Trains, Transpennine Express
In Site news on September 1, 2009 at 10:43 am
On my hillwalking blog, I did share, on an occasional basis, some experiences and observations of British and Irish public transport. That changed after a posting regarding being crammed into a Transpennine Express train while travelling to and from Edinburgh last year. Since then, this has been the place for sharing my thoughts on and experiences of public transport. So far, this has been limited to travel by train and bus but related air and sea travel musings cannot be ruled out either; naturally, an associated train and/or bus journey would make such things fit better under the site’s title.
The subject of public transport is one that attracts its share of negative commentary and you do have to wonder if that is justified. Of course, things don’t run smoothly all of the time but there’s a not so limited network out there that needs both publicity and celebration. That is why I have pages celebrating helpful local authorities and useful train and bus company websites as well as a listing of selected bus service timetables. People often don’t realise the extent of what is available and get to hear the complaints instead, not a good state of affairs.
Some may counter that public transport cannot serve every need but the spectre of global warning and the finite nature of the world’s fossil fuel reserves mean that the concept of taking the car everywhere has to be challenged. What really has been felt over the last decade is that there isn’t enough space in our towns and cities for personal motorised transport anyway. That may have been the cause of the upsurge in train travel seen in recent years. If so, it’s no bad thing and, if there’s a corresponding rise in bus patronage, that’s even better. My hope is that I’ll have some small part in helping this along.
130, Arriva, Buses, Cheshire, Cheshire East Council, England, Macclesfield, Manchester, Road Works, Timetables, Traffic, Wilmslow
In Buses, Observations, Timetables on February 2, 2010 at 11:43 am
Yesterday, I was in Macclesfield bus station awaiting a 130 and one did come in from Manchester but that wasn’t to be my bus. In fact, it was to be a double-decker that arrived at the bus stance only minutes from going back out again. It’s destination blinds said Manchester and the route number was still 38 but that soon enough was changed to 130 and we were on our way once the bus driver sorted himself out. As we departed, that earlier bus moved into our stance and must have been the next departure. Now, I suppose that what we were watching were the machinations of rest breaks, dealing with delays to services and such like, the bread and butter of operating bus services that work along congested roads like the 130 does.
The Nether Alderley road improvements are adding to that and bus services are getting disrupted. This morning, it looks as if the 09:15 from Macclesfield never ran and that those waiting for it had to content themselves with the 09:45 instead. Yesterday morning saw a tailback along the A537 from Monk’s Heath traffic lights most of the way back to Henbury. It seems that reversing lorries may be doing hell as they start to draw in foundations for the road widening works near the Monk’s Heath junction itself. All in all, it looks as if this will be part and parcel of travelling that way over the next few months and that the bus tracker will be needed more than ever. Let’s hope that it actually gives us real times too and not just the timetable.
Macclesfield, Manchester, Knutsford, Cheshire, England, Buses, 130, Wilmslow, 27, Cheshire East Council, Bollington, 10
In Buses, News, Observations on January 27, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Since the Wright-bodied VDL’s and DAF’s that underpin the 27 Macclesfield-Knutsford service were brought into use, they have sported a Cheshire County Council specified navy and orange livery. This morning, I spotted one of them wearing a new silver, yellow and green livery, of the same kind that was brought into use by Cheshire East Council. Repainting of buses mightn’t sound a priority activity but I suppose that paintwork gets shabby over time and there’s never any harm in changing colours while you are freshening up things.
Increasing capacity is of higher priority than painting things and that brings me to the sight of double decker buses on the Macclesfield-Bollington route. When I first moved to Cheshire, the route benefitted from the introduction of new Plaxton Mini-Pointer bodied short wheelbase Dennis Darts. At the time, they stood out in a fleet full of Mercedes minibuses and old arthritic Leylands, Lynxes and Olympians. Since then, the world has turned and Dennis Darts are the dominant type with double deckers and other longer single deckers being in the minority. With that in mind, it is interesting to see the 10 getting larger capacity vehicles of an age older than those brought into service back in 2000. It’s always good to see more people using buses but it would be better if they got to travel on newer vehicles as well. That increase of passenger numbers must have helped the 130 too and an increase in usage is apparent to eyes that remember how many used to be on those Leyland midibuses that were operating on the service ten years ago.
