Thursday, 7 January 2016

Another look at bus journey times around Nottingham

I admit to having a bee in my bonnet about the new City Council Robin Hood 'oyster style' travelcard, which has not got off to a very good start, but I think the politicians know this and want to show willing.

I also think the County Council should be in there with the City, supporting them with money, to make sure the Robin Hood card is the success it can be. 

Not all the bus companies are taking part and I suspect that those who are, are calling the tune, making the card more expensive and geographically restrictive.

I hope the map below is self-explanatory. The usual rule applies. Click on the map to enlarge it.



On Friday 8 January the Nottingham Post ran a front page story about how the tram had reduced bus services in Beeston by '25%'. The story contained a number of errors, including a reference to the 17, which stopped running between Beeston and Toton before the tram started. Its demise came as no surprise to me, but this is not ‘Beeston’ news by any stretch of the imagination — which is why I ignored it. See my blog post from a year ago: http://beestonweek.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/beestons-flying-dutchman-bus-and.html

The Derby Road service (Stapleford Club Class), may have been cut, but Trent-Barton have doubled the frequency of the i4 and YourBus have started the Y4 (following the same route as the i4), so there are now many more buses running along the Derby Road between the Priory and Bramcote islands than there were. How this can be interpreted as ‘a cut’ is beyond me, nor is it really Beeston. It is too far out of the town centre.

The 510 change will be seen positively by folk living on Queens Road, who can now catch a bus direct into Beeston again, after the 36 returned to it original route, once Chilwell Road re-opened. For some this is a good news story. I actually chopped a paragraph from my piece about the 510.

On Saturday 9 January, the Post published a full page by me about the tram and its impact on local bus services. My take was very different and was something I had been invited to write some days ago. 




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