On Trains & Buses

From next April, North Yorkshire County Council, is planning to axe funding for all Sunday and evening bus services. A consultation is currently in progress that completes at the end of October (I’m just after discovering this on the Dalebus website; yes, I’m late to the party…). Apparently, they are trying to protect the weekday services but it seems excessive to ask if this is a good way to help save £600,000. After all, that hardly is a princely sum, is it?

The now defunct Cheshire County Council tried a similar thing with evening bus services during the 2001-2005 council and the response from the public was such that they largely abandoned their plans. That makes me wonder what those in North Yorkshire have been doing about this and whether those cuts are going to happen in their proposed form. Of course, the parlous state of the public finances are in play now, unlike the early noughties.

Apparently, the council does wish to protect their Monday to Friday daytime network but there is one factor that acts as an exposed flank: most people are at work when those services run. That particularly is the case in a largely urban area but North Yorkshire is very rural and then there’s the age profile of the population. A visit to Skipton a while ago on market day has had me wondering at how many older folk were going around with the aid of walking sticks. This has a part to play too and no one wants to isolate the vulnerable from essential services such as doctors and hospitals. Still, I am left wondering about those late evening appointments and how some would get home from them; would they be able to afford a taxi? Then, there are those who might need to get to and from work in the off time too. What are they going to do if these cuts become reality?

One thing always troubles evening, Sunday and bank holiday services and is the reason why they attract council subsidy: patronage or, rather, the lack of it. Some clearly have no advocates but it will be interesting to see how much agitation the Dalesbus group can muster. Maybe, when the Yorkshire Dales and Moors fill up with cars like other national parks, sense might prevail but only time will tell on that one. For now, it’s over to us users to defend what’s already there and maybe even combine to address any losses.

As for me, I am not sure what it means for those recreational visits to Yorkshire’s countryside. They only ever were recreational and any reduction in travel services is likely to curtail them more. It might be that I have had my fun and will need to cut my cloth according to my measure from now on. With that in mind, I am thankful for the enjoyable explorations that I have done.

A sunny morning was enough to send ideas of improving on my Buxton photo collection into my head and me off on a spot of local travelling. The pondering carried on and designs on traveling to Bakewell came on steam too. They were strong enough to get me picking up a £10 Wayfarer ticket from Macclesfield’s train station before hailing a very full service 58 to Buxton. Much to my surprise, most stayed on it until Buxton itself because I might have expected most to disembark on the way up Buxton Road before leaving Macclesfield.

The day was largely grey by the time that I reached Buxton so no Buxton photos for me then. Inspection of bus timetables sent the idea of going to Ashbourne into my head. After all, it is a part of Derbyshire where I hadn’t gone before and a cloudy day is a chance to see somewhere new. A lack of sun and a chilly breeze were enough to send me onto the next service 42 (like the 58, also operated by Bowers). Along the way, the day cheered up again and I was surprised to see it leaving the A515 for a narrow lane but this was the deviation that serves the pretty place that is Tissington village. That was the only time that it left the A515 until Ashbourne was reached with the terminus being a collection of stances that passes as a bus station.

After spending an hour around a sunny Ashbourne and sampling a little piece of the Tissington Trail, it was onto the last stage of the journey: the 108 from Ashbourne to Macclesfield operated by Clowes with the support of councils in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire. That service left with just two passengers on board but more were to join in Leek and near Bosley so it didn’t stay that empty all of the way. The route stuck with the A52 for longer than might be expected and there were some strange twists and turns before it passed Cauldon to join the A523 at Waterhouses. From there, it was all direct through to Leek and Macclesfield though it started to feel before Leek came into view.

All the buses on which I travelled were well used though none was as full as the Optare Solo that took me away from Macclesfield in the first place. That was the one conveying young families along with the now habitual contingent of bus pass holders and others like myself. In fact, all services were used by both young and old alike with the 42 dropping off some Indians in Tissington.

With its YJ05 registration, the Optare was the newest bus that I used and the age profile of the others was such that they dated from the mid/late 1990’s. Both were Mercedes midibuses that once were common around Macclesfield with a P-reg one operating the 42 and an M-reg one working the 108. Ride on all of these, even the older ones, was better than on some recent journeys between Wilmslow and Macclesfield on Arriva’s 130. In fact, the Clowes bus still retains its welcome sign and seat upholstery from its time in Arriva hands.

All buses operated pretty much to time and the timetables made it all work even when things were being worked out on the hoof rather than being planned beforehand. Now that I have seen how to get to Ashbourne, exploring the countryside surrounding the town is more of a possibility. Who knows what might come of that?

Homeward journeys on the 130 from Wilmslow to Macclesfield have seen me experience jarring rides along the way. That the buses were running late because of heavy traffic would be the best explanation for their being driven in a hurry. After all, these were the penultimate services operated by Arriva but the commercial service offering calls it a day ahead of the council-supported ones that Bakerbus of Biddulph provide; they are far more sedate in comparison to the experiences being related here and recent late departure from the office had me on one, the first time that I had ridden in a Bakerbus since they lost the Macclesfield-Knutsford contract to Bowers (part of Centrebus nowadays). A driver with his mind focused on finishing his shift can have his foot on the loud pedal for much of the time.

Add rough roads and you come away with the feeling that you are being carried in a bone shaker. In fact, that’s how it felt on the 18:46 from Wilmslow on Friday when it was running 10 minutes late. Every imperfection in the A34 around Alderley Edge gave us all a good rattling. While it might be better to have smoother roads, the current public spending environment probably makes that a forlorn hope. The same constraint probably means that the aging Dennis Darts that ply the route of the 130 will remain with us for a while yet and I cannot see Arriva making them ride better though complaining might make them aware of the problem.

Even with tarmac, roads always had their rough patches and riding a bike is as good a way as any to test the quality of a road surface. Every excavation by a utility company leaves behind a bumpy patch no matter how much they protest that they’re doing their best with resurfacing. Add repeated uprootings and a council will need to look at the situation though we’ll need to wait a good while for good kind of attention at the moment.

Until the A34 around Alderley Edge gets resurfaced and we get buses which ride better, drivers might do well to realise that rattling their passengers on the way home is not good for business. Keeping other road users such as cyclists in mind too would be a good thing as an incident on Thursday evening where a cyclist got cut up at one of Wilmslow’s roundabouts. No harm was done apart from having a irate gentleman thumping the side of the bus and shouting. The bus driver simply carried on and I wonder what impression of the bus industry was being given there. Distracted rushing can do harm…

If my journey home took up any more, it nearly might have been faster to walk all of the way. The cause was a spot of bother on the M6 that sent all manner of traffic along the A34 instead. The result was a very congested Nether Alderley with southbound traffic proceeding at less than walking pace; northbound seemed to be doing far better on this score. Surprisingly, Wilmslow was quite clear when I left it and Alderley Edge wasn’t so bad either. When I finally got to Macclesfield, there seemed to be more cars around the town than usual for the time of day though all was free-flowing.

The sight of a Manchester-bound Megabus heading into Wilmslow was a hint of things to come. It must have been displaced from the M6 like so many and the sight of articulated lorry after articulated lorry really brought home the scale of the problem. Small wonder then that the people of Alderley Edge have been demanding the by-pass that now is under construction. Another thing that I was to spot a Co-operative wagon that had pulled up somewhere to very sensibly sit out the logjam. Quite how an ambulance was getting through could only be explained by the sight of flashing lights and the sound of its siren making everyone do the right thing.

Though I had to sit out a long journey, I was glad to be on the bus and not waiting for it. The vehicle wasn’t the largest either and I am not so sure that it is wise for Arriva to be running an Optare Solo at rush hour like it has been doing. Maybe, it’s the advertising for the Cheshire East bus tracker that is the reason but I still consider it best to run bigger buses at peak travel times.

Nevertheless, I do wonder at the wisdom of my deciding not to cycle to work this morning. Yes, the weather did look less than enticing but it stayed dry all day. Even reprising yesterday evening’s sun-blessed route around by Mobberley, Great Warford, Marthall, Chelford and Monk’s Heath would have taken considerably less time than this evening’s allegedly more direct journey. Even so, that’s food for thought for the future now.

Alternative ways of getting travel tickets have become normal for the airline industry over the past decade and I suppose that the approach was bound to be adopted by other modes of transport too. Possibly inspired by Megabus, National Express and Scottish Citylink have been selling electronic tickets over the web for a while now. In my case, quite a number of trips to and around Scotland have made good use of being able to print out the tickets at home rather than waiting for them to arrive by post. In fact, getting things through the ether of the web has made many a last minute escape a reality.

All of the while that I have been enjoying speedy ticket delivery through my PC, others have been making good use of mobile phone ticketing. On a weekend visit to Fort William, I spotted damp weekend explorers wondering if they had enough mobile phone battery power to show the driver the tickets for a return to Glasgow. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe that National Express does likewise though I cannot anyone actually proffering such a thing on alighting one of their coaches.

More recently, Arriva started experimenting with mobile phone tickets on its buses. The initial pilot must have been successful but it has extended to all parts of their network now with Cheshire having them too. To use the facility, it might be best to have a so-called smartphone in order to go down the mobile electronic route. A recent acquisition of a Blackberry in advance of a change of job set me up nicely. Also, that change of working circumstances means that I need to stick with Arriva for the daily commute when I am not using a bicycle to do the honours. With the latter set-up, I was going to work my way through many weekly tickets. They may make useful bookmarks afterwards but there’s only so many of those that anyone needs.

It was the prospect of cutting down on paper detritus that drew me to giving mobile tickets a go. You can choose daily, weekly or monthly tickets and I chose the middle option for a first trial. There is a need for website registration that sends a message to your phone for verification and a PIN for using the service too. That’s a necessity when you are drawing funds from a credit card to pay for any tickets that you buy; just get rid of that original message for more security. An application was added to my phone to do the required ticket acquisition. Unlike buying a ticket on a bus, you can buy ahead of time and activate on first use so there is no need until the day when you need it at all. Mind you, you do need to keep your phone in working order and I wouldn’t like to be stood in an area where mobile phone signal is weak either. Apart from that and a need to have everything set up in good time, it seems to work so far and I might even go for a monthly ticket next time because of the savings, a rare thing in the world of bus travel. If things continue as they are, the era of paper weekly tickets and their red seals might be behind me. Of course, only time will tell if that comes to pass.

Update 2010-08-03: This morning my Blackberry crashed minutes before the bus appeared so a paper ticket was needed; the Opera Mini browser was to blame and reinstallation (bookmarks needed manual restoration, though) was the cure. Otherwise, there have been some frantic moments trying to get the ticket on screen in time but no driver has rejected the electronic item. In summary, the dalliance with mobile ticketing worked well most of the time. From now on, it might be an idea to start closing down applications on the handheld device instead of suspending them in order to avoid problems.