Scottish Trip Part One

Except this part has virtually nothing Scottish in it! Last week I took a trip to Edinburgh, incorporating a daytrip to Skye along the glorious Inverness - Kyle of Lochalsh line. However, I had a hospital appointment down in West Sussex first, and so my journey began at Darsham, catching the 0949 to Ipswich.

170202 at Darsham about to start my long journey

On arrival at Liverpool St thanks to the pulling power of  90006 I decided against going to Victoria by tube and caught the 11 instead from the newly reopened Liverpool St Bus Station, which to be honest looks exactly the same as it did before the interminable closure. So on board LT46 for the very stop/start journey to Victoria.

LT 46  LTZ 1046 and an inferior bus at Liverpool St Bus Station

Just before I alighted at Victoria I saw a sight to warm the hearts of any transport enthusiast. Apologies that I didn't get close enough for a formal identification, but how appropriate that this pic was taken from one of  London's newest buses - an RT from an LT. UPDATE: Thanks to David Warren I can now indentify the RT as RT8 reg FXT183 which is owned by Ensignbus

Ensignbus owned RT8 at the building site that is Victoria these days, photographerd from LT46

So off to East Grinstead for my eye appointment, just to be told to go back in 3 months. On the way there I sampled one of Metrobus's 63 reg E200's on the 281 from Lingfield - East Grinstead and I think I accurately described it on Twitter as "rattling more than two skeletons copulating on a corrugated iron roof". If the rattling of all things Alexander Dennis is down to the roads they travel on then our roads must be worse than those in India or the African Congo! Funny how Wright don't seem to have the same problem so quickly.

Anyway back up to London and some serious spotting around Victoria Coach Station before boarding my overnight chariot to Edinburgh. First up is one of Green Line's Gemini's operating the 702 from Windsor. Pretty eye catching and must sample them one day!

First Green Line Volvo Gemini BF63 HDY in Buckingham Palace Rd

 A little further down the road was a quite impressive sight - 3 Oxford Tube deckers. I have absolutely no idea what they are but they are pretty huge and look good one behind the other

A long line of  Oxford Tubes, headed by OU09 FNH

And so to Victoria coach Station, which is really a Mecca for an enthusiast. I didn't realise just how big the Megabus network is, with coaches lined up going to Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels and Cologne, as well as many domestic places. The 2100 to Glasgow left with a lugguage trailer behind it, and the place was packed. I already knew what vehicle to expect, thanks to Megabus Twitter so I was relaxed knowing I'd be able to keep my phone charged all night while using the free WiFi. And so in rolled Stagecoach 54202, a Plaxton bodied Volvo B11. A superb ride it was - the dawn over Northumbria was simply spectacular, and the only downside was a Chinese student thinking my shoulder was a pillow most of the night! I was so impressed by the quality of the coaches and the cost of travel that I'm using them again in a couple of weeks. We arrived in Edinburgh bang on time, although sadly the pic isn't great due to the layout of the Bus Station there.

Stagecoach 54202 SF62 CMV at St Andrews Bus Station, Edinburgh after the overnight journey from London

And so I had arrived in Scotland. In the next post trams, hybrids and rattly E400's.

Sometimes It All Works

As a prequel to my posts on my trip to Scotland last week, I thought you might be interested in my entire itinary for the 4 days. It's an example of when public transport works it's pretty darn good. I haven't included any spontaneous journeys in Edinburgh, or cross London but just about everything else from when I left till when I got home, including punctuality and type of vehicle.

1st July

0949   Darsham - Ipswich          Greater Anglia   Class 170 (3 car)               On Time
1108   Ipswich - London            Greater Anglia   90006 + Set                       8 mins late
1423   Victoria - Lingfield          Southern            Class 377 (8 car)               On Time
1527   Lingfield - E Grinstead    Metrobus           AD E200                           On Time 
1752   E. Grinstead - Lingfield   Metrobus          Scania Omnidekka             On Time
1814   Lingfield - Victoria          Southern          Class 377 (12 car)              On Time
2130  Victoria - Edinburgh         Megabus         Volvo B11R Plaxton Elite   On Time

2nd July

No scheduled journeys

3rd July

0633  Edinburgh - Perth                      Scotrail             Class 170 (3 car)                 On Time
0810  Perth - Inverness                       Scotrail             Class 170 (3 car)                  On Time
1058  Inverness - Kyle of Lochalsh    Scotrail             Class 158                             On Time
1607  Kyleakin - Kyle of Lochalsh     Stagecoach       Volvo B10M Paragon          On Time
1714  Kyle of Lochalsh - Inverness    Scotrail             Class 158                             On Time
2015  Inverness - Stirling                    Scotrail             Class 170 (3 car)                 On Time
2317  Stirling - Edinburgh                   Scotrail             Class 170 (3 car)                 On Time

4th July

1530  Edinburgh - Kings Cross           East Coast          91125 + Set                         On Time
2100  Liverpool St - Ipswich               Greater Anglia   90015 + Set                         On Time
2217  Ipswich - Darsham                     Greater Anglia   Class 156                             8 mins late


I would love to know the total mileage covered over the 4 days - any takers? But I think you will agree that is a pretty impressive record, and is it any surprise the only delays were on GA? I don't really blame GA as the huge majority of their probs are caused by circumstances beyond their control, as is backed up by tody's huge fine for Network Rail.

Please Discuss

I am reposting a comment left by smurfuk in the previous post about the change of focus of this blog. I think a decent debate is needed and a change of focus for the operating companies, in that there are a huge number of people with an inadequate public transport service in this area - I'm typing this as a usual prisoner in my village on a Sunday unless I want to pay a fortune for taxis both ways - a minimum of £30 to connect with the nearest bus. This is why I get so frustrated when I see companies duplicate existing routes trying to poach rival's passengers and not bering original and brave and offering those without a decent service a facility. Anyway here is smurfuk's comment, and let's have a good debate.

Let me try and start a debate. Everywhere in this country isn't the same. East Anglia needs local solutions that work for us, not to try and fit into a straightjacket designed for the conurbations. And that's a comment to the multitude of regulators as much as, perhaps even more than, the operators. We need commitment, not rules. The rule book is not a master. The passengers and the drivers (I don't forget the engineers, either) are the people who matter, everyone else in or around the industry is a servant not a master. There are far too many people sucking the lifeblood out of this industry. I'm fed up with lawyers (I was one of them once) and bureaucrats telling the public what they want, and feeding their egos. They don't know. And unless they get down to our level, they'll never know. A press release and well choreographed consultation is not the answer to anything. Nor is waving a big stick. This is a difficult area to make public transport work - we need the best brains and they need the support. The passengers are up for it, is anyone else? You can do better, and you need to. In actions we can see, not by soothing words like some mummy.

Change Of Focus

Over the last couple of weeks I have become increasingly disillusioned and depressed with the whole blogging scene in this region. The petty squabbling, accusations, possessiveness and unfairness has left me wondering if I want to carry on with this. So as from now I'm going back to how I started this blog - ie reporting my traveling experiences and own opinions and views on the public transport system as a whole.

I will not be joining in the clamour for news, or using the word "exclusive" just to have a dig at another blog. As from now I couldn't care less if a vehicle has a new advert, or a panel replaced, or if it is seen a nanometre off route. I will not be tweeting management every 5 minutes wanting to know when something is coming back from repaint, or transferred, or anything else. If I hear news I will report it. I will report news I see on other blogs,but not for at least 24 hours after that blog has reported it. I will not use, or even ask to use other blog's pics. I will go out and take my own and of course will happily publish any sent to me, as I will any news anyone cares to give me - so if you don't want it published don't tell me not to then publish it yourself.

Over the next few days I'll be reporting on my trip to Scotland this week. The couple of days in Edinburgh brought some hard truths home to me - the first being just how uttely awful the public transport system is in East Anglia. Now I know Edinburgh is a big city, with a population of 495,000. However according to the Norwich City Council website there are 376,000 people in the Norwich Travel To Work area, yet the public transport couldn't be more different. I walked to Waverley Station at 6am on Thursday and I lost count at the number of buses I saw. I walked back at 0030 that evening and lost count at the number of night buses I saw. There is now a tram system, of which more in a future post. A day ticket covering both buses and trams (except airport) is £3.50 - exactly half that of an Anglian day ticket and how many Anglian routes can you get on after 7pm or at 6am. How many First services in Norwich run to midnight? In Edinburgh they clearly want people to use public transport so they make it convenient, reliable, cheap and accessivble. Here they can't even sort the lights out in Lowestoft and seem happy to see buses running half hour late.

So boys - young and old - you can have the news and argue over who is first with a pic. I simply can't be bothered anymore with that, so will concentrate on reporting my own experiences and attempt to do my bit to nudge the powers that be into improving the system here for everyone.

North West Bus Blog

I am delighted to include the North West Bus Blog in my links section. Covering Merseyside and Manchester, as well as contributors from other regions, it will be of interest to those of us who want to know what's coming our way in 10 years time! I'm delighted to have Tom Harrison, the blog founder as a follower on Twitter, and I'm looking forward to sharing snippets of news with him. I like the layout of his blog, and the "about us" page is really worth a look - extremely well worded. The link to NWBB is in the "Other Enthisiast Sites" section down the right hand side of the page.