Wednesday, 28 September 2016

Have You Been to Conder Green? [2]

It's All On Line - If You Can Find It


Here we get our first shock.

Only you can't!
The North West Journey Planner
is no longer available.
To be directed to a journey planning service
for the area you are travelling in,
please select from the list below,
thank you:
And here is the list below.



Meanies. Merseyside has a journey planner but ...

... smidgen of hope.



37 minutes, Depart 19:30, Arrive 20:07

We are told the operator - looking better so far.

Kirkby Lonsdale Coaches

Shall we click on "Service Timetable?

Today's Live Departures / Service Timetable

... and utterly useless.



Listen to Roger French, AGAIN.



And Kirby Lonsdale Coaches web site HAS TIMETABLES.
And, with much rejoicing ...
... which it isn't.

More guessing?


If the pub is still open?
Jim assured us that it is!


 More Missing Common Sense - Thursday 29th September 


  1. I sometimes get the feeling that the people behind all of this really want us to become Cybermen (as in Doctor WHO). We will all then do exactly what THEY want, when THEY want, how THEY want. THEY will control exactly where and when we travel (and more) all to suit their computerised system. Which is of course faultless!!!!! Less resources will be needed, costs will decrease, profits rise and little boy blue will get a gold star for having increased profits the most. (That was a bad dream last night!)

  2. I've long since given up on Traveline North West and Lancashire CC as sources of information. If I do feel the need to use Traveline I use either the South East or South West sites, which cover the whole country but in a more user-friendly fashion.

  3. As an aside Compass Bus are taking over the operations of thesussexbus as of 1 October. Details on news section of Compass Bus website.

  4. Computers are great as long as you already know the answer, or at least that there is one!

  5. The national website found the journeys in seconds. It was then possible to get the full timetable, but only for either 89 or 89H separately - it is usually possible to combine routes at the input stage, but perhaps Lancashire's hands off approach to buses extends to Traveline too.

  6. I can't help but feel Fbb is being disingenuous here.

    Traveline NW has never been the best site (in fact, has quite possibly always been the worst). That the local planner has gone is hardly surprising. As suggested by Jim, Traveline SE covers the whole country for journey planning, albeit not for timetables. I have long thought the SE approach should be extended to the whole country.

    Why would Greater Manchester or Cheshire stock a timetable for Lancashire? That is like expecting Tesco to give you a price for a Sainsburys product.

    I presume the choice of timing was accident rather than design - as of course, daytime journeys would have provided the timetable for the 89H (as indeed they do, in remarkably similar format to that used for Go Timetable!). If it was design because Fbb's pal was travelling at that time, why worry about a lack of daytime journeys? It could plausibly be a peak-hours only service, and presumably the designation of hospital-serving journeys as 89H is designed to help the locals.

    Not sure what Stagecoach have to do with this, other than they were a previous contractor, possibly being followed by someone else before returning to Stagecoach.

    I believe Traveline data is usually entered by councils. The withdrawal of support from bus services, the removal of its own timetable leaflets from the website, the poor addition of data to Traveline... it rather seems as though the problem lies with Lancashire CC (Although unlike Traveline SE, the national planner does not list the responsibility for data upload).

    Maybe the next project for GTT should be Lancashire?

  7. I'm sticking up for FBB here! If Traveline SE's journey planner covers the whole country, why can't Greater Manchester's or Merseyside's. Merseyside used to be the promoter of that famous place 'out of county'.
    It's a shame that JP's can't recognise that 89s are like 89Hs and need to be kept together - the common sense argument again.
    The 'too much detail' thing is also a constant irritant. As a foreigner to an area I usually know I want to leave from Knott End and I want the planner to tell me where the bus stops, not the other way round! Journey planners don't work in the way people ask questions: Dear journey planner, which is the best bus stop to get off at for the shops?

  8. Ideally Traveline Southeast would provide access to timetables for the whole country.

    It must *have* the timetables for the whole country - which Greater Manchester perhaps doesn't - since it can plan journeys everywhere. So why not make them available, as it makes them available for the Southeast, Southwest, East Midlands, and East Anglia.

    It seems an artificial restriction, and is nearly as annoying as the silly guessing game with pictures that one has to play before one is allowed to post here!

    Traveline Ssoutheast did at one time say that nationwide timetables were to be added, but they never were.

    Traveline Northwest was certainly never the best of the various Traveline websites, but the *worst* is surely Traveline Northeast. While others make it harder than it ought to be to find a timetable, Traveline Northeast just hasn't got timetables and refers you to the operator.

    Northern Ireland doesn't even have a journey planner which covers all operators.

  9. Anonymous @1551

    Who else provides services in Northern Ireland other than Translink?

  10. There are a handful. Aircoach (ie First) and Bus Éireann both run to Dublin alongside Translink, and Bus Éireann also runs a couple of local cross-border routes.

    Ulsterbus traditionally did not operate west of Derry/Londonderry; services from there into Donegal belonged to Lough Swilly, and so did one of the town services in Stroke City.

    Lough Swilly went bust in 2014, and its routes have all passed to other operators. As well as Ulsterbus and Bus Éireann, that includes independent firms like McGonagle of Buncrana and Foyle Coaches aka North West Busways. No mention of these on any journey planner.

  11. Anonymous @2217
    Thank you. Interesting to note that McGonagle's route fails to show up on the Transport for Ireland website too. Perhaps these cross-border services have a status that isn't recognised by journey planners - after all, Traveline doesn't show Eurolines, Flixbus or any other scheduled service crossing the English Channel.

  12. True enough that it doesn't, but then Eurolines services are intended for pre-booked passengers, just as National Express services are. The same applies to the Belfast-Dublin services.

    But the McGonagle service and a handful of others are conventional bus services. Reservations are not required or even available, you pay the driver and off you go.

    If Scotland ever becomes independent, we wouldn't expect the buses from Carlisle to Gretna, or from Berwick to Eyemouth suddenly to disappear from the journey planners. Similarly, Translink shouldn't really be keeping these services from Derry/Londonderry into Donegal secret just because *it* doesn't operate them.