Transport Randomness
Jul. 19th, 2008 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
suzyscottdotcomI’ve not quite had the stamina for this earlier this week, but now I can start to catch up.
1. Monday past, I did from Royston via Centrebus 90 to Baldock, TrustLine 700 to Bishop’s Stortford, Arriva 510 to Harlow, Arriva 59 to Chelmsford, Arriva 59 to Harlow, TrustLine C3 to Cheshunt, Arriva 311 to Ware, then Arriva 331(x) back to Royston. You can see all the pictures here.
2. Speaking of which, Essex CC have now announced their own one-day travel ticket, the Essex Saver. £8.00 for one day’s travel (except Sundays, when there are cheaper alternatives) across Essex. All local bus services are included (in theory) including community transport and DRT, except the 724 (Harlow – Heathrow), X22 (Stansted – Colchester), X30 (Stansted – Southend) and X5 (Stansted – Ipswich), as well as coach and National Express (coach) services. The publicity so far has been limited to a mention in LOTS TLB, and this page on their website.
3. Similarly, in East Central Scotland, the One-Ticket scheme has extended slightly. Citylink Service 909 from Dunblane and Stirling to Edinburgh, and Citylink/Megabus/Parks “joint venture” services M90/M91/M92 between Dundee/Perth and Edinburgh, are now included, on a turn-up-and-travel basis i.e. no reservations. The 909 is a former First service withdrawn some time ago, and the M90-M92 will provide additional validity… as well as giving me some ideas! It’s not new areas of use, just that the additional direct journeys will save changing, and give an alternative to the X54 from Dundee to Edinburgh, and include earlier/later/faster/Sunday journeys.
4. Speaking of travel tickets, TfL had a well-publicised black spot, where Oyster cards seemed to fail from Saturday morning onwards, and the system was put into ‘open’ mode, by leaving gates open, and abandoning fare collection for the day. Ouch! Now, it seems as if many of the cards topped up or used on that Saturday morning are now showing “Not enabled for prestige” – the P. word being the project name back in London Transport days – and will require replacement. Have a look over at The Ticket Collector for the latest on this - last I read, a week later, and he'd still not yet had his "automatic on Tuesday" refund of £12.00.
5. I’ve not mentioned any Transport for London stuff since the Mayoral elections, where Ken was finally given his P45. Mayor Boris’s first task was to outlaw drinking on public transport – and I could see why, when I was in London first time I was quite taken aback to see beer bottles being drunk and littering the top deck of the Metrobuses on the 207 (and many others!). The plan was done without consulting the staff who will implement it, so nothing new there then.
6. However, from the TLB before last (TLB526 – June 2008) come two connected stories. On page 32, news that “the Travel Information Centre at West Croydon bus station closed after business on Friday 9 May”. On Page 5, news that “On 16th May, the Mayor, Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and Peter Hendy were in Croydon to announce that another 440 Police officers and PCSOs would be added to those patrolling the bus network, notably at bus stations. It would be paid for with £2.1 million from the Met. Police and £9.2 million from TfL, said by Mr Hendy to be taken from a reduction in the budge of the Marketing and Publicity areas of TfL…” Don’t forget kids, they really are transforming travel. Oh wait, that’s someone else…
7. It’s service change time again, only lots of it. Haven’t quite figured it out yet, but some new ideas (largely on the newly integrated Stagecoach Cambridge/Fens/Huntingdon/Peterborough network) as well as some notable changes in Scotland. Keep watching.
2. Speaking of which, Essex CC have now announced their own one-day travel ticket, the Essex Saver. £8.00 for one day’s travel (except Sundays, when there are cheaper alternatives) across Essex. All local bus services are included (in theory) including community transport and DRT, except the 724 (Harlow – Heathrow), X22 (Stansted – Colchester), X30 (Stansted – Southend) and X5 (Stansted – Ipswich), as well as coach and National Express (coach) services. The publicity so far has been limited to a mention in LOTS TLB, and this page on their website.
3. Similarly, in East Central Scotland, the One-Ticket scheme has extended slightly. Citylink Service 909 from Dunblane and Stirling to Edinburgh, and Citylink/Megabus/Parks “joint venture” services M90/M91/M92 between Dundee/Perth and Edinburgh, are now included, on a turn-up-and-travel basis i.e. no reservations. The 909 is a former First service withdrawn some time ago, and the M90-M92 will provide additional validity… as well as giving me some ideas! It’s not new areas of use, just that the additional direct journeys will save changing, and give an alternative to the X54 from Dundee to Edinburgh, and include earlier/later/faster/Sunday journeys.
4. Speaking of travel tickets, TfL had a well-publicised black spot, where Oyster cards seemed to fail from Saturday morning onwards, and the system was put into ‘open’ mode, by leaving gates open, and abandoning fare collection for the day. Ouch! Now, it seems as if many of the cards topped up or used on that Saturday morning are now showing “Not enabled for prestige” – the P. word being the project name back in London Transport days – and will require replacement. Have a look over at The Ticket Collector for the latest on this - last I read, a week later, and he'd still not yet had his "automatic on Tuesday" refund of £12.00.
5. I’ve not mentioned any Transport for London stuff since the Mayoral elections, where Ken was finally given his P45. Mayor Boris’s first task was to outlaw drinking on public transport – and I could see why, when I was in London first time I was quite taken aback to see beer bottles being drunk and littering the top deck of the Metrobuses on the 207 (and many others!). The plan was done without consulting the staff who will implement it, so nothing new there then.
6. However, from the TLB before last (TLB526 – June 2008) come two connected stories. On page 32, news that “the Travel Information Centre at West Croydon bus station closed after business on Friday 9 May”. On Page 5, news that “On 16th May, the Mayor, Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and Peter Hendy were in Croydon to announce that another 440 Police officers and PCSOs would be added to those patrolling the bus network, notably at bus stations. It would be paid for with £2.1 million from the Met. Police and £9.2 million from TfL, said by Mr Hendy to be taken from a reduction in the budge of the Marketing and Publicity areas of TfL…” Don’t forget kids, they really are transforming travel. Oh wait, that’s someone else…
7. It’s service change time again, only lots of it. Haven’t quite figured it out yet, but some new ideas (largely on the newly integrated Stagecoach Cambridge/Fens/Huntingdon/Peterborough network) as well as some notable changes in Scotland. Keep watching.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-19 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-19 09:20 pm (UTC)... can't remember the rest for now.
Having said that, West Coast appear to have won their war...