Timetables at Stops

Anyone ever heard of the acronym KISS - keep it simple stupid.  Why can't West Yorkshire PTE and Travel South Yorkshire bear this is mind with their respective at-stop publicity.

We'll do Sheffield first.  I dropped a vehicle off at a garage in Darnall, and beforehand I checked their journey-planner to find out where I needed to go.  I was confronted with a cluster of four bus stops, with no common information at any of them, just the times for the buses that called (and their endpoints).  Do the buses for Fulwood and Millhouses go via the City Centre?  Or maybe via Meadowhall?  We don't know.  I followed my nose in the vague direction of Darnall railway station (an hourly service - totally inadequate) and came to the stop 5 minutes walk away that the frequent route 52 serves.  But one couldn't be expected to know that.

Leeds next, and two screenshots from the main stop on Leeds City Square for buses along Selby Road (Halton, Whitkirk, Colton, Garforth, Kippax).

Too many letters!  The First Leeds 19A timetable has notes A and E on one journey (this is an extra A to the A in 19A) to denote a route variation (to serve the Thorpe Park business park) - quite why two letters are needed to refer to the same service I do not know.  It would seem simpler to me for this journey (and the return in the evening) to be numbered 19B (or 18 or 20, which are vacant), and then to avoid the silly letters completely.  Then again, now that Transdev York serve Thorpe Park half-hourly during the daytime (seven days a week) perhaps First Leeds will either compete or give up?

The Arriva timetable is the biggest mess though.  We have a note (D on one route, E on the other) to advise that customers can board at four preceeding stops on certain services - I would suggest that this is of precious little relevance to people who have walked to this stop and are reading the information.

We then have the last service of the day given notes B and E (in addition to the D as above) of which B denotes terminating at Kippax War Memorial (which is fair enough) and E denotes runs via Kippax Cross Hills (all 163 and 166 buses do this, so no need to highlight it on the last service of the day).  Why does the last service of the day terminate at Kippax when the bus then runs dead to Castleford depot?  Surely it could run in service to the bridge over the River Aire just outside Castleford (Lock Lane) instead?

Anyway.... we have codes G H and sch for a journey that runs via Colton, via Garforth Academy, and schooldays only - this again would be simpler if this route could have another number.

The evening and Sunday route 166 journeys omit East Garforth station (heaven forbid that anyone from Kippax might want to connect with a train to York) as code F tells us - again, if these must observe a different route then surely a different number would be simplest?  Perhaps someone from Arriva could tell us why the residents of the Fairburn Drive estate (which is or was Europe's largest private housing estate so I understand) do not deserve an hourly evening and sunday service?

Numbers 164 and 165 are again vacant - and bizarrely 165 used to be used for one of the evening routes - so perhaps someone will see sense.

The real complaint over this timetable though is the lack of the Saturday evening service on routes 163 and 166, which does in fact run along the same lines of the other evenings.  WY Metro please get this corrected.  I still prefer the 'information' given in the West Yorkshire timetable to the mediocre effort made by SYPTE.

Not the Wright Way to Reverse

How many people have looked at one of the recent (past 5-ish years) products of WrightBus of Ballymena and thought that they have a defective reversing light.  I did, until I realised with horror what was actually going on.

Yes, this vehicle has only one reversing light (lower nearside, fairly standard I'd say).  The white lens at the lower offside contains a red-coated bulb, and is the rear foglight.

So why is this a problem?  Cars have had red or orange bulbs shining through clear lenses for many years.  The problem is that in many bus stations and bus garages across the country, you will see signs "reversing buses have priority" which is completely at odds with Highway Code Rule 202 which essentially obliges the reversing vehicle to give priority to any other vehicle or pedestrian.

Yet in these bus stations and bus garages across the country, bus drivers (following the instructions and policy they are obliged to) put a vehicle into reverse, release the handbrake and move backwards - all other buses being expected to be aware of this and give way to the reversing bus.

How does one know whether a bus is moving backwards?  Any reversing light being lit.  Conversely, a reverse light that isn't illuminated implies a vehicle that isn't reversing.  In some layouts and some light conditions, it may not even be possible to see the nearside reversing light anyway.  Also note that many drivers in a particular bus station may not be aware of this bizarre white lens foglight arrangement, as they may be on a different rota (or even from a different company) to the drivers that have been inducted on these Wright vehicles.

I call upon WrightBus to acknowledge with hindsight that these stylish white light covers are dangerous when used within the bus industry, and for them to prepare red lens covers and send to every vehicle with these rear clusters.  The alternative is to put a reversing light bulb and the red fog light bulb inside the same lens (which I am sure is possible) then every angle is covered.

I am of course aware that UK law doesn't infact require any working reversing lights at all - however when Health & Safety is paramount, I think that others need as much information as possible that 12 tonnes of bus is about to reverse into their path.

There is nothing at all wrong with making a mistake (car manufacturers do recalls all the time) - what matters is how this is dealt with.

The photograph I have linked to is from flickr user AndrewHA.

Abandoned Bus Stop in Central Leeds

Hmm. Here is a picture of bus stop 45027893 Leeds eTap hotel. Nice smart stop, kassel kerb, right outside a budget hotel (which is very comfortable, double bed, bathroom, etc etc), as the live departures link will testify, a good selection of services provided by FirstGroup and Arriva. So why is there a black plastic bag over the flag?
  The wording states: STOP SUSPENDED This bus stop is suspended due to a decision by Arriva not to serve it because of issues arising from the (illegible) and safety of this stop. Passengers should use alternative stops at the bus station or the next stop on Black Bull Street. Metro would like to apologise to passengers for any inconvenience caused. What safety issues could be associated with driving off a layby bus stop?

West Yorkshire's Newest Bus Stop

Introducing bus stop 45014758, Guycroft in Otley A brand new bus stop, hasn't been one in this direction in this location before, to my knowledge.

A nice bus stop plate (which some bus stops in West Yorkshire do not have - hail & ride or "both sides of the road"), a timetable case (which again, quite a few bus stops in Yorkshire do not have) and a kassel kerb (which many bus stops in Yorkshire do not have).

What sort of service do we think this gets?  Every ten minutes?  Every half an hour?  Nope, four buses a day, all evening buses, of which one only goes to the next stop, along with two dalesbuses on Sundays.  Perhaps someone from TLC Travel who operate those four services could tell us whether the stop has ever been used?

Rumour has it that authorities across Yorkshire are looking for other virtually disused (and actually disused) bus stops at which they can install kassel kerbs.

In the meantime, I will report when this stop is fitted with a real-time information screen.