Seen around

Tuesday 30th April 2024

Another month end. Another motley collection of miscellaneous matters and some good news to begin with …..

£920,000 fence reopens Cambridge busway

The northbound Cambridge busway between Addenbrooke’s Spur Road and Cambridge railway station finally reopened on 30th March having closed in February 2022 due to safety concerns arising from two deaths when cyclists fell into the path of a bus.

It comes thanks to the installation of a 0.75 mile long fence (reported in the media as an “innovative fencing solution”) separating the busway from the adjacent cycle and footpath at a cost to Cambridgeshire County Council of £920,000.

The odd thing is the southern section between the A1134 Long Road bridge and the Addenbrooke’s Spur Road hasn’t been blessed with a fence….

… as you can see in the photo below (looking south).

I took a walk yesterday along the full length and came away puzzled why the southern section is deemed safe without a fence…

… but not the northern section between Long Road and the railway station, albeit the fatalities occurred on that section.

I found the speed of passing cyclists the most dangerous aspect of the walk rather than buses passing by….

… and interestingly the £920,000 has come from a pot set aside to widen the path although the Council has confirmed that project will still go ahead, but it didn’t look to me as though there’s room for expanding the width in the northernmost section.

The fence has access points to the busway every so often denoted by yellow gates …

… and towards the southern end of the fence section, there are small gaps in every sixth fence at the bottom, presumably to allow wildlife to escape.

Which is good news, as is the return of northbound buses on Stagecoach route A and Whippet routes U1/U2 which now have an unimpeded northbound journey rather than getting delayed in traffic on the diversion via Hills Road.

It’s not the end of the matter though, as the Council has been told it faces prosecution under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 over the fatal accidents.

Going Dutch in Cambridge

While in Cambridge yesterday I took a look at the so called ‘Dutch-style’ roundabout at the junction of Fendon Road and Queen Edith’s Way introduced in July 2020 which the media reported this week has seen more accidents involving cyclists in its first three years than its former traditional layout…

… although the Council point out more cyclists are now using the junction.

The layout incorporates an outer ring for cyclists coloured red which gives them priority over motor traffic when crossing at each exit…

… while pedestrians have priority over cyclists (and motor traffic) when using the pedestrian crossings at each exit.

From my limited observations it looked to be working well but obviously drivers must keep an eye out for any pedestrians/cyclists crossing.

Making it as hard as possible to find a bus timetable

I’m getting seriously worried that First Bus has been taken over by Artificial Intelligence. As previously reported, not only is the company producing completely nonsensical timetables but now the policy seems to be to hide timetables away so passengers can’t find them.

The latest wheeze to make things hard for passengers is to cease including timetables in timetable leaflets. For example, this year’s colourful leaflets promoting the Exmoor Coaster and the Lands End/Atlantic Coasters (the latter now combined into one leaflet) contain lots of attractive photographs and a lovely map to look at, but unlike in previous years, no timetable.

Instead you need a smartphone fitted with a QR reader app to scan the QR code in the leaflet where it says “scan for times” on the Exmoor Coaster leaflet (below) ….

…and on the combined Land’s End and Atlantic Coaster leaflet take care to point your QR scanner at the right blob.

Not only is this the most unfriendly way of presenting information and must put people off from travelling but when you do scan the QR code it doesn’t take you to the timetables. You really couldn’t make this up, but I promise it’s true.

Instead, it takes you to one of the pages on the Adventures by Bus website from where you have to search for the link to the timetables. But whereas you might think that’s no problem from the screen shot taken from a computer/lap top screen below with the link to the timetables being easy to find….

… on a smartphone (which you will have used to read the QR code) the unhelpful layout means you have to scroll right down to the end of the page display (that’s the equivalent of six screen displays) to reach the timetable links….like this….

And then the next problem is there are two links – one for the timetable in one direction, and the other for the timetable in the other direction.

On my phone that means because you’ve accessed it on the QR reader app you can only look at one of those at a time and once you’ve looked at one you then have to close the page and rescan the QR code again, taking you to the website again, then find and open up the other page to see the return times. By which time you’ve probably forgotten what the other direction times were.

All the more so as the timetable presentation includes three different versions in the same block showing journeys that run in low season mixed with those in mid season and those in peak season all denoted by different coloured small dots. Good luck with trying to work out what runs when.

And just to complete the insanity, as you can see, at the bottom of the timetable there’s a QR code (“scan for more information”) which, guess what, takes you back to the page you’ve just left, trapping you in a never ending QR code loop.

What a complete load of b****cks. Is anyone in First Bus serous about encouraging passengers?

No tickets for sale at Bottesford

When I passed through Bottesford station recently I needed to buy a single ticket back home to Hassocks (thanks to LNER’s policy of only selling one-way tickets) and, with no ticket office, was impressed to see a smart looking ticket machine by the platform. But having entered all the information it requried, including having to specify the journey I was making via Grantham…

… the “journey is currently unavailable as a barcode ticket” even though I didn’t want to buy a barcode ticket. I was left wondering if I’d inadvertently pressed a button specifying I needed a barcode ticket or whether the machine just doesn’t issue orange paper tickets.

Huw’s weasel words

I had high hopes when Huw Merriman was appointed Rail Minister. He’d carried out a good job as chair of the Transport Select Committee and one hoped he wouldn’t join the rest of the Government of taking us all for fools by declaring black is white. Sadly he’s as bad as the rest of them, sending out the above posts on X earlier this month to celebrate the opening of Dore & Totley’s new second platform and adding the complete lie “the upgrade is just one of hundreds we’re delivering as part of our Network North plan, made possible by reallocated HS2 funding….”. Complete tosh as all the replies – and there were many – pointed out. Here’s just a small sample of those calling him out.

Promoting Gatwick Airport at the Cross

It was good to see the area on King’s Cross station concourse, which is so often used for commercial promotions with no connection to the railway, instead devote space to promote the recently expanded Gatwick Airport station. But I was left wondering if you read it all and think, yes, I’m definitely going to pay a visit to Gatwick Airport. That station is very much a ‘means to and end’ rather than a destination in its own right.

Unusual destination

When I was growing up in north London it was quite a regular occurrence to see northbound Piccadilly Line trains terminating at Wood Green where there’s a turn back siding just north of the platforms in between the two tracks. It’s been years since I’ve seen it again, but earlier this month I did. The driver and a member of the station team handled the de-training on the platform very efficiently too, indicating to me that it’s not an uncommon event these days, even though Arnos Grove, with its extra central platform, is not far away.

Pride stops at Trafalgar Square

I hadn’t spotted this multi-coloured bus stop at Trafalgar Square before. So took a photo.

Dublin confusion

I took my annual weekend trip to Dublin this month. After many visits I still haven’t fathomed out how to use the city’s bus network and can never understand the bus stop timetable displays which require you to know how far away you are from the terminus (in journey time) before you then add that time on to the times displayed, which are the terminal departure times. If you’re a visitor, like me, and you’ve no idea where the stop is in relation to the other places shown, you’re completely lost.

Thetford sights

After leaving the relatively new ‘bus interchange’ in Thetford I walked to the town’s station and noted, by contrast, this rather dowdy bus shelter outside the entrance to the station which didn’t come across as very inviting.

And it was interesting to see how former and rather grand railway buildings are now disused.

Although the ticket office is still situated in the building on the right but only has limited opening hours…

… so I had to peer through the glass in the door to see how it looked.

And on a similar theme I recently used Market Harborough station on the Midland Main Line and had to take a photo of the rather grand station building.

There’s a rather large “Cycle Hub:” there too.

9 coaches into 2 don’t go

I caught a Plymouth bound train from Paddington on my recent visit to Cornwall. As the five minute late nine coach Class 802 approached Plymouth we were all on tenterhooks whether the train providing the onward connection to Penzance which leaves five minutes after the Paddington train arrives would be held. Fortunately we arrived on platform 7 and the Penzance train did indeed wait for us and convenienrlty left from the adjacent platform 8.

Except it was a two-coach Class 150 which was completely inadequate for the number of passengers and the quantity of luggage wanting to travel onwards leading to a very uncomfortable onward journey for many. I was sure I read that the justification for ordering five-coach sets of Class 802s for GWR was that the ten-coach train from Paddington would split in Plymouth and the front five-coaches continue to Penzance, but I’ve never seen it happen.

And it wasn’t very reassuring when I asked the Train Manager if it was likely the connection would be held to be told incorrectly “it’s not a booked connection so it won’t be guaranteed”.

Bring some back for us

Sadly copies of the Transport for Cornwall summer Bus Times book were unavailable when I called into the ticket office/waiting area at St Austell railway station adjacent to the bus station, and I detected some frustration on the part of the staff there too at not receiving supplies from Truro bus station. I wonder how many passengers lend a hand by ferrying supplies between the two stations.

And if so, maybe they could also provide supplies to Truro railway station where you can pick up no end of free maps, guide bo ks (sic) and leaflets but sadly never a bus timetable.

Still, on a positive note it’s good to see GWR displaying full timetables at its stations. Something I wish other Train Operating Companies would do.

A platform for Penmere

I was puzzled by the signs at Penmere station on the Truro to Falmouth branch. Was the station once called Penmere Platform? And if not, why the need to add the word ‘PLATFORM’ to the station name?

HST to Falmouth Docks

This nice mural on the platform at Falmouth Docks depicting an HST is lovely and colourful being made up of thousands of little coloured tiles. I wonder if in years to come it’ll be replaced with one of a Class 802?

Paddington’s closed ticket office

Not only was the ticket office closed at Paddington with a rather abrupt notive offering no explanation nor any idea of how long the closure might last but the bank of ticket machines immediately outside has recently been reduced from eight to four (as shown in last month’s round up) and on the day I passed through, two of those weren’t working.

Inevitably there was a long queue of frustrated passengers at the two working machines.

I wondered why staff with a portable ticket machine – as used by Train Managers – couldn’t have been on hand to sell tickets from the nearby information point.

Something positive about First Bus

To keep a balance here’s a good news snippet about First’s transformation of Norwich’s bus network with the latest delivery of electric buses really making an impact in the city.

The buses look good, they give a comfortable smooth and quiet ride – no rattles either – and the seat layout and moquette are good. And there’s 70 of them, representing 60% of the Norwich based fleet. £23 million of the cost came from First Bus with £14.7 million from the DfT’s ZEBRA scheme.

And a Travel Shop that’s open

And not only that but First Bus still runs a Travel Shop in the city. There aren’t any timetables or bus maps to take away, although there is a network map on the outside window and on display inside the shop too…

…but it does make me wonder how long the shop will keep going…

…especially as the opening hours are fairly restricted.

Permanently closed in Leicester

Meanwhile in Leicester, the Travel Shop has “permanently closed” which perhaps isn’t surprising considering its next door to Haymarket bus station where the city council has an information counter as well as one in the nearby St Margarets bus station.

Train times at the bus station

Over at Norwich bus station I was pleased to see the posters displaying times of train departures to a myriad of destinations from the city’s railway station are still on display.

Except when I looked more closely, sadly they’re nearly two years out of date. Oh dear.

A memorial to HS2

I was passing through Crewe railway station last week and noticed this rather sad looking memorial to what could have been.

Hopefully the station’s foliage budget will include the planting of some nice flowering plants to cheer us all up.

Great Northern or Thameslink?

Great Northern is the brand name used for King’s Cross to Cambridge and Ely trains but when I travelled to Cambridge yesterday it was operated by an eight-coach Class 700 from the Thameslink fleet – which was a first time experience for me. And you have to admire the driver’s precision in stopping as close as possible to the end of Platform 9. Interestingly, as you can see, the following departure from Platform 10, a Great Northern stopping train to Cambridge, was also operated by a Thameslink train.

Back in time at Newquay

Finally this month, and following last Thursday’s blog about the Mid Cornwall Metro, my grateful thanks to Mel Holly for sending me this splendid nostalgic photo he took of Newquay station 36 years ago when the buffers were a long way from the station end of the platform even then.

And also thanks to Paul Roberts who kindly sent a couple of photographs from his collection showing Par…

… and Newquay stations from “the good old days”.

More miscellany at the end of next month.

Roger French

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