrive at the bus stop wanting to know what time the next bus will be. I spotted this one outside Northampton rail station which was showing the BBC’s Latest news (see photo above). Are passengers alighting from a train wanting to catch a bus really interested in knowing what’s going on with bees on Indian Wells?

Even more annoying the screen then switched to displaying a completely irrelevant outdated notice applicable during the 2020/21 lockdown era. And then it finally switched to what bus passengers really want to see (see below).

More Covid precautions

As Go North West handed over its bus fleet based at Queens Road bus garage to Stagecoach last weekend I wondered if the Covid warning notices on the front doors might at last be removed.

Piggy back marketing

What is it with marketing people being obsessed with males giving females piggy backs? The photograph above depicts part of a campaign Southern has been running for some time while I spotted the image below at Gatwick Airport.

And while shopping in Tesco the other day I initially thought Ayiri had moved from enjoying her “beach days” with Southern to signing up for a Tesco mobile phone contract.

A sign of the times

This sign welcoming passengers as they embark on the long climb up the steps to Manchester’s Oxford Road station is from a bygone era, but still going strong. No doubt it’ll eventually be rebranded yellow. I bet some passengers would welcome a piggy back up the steps.

Transdev in the US

I was surprised when leafing through a recent edition of Coach & Bus Week magazine to see Transdev had acquired a new depot in the USA until I read the explanation below the photo.

A close shave on an SWR Class 450

I was intrigued to see a shaver socket in the accessible toilet on a Class 450 when travelling with SWR the other day and can’t think it’s ever been used. Aren’t most shavers now (rechargeable) electric/battery operated anyway?

I also noted a passenger had left an IRN BRU bottle but doubt anyone would finish the remaining liquid wondering whether it really was IRN BRU.

Retro liveried Class 455

Following Southern’s painting of a Class 313 prior to the class’s withdrawal in original 1980s British Rail blue and Minerva grey livery a few years ago, neighbour SWR has just launched a similarly liveried Class 455 in similar colours.

The train can usually be found on the Shepperton branch and looks very smart and nostalgic. Even if, for purists, it doesn’t completely reflect the original livery.

Young Bus Professionals Network Spring Conference

It was great to be a joint host at the Young Bus Professionals Network Spring Conference in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago. It was another hugely successful conference kicking off with a behind the scenes visit to McGill’s bus garage in Johnstone and an after dinner talk by the company’s CEO Ralph Roberts sharing his long experience and wisdom.

The next day began with our headline speaker Andrew Jarvis, Chief Operating Officer at First Bus giving an insightful and entertaining presentation with highlights of his career which has included working for all the bus Groups as well as his own bus company and with his father’s bus company.

Other speakers included Valerie Davidson, CEO Strathclyde Partnership for Transport; Sharon Kindleysides, Interim Head, Bus Centre of Excellence; Fiona Doherty MD Stagecoach West Scotland; Steven Russell, Innovation Manager, Stagecoach Bus; Peter Shelley, Transport Development Manager Portsmouth City Council and two of the Network’s members Kerrie Grant and Gemma Vaselline-Turner from the tech company and app developer, Passenger.

I always come away from these events inspired that the bus industry will be in very safe hands as these enthusiastic young professionals develop their careers. Full coverage of the Conference will appear in this week’s issue of Coach & Bus Week magazine our on Thursday.

And finally …

…a peep into Stagecoach’s huge Chesterfield bus garage recently showed some interesting vehicles including the following two fine preserved buses.

Many thanks to managing director Stagecoach Yorkshire, Matt Kitchin, for the fascinating tour.

Roger French.

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS including this extra Easter Sunday blog today.

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