A Friday around the Fens
Jul. 27th, 2007 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
suzyscottdotcomToday, David & Jacqui went to the Lowestoft Air Show, and I had a day around Cambridgeshire - mostly Fenland areas again - across what was originally dubbed the Cambridgeshire Key Network.
After getting from Royston to Cambridge, H&D Volvo 5316 took me on the 553 to St Ives, where I picked up the plan from Tuesday (sort of in reverse). The 332 was on time enough - H&D/Cavalier Travel Dart 5303 (in the livery of the latter parent company) took me to Warboys Clock Tower, where I took this pic.
On the other side of the road, there was a shelter with a real-time display. The pic didn't quite work out as I thought it might (LED lights!), but click here if you want to see what I mean. Buses were not being tracked, just showing a timetabled time. The reason is, it didn't pick up this slightly late and weird working on the 330 service... not low floor, and SURELY the bus has Huntingdon on the blind?
The other reason for mentioning the realtime is that it lead me into a false sense of security - especially when Dart/Marshall 5324 came in on the 332... on the other side of the road! Just time to run over for it, and this bus took me into Chatteris. The driver didn't serve either of the stops in East Park Street, and dropped me off on the corner. (Another case of changed stop names mean I'm not sure if he was meant to or not...) I crossed around, and again I wasn't sure which side the 337 would come in on. It came in, with plenty of time to spare - new Dart/MCV AE 07 DZB (the H&D website says the number of this one is 5335).
This bus is actually operated by the parent company Cavalier Travel (compare the ticket machines!), and the driver was very pleasant and polite throughout. Bonus points for him pointing out to passengers who bought return tickets (two young women going into Peterborough) that these can be used on Stagecoach X8 as well as Cavalier's 337 (see previous posts about an almost hourly combined service). On the way into Peterborough, spotted an S SUFFIX Bristol VR of Judd/Emblings Travel on the 701 - even older than the other one I spotted!
I decided to visit the Stagecoach Peterborough depot for some local maps etc (I'd planned to do this on Tuesday, but a gap in service in the Peterborough citi1 service precluded that!), and I took a Trident on the citi1 up the Lincoln Road to a part of town known as Millfield. One of the more unusual vehicles ran from this depot is a Ford Transit which works a taxibus for GNER - and it came up to the depot while I was waiting for a bus back to town!
While I was waiting, not many of the citi1's were being tracked. I could see one not listed, but it was due on the paper timetable. One bus was tracked, about 23 minutes away. What transpired was that the a second bus then showed up on the display, and then two turned up at once.
Having got back into central Peterborough, I bought a few things from the shops, before getting a 'get well' gift forthebustocrookes, before I decided to take the Stagecoach Peterborough 16 to Huntingdon. While I waited, I tracked a few things down at the Travelchoice Centre, and this included a September 2006 edition of the Cambridgeshire CC 330/331/332/333/334/38 North Hunts leaflet! None found anywhere else on route, and I was thinking it was unfortunate that the booklet had been discontinued... just I had to look a bit more.
The bus was Volvo Olympian 16581 - in full Peterborough Greyhounds overall advertisment livery.
I got back into Huntingdon, and Whippet Volvo Citybus E441 ADV was waiting to leave on a 1A to Cambridge. This was worth a few minutes extra (for the double run via Bar Hill), as the 553 running alongside was an ex-Soverign H-GGS Olympian. The Citybus gave the usual Volvo noises... did make for a good round off to the week!
You can see all the pics here.
After getting from Royston to Cambridge, H&D Volvo 5316 took me on the 553 to St Ives, where I picked up the plan from Tuesday (sort of in reverse). The 332 was on time enough - H&D/Cavalier Travel Dart 5303 (in the livery of the latter parent company) took me to Warboys Clock Tower, where I took this pic.
On the other side of the road, there was a shelter with a real-time display. The pic didn't quite work out as I thought it might (LED lights!), but click here if you want to see what I mean. Buses were not being tracked, just showing a timetabled time. The reason is, it didn't pick up this slightly late and weird working on the 330 service... not low floor, and SURELY the bus has Huntingdon on the blind?
The other reason for mentioning the realtime is that it lead me into a false sense of security - especially when Dart/Marshall 5324 came in on the 332... on the other side of the road! Just time to run over for it, and this bus took me into Chatteris. The driver didn't serve either of the stops in East Park Street, and dropped me off on the corner. (Another case of changed stop names mean I'm not sure if he was meant to or not...) I crossed around, and again I wasn't sure which side the 337 would come in on. It came in, with plenty of time to spare - new Dart/MCV AE 07 DZB (the H&D website says the number of this one is 5335).
This bus is actually operated by the parent company Cavalier Travel (compare the ticket machines!), and the driver was very pleasant and polite throughout. Bonus points for him pointing out to passengers who bought return tickets (two young women going into Peterborough) that these can be used on Stagecoach X8 as well as Cavalier's 337 (see previous posts about an almost hourly combined service). On the way into Peterborough, spotted an S SUFFIX Bristol VR of Judd/Emblings Travel on the 701 - even older than the other one I spotted!
I decided to visit the Stagecoach Peterborough depot for some local maps etc (I'd planned to do this on Tuesday, but a gap in service in the Peterborough citi1 service precluded that!), and I took a Trident on the citi1 up the Lincoln Road to a part of town known as Millfield. One of the more unusual vehicles ran from this depot is a Ford Transit which works a taxibus for GNER - and it came up to the depot while I was waiting for a bus back to town!
While I was waiting, not many of the citi1's were being tracked. I could see one not listed, but it was due on the paper timetable. One bus was tracked, about 23 minutes away. What transpired was that the a second bus then showed up on the display, and then two turned up at once.
Having got back into central Peterborough, I bought a few things from the shops, before getting a 'get well' gift for
thebustocrookes, before I decided to take the Stagecoach Peterborough 16 to Huntingdon. While I waited, I tracked a few things down at the Travelchoice Centre, and this included a September 2006 edition of the Cambridgeshire CC 330/331/332/333/334/38 North Hunts leaflet! None found anywhere else on route, and I was thinking it was unfortunate that the booklet had been discontinued... just I had to look a bit more.The bus was Volvo Olympian 16581 - in full Peterborough Greyhounds overall advertisment livery.
I got back into Huntingdon, and Whippet Volvo Citybus E441 ADV was waiting to leave on a 1A to Cambridge. This was worth a few minutes extra (for the double run via Bar Hill), as the 553 running alongside was an ex-Soverign H-GGS Olympian. The Citybus gave the usual Volvo noises... did make for a good round off to the week!
You can see all the pics here.
