Picture Gallery: Some 2024 Observations
24 November 2024
ABOVE: Not part of the Transport for London network but looking very much at home, former London Transport Routemaster RML 2344 (CUV 344C) is now owned by Londoner Buses and is used on its Heritage Route T15 (Tower Gateway to Trafalgar Square, with journeys to Waterloo). It is seen here in Goodman's Yard, near Tower Hill, on a lunchtime trip on Tuesday 9 April 2024.
A selection of pictures and thoughts from across the country that would not justify articles of their own
Bus Stop Information
I'm slightly baffled as to why this Transport for London (TfL) timetable at The Grapes in Hayes, Midlesex (below), can list precise timings for Monday to Friday mornings and evenings (when buses run at least every 11 minutes between 0600 and 0800, and at least every 12 minutes in the evenings), but cannot provide specific times for early weekend mornings when services are less frequent...
I'm also curious to note that someone has taken the trouble to post a notice saying that the timetable in this stop in Silverhill, Hastings, "may now be out of date", rather than putting a new timetable in the stop. And there isn't a timetable in the stop anyway! This was taken on Saturday 27 January 2024, at which point they willl have had 15 months to fit a new timetable!
Which of the two timetables below for route 195, in this stop in South Road, Southall, is the current one? And again, is it really acceptable to record intervals of up to 19 minutes and not give scheduled timings?
SPOILER ALERT: The upper timetable is the correct one!
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It doesn't look like buses from this stop in Ackworth Road, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, go very far, but at least you won't be stranded in the middle of the road!
Unusual Views and Angles
I mentioned in a recent article that my employers have an office in Birmingham. And it's from there that I captured these four buses on Colmore Circus Queensway, on Wednesday 27 March 2024.
Two National Express West Midlands (NXWM) ADL Enviro400 MMCs are visible on the left, with a Diamond Bus Wright StreetDeck Micro Hybrid sandwiched between them. On the right, an NXWM ADL Enviro400 arrives in the city centre with a route 74 service from West Bromwich (with the display already set for the return journey).
BELOW: Transport UK 2497 (YY64 TYV), an ADL Enviro400H MMC still carrying the Abellio branding of Transport UK's previous owner, is the first of three TfL buses in this busy scene at Streatham Station in South London on Saturday 25 May 2024. I wonder whether the bus behind it, which has stopped in the middle of the road, should have waited for one of the other two to pull away before off-loading its passengers?
The bus bringing up the rear is Arriva London HV 284 (LK17 AKU), a Volvo B5LH Wright Eclipse Gemini 3.
Based on the experience of a previous visit to Havant Bus Station, it's quite unusual to see a route 39-branded bus on route 39 (Havant to Wecock Farm)! But, in this mid-evening shot, below, on Friday 7 June 2024, Stagecoach South 36832, a route 39-branded ADL Enviro200, is on its correct route. However, another route 39-branded bus is parked alongside, working route 30 to Hayling Island!
I rather like my photograph below of Arriva London HA42 (LK66 HBL), an ADL Enviro400H City. It has just set out from North Woolwich, on TfL "Superloop" route SL2 towards Walthamstow Central, and is crossing the Sir Steve Redgrave Bridge on Woolwich Manor Way, on Saturday 11 May 2024.
I like the way that the streetlamps are bent over ( a necessity as we're beside London City Airport), as if to create one of those human arches that you get at weddings or when an important person is celebrating a great achievement. How appropriate that would be for Sir Steve, one of Britain's greatest Olympians, who won gold medals for rowing at five consecutive Olympic Games.
Portsmouth's Bus Station is the only one I can think of that can be known by three different names. Officially "The Hard Interchange" (it is thought that The Hard was so-named due to the clay that was deposited on the coastline at low tide which was rolled and dried until hard in order to create a slipway), it can also legitimately be referred to as Portsmouth Harbour / Harbour Station, which is right alongside, or as "Gunwharf Quays", which is a major shopping outlet almost adjacent to the Interchange.
Doesn't matter for now, as the Bus Station, only opened in 2017, is closed at present because of what are being termed as "structural woes". According to The (Portsmouth) News, "the lightweight material which forms the surface [of the Bus Station] was made specially for Portsmouth out of a mixture of expanded polystyrene and other materials". But it has been "plagued by structural woes ... costing the taxpayers thousands to resurface and fill in potholes".
Some of the displaced buses are parking at the nearby St Georges Square, where three First Portsmouth, Fareham & Gosport buses are pictured below.
ABOVE: First Portsmouth 67261 (YX69 NPK, left), awaits a run on route 8 to Clanfield, in the company of two new Wright GB Kite Electroliners. In the background (centre) is St Georges Church Of England Portsea, also known as Harbour Church, Gunwharf.
Ones That Got Away
The bus below is NXWM 1800 (BV57 XFO), a Scania K230UB OmniLink. It is working route 8A, the anti-clockwise direction of Birmingham's Inner Circle route. Like the Outer Circle routes, the 8A & clockwise equivalent 8C, run a loop around the City Centre, in their case around a mile from the Centre. The bus is seen at Spring Hill Roundabout in Jewellery Quarter, north-west of the Centre, on Sunday 16 June 2024.
Having missed this one, I waited for the next one, in nearby Warstone Lane. I didn't care which way I went around the loop, so Warstone Lane was helpful as one could quickly cross from one side of the road to the other, for whatever came first.
But nothing came... The Sunday frequency is every 20 minutes in each direction. But I waited over half an hour, with nothing either way. I checked the map on BusTimes.org, where buses were indicated, but they never seemed to be getting any closer. I gave up in the end - one for another day.
This begs the question as to how long one should wait for a bus for a pleasure ride before giving up? I wanted to ride the hourly X15 from Oxford City Centre to Witney on Saturday 28 September 2024, and the bus turned up at almost exactly the right time (1351). But it was turning short at Southmoor, eight miles / 25 minutes short of Witney. It left at 1349, and a check of BusTimes.org afterwards confirmed that it was actually the 1251, running 58 minutes late.
So would the 1351 be late as well? Yes was the answer, and I gave up after another 40 minutes. But how much longer would I have had to wait for the X15 if I had persevered? Another check on BusTimes.org later indicated that I would have needed to wait around another sixty ... seconds!
The bus stop at St Aldates in Oxford City Centre is also the driver change point for the Oxford Bus Company services that call here, so several drivers were waiting there. I eventually left, just after 1430, on an X1 towards Abingdon and Wantage. When the bus pulled up, no fewer than four drivers all ran over to find out if it was the bus that they were due to take over - thus emphasising that there was something seriously wrong somewhere. When I checked, the bus was running 67 minutes late!
Apparently the A34 trunk road was closed nearby for the weekend, cauing severe knock-on effects in the city. I went back two days later and secured my X15 ride. Nice journey, apart from the restricted view out of the front window...
Not Buses at All...
Not Buses at All...
On the way back from Devon on Sunday 5 May 2024, I stumbled across this Stanier LMS Black 5 4-6-0 locomotive, 44871. Built in 1945, it was one of the last steam locomotives in use at the end of steam under British Railways operation. 44871 was used with 44781 on the Carlisle to Manchester leg of the infamous end of steam ‘15 Guinea’ farewell special on 11 August 1968 (info: The Railway Touring Company). Here it is at Taunton station, still working well at the age of 79!
A few months later, and here is another steam locomotive, this time at London Victoria station, on an excursion replicating the luxury Boat Train "The Golden Arrow". The date of this picture is Thursday 26 September 2024, but I can't identify the actual locomotive. As you might gather, I was leaning on a fence trying to get a view - as were a couple of dozen other people!
And Finally...
Apologies for reusing a picture that I have already published (I try to avoid that, although I occasionaly slip up), but one of my regular readers (there are three or four of you now) has told me more about what I was seeing with what I thought was a rather "pampered pooch" on the Traws Cymru T4 service from Brecon on Friday 20 September 2024 (journey described here). Sounds like the dog was in the pushchair for reasons of necessity rather than reasons of luxury...
"The dog is an elderly Border Terrier", says my reader. "The breed is prone to hip dysplasia, so it’s quite common for them to be conveyed in a pushchair when the condition gets too bad for them to walk any great distance. There are, in fact, such things as ‘dog pushchairs’. I know, because I bought one a few days ago before I read your article in order to carry my dog ... an elderly Border Terrier."
So now I know! See you next time!