tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post3350216730355830562..comments2024-03-25T19:07:29.729+00:00Comments on Steve's Bus & Train Page: Weekly News Round Up 30/11/14Steve Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06852377706742868978noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-82609699210882473082014-12-01T19:44:45.171+00:002014-12-01T19:44:45.171+00:00Hi steve another galloway update the demo Alexande...Hi steve another galloway update the demo Alexander e200 bus should be on the 118 ipswich fram services tomorrow and on Wednesday the Diss fram services Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13403966007844522262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-63788485982786342172014-12-01T19:04:05.760+00:002014-12-01T19:04:05.760+00:00FJ61 EVT - a Levante. FJ61 EVT - a Levante. Trevor Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11580679352006526817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-7228734953023107272014-12-01T12:03:44.039+00:002014-12-01T12:03:44.039+00:00Galloway update national express fleet number 303 ...Galloway update national express fleet number 303 is out of service with fire damage may not be coming back keep you updated Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13403966007844522262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-56259633332637493872014-12-01T11:55:21.108+00:002014-12-01T11:55:21.108+00:00Hi yx14 yxb is on demo with galloway should have p...Hi yx14 yxb is on demo with galloway should have put it in Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13403966007844522262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-86922849771302393762014-12-01T11:52:24.374+00:002014-12-01T11:52:24.374+00:00Hi steve just to let you know that Alexander Denni...Hi steve just to let you know that Alexander Dennis dart yx14 rxb is here on demo for a few days Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13403966007844522262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-88251046357269610812014-11-30T19:28:02.951+00:002014-11-30T19:28:02.951+00:00The reason the public are so apathetic about Sunda...The reason the public are so apathetic about Sunday services is few of them can remember far enough back when decent Sunday bus service was the norm and not the exception. Quite ironic that when I used to go out on a Sunday as a boy I was bored to tears as there was nothing open! How the roles have reversed. I do remember, though clearly seeing my first V reg Bristol VR at 8pm on a Sunday evening passing throguh my village and excitedly phoning my best mate up to give him the news when I got home.<br /><br />As for volunteer drivers I don't think there would be so much of a problem as those who have nothing to do evenings and weekends might be grateful for the chance to get out doing something. It won't happen anyway.Steve Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14075632962275755022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-22906724584898497242014-11-30T18:53:58.777+00:002014-11-30T18:53:58.777+00:00Essex and Herts do run evening inter-urbans on a 2...Essex and Herts do run evening inter-urbans on a 2 hour frequency, evening and Sundays, though as ever rurals stop after 7 (departures if you're very lucky!) Frankly the evening take-up looks sparse, though Sunday daytime traffic looks like it's improving a bit. Herts are now proposing cutting subsidies for both (though from 7.30pm not 6.30pm weekdays if that's an improvement!). The Essex bus review survey I mentioned found eves and Suns the least concern to all groups of passengers (except in Canvey Island for some reason). The only exception seems to be where there's significant uni/student traffic, which I guess helps Norwich a bit too. That was why I am surprised perhaps that First's Essex incarnation don't perhaps try to capture a bit more of it? They do in parts of the south of the area, though, and a give a nod in Colchester. It looks to me as though commercial evening services are retrenching too, and as for more public money where's that coming from then, with cuts now into the 2020s and more of us living longer and demanding more welfare correspondingly? Volunteer drivers are great, but my experience is that they (understandably) don't want to give up their Sundays and evenings. They have families too.smurfukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04812247601237248526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-4126977704036689692014-11-30T15:30:44.578+00:002014-11-30T15:30:44.578+00:00Ah ok. My bus stop obvisiously not been updated as...Ah ok. My bus stop obvisiously not been updated as often as it should have been though they have put the latest update on.until recently,it was telling me 10-1 which appears to have been wrong. Have never used it so far because of the 118,but maybe there will come a time where I will need it. Sundays would be useful :)Trevor Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11580679352006526817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-2532623454139321992014-11-30T15:14:13.127+00:002014-11-30T15:14:13.127+00:00It has been 8.30 - 2.30 for as long as I have been...It has been 8.30 - 2.30 for as long as I have been using it,and the lovely Margaret on the phone is always cheerful and extremely helpful. However the other ones I use - Pathfinder and Loes have booking hours 8.15 - 4.00 and I must mention Charlotte and Kerry who find gaps for me at the most unlikely times. Steve Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14075632962275755022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-35959150399662057792014-11-30T15:03:17.502+00:002014-11-30T15:03:17.502+00:00I think Cretingham (me) comes under Hoxne. They ha...I think Cretingham (me) comes under Hoxne. They have extended the booking hours. Was 10-1 but according to my bus stop, you can now book btw 8.30-2.30.Totally agree about evenings and sundays. Im sure if funds were available, there would be volunteers.Trevor Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11580679352006526817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-46196333607081573772014-11-30T14:55:13.134+00:002014-11-30T14:55:13.134+00:00The Hoxon area has changed -men aing it will take ...The Hoxon area has changed -men aing it will take me further west, though to nowhere useful, but apart from that nothing has changed. I just wish SCC would consider employing volunteer drivers to cover evenings and Sundays so those who want/need to stay out a bit later can still use the services. For example next week I have another hospital trip to Sussex - Greater Anglia/Network Rail permitting - but there is absoiutely nothing apart from a taxi to call on to get home from Saxmundham. Again maybe re-regulation will help in that respect as the extra funds may well be there to extend the hours of that extremely useful service.Steve Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14075632962275755022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-47278462880527439122014-11-30T14:49:21.307+00:002014-11-30T14:49:21.307+00:00One problem that is just not tackled is that last ...One problem that is just not tackled is that last buses leave far too early for people to have a really decent day out by bus. The reason for this is obvious - it's so most shifts can run 7-7 so unlike 30 years ago the same drivers are driving in the morning and evening peaks. I am often asked, for example why I don't cover Essex more. The thing is I'd love to, but I just cannot get to Essex and back in a day with enough time there to do something useful. By time I get there I have to start back or I won't get home.<br /><br />Maybe if re-regulation comes back that issue might be addressed, but it goes certainly part of the way in explaining why most bus journeys are of the shorter variety,Steve Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14075632962275755022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-37123244298681302052014-11-30T14:06:47.151+00:002014-11-30T14:06:47.151+00:00I was speechless when I read it. A really unhelpfu...I was speechless when I read it. A really unhelpful statement because its the bus companies Tha get it in the neck. He would do more good finding out why all these so called improvements are running months behind and probly over budget. On another note,the suffolk links dial a ride has changed here.Altered the boundaries and now it will take me to Halesworth station? instead of Saxmundham.Just wondered if anyone elses area has changed?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-11125260558181200982014-11-30T14:03:18.138+00:002014-11-30T14:03:18.138+00:00I though the problem is that there just aren't...I though the problem is that there just aren't any spare serviceable diesel units in the national rail network? For the DTp planners it's the "forgotten railway".<br /><br />Haven't the East Anglian towns, bisected by rivers, always had horrendous problems because of the limited number of routes in and out? Add to it the increase in port traffic, trunk road problems, utility works and the horrors of traffic control systems (well, just traffic lights, even worse in my experience when "co-ordinated"), and the buses haven't got a hope. And as for the state of the roads, I feel safer walking on the pavements (and no, not because of the traffic).<br /><br />I wonder if EC/EN still suffer from getting stung when they tried "Green Line" type fast inter-urban routes in the 1980s and early 1990s. I still think they are a great idea, witness Stagecoach X4/X5, as well as the X1 (well, in parts). I know about the logistics, but to me it's incomprehensible that the Essex X30 doesn't go on to Cambridge (linking the Unis), even via Stortford and the South Cambs growth areas, in the future. Avoid the M11 disaster though! And something linking the FEx and Berkshire ops might, I think, be made to work, even though competing with Arriva. Similarly, Felix, Ips, Colchester and perhaps Stansted, Cambridge too. But it doesn't fit the "local" ethos. Probably sensibly, I have to admit as there isn't the sort of passenger crossover, I'd expect. I glanced last week as the results so far from the Essex bus survey, and apart from the unsurprising level of apathy, what stood out is just how limited and local most people's public transport travel is; and not, at least in this neck of the woods, because of the lack of opportunity (as you know). <br />smurfukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04812247601237248526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-52745476117591370252014-11-30T13:53:57.414+00:002014-11-30T13:53:57.414+00:00No the traffic probs in Ipswich are not exaggerate...No the traffic probs in Ipswich are not exaggerated. It can take one badly parked vehicle, or indeed an unreliable First B7rle - no names mentioned 66986 - and the entire town becomes blocked. Neverending roadworks over the last couple of years, though seems like decades, although called improvements never seem to improve things either. <br /><br />I have spoken recently to both men ultimately responsible for buses in Ipswich and they are agreed that the state of the traffic is prohibitive in planning and operating future services as well as existing ones. I would suggest Mr Newman travels a bit more by bus and gets his head out of the traffic free clouds. I would also suggest more traffic wardens employed at potential blackspots at strategic times to keep traffic moving rather than just nicking some old dear whose ticket expired 5 mins previously.Steve Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14075632962275755022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-28580802416834031022014-11-30T12:56:09.764+00:002014-11-30T12:56:09.764+00:00Reading the IB twitter feed frequently,hold ups ar...Reading the IB twitter feed frequently,hold ups are a frequent occurrence and yet the bus companies are getting the blame from passengers which is usually hugely unfair.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-447126180009858982014-11-30T12:52:55.555+00:002014-11-30T12:52:55.555+00:00Your thoughts on Graham Newmans comments that the ...Your thoughts on Graham Newmans comments that the traffic problems in Ipswich have been "greatly exaggerated"? The 118 from Fram took 25 mins to get dwn Museum street Friday meaning the 5.15 to Stradbroke didn't leave til 5.45.. Understand that Ipswich was gridlocked and that there were problems in Commercial Rd.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-33308388697378895102014-11-30T12:15:50.676+00:002014-11-30T12:15:50.676+00:00Thanks Lou :)Thanks Lou :)Steve Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14075632962275755022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2425346921966365551.post-15590971146247790492014-11-30T12:09:18.142+00:002014-11-30T12:09:18.142+00:00Thanks for another amazing round up I really enjoy...Thanks for another amazing round up I really enjoyed reading it.Lou Phillipshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05875283277705272127noreply@blogger.com