On Trains & Buses

After its nearly grinding to a halt over the last few Arriva finally changed its website to deliver at a glance service running information in a format that is more server friendly. From the performance point of view, that seems to have done the trick and gives you a sense of what is happening very quickly.

What this reveals is that what is needed is a central repository of general bus running information for challenging weather conditions like those that we are having now. Currently, it’s mainly a case of going to each operator and seeing what they tell you. For Britain, Traveline would be ideal for this role but it now depends on where you are. Scotland, Wales and the North East of England (includes Cumbria for some reason) do well but the English North West and West Midlands are not set up for this at all.

Maybe, it’s something on which they need to work. If they don’t fancy doing all the technical work, then further feeding their Twitter presence might be in order. Bowers/Centrebus are an excellent example of what can be done as is what National Rail Enquiries is doing. Then, there’s Northern Rail and Arriva Trains Wales (perhaps ironic given the experience of the U.K. bus side of the business) too and there may be more out there on the real-time web than this so it’s well worth a look. Short, pithy updates will do so long as we know what’s happening.

From what I have seen this morning, buses are running around Macclesfield though there are delays. For one thing, I had a longer than expected wait for my bus to work but the 130 (Manchester) is running as are the 4 (Upton Priory), 10 (Bollington), 11 (Kerridge) and 27 (Knutsford). All of them were sighted around Churchill Way while I was waiting. As I write this, fog is cutting down on visibility and the air is cold enough to freeze the ears off you but you can move about with a spot of due care and attention. Saying that, it seems that the A537 between Macclesfield and Buxton is impassable with the 58 being redirected to connect with the 60 at Whaley Bridge, even though the road around by Kettleshulme and Rainow has its own problems according to the information that I have.

Update 1: You’ll find updates on Bowers bus services and the same for other Centrebus operations on Twitter and Facebook. Seeing the effectiveness of this, it might be an idea for Arriva to do the same with the current sluggishness of their bus company website. Being a multi-regional operator means that they are under siege from all directions when we the sort of weather than we are having.

Update 2: On the way home, things seem to be going like the sort of weekday with no snow about. Yes, there were delays with the 130 but the 27 ran near enough to time so travelling was no ordeal.

The southbound voyage of yesterday’s band of snow seems to have paralysed Arriva’s website but the 130 is running again this morning as is the 27 (not all Bowers services are running as usual, though; check their website for details). A number 10 was spotted running around Macclesfield too so signs are hopeful regarding bus services. So long as more snow doesn’t arrive, there should be some buses running near enough to normal around Cheshire. There are talks of the cold weather staying with us for weeks yet so it looks as if we’ll need to adapt to the conditions rather than waiting for them to adapt to us. The Nordic combination of wearing boots to work and shoes around the office is set to stay in place for much of January by the looks of things.

Update: The 130 was running well when I got to going home this evening and I even thought I spied a 27 going around too. The chaos may have gone south…

It now seems that Arriva’s services are getting badly hit by the weather with the usual 130 service being abandoned with only the possibility of a skeleton service between Macclesfield and Handforth in its place. The article on their website says Macclesfield states Macclesfield Hospital as the destination but I spotted a bus looking as if it was from the Macclesfield depot sporting the service number 130 around Monk’s Heath; by then I had bailed out and organised a lift home from a work colleague (who happens to have experience of Montreal winters as I later found). Otherwise, the snowfall seems to be causing havoc in Cheshire so we’ll have to wait and see what runs in the morning. It looks as if the Arriva website will need inspection before travel decisions can be made, especially with more snow being expected.

Hint: Head over to the Bus Companies page on here for more information on any disruption. I’ll try to keep up with what I find but the scale of the problem is too big for someone like myself to cover on our own. Of course, if you can add anything in the comments, then that would be very welcome.

East Cheshire got a deep blanketting of snow overnight and that’s on top of what was there already. Bowers seem to be unable to travel again so there is no 27 or any other of their Cheshire bus services. Macclesfield town services seem to be running with my spotting the 4 and the 10 going about and the 130 is running on some sort of timetable. Cheshire East Council is pulling out its gritting lorries and snow ploughs so there is some chance of road clearance after the amount of snow that I have never seen falling in Macclesfield before. The cold white spell continues and we’ll just have to deal with it for as long as it is around. It might be a good idea to use more appropriate than the shoes that most use on a daily basis; speaking for myself, I have pulled out hillwalking boots for going to and from work with shoes being carried rather than worn.

A Word of Warning: The Real Time Bus Tracker is not so hot when it comes to missing out cancelled bus services. The 27 isn’t running between Macclesfield and Knutsford but bus services are still being shown on there. Well, I suppose that there’s alway room for improvement with everything. Saying that, it would be better if folk weren’t being mislead…