Surveying Sensible Swansea (3)

We Go To 2 and 2A, Too

Although the heading says its terminus is Newton, the last time point is Slade Road. Is that the same place? Even more confusing is the inbound route which seems to have some extra point times.

Note that outbound the Oystermouth stop is at "Castle" whist inbound it is Mumbles Oystermouth Square. Is that the same as just plain Oystermouth Square?

But then we turn to the much better timetables accessed via (helpfully) the "route maps" link; and we find outbound buses now terminating at ..

... Picketts Mead (W) and, again, the inbound timetable ...

... showing different point times inclusiyng Oystermouth Square. There is now no mention of Slade Road.

On Sundays it is a 2A ...

... to Bracelet Bay ...

... with nary a mention of Picketts Mead or even Slade Road.

What's going on?

Does the map help?

Possibly, but we need a closer view - well fbb does, anyway!

Immediately we can glean that Picketts Mead is the same as the Newton of the timetable heading and we cam guess that Slade Road is somewhere in that estate.

But we can also see that, despite a lack of acknowledgement on the inboard leg of both versions of the timetable, the Monday to Saturday 2 does call at Bracelet Bay. But First Bus aren't telling!

Furthermore, the 2/2A map doesn't mention Oystermouth at all, Castle or Square. Oystermouth Castle is a very unimpressive red dot!

In fact 2/2A buses turn right just before the "Square" to a stop called Newton Road on Google Maps.

There's the Castle, top left.

And, while fbb s unravelling mysteries, there is no such place as Picketts Mead! The time point is at a small piece of public open land ...

... called Picket Mead (one "t" and just one Picket!) conformed by a local web site campaigning to maintain the Mead more carefully and thus keep it tidy!

So, although the timetable presentation is apparently better that the usual First Bus web site offerings, it is less than adequate at correctly informing the potential passenger.

Here is how the outbound time points should be shown. Outbount runs all the way TO Bracelet Bay ...

... and in bound from the realistuc start of the loop.

Snd the good news for all sun lovers is that Blackpill Lido (is it Lie-doh or Lee-doh?) opes on 4th May!

Whilst the presentation of the timetables is better in the "route maps" section, there is still too much evidence of weak thinking in the detail. Far too often the public timetable is based on a computer driven output from scheduling software with very little thought for what the user needs.

Swansea is therefore better in parts, notably where First Cymru strays from "official" web site standards, but could be even better!

But how was it in National Bus Company days?

 Next Swansea NOT Simple blog : Thurs 25 Apr 

Surveying Sensible Swansea (2)

It Seemed A Good Idea At The Time

In 2017 bus routes to The Mumbles (area) were flashed yellow and (possibly) branded "Metro".

Basically there was a 2 & 2A mixed up with a 3 & 3A with different destinations on different day sets, usually evenings and Sundays, Because of the yellow colour on the old map it is too much of a challenge for fbb to try and sort them out, especially without the timetables that have long since been replaced.

But, to save you much investigation, the routes that replace the Mumbles Railway ...

... are still the 2 & 2A, 3 & 3A in 2024 - although there have been a myriad changes since 1960 when the train (it is NOT a tram!!) closed.

So because the route along the sea front is one travelled by fbb, the old man thought it would be a good basis for examining First Cymru ("Swansea") buses in detail.

And So To The First Cymru Web Site

It follows the same pattern as every other First Bus web site but the Google headline entry for Swansea does at least encourage you to get to what you want to know rather than ploughing through acres of stuff you don't want to know.

We have already seen that the PDF timetables are appalling, but what about the "front line" presentation?

fbb will start with the current 3 and 3A; chosen because they are changing at the beginning of May.

Well, here we have route 3 from Swansea to Bracelet Bay ... 

... and return.

Then we have separate tables for the 3A, also Swansea to Bracelet Bay ...

... and return.

The 3A has two extra time points at West Cross (Shops) and Moorside Road, but otherwise looks much the same.

So why are they two tables for what is two parts of the same service?

The super smashing good news is that First Cymru offers individual route maps for lots of their services - maybe ALL of their services; fbb has not checked them all!

On the current route map, the 3A is a paler version of the 3's bright red. 

If we enlarge the Mumbles area ...

...we see that the 3A diverts via West Cross, which warrants a look on Google Maps.  

The estate appears to be of 1960s vintage, with a co-op ...

... a church ...

... and lots of 1960s style semis.

But what is slightly baffling web-site-wise is that when you go to "route maps" as per the headline page as shown above, the first thing you find is a timetable. 

What is more, it is a well presented timetable showing both the 3 and the 3A together.

How very sensible!

The 3A runs via West Cross which we have experienced above, but the 3 manages to get to Bracelet Bay ...

... without calling at Oystermouth Square!

Bit never mind, eh? It does stop there on the way back,

Maybe someone has built  flyover since Google Streetview was there?

Or maybe the nice timetable, much admired by fbb, is actually WRONG!

But, from May 6th, the 3/3A is changed for the better and for the simpler!

Everything becomes a 3A; and West Cross gets a half hourly service (which it probably had in 2017 with the 2/2A).

And, joy of Oyster joy, it does now call at Oystermouth Square in both directions.

It is worth recording that the old 3/3A calls at the University (fbb remembers the hours of utter tedium enjoying the debate on consolidated motions - NOT!) ...

... and Singleton Hospital ...

... as per the old map.

... so does the new 3A.

That loop will become important when fbb explores the 2/2A in tomorrow's blog.

The excitement knows no bounds.

 Next Sensible Swansea blog : Weds 24th April 

Surveying Sensible Swansea ??

 

In yesterday's blog, fbb was pleased to recognise that First Cymru ...

... had not been tarnished by the dreaded "AI" timetables. Indeed you would be hard pressed, unless you knew, to see any evidence of First Bus in the city.

The red is very striking compared with the old days ...

... or the older days ...

... or the much older days ...

... or the very very old days.

Indeed the last bus fbb rode upon in Swansea was a dark red one trundling from the University to Mumbles Pier. He was a student at Sheffield Uni and attending a very boring National Union of Students annual conference.

The time before that it was with dad on one of these!

From fairly basic publicity after First took over from  SWT ...

... we progress to today's "Swansea" branded red-themed PDF files ...

... advertised "for download".

Does this mean printed copies are no longer available? It is not clear from on-line information and fbb will not be travelling to South Wales to find out. Please contact the old bloke ...

fbb@xephos.com

... if you have local information.

However, the current service 4 in Firsts's standard web site timetable format is a poor quality badly laid out version of the 4 with meaningless numbers and cluttered time points.

And it only tuns every 20 minutes. But maybe we can glean more information from elsewhere in the web site. Ot maybe there is a network maps to help us.

First Bus have an excellent network map on line ...

... bit it is dated 2017 so perhaps may not be completely reliable or accurate!

Alas, there is no full network map on-line within the current internet collection of First Cymru stuff!

fbb will investigate more tomorrow when the time constraints of yesterday will be removed and he can do a better job of exploring the wonders of First Cymru on line.

Meanwhile ...

A Puzzle

This appeared on-line with no attribution and no answers. Can you identify the London Underground stations from the visual clues given?

fbb cannot make out No 20 either! It might be a bridge?

Please Note :

Due to time pressure this blog has been abbreviated. Other preparation needed the old man's priority attention. Normality should return tomorrow.

 Next Sensible Swansea blog : Tuesday 23rd April