A Plastic Seat On A New Routemaster
Not a standard fitting on a new Routemaster, but we were all wondering what this red plastic seat was doing on a 38 bus in this morning’s rush hour.
A Plastic Seat On A New Routemaster
The only thing we could think is that it’s a ruse by Transport for London to get more seats on buses.
Stourbridge And The Parry People Mover
I went to Stourbridge to see the Parry People Mover that is used on the branch line between Stourbridge Junction and Stourbridge Town.
But as the pictures show, I also found a well-thought-out solution to the problem of how do you create an integrated transport hub in a town.
It was one of the first bus interchanges I’ve found outside London, where if you’d been dropped to get to X, you could have found the way without asking anybody.
One thing the pictures don’t show, is that on both trips the number of people on the train was more than you generally see on the Class 153 between Ipswich and Felixstowe.
I would also recommend the Coffee Collective. It is a short walk from the bus station and is obvious, when you exit the subway.
But having ridden in the Parry People Mover or Class 139, what do I think of it?
The first thing I would say, is that if you look at the pictures, you’ll see it is a genuine step-free entrance and exit. A lady pushed a baby in a buggy into the people mover, when I travelled, and it was as easy as any train I’ve ever seen.
You could say, wouldn’t it be cheaper to use a quality bus at Stourbridge to link Stourbridge Junction with the bus station in the town. Obviously, London Midland hasn’t done this. But, when they did this in the past, they brought back the Class 153, so perhaps this connecting train is a great traffic generator for services to Birmingham.
Other than that, it just did what you would expect a train would do and transported the around twenty passengers to the other station without fuss. The vehicle had a feel somewhat like the Docklands Light Railway, although it was a lot smaller.
As it is powered by a flywheel driven by a small internal combustion engine, this type of vehicles could have a range issue, but it won’t be as severe as that of a battery-powered one. In this section on the future of the Class 139 in Wikipedia, this is said.
This will entail an articulated unit, with a pair of PPM60 variants at either end of a fixed passenger unit—the whole unit will be capable of accommodating up to 220 passengers and travelling at up to 60 miles per hour (100 km/h) on railways or 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) on tramways.
If a double vehicle could move even 100 passengers over a distance of fifteen miles, then the branch line I know best; Ipswich to Felixstowe, could be run by such a people mover. It probably isn’t much slower than the Class 153, so it shouldn’t give too many problems with scheduling amongst the freight trains.
Two vehicles would probably be needed for the line, but it would seem likely that the frequency of passenger trains could be increased.
A special version of the vehicle could be designed for tourist branch lines such as the one at St. Ives, with space for bicycles.
How much extra traffic would shiny new trains, running more often, generate?
Having seen this first use of a simple energy-efficient people mover, I think that in a few years time, vehicles based on similar principles will become commonplace. Just as London’s new Routemaster, has shown that buses should be hybrid with flat floors and lots of entrances/exits, we will see a series of rail vehicles, where flywheels or batteries are used to create efficient hybrid drive systems and stylish modern vehicles sized to the traffic.
Eventually, I think we’ll see this type of train on a branch like Romford to Upminster, which is only about six kilometres long and has a speed limit of only 30 mph. If they are the only traffic on such a branch, this would remove the need for electrification. You probably wouldn’t take it down, but you’d switch it off. On the other hand this would make it easier to nick!
But because this type of vehicle doesn’t need electrification or other expensive infrastructure, it also opens up the possibility of adding new services and even lines. Go back to Felixstowe. The town used to have a station at Felixstowe Beach, which is close to the port and still served by the Felixstowe branch. It might at some point be thought to be a good idea to restart this service. It would be so much easier to do this with a vehicle like a Class 139 or a successor.
There are also quite a few heritage and freight-only branch lines connected to the main UK rail network. Could vehicles like this be used to run commercial services to connect passengers to the network? It would all depend on the branch line, but some companies are looking at possibilities.
Once one scheme is successfully up and running, I feel others will quickly follow.
Tottenham Hale Bus Station Opens
The new bus station at Tottenham Hale has opened.
It will certainly be useful as an interchange to get the 192 bus to and from IKEA.
The 76 which passes close to my house, also ends up here.
The Guy Trying To Get To Ipswich Hospital
I know where things are in Ipswich very well, but I have no idea about the buses you get for a particular place.
Earlier in the day, a guy had asked me where he could catch a bus to the hospital. I said I didn’t know, so I pointed him in the direction of the bus station.
Whilst I was waiting for a friend to turn up for supper, I found myself on the main Tower Ramparts bus station. So I looked at this list of buses.
What Bus For The Hospital?
The hospital isn’t mentioned. There was also no-one to ask.
But then I was just walking to the football ground and then afterwards to the train. So I wasn’t bothered.
An Advantage Of A New Routemaster
I often sit in the rearward facing seats of a new Routemaster, by the platform. On my trip to Euston, I needed to change from the 38 I was on, to either a 30,73 or 476 to get to Euston.
The Superb Rear View On A New Routemaster
So by sitting where I was, I could see if one was catching us up. And if one had I would have got off my bus and hopped on the follower.
Unfortunately, one didn’t turn up, so at the Angel, I just dived into the Underground for the two stops to Euston.
When buses get on-board wi-fi, as they inevitably will in the next few years, it would be nice to find out what buses are following, so you could swap, if that was more convenient.
The Night Tube
Transport for London have announced that the Tube will start to run overnight on Fridays and Saturdays from September 2015.
This won’t affect me much directly in Dalston, as my primary method of late night transport at night is either one of the all night buses; 38, 73, 141 and 277, or a taxi.
However, as some of the trains will be running to some of the deeper reaches of the Northern, Piccadilly, Central and Jubilee lines, it could prove useful in the future.
I suspect, it’ll all go pretty well, if my experience of the night bus to Victoria is anything to go by.
Cardiff’s Bus Information
My hotel needed a bus to get to the City Centre, and as I like to use buses if I can, I took a few pictures of the information.
If it wasn’t for a stop outside of the hotel, which showed all buses went to the City Centre, I doubt, I’d have actually managed the buses though. As an example, if you turn up at Cardiff station, there is a long list of buses, which is useless in finding the stop for a particular number bus.
As in many places in the UK, Cardiff buses are impossible to use for visitors.
Buses In West London
I have taken quite a few buses in West London in recent days.
A Rather Tired West London Bus
But I can’t help feeling that the quality of some is not what we would put up with in the East.
The single-decker shown seemed rather tired with only an intermittently working information system and it seemed to struggle its way around. Luckily, I knew I wanted to get off at Ealing Hospital, which although it wasn’t announced by the bus, the hospital was obvious, as there wasn’t another large building with numerous ambulances in front.
Tottenham Hale’s New Bus Station
The bus station attached to Tottenham Hale station doesn’t appear to be far off opening.
It seems the architect has managed to keep the design simple, whilst still looking spectacular.
From what I can remember of the old bus stands in the area, this design appears to make more efficient use of space. Which hopefully, will mean changing buses will be less far to walk.
Click for a map of the new bus station.
The new bus station will probably not make much difference to me, as I only use the bus from here to get to and from IKEA only occasionally.
When they finally open the station at Lea Bridge, I will probably use that a lot more.
Does Sheffield Need A Bus Tram?
Sheffield is an unusual city in the UK, in that it has lots of hills.
On Tuesday night, when I went to Carluccio’s on the Ecclesall Road it meant that I hsd to get a bus, as this was off the tram route, which only has a fixed route through the city.
It was not the easy journey it would have been on the tram, as ordinary buses don’t have enough information on them. So although, I got off in almost the right place, the journey would have been less fraught on a tram.
It looked to me that the Ecclesall Road has a lot of buses, but just as I have locally the route 38, which I nickname the Hackney Tram, would it be better if Sheffield had a fleet of modern buses that had some of the features that tram passengers like, such as information, on-board staff, comfortable seats and disabled access.
This type of operation needs no new infrastructure and you can add and subtract vehicles to the route as required. Buses like London’s new Routemasters may also make lighter work of the hills. I’m not sure of the figures, but I think a good hybrid bus has more acceleration and short-term power than one with a large diesel. Our new Routemasters do have a touch of the Linford Christies.
The Anonymous Widower 