On Trains & Buses

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…

This morning, the first 130 from Macclesfield to Manchester of which I know was the 09:45; anyone waiting for anything due after 08:00 (and maybe before that again) was in for a very cold wait even if the real-time bus tracker suggested otherwise. It’s at times like these that you get to question a company’s choice of bus depot location; the 130 is run from Manchester. Last night was so cold that ice could be seen on the inside of that bus! Bollington buses (Arriva service 10) had ice on the outside but noting ice on the inside and it thawing on top of you is something else.

No Bowers service is running and that includes service 27 between Macclesfield and Knutsford (the bus tracker might suggest otherwise, though) along with cross-boundary services like the 58 between Macclesfield and Buxton. Having been on one of those on a very snowy day before Christmas (the A537 looked forbidding in the snow and the fog), it looks as if it must be atrocious over in Chaple-en-le-Frith. A full thaw is more than a week away so it’s hard to see things moving much before then but I am open to pleasant surprises.

All in all, these are the effects of an arctic Christmas and New Year so it’s a case of getting out sensible footwear and taking it easy. Others may want to ignore nature and remove the white stuff while it still is grippy but my outdoors sensitivities don’t play to that gallery and anything that you can grip is better than a smooth icy surface. It’s only when there’s a freeze-thaw cycle in operation or a serious danger of elderly broken bones that you’ll find me taking evasive action like breaking ice or heading for the grit container with a shovel. Some say that modern buses are not so tolerant of cold weather but they run well much of the time in adverse conditions. It’s only extremes that cause the sort of disruption that I experienced this morning and more snow is due this evening.

Update: The 27  and the 300 (Knutsford town service) were supposed to be running in the afternoon but I cannout vouch for that myself.

A quick trip to the National Rail website reveals that it has undergone a marked change in appearance. Of course, it’s the algorithm that does the journey planning that really matters and only time will tell on that score. Even with just an initial look, I already have noticed one omission and it’s something that I have used a lot. The feature in question is the ability to find either the first or last journey of a given day by selecting from a drop-down box. It was something that I found very handy when planning day trips. Getting the same information is now going to be less slick so this is a step backwards. It may not have been a feature that many used and there is a workaround so it looks as if I’ll have to get used to a new way of doing things. Even so, it is a pity to have lost it.

Update: The facility is still there, albeit not where I would have expected to have found it. For what it’s worth, it’s in the leaving/arriving menu.

Last weekend saw me take the Caledonian Sleeper from Crewe to Fort William. After a none too restful return from Aviemore in August, I booked a berth to make sure of a better night’s rest (being able to turn off the lights helps). It wasn’t the first time that I travelled by Sleeper to Fort William and a January 2006 escapade saw me arriving in Fort William feeling reasonably refreshed so I knew that my plans had some form, to use an expression from horse racing. Since that 2006 journey, memories have faded a little and I had forgotten how little floor space there is to be found even in a first-class berth and the corridor wasn’t very wide either. Yes, I did travel first class on both occasions with the second outing costing less than the first with my getting an advance purchase fare the second time around. That’s never to say that it was cheap at £136 so it has to be a once in while extravagance and the standard single ticket is around £184, which is even more forestalling. Even the standard class fare isn’t cheap either and having two in a berth sounds restrictive.

The reason for the title of this piece is that there was more audible noise than I’d expected though it was nothing like the brake roar of a Mark II carriage like the one(s) on which I was travelling when going to and from Aviemore. The carriage in which I was travelling was immediately behind the locomotive on the way to Edinburgh so that may have been part of the reason for this along with the general turning of wheels that is unavoidable. Even so, I did manage to drop off to sleep even if it was to be interrupted from time to time. In keeping with the general lack of space, the bed wasn’t the widest but I discovered a duvet that either remained unfound or was absent on my 2006 trip. That was a bonus on a cold night and put a stop to any recourse to coverage with an outer jacket.

It was beyond Bridge of Orchy that I arose and opened the window blind to be greeted by the sight of snow-topped summits with the sun struggling from its slumber. That awakening was later than in 2006 when I looked out at Tyndrum Upper station and the tops were devoid of the white stuff too so that was one previsualisation put out of its misery. Breakfast duly arrived within a few minutes of the agreed time (included in the fare for first-class and costing extra for standard class) so the pull-down tray shelf allowed me to down the allotted portions while gawping at what lay outside my window. In the event, I was left wondering when the glorious sights were to ease off to allow for ablutions (you get a covered sink in the berth) and collection of belongings but there was to be time for those necessities too.

All in all, it was a good journey and I went out into the frosty Fort William air not feeling the worst for wear after the night’s travelling. If I ever get to do it again, I’d bring earplugs to make getting to sleep easier but you cannot do anything about awakenings caused by jolts as the train changes tracks at a junction. Even so, you do arrive feeling far better than you would after travelling overnight on a coach. On the surface, there are issues with value for money but a look at daytime fares helps to put that in perspective. Travelling mid-week helps too and there are bargain berths if you book ahead, especially if you are starting from London. Even with the cost issue and the fact that there are no Saturday night services, it probably is the best way to travel overnight to Scotland. While you could always fly and avoid overnight travel altogether, you’d miss out on those early sights of the hills and lochs and that has to be better than worrying about environmental consequences and luggage considerations. That the airborne option is not always cheaper either makes it less sensible to miss out on those visual delights.