On Trains & Buses

After last year’s big timetable change, I highlighted an inconsistency whereby northbound Virgin and CrossCountry services ran so close together within the hour that we virtually had an hourly service from Macclesfield on Sundays. Well, that seems to have been sorted with a more sensible half-hourly spacing but southbound services would seem to suffer the same affliction on the same day of the week. After the December timetable changeover, things are set to look better but they lapse again in February. All in all, It makes you wonder if these companies speak to each other to improve customer service. Perhaps, we need to voice our concerns.

It’s been a year since this edifice was begun and occasional contributions have sputtered in here from time to time. Though economic conditions have been challenging, there haven’t been too many setbacks for public transportation yet. However, 2010 could see changes with an expected change in the U.K.’s government and what that might bring. Everywhere you care to look, there are sirens wailing about the need for cuts in public spending but let’s hope that doesn’t have to go too far. Largely, bus and train operators do their job well but that will could be tested in the not too distant future. My only hope is that any rough edges already seen won’t become rougher; it would be a pity to lose the progress that has been made over the last few years. Fighting to keep what’s been gained might become unavoidable but let’s see how it goes.

A quick look at Cheshire East Council’s list of bus service changes for October will confirm that southeast Cheshire’s bus network will have a major reorganisation at the end of the month. Places like Crewe, Sandbach, Nantwich and Congleton are seeing the bulk of the action with interurban changes showing the most of the transformation. Of course, your only hope is that no reduction in service quality will result and that’s how it looks to me with BakerBus and GHA increasing their footprints with no mention of Arriva at all and plenty of references to D&G. It would seem that Cheshire’s formerly main operator is but a minor player now. There is no sign of anything planned for November or December but I hope that Cheshire East’s newly refreshed website would be where we would find out about any changes. After all, trying to find out anything from a traffic commissioner website is a dead loss, even if it is they who process all of the supporting paperwork.

Anyone that has ever watched the UK DSA’s DVD on hazard perception in recent years for car drivers might remember a clip showing a man fixated on catching a bus and crossing the road in front of a vehicle without looking. Yesterday morning I was reminded of it while hurrying to catch a bus. It is all too easy to become totally concerned with the fact that the bus is approaching and you have a way to go to reach the stop; that’s never a good thing when there are road crossings to be negotiated. The cure for all this is to leave enough time or you could end up seeing a white van or even the bus that you intend to catch heading in your general direction, never a good thing and that’s how folk get knocked over so you can never be too careful.

My weekend Welsh wander afforded me the opportunity to try out something. Though Arriva’s bus operations in Wales and in the north west of England have been separated for better working with the Welsh Assembly Government, the £15 weekly ticket still applies across both areas. The result was that I gave it a go in order to get between Machynlleth and Minfford for my walking around Cadair Idris and it was accepted without a bother even though it was bought in Cheshire (rather than causing trouble on a bus, I would have paid if it wasn’t and maybe gone and popped a question of Arriva’s customer services afterwards). As far as I am aware, the same does not apply to day tickets so an all areas ticket is needed, costing more than the £4 tariff of the north west day ticket. With the weekly ticket, the added value for money is appreciated.

It seems that there are ample public transport options for exploring the Isle of Man by public transport. The website iombusandrail.info should tell you much of what you need to know. Recently, I made a short visit to the island that I hope will pave the way for other trips and turned up a pile of useful information for such endeavours, naturally including public transport planning stuff as well. It may have rained on the day but I am not so easily put off.

On visits to the Lake District, I have been struck by the cost of bus travel a few times and the £3.55 that I paid for a one-way ticket from Windermere to the Kirkstone Inn was another reminder of thoughts that have crept into my mind before. That was a distance of around 10 km or 6 miles and cost at least £1 more than its equivalent. Day Rider tickets are not so cheap with one for £9.75 covering the whole area and another covering the Central Lakes for £6.60. If the powers that be want to get people out of their cars and onto public transport, then these costs would have to tumble somehow. For a family, I can foresee it all adding up to such a level that the family car remains the cheaper and easier option. Ironically, the same economic pressures that are bearing down on families are also likely to affect public transport so it’s difficult to see how this is going to change, particularly with public spending cuts on the agenda.

That’s how Macclesfield feels right now and it’s been that way for quite a while now, so much so that you get to wondering when we are going to be left in peace again. There are occasional signs of respite with the Churchill Way traffic light upgrade now out of the way and Broken Cross gas works complete. That still leaves a good number of roads blighted by temporary lights and the junction, Chestergate, Chester Road, Prestbury Road and King Edward Street is every bit a victim of invasive excavations with a chicane in place of two-way traffic. That’s a bit tight but buses can still get about it as they ply their routes as usual. You can only hope for an early end to Macclesfield’s “Big Dig” and be thankful for a certain reduction in traffic caused by the downturn but it would be nice if all of this wasn’t happening at once.

A little while back, I ventured that those booking train tickets should considering if they are really going to use whatever seat reservation they might have made and whether it was a waste of time in the first place. Since then, National Express East Coast have done their bit to force rethinks on the subject of seat reservation by announcing plans to charge for them (£2.50 single and £5 return). It’s a controversial move, particularly given the size of fare increases in the last few years, and some of complained publicly about the development. However, if it improves apparent seat availability for hop-on passengers, that may not be such a bad thing and its introduction starts on Sunday.

Given the times in which we are living and the time of year that it is, my sensibilities responded well to a new WordPress theme that has come my way. It certainly got me changing things over and I hope that you enjoy it too. That’s not to say that there mightn’t be a few rough edges waiting to ambush the unwary but my intention is that there shouldn’t be many of them and that I can find them before you do. All in all, replacing the more austere black and white forbear with something brighter just feels right. With all the talk of austerity, I reckon that it is badly needed and let’s hope that bus service provision doesn’t get too curtailed as we make our way though the current difficulties. After all, when all of the woes are extracted from Pandora’s Box, hope remains. That’s never not a bad thought…