On Trains & Buses

In truth, there are more helpful local authorities than Northumberland County Council when it comes to the provision of public transport information. Even so, they do have leaflets online for what they call the Experience Northumberland bus network. This turns out to be sufficiently useful for visitors to the area to be able to get about without needing to resort to travel by car as the only option. Saying that, the Sunday service is more limited so walking out from where you located yourself for a weekend in the county might be a sensible plan. Places like Bellingham and Wooler fall into this category though they have useful long distance trails passing near them for getting you back to more populated places.

Things are better by the coast though connections with train services can be less than perfect with the 501 service being a particular offender at Alnmouth station, especially with northbound trains. These coastal services underwent something of of changeover within the last week with changes in provider and even the withdrawal of some services accompanied by the introduction of others.

In the middle of all this, there has been that depot swap between Arriva and Go North East. While it’s easy to see what Arriva might have seen in Morpeth, what Go North East saw in Hexham is not so clear. After all, it may be a pleasant part of the world but there aren’t that can’t be that many bus routes and users around there. Saying all of that, there is a regular service to Newcastle so that may be saying something. Is that what they were seeing?

In summary, it’s been a while since I went casting my eye over over the bus service provision in Northumberland and some things have stayed remarkably familiar while others had changed a lot. With my pondering excursions to the county, the information that I have gleaned so far has to have a use. Only time will tell what use I make of it.

The current spate of road works continues. As if the attentions given to the A34 aren’t enough, we have gas network works blighting Macclesfield and the Broken Cross roundabout is the latest victim. Because of the need to rip up part of Gawsworth Road, one side of the roundabout is shut with temporary traffic lights controlling things. That they alternative between the three other roads leading into the roundabout is little consolation to anyone joining a queue at Henbury. It cannot be good on Chester Road either, but I have not passed that way, so I cannot confirm the situation. Saying that, things haven’t been so bad from the Fallibroome Road side, yet you can escape around by Upton Priory and the B5087 if needs be. If I were driving this way every day, I’d be very tempted to find another route until all is over.

Needless to say, bus services like the 130 Macclesfield-Manchester, the 27 Macclesfield-Knutsford and the 19 Macclesfield-Prestbury are getting caught up in all of this, and it was particularly bad on Friday evening. So, it’s very much a case of keeping an eye on the real-time bus tracker to see how things are going because things are almost certain to veer markedly away from the timetable. Let’s hope that this doesn’t go on too long because it is having a major impact. Do the people who plan these things realise what disruption gets caused?

Update: Traffic didn’t seem so bad when coming home through Broken Cross this evening. Have people decided to divert around the roadworks?

Unlike a near neighbour, Conwy Borough Council doesn’t share bus and train timetables via its website though it does produce a printed timetable twice a year. Gwynedd Council also produces printed timetables around the same time but also offers PDF versions via its website. It’s not the only example of such inconsistency in service provision but it doesn’t make Conwy as easy to explore using public transport as Gwynedd and both local authority areas share the Snowdonia National Park. While you can understand that everyone wants to approach a job in their own way, it’d be better if there was at least sort of consistency between council areas (it’s not an exclusively Welsh problem at all). To its credit, Conwy’s council does host a microsite dedicated to the Conwy Valley Railway but another devoted to providing bus timetable information wouldn’t go amiss because it has fine countryside to be exploring too.

Somehow, Arriva has come into the possession of an Optare Solo (admittedly, it looks a bit tiddly on a route normally operated using full size Dennis Darts and the occasional double decker but never underestimate how many can be fitted into these buses) with a sign on board dating from the days of Chester City Transport. It’s like a vague memory that the erstwhile municipal operation had at least one bus with Cheshire County Council “Cheshire Rider” livery and this, with its dark blue paintwork, might have been one of them. That recollection leads me to wonder if Arriva has the bus on loan from Cheshire East Council, especially with the local authority’s logo featured on the sides of the vehicle.

This week, it has appeared operating 130 services between Macclesfield and Manchester and carries signage publicising the real time bus tracker that has been available since the end of last year. The strap line goes something like “to find out if the 130 is on time, go online”. With that sort of livery and the mention of Cheshire East Council, you’d expect the bus to have a GPS tracker but I have seen little evidence of that so far. Maybe, it’s one of life’s little ironies.

It also has appeared at the same time that Arriva has updated the 130 timetable to cope with all the upheaval that the A34 bypass and associated works has brought to Alderley Edge and Nether Alderley. Adding to that is what is happening in Macclesfield with roads being dug up all around the town to replace old gas mains. It’s like everything is happening all at once but we’ll have to hop that they stop up soon enough.

Last weekend, I went walking around Capel Curig. To get there, I went by train to Dolwyddelan before walking over Carnedd Moel Siabod to where I was staying on Saturday night. Because I was travelling back of a Sunday, there were no trains running on the Conwy Valley railway line, so it was a matter of catching the X84 from Betws-y-Coed after walking there from Capel Curig. Because the service accepts train tickets, there’s no more to be paid when you are in possession of one.

That meant finding the bus stop that is called “Platform 2” in the car park near Betws-y-Coed’s train station and its National Park centre. The choice of name does make you wonder if someone has been using their sense of humour, yet it seems to be the main hub from which you can catch any of the buses serving the village. It was the 12:20 that I wanted, and it turned up on time, but the bus could have done with being bigger.

With the summery sunny weather, Arriva should have sent something more than a short wheelbase Dennis Dart, but that’s what came, and it was well full too, not ideal when you are carrying a hefty rucksack around with you. In fact, it became even cosier at Betws-y-Coed before it set off and stayed that way until it reached Llandudno Junction where most of the passengers, myself included, disembarked. Mercifully, some got off in Llanrwst, leaving space for the others who came on board, and there were no more coming on after that.

Hopefully, drivers of the X84 will get bigger buses for the route as the year wears on and that the May change in the rail timetable brings Sunday trains to the Conwy Valley again, at least for the summer season. After all, Betws-y-Coed is a popular spot and many continue to Blaenau Ffestiniog for the Ffestiniog Railway. As it stands, using undersized buses will encourage people to bring their cars in the belief that public transport is inadequate and the Snowdon Sherpa network needs all the patronage that it can get.