Sheffield’s Information-Free Buses And Trams
I chose the Leopold Hotel, as it was in the centre by a tram stop, which made it easy to get to and from the match at Hillsborough. It also meant that to get to the hotel from the train, I just went to the tram stop and used my Freedom Pass to go a few stops up the hill.
But when I arrived at the stop, all it had was details on the tram route. But there was no sign of any local map. As I’d spotted the hotel from the tram before it stopped, I just walked a few metres down the hill and round the corner.
I had planned to have an early supper with an old friend, at the new Carluccio’s on Ecclesall Road. He’d said I’d needed to get an eighty-something. So I walked and found this bus stop.
The World’s Most Useless Bus Stop
Note that is says “Buses Do Not Stop Here on the sign. It didn’t have any information that a visitor might like to use to get to the Ecclesall Road. There was no information and nobody around to answer my question.
I eventually walked a couple of hundred metres the other way and found a guy, who told me that any bus from a particular stop went down the Ecclesall Road. The queues incidentally at the stop was manic, mainly because the ticketing system required many to give money to the driver. As usual I had to put my Freedom Pass down and pick up a printed ticket.
And when I did get on a bus, there was no way, I could tell where I was, as it was a silent bus. Luckily, I knew roughly, where I was going and I knew there was a Waitrose on the corner of Ecclesall Road. But I still ended up walking further than I wanted.
At least I could read the name on the bus stops, but how do the visually-impaired manage?
The bus wasn’t that full for the rush hour and that helped me look out. But I still had to fight my way to the front to get out.
If ever a city needed London’s bus spider maps and cash free buses it is Sheffield. How many more passengers would they get, if the buses and trams were organised with the same objectives as London in mind?
But the worst thing about the buses, was coming back from Ecclesall Road was that the buses seemed to have stopped running.
In the end I had to pay £6 for a taxi.
How visitor-friendly is that?
At least when I need to go to Sheffield in the future, I now know that unless I’m going to somewhere near a tram stop, the best course of action will be to stay at home.
Match Eight – Wigan 1 – Ipswich 2
This match was expected to be played on Saturday the twentieth, as my ticket showed.
A Ticket With The Wrong Date
But Sky decided to show the match and a few weeks ago, it was moved to Monday the twenty-second. It was actually better for me as it meant I could go to Millwall to see them play league leader; Forest, with a friend.
So as it was Monday night and there were no trains back to London from Wigan after the match, I decided to go to see a friend in Liverpool University and stay the night in the Second City. Partly, this was because there was no acceptable hotel in the centre of Wigan. I would have thought, that given the Orwellian connection, that a decent hotel at Wigan Pier might be a goer. Even a Premier Inn at Wigan Pier would have a certain ring to it.
One point to note for all those living in London, is that I purchased my Liverpool Wigan return ticket on Sunday from the machine at Dalston Junction station.
My Liverpool Wigan Tickets
It cost me £5.20 with my Senior Railcard, which is the same price as that on-line from the Northern Rail website. But it is so much less hassle, as you get the tickets at the time you purchase. It’s fascinating to see how old-fashioned ticketing machines are fighting back against the Internet. Although of course, these new ticket machines on the London Overground, are effectively on-line terminals using the Internet to make a purchase.
I’d incidentally bought my First Class ticket to Liverpool from Euston on Virgin for £25.10 a couple of weeks ago. The guy opposite me paid £41 buying the night before. I know I have a Railcard, which cuts my price from £37.65. But my companion only paid a few pounds more booking the night before.
As we got tea, soft drinks and a snack, it just shows what good value some of these First Class tickets are.
I arrived at the match at Wigan about seven after taking a taxi from Wigan North Western. The welcome was its usual friendly one at the stadium and the bag check was an intelligent one. Inside, supporters of both sides weren’t that numerous.
A Sparse Crowd At The Match
But then the match was on Sky. This was Ipswich’s third time this season, so let’s hope it boosts the crowd at Portman Road.
I left the match a few minutes early, so I could be sure of getting a taxi back to the station. In the end a call to a taxi on 01942-242424 brought one immediately, so I had quite a few minutes to wait for my train to Liverpool. But as it was the last one at 22:03, I just had to catch it. Hopefully, when the electrification is complete, one of the benefits will be later trains connecting Liverpool, Manchester, Blackpool, Preston and the stations in between.
Perhaps too, Wigan Athletic could think of improving the transport to and from the ground. The taxis weren’t expensive, but finding one can be a problem, as the first driver told me. He incidentally gave me the number of a rival company to get back to the station.
I suspect that there is a walking route from a bus stop near the ground. It should be indicated at the station. And where is the Wigan version of London’s bus spider map at the station?
As it was the match was a fair result, as I agreed with a fellow Ipswich fan on the train back to Liverpool. He only has limited vision and was escorted to the match by his guide dog; Trigger., who I’d met in 2010 at Crewe. Apparently, Trigger gets a very good welcome at the DW Stadium.
Could London’s Passenger Counting Technology Look For Non-Payers?
I took another trip on a crowded 141 bus today and it had the passenger counting technology on board.
Passengers were fascinated and obviously some were using it to determine whether to go upstairs.
It struck me that as those entering the bus have to touch-in, by correlating this with spaces, it might be possible to determine how many passengers hadn’t touched-in.
It wouldn’t actually identify them individually, but by simple arithmetic it could probably identify routes with the highest levels of non-payers.
So if a particular area on route XX showed a high-level of non-payers, that is obviously where you send your inspectors.
European Train Booking Is Going Backwards
I am only a simple man, but I do know what computer software can do. And often it’s very complicated and works well!
In this post, I describe how I meandered all the way from East London to Yeovil using several trains. What complicated things was that I wanted to go via Littlehampton to see a Thomas Heatherwick-designed cafe. But I ended up with a complicated route from National Rail’s web site and I bought the tickets without difficulty.
So you’d think that if we navigate round our maze of lines in the South of England, then buying a ticket to most major cities in Europe should be a single transaction.
With Paris and Brussels it’s easy, if you go to the Eurostar web site and you just pick your train, pay your fee and then print the ticket.
I have a friend, who I see regularly, who lives near Lausanne. It’s a seven hour journey with a seventy minute change in Paris, so it’s not a short journey, but buying a ticket on Eurostar is as easy as buying one for Paris. Eurostar’s web site, also tells you how to get across Paris.
It’s pretty easy too, to buy a walk-up ticket for Paris in say Geneva and I’ve done it a couple of times.
As it’s a long journey back to Blighty, I usually give myself a couple of hours in Paris to have a good lunch or dinner before taking the Eurostar home. No-one in London, makes crepes like Cafe Breizh
But basically, getting to and from Switzerland by train, is as easy as going say from London to Inverness.
Let’s suppose that you want to go somewhere closer than Switzerland, like The Hague. Obviously, as Switzerland isn’t in the EU and The Hague is, you’d think that the Dutch capital would be the easier journey to book.
But whereas you can book to most large Swiss cities,you can’t book to The Hague.
A few years back, I booked a Eurostar ticket to Any Dutch Station. But this was discontinued!
Now you have to buy a ticket to Rotterdam and then fight your way through the Dutch ticketing system to get to The Hague. Five years ago it was much better.
Buying tickets to places like Berlin and Munich, is not much better either.
If the French, Belgians and the Swiss can get it right and probably up to the same standard as our system, why can’t Dutch and the Germans? The Dutch were even more integrated five years ago!
I’m sure if the best of the British, French and the Swiss had been put in charge of developing a full system for Europe, you’d be able to login to Eurostar, type in any station in Europe and get given a choice of routes, for you to select one.
No wonder the management of the EU is in such a mess!
The Orange Tickets Fight On
It’s the first time, that I’ve noticed it, but this orange rail ticket, I bought at Kings Cross on Saturday has one of those square bar codes.
The Orange Tickets Fight On
As you can see it wasn’t used by any ticket inspector to get to Rutland, as one used a Mark 1 pen and the other some stamp.
It just shows how the original ticket was such a good design from 1986.
I suspect that the basic design of the ticket will outlive me, by a good few years.
There Are Some Honest People In This World
A couple of months ago, I lost my little ticket folder, which contains a credit card, my Freedom Pass and Senior Railcard on a 38 bus.
Imagine my surprise today when I got an e-mail from someone claiming to be at the Transport for London, that they had found it and would I go to Baker Street to collect something.
Could this be my little folder?
It was and it cost me just four pounds to get it back.
I only actually need the folder, as I’ve replaced all the cards.
A Good Score Draw For The Overground’s Ticket Machines
I wrote here about how I bought my ticket to Reading using the machine at Dalston Junction, rather than on the Internet.
Yesterday at about 17:00, I bought my ticket for Ipswich, that I used today.
And I paid the same price, as I would have done on the Internet.
But I didn’t have to go through the rigmarole of entering an 8-character code to get my tickets.
So I think the machine got a good score draw today.
On Line Rail Tickets Aren’t Always Cheapest
I’m going to Reading today to see Ipswich play Reading at the Madejski Stadium. It is one of the easiest out-of-town stadia to get to, as there is a bus service from the main Reading station.
I live about a ten minute walk away from Dalston Junction station on the Overground.
They have recently updated the ticket machines there, so you can buy any point to point ticket for use on the day or the next one after 16:00.
So yesterday, I would my ticket for Reading today at Dalston Junction station. As I have a Freedom Pass, which gives me free travel to any station within the Zone 6 Boundary, I was able to buy a ticket from the machine that took me from the Zone 6 Boundary to Reading. Previously to this clever machine appearing on the Overground, the only way to buy this extension ticket was to go to a Ticket Office and queue for often twenty minutes or so.
Zone 6 Boundary to Reading Ticket
The ticket cost me £7.40 with my Senior Railcard.
That seemed cheap to me, so this morning I looked at the First Great Western web site, to see how much they’d charge.
It would have cost me £11.70.
Was the ticket machine programmed by a senior citizen with a Freedom Pass or just somebody, who understood how holders of such passes think and behave!
I suspect though that over a season buying my London to Ipswich tickets at an Overground station, might save me nearly a hundred pounds.
The only problem for some people will be that their local Overground or Underground station doesn’t have these new ticket machines.
But as they are so comprehensive and surely every non-London ticket sold is revenue to Transport for London, it can’t be long before these are the universal ticket machines in London.
The only thing they don’t do is to issue Oyster cards, which is probably not needed, as they will probably not be needed for ticketing at some point in the next few years.
I Lost My Freedom Pass
Two weeks ago my small ticket wallet with my Senior Railcard, John Lewis credit card and Freedom Pass.
I went down Liverpool Street station immediately and for a tenner, I got a replacement railcard and I just phoned my credit card company to replace that.
But for the Freedom Pass was much slower to get a replacement. I phoned 0300 330 1433 and they gave me a reference and an address to which I should send the tenner.
My cheque has now cleared, but I haven’t received the new pass.
I have been travelling around London recently tracing the Goblin Extension, so every day I have had to buy a Zone 1-6 Travelcard at £8.90 or because I have a Senior Railcard at £5.90. I do have an Oyster for emergencies and I’ve used that at times.
The money isn’t the problem for me, although it could be for some.
But to get a discounted Travelcard, I can’t just go to the ticket machine at Dalston Junction, I have to go to the Ticket Office. It’s not a real pain, but yesterday, I had been to my doctor’s to pick up a prescription and so used Haggerston station to buy my ticket, which was very slow, as they were having all sorts of problems with the gates and lifts, so the staff were otherwise engaged.
One problem I have with cashless buses, where you must use a card, is that I have no contactless credit card, as my providers don’t issue them. So I have to travel with a spare loaded Oyster card to get me home on the bus.
These last few days have been quite an inconvenience.
It would be a lot worse, if I lived some distance away from a station with a Ticket Office.
There should be somewhere, where you can go to get a replacement Freedom Pass and the replacement system should be able to respond faster.
Why Not Use Peer-To-Peer To Fund Your Annual Season Ticket?
This sounds like a classic application of peer-to-peer lending, where you use a loan to finance an annual season ticket. Paying for a season ticket in one go, has advantages in that you can buy a Network Rail Goad Card too!, outlined here.
Obviously, you will need to get your finances right but a web site called Commuter Club, thinks it’s worthwhile doing.
The company has also got a write up in the FT.
The Anonymous Widower 