Day two started with breakfast at
Tiffany’s. We were uninspired by the
prospect of a Royal Albion fry-up, and worried about being swept up into a sea
of coach parties and being whisked away for an inadvertent tour of Eastbourne -
even if it would include a visit to Beachy Head, a cream tea and a nice sit
down on the prom.
So we checked out of our regal
accommodation and set off under Keith’s guidance in the direction of some local
cafes that he had scouted earlier in the morning.
Along the way, we paused to admire Brighton
& Hove’s new travel shop in North Street.
This really is an object lesson in how to present public transport in a
positive, welcoming way. Featuring a spacious,
bright interior with plenty of information on display and advisors on hand, and
situated right in the heart of Brighton’s shopping area, this outlet really
brings public transport into a modern retail setting.
Further along the road, you might be
forgiven for thinking that Brighton & Hove is not the only bus company to
realise the importance of a strong retail presence…
Keith’s scouting trip had identified
several possible candidates for breakfast, but the pictures of old buses
hanging on the wall of Tiffany’s were clearly the clincher. The friendly, helpful server was coping
manfully despite running the whole show on his own having been let down by his
business partner (“she’s still in bed, the lazy cow”).
He also had no change, and just to prove
that the bus industry is not unique, several customers were sent to a shop next
door to get change – although at least he didn’t refuse to cook their breakfast
until they did so, or try to give them a change voucher. In several cases, the problem was overcome
simply by negotiating the price of breakfast to the nearest round number.
During breakfast we were again able to
impress the locals with our ability to cover every available piece of furniture
with maps and timetables and soon decided that the next stage of our adventure
would be in the hands of new local independent theSussexBus.com – one of
several companies to emerge following the demise of Countryliner in late 2012.
Brand names ending in .com were fashionable
in the so called “dot com bubble” of the late nineties when – by coincidence –
virtually all of theSussexBus.com’s fleet was manufactured.
Branding a nineties fleet with a nineties
brand name is of course a genius attempt at creating a heritage fleet without
anyone noticing.
If you buy a Bristol something-or-other
from the fifties, paint it green with a cream stripe down the side and apply
any fleetname in a suitably florid typeface, everyone can see what you’re up to
straight away. Drop words like “Tilling”
and “superintendent” into the conversation and you need a drip tray for all the
dribble hitting the floor as grown men are reduced to gibbering toddlers.
Replace fifties with nineties and write
“.com” on the side and you’ve done exactly the same thing with Dennis Darts. And
you don’t even need a drip tray. Well
you do, clearly, because they’re Dennis Darts so they will routinely leak from
every orifice but at least that’s what the drip tray is designed for.
For proof that I’m on to something, look no
further than the fact that theSussexBus.com is associated with a coach company
called – guess what – Heritage!
The P-reg Dart that picked us up for a ride
on the 40 to Haywards Heath even had period moquette – a red chequered pattern
of a design commonly found on Plaxton dealer stock buses in the late nineties.
But one thing to be said about
theSussexBus.com is that they ooze enthusiasm.
The website – while doing its best to stick to the design principles of
the late nineties – is packed full of useful and interesting information and
they seem to have the customer very much at the heart of their thinking – an
approach which of course endears me to them immediately. Our driver lived up to the image – helpful
and friendly, if slightly haphazard.
All was going superbly until we reached
Burgess Hill town centre when the air system on our Dart decided that one
morning’s work without a failure was too much to expect (this is an attitude
shared by air systems on Darts everywhere) and the doors failed.
After much forelorn prodding of the “open”
and “close” buttons, and with a short queue of nice old ladies waiting outside
wondering why they couldn’t join the rest of us on board, our driver called for
medical advice.
As he jumped out of the cab it became clear
that what he made up for in enthusiasm he lacked in height, and when the fitter
on the other end of the phone asked him to access the door controls situated in
a locker above the door, we could see
ourselves being there a while.
Sadly for the step ladder industry in
Burgess Hill, our Keith spotted the predicament and raced to the rescue, and
with the driver relaying instructions and the much taller Keith twiddling the
pressure control, within seconds the doors were operational again. As our fourth emergency service returned
jubilantly to his seat (he is, after all, a very nice man), the elderly gent
sat across the aisle enquired if he would be available to ride round on all
their buses, all the time!
Meanwhile the heritage theme continued as I
was descending into nostalgia. The route
of the 40 is almost identical to the all stations rail replacement route from
Brighton to Haywards Heath – for no particular reason that I could tell you, my
favourite of the many rail replacement routes upon which I have worked.
I hadn’t worked this route since 2007 so
for me it was an “all my yesterdays” trip down memory lane. At that time the newly created Go South Coast
– with me in charge of the eastern front as Area Director for Solent Blue Line
and Southern Vectis – was heavily involved in providing buses for Southern
Railways weekend rail replacement.
When the Brighton main line was being dug
up, the A23 between Crawley and the coast resembled an episode of Wacky Races, with double deckers of
every shape and colour being fired off from each end every few minutes for the
non-stop journey.
But for the more discerning driver, the
opportunity was often available to borrow a coach from the newly acquired
Marchwood Motorways, and work the slow road from Three Bridges to the
English Channel, taking in Balcombe, Haywards Heath, Wivelsfield, Burgess Hill,
Hassocks, Preston Park and Brighton.
A certain amount of smugness was called for
as most drivers from our neck of the woods didn’t know the all stations route
and it was nice to have one up on them.
It must be said my smugness diminished slightly the day a gentleman
decided to count to two in his trousers on a particularly hot day with the
heating stuck on in my coach. And then
after getting the coach cleaned out and virtually fumigated, he did the same on
the way back. But that’s a story for
another day.
Back to the present day, and our arrival in
Haywards Heath was enlivened by the sight of an Ikarus DAF SB220 still in full
Wilts & Dorset livery and apparently recently acquired by theSussexBus.com.
This turned out to be the only memorable
thing about our visit to Haywards Heath and within minutes we were on a First
Capital Connect train bound for Gatwick Airport and our first busway of the
day.
We emerged from the railway station into
the South Terminal at Gatwick jostling with business people and leisure travels,
bound for far flung cities on distant continents. Our destination was Crawley.
For an international airport, the bus
experience starts so well. On all the
signs within the terminal building are prominent directions to Metrobus local
bus services – even incorporating the Metrobus logo, a rare feat on what are
normally dull, neutral signs. Metrobus
have elevated themselves to the same status as the top level hotel brands and
certainly have greater prominence than the car hire companies, and all credit
to them.
Sadly the experience unravels slightly when
you discover that the route pointed out by the signs takes you out through a
fire exit, down several flights of stairs, along the side of a busy dual
carriageway, through a dark, dingy underpass and back up the other side again.
Once you get there, the bus stop is
superb. A huge shelter, first class
electronic information and a wide supply of timetable leaflets to pick up.
I have no idea whether the route from the
terminal to the stop is an airport or highway authority issue, or indeed
whether any improvements are planned, but it is desperately sad when compared
with the first class infrastructure before and after, to have to endure this
dismal hike through the back of beyond to connect the two.
I am a huge fan of Metrobus, can only dream
of building a fleet and network as impressive as theirs and have particular
admiration for the way they have transformed the image of public transport in
an area where once it had been run into the ground.
It saddens me therefore to report that our
short trip on Fastway 10 was an anti-climax.
I have never liked the Scania OmniCity, finding them to be
claustrophobic, and this example seemed to have more bars and railings than a
children’s playpen, giving the impression that we were incarcerated in a blue
and orange prison.
Our prison warder, ensconced behind the
steering wheel, did little to dispel this impression with his spartan approach
to customer service. Not actually rude,
but no welcome, pleases or thank yous and the distinct impression that we
passengers were merely an inconvenience to be endured for the eight hours
between coming to work and going home from work.
We knew that we wouldn’t see much actual
busway on this trip – most of the guided track is out to the south of the town
centre so we had to make do with a short stretch across a roundabout. But we stoked ourselves with anticipation
nevertheless, enjoyed the moment when it came and it qualified as our first
busway ride of the day.
Alighting in Crawley Bus Station, we
briefly debated finding somewhere for lunch, but then remembered that we were
in Crawley and that the best strategy was therefore to leave quickly.
Ideally, we would have liked to have wended
our way gradually westwards in a mirror of the previous day’s trip, but Alex
and Keith had to catch a train home from Southampton early that evening so we
were constrained for time. The next
planned move was therefore a hefty jump by rail through the scenic Arun Valley
to Portsmouth to sample our second busway of the day.
One of many things that Metrobus take
seriously is timetables, and their bus station travel shop was festooned with
interesting publicity. I got quite
excited about a possible option involving a quick trip to Horsham on the 23 to
see the newest part of the Metrobus empire and a new bus station to boot. We could have continued our rail journey from
there, but a quick check of the National Rail website revealed that Southern
Railway were having a bad day, and the train we would have needed to catch had
been cancelled.
We therefore reverted to plan A and crossed
the road to Crawley Station. After
settling ourselves into the relaxing surroundings of an almost empty Southern
train and wallpapering the carriage with bus timetables to while away the journey,
we were able to pass a very agreeable hour chilling out after a frenetic
morning.
Our train was actually headed for
Southampton and we were required to change in Cosham to reach Portsmouth, so
somewhere along the way we realized it would be much more fun to leave the
railway at Cosham and work our way into the city centre on the bus –
particularly as it was not long since the network had been completely
overhauled.
We soon found ourselves at the tiny little
bus station just south of Cosham railway station, pondering our options. The level of service available from here is
excellent, with several high frequency services available. We worked out that we had a choice of three
routes for a direct journey into Portsmouth city centre, with a combined frequency
of 16 buses per hour.
However, it seems a pity that despite all
the fanfare surrounding the launch of the new network, First don’t seem to have
found a way to present this kind of headline information drawing attention to
the frequencies available.
The only way we could work out the offer
was by wandering round to each individual stop and checking the timetable
displays on the stops – and even then it helped to have a reasonable knowledge
of the area to be able to filter out the options that were less direct. So I got to the right answer by comparing
four different timetables on two different stops, and I wonder how many
potential casual users would have that level of patience and determination.
When the bus did arrive – after only a few
moments of waiting - it was a pretty standard corporate First Group Dart, tidy
and cleanly presented and gratifyingly busy. The driver helpfully guided us to tickets
that would cover us for all our planned journeys across the First Hampshire
network and we sat down.
Immediately on so doing, I was propelled about
seven years back in time. This bus had
clearly been based at Southampton depot at some time in its history and since
moving east, it appeared to have evaded any efforts to update its internal
adverts.
Among the usual depressing selection of
posters highlighting the perils of sexual diseases, domestic abuse and drug
addiction was a particularly aggressive message apparently produced by
Southampton City Council and partners, telling us in no uncertain terms that we
WOULD be prosecuted (What for? Riding on
a bus in Portsmouth?)
The poster attracted my attention only
because it featured the Solent Blue Line logo from the mid-2000s, and one which
disappeared from use in 2007 shortly after I too disappeared from use at Go
South Coast!. An unexpected reminder of
my past in an unexpected place!
It was of course
superseded by the Bluestar identity, so if nothing else it gave me another
excuse to remind the award-winning Alex Hornby that the award-winning Bluestar
brand was invented by me! To be fair he
has never been slow to acknowledge this, but I still enjoy gently winding him
up about it from time to time.
Finding ourselves
at the Hard Interchange some half an hour later, flanked by the ultra-modern
Gunwharf Quays development on one side and the immaculately restored HMSVictory on the other, the next stage of our adventure was to take to the high
seas aboard the Gosport Ferry.
This delightfully
municipal affair shuttles backwards and forwards all day on its five hundred
metre voyage across the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour (and that’s not as simple
as it sounds – in 2005 during the preparations for Trafalgar 200 I was present
when the US Navy lost a boatload of cadets for around half an hour somewhere
between the two).
The slogan of the
Gosport Ferry – “it’s shorter by water” – was clearly inspired by the same
advertising genius who coined such memorable phrases as “a lot less fuss by
bus”. It lives up to its billing though,
and in no time at all we were marching up the gangway filled with excitement at
the prospect of our long-awaited ride on Eclipse.
Even more
excitement was generated by the presence of no fewer than two information
offices in Gosport Bus Station. Most
towns this size would be lucky to retain one such outlet these days, but as you
enter the terminal you find yourself torn by the attractions of the tourist
information office on your right or the First enquiry office on your left. A quick check of both revealed a virtually
identical stock of transport publicity so we were soon in possession of yet
more timetables for our collections.
Eclipse is a
superb project. Many years in the
gestation, the heart of it is an arrow-straight dedicated busway built on the
trackbed of an old railway line. Buses
using the busway can escape the chronic traffic congestion of the parallel A32
to provide a fast, comfortable journey along the Gosport – Fareham peninsula.
It seems a pity
therefore that the start of the Eclipse experience is very low-key. I had imagined the departure bays would be
decorated in the brand identity, with welcoming messages to make potential
customers feel that they were going to experience something different.
Instead, while
there is an information panel in the bus station concourse, the bays themselves
only identify themselves with small standard corporate signs referring to “First
E1 E2”. It is left to the potential user
to work out for themselves that this is the gateway to the region’s most
exciting, state of the art transport link.
Once aboard the
bus, everything is different. With a
fleet of new vehicles boasting a very high-spec interior, it is clear that no
effort has been spared to consider how to make the service as attractive as
possible. And despite a slow journey out
of Gosport, once on to the busway we could really appreciate the quality of the
infrastructure.
The vehicles, the
“track” itself and the bus stop amenities are all very impressive and it is
clear why this project will attract people for whom public transport would
never previously have been an option.
Fareham Bus
Station seems to have benefitted from a little more effort to promote the new
link, with prominent welcoming messages at the entrance, but still with those
dreaded “First E1 E2” signs in the bus station itself.
I suppose the
conclusion is, fantastic product, shame about the terminals!
The last leg of
our trip – simply to get Alex and Keith back to Southampton to catch their
homeward train – consisted of an hour-long ride aboard Solent Ranger X4.
This is a new
First route that emerged from last year’s network changes across the region,
all part of an impressive effort to tidy up the historically messy service
offer in the semi-urban sprawl west of Fareham.
The route runs all the way from Southampton to Portsmouth, meeting
myriad requests for a through service between the two, albeit with a long
journey time. And whatever one thinks of
the First livery, the brand looks impressive in the flesh and certainly gives a
big lift to the S-reg Darts to which it is applied.
Sadly all this
excitement hadn’t quite succeeded in energizing our driver. Arriving early at 1551 for a 1555 departure,
but with a crew change required, the new driver emerged from the office at 1558
and it was around 1602 before we were underway.
The full seated load however was impressive all the same, and it’s just
a pity that the road network in the area frustrates any attempt to provide a
journey time that lives up to the “X” in the service number.
Back in
Southampton at the end of an intense two days roaming the public transport
network of the south of England, we managed to summon up just enough energy to
drag ourselves to a restaurant for food and beer before my travelling
colleagues set off for home.
Before we
started, we had been afraid that we might have found this trip boring. Compared to our previous European adventures
where we had new places to explore and different cultures to experience, on
this occasion we were relying solely on the transport to provide the excitement. We had wondered whether there was enough
entertainment to be found in sitting on buses all day.
But to our
pleasant surprise we had found that on each leg of our journey there had been
something of interest – whether it be the staff, the vehicles, the infrastructure,
our fellow travellers, or a combination of all of them – we had never been
bored and never been short of things to talk about.
All we have to
decide now is where to go next!
