Last evening’s journey home turned out to be a hell of a lot more interesting than I expected. While I was aware of water mains works resulting in temporary traffic lights on the Wilmslow side of Alderley Edge, the one thing that I hadn’t expected was a road traffic accident to take place in the same area as well. Emergency services were on the scene with the telltale blue lights flashing atop their vehicles.
As a result, the bus driver turned around his bus and asked if anyone was going to Alderley Edge before going on to say that they needed to walk the rest of the way. However, the sight of moving cars prompted a protest from the one passenger who was affected. To placate him, the bus was turned around again but driver still decided that there was no way through for him and the annoyed passenger had no option but to leave at that point. Before this settlement was reached, some untoward comments about driving quality and another passenger decided to act as a mediator in order to bring the situation to a somewhat dignified close.
After that, the bus was again turned in the road and it seemed to be a difficult thing to do the second time around too. Alderley Edge wasn’t served and we were taken around the Alderley Edge by-pass instead. To the driver’s credit, we did call at Alderley Park even if we went the opposite way around to what is usual and passage over every speed bump was jarring. In the end, we all got home and that probably is more than could be said for anyone waiting in Alderley Edge; I don’t envy them one bit and I hope any injuries in that accident weren’t fatal or serious.
Update: Interestingly, I since discovered that the previous bus for Macclesfield got through the accident area to serve Alderley Edge. What was different when mine was passing? Did one driver see things differently from another or did something change between the passage of both vehicles (the second was 15 minute late too)? It is hard to answer those questions exactly so I’ll leave them open for now.
Tags: 130, Alderley Edge, Buses, Cheshire, England, Macclesfield, Timetables, Traffic, Wilmslow
From the travel point of view, 2010 got a very dramatic ending with the cold temperatures that brought us snow and ice. While it was the airports that bore the brunt of the weather, train and bus services suffered too, particularly in the first round of the cold weather. With the temperatures set to drop again in the next few days, we’ll have to see what happens. After all, it was in January of the year ending tonight that we really saw the snow cause trouble around eastern Cheshire. Who knows what lies around the corner?
Speaking of what may come our way in the future, we have what comes from any public spending cuts in Britain and Ireland. Warrington, North Yorkshire and Derbyshire already have shown signs of what may be precipitated by cuts to council budgets. There’s no word on anything like that from Cheshire but that may change.
Still, rail has seen some announcements regarding investment and can be said to have done better than expected. However, that has to be tempered by the prospect of sizeable hikes in ticket prices beyond those we have seen in recent years.
All in all, 2011 could become more interesting than some among us would rather. It could be one where we have to stand up for what services we have so that total savagery is avoided. Still, not everything has to be sacrificed so we’ll have to enjoy using what we can. Hope the new year is good to you and that you come through it untouched by any economic torment.
Tags: Air Travel, Buses, Cheshire, Derbyshire, England, Fares, Ireland, Road Conditions, Scotland, Trains, Wales, Warrington, Weather, Yorkshire
With all the snow and ice that’s about the place, Twitter sounds a good place to let passengers know how services are running and here are just a sample of the bus companies who have been using Twitter accounts to keep passengers informed. There is little something telling me that there might a follow post to this but here are the ones that I have found so that. Well, every time I go having a look, another one turns up. Hopefully, these will help for now.
Arriva North East
Bluestar
Bus Éireann
Cardiff Bus
Centrebus
Diamond Bus Company
First Cymru Buses
First Devon/Cornwall
First East England
First Midlands
First West & North Yorkshire
Go North East
Greyhound UK
Ipswich Buses
Lothian Buses
Metrobus
Newport Transport
National Express West Midlands & Coventry
Plymouth Citybus
Reading Buses
Southern Vectis
Transdev Harrogate
Transdev Keighley
Transdev Lancashire
Transdev York & East Coast
Velvet
Yellow Buses
Tags: Arriva, Bowers, Brighton, Buses, Cardiff, Cheshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Edinburgh, England, Essex, First, Go North East, Hampshire, Ipswitch, Ireland, Isle of Wight, London, National Express, Newport, Northumberland, Plymouth, Reading, Road Conditions, Scotland, Stagecoach, Sussex, Traffic, Wales, Weather, West Midlands, Yorkshire
With all the noise that there is about the closures of Heathrow and Gatwick due to the heavy snow that hit the south over the weekend, it is worth remembering that other parts are affected as well and that more snow hit the southwest and Wales today. For instance, Wales seems to be seeing disruption to its train services and MerseyRail is running a Sunday service tomorrow to ensure resilience (how’s that going to work with folk going to work and about their business?).
There may have been snow in the Manchester, Stockport and Macclesfield areas on Friday night but local buses and trains seem to be running well. The way in which we have been feeling the effects of what happened on Saturday are in the form of train cancellations and delays with Virgin faring worse than CrossCountry from what I could see. Macclesfield town bus services are being operated as are those to Crewe and Manchester. We may have to take care where we walk but that’s the extent of what the cold weather has done to us in the town.
A recent trip to Glossop confirms the same sort of conditions. Most buses seem to be running there too and trains seem not to be missing a beat. Good accumulations are there to be seen in the surrounding hills but any roads that I saw were clearer than the pavements by their side. Apart from greasy soft snow, the only real ice was to be found on a bridleway and that needed footwear with spikes for it to be crossed. Otherwise, busier routes could be negotiated though some needed care in order to do so.
Ireland hasn’t escaped the snow either with a heavy fall this evening having closed Dublin Airport to arrivals and departures until at least 23:00.The general Dublin area seems to have had quite a dump of the white stuff too, much as the southwest of the country did over the weekend. That has made road conditions tricky in usually mild parts such as the county of Limerick; the town of Newcastlewest is badly affected by ice due to the very low temperatures.
All in all, I could see folk in Britain and Ireland welcoming a wet Christmas if it took away the snow and ice that we currently have. With all the excitement of white Christmases in previous years, who’d have seen that coming about? After all, I suppose that it’s harder to enjoy a visual feast if you feel that your normal way of life is disrupted.
Tags: 10, 130, Arriva, Arriva Trains Wales, Buses, Cheshire, Cold, Crewe, CrossCountry, Derbyshire, Dublin, England, Glossop, Ice, Ireland, Limerick, Macclesfield, Manchester, MerseyRail, Newcastlewest, Northern Rail, Road Conditions, Snow, Timetables, Trains, Virgin, Wales, Weather
A change of job over the summer has brought me more in the way of business train travel with two trips south so far, one to Hitchin and the other to Oxford. The first of these involved journeys on trains full enough to feel cosy on the outbound and return legs. The outbound journey to Oxford was in a similar vein but the return trip was one of extremes.
The cause was a power failure that interrupted signalling on the line between Reading, Swindon and Oxford. The result was that I was travelling on a very busy CrossCountry service that itself was around an hour late. That passengers wanting to travel from Oxford to London were told to board the service to get to Banbury only ensured that many (including me, as it happened) were cheek by jowl with one another. The last time that happened was when Operation Princess was in progress and overloaded the then freshly introduced Voyagers with folk attracted by overenthusiastic and overoptimistic advertising by Virgin. It looked as if many weren’t regular train users so I do wonder what the experience did for their impressions of rail travel.
Things changed markedly after those London passengers were disgorged at Banbury to pack a Chiltern service instead, not the most pleasant of thoughts really. After Banbury, seats were to be found and I made use of one for the rest of the journey while expecting a busy service all the way back to Macclesfield. However, there was a continuing trend of an emptying train as we continued further north and even Birmingham New Street didn’t affect that greatly. In fact, the seat beside me became vacant when someone got off at Stafford. From then on, I was reminded of how it is to travel on early morning services on Saturdays, not at all unpleasant.
All in all, it was a journey of remarkable contrasts and the weather was another of them. What were rain showers in Oxfordshire were snow flurries further north so a definite temperature drop could be noticed on going north with the train conductor warning us about slippery platform surfaces. Was that the cause of there being a less packed service?
Tags: Cheshire, CrossCountry, England, Hertfordshire, Hitchin, Line Incident, Macclesfield, Manchester, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Timetables, Trains, Weather
