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A Present From Scotland?

September 20, 2023 105Comments 0Likes

What Might It Be?

A Jimmy Hat? No.

A huge box of tablet, a Scottish sweetmeat consisting of about 1000 calories a lump! NO.
12 bottles of Irn Bru, a Scottish beverage consisting of about 1000 calories a swig. NO

Of course; an inflatable Nessie?

Not even that! And not even an inflatable Irn Bru Nessie.
None of these delectable souvenirs!

In fact the fbbs brought back 100% grotty debilitating Scottish head colds!

Yep; the whole lot! Shakes and shivers. Sweats. Blocked nose. Sneezes. Sore throat. Whirling pit. Aching limbs and an attack of utter lethargy. It was/is so horrid that there was a possibility that this blog might have to o be cancelled.
But, by yesterday afternoon, fbb felt wrll enough to cobble together something.
So here goes.
Readers may remember HTrans ..,
… its mission being to provide improved public transport for he Highland area as expounded in its (un)helpful Inverness leaflet (above).
There is no leaflet for Fort William.
www.stagecoiachbua.com would not be much use for Fort William so fbb took a look at Traveline Scotland.
Of course we have to have a Journey Planner …

Twice!

And there is lots of other really useful stuff …
… and we all turn to Traveline Scotland to find out about Healthcare? But don’t worry, the site won’t actually tell you your fare!

But look!

If course, you cannot get a timetable straight away. You need to input the locality or route number. PLUS date, PLUS time.

BUT all I want is the complete timetable. I can do my own planning!

There is a well hidden secret here. If you type in all the above information you get whatever journey is leaving next (great, yet another sort-of journey planner) but …

… there is a little PDF icon, unexplained of course, and if you click on that you do eventually get a timetable; in fbb’s  case for one of the routes featured in an earlier blog. fbb has had to squash it a bit to fit.

And, of course, there are lots of explanatory nites.

So that’s all pretty clear ism’t it? You have noted therl difference between journeys headed XPrd1, XPrd2 and XPrd3, haven’t you?

An some really helpful text.

This timetable was generated on 16/09/2023 and includes any known services changes up to 30 days in advance. This timetable does not apply on public holidays and may be further varied

during the Christmas and New Year festive period. Every attempt will be made to publish public holiday and festive timetable information separately at www.travelinescotland.com. Public

transport information is also available by phone on 0871 200 22 33. Calls cost 12p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge.

So that clears it up, doesn’t it?
It is interesting to compare Traveline with the operator’s version; still complex because of  schools; but so much better.

Would it, perhaps, be easier if the school day stuff were separated out and put in ots own table? Here are the “All” days times (actually Tuesday and Thursday ONLY).
Which leaves the complex school day service pattern to be grasped by those who need it to get to and from school!
And shouldn’t ferry connections between Camusnagaul and Fort William be included?
Perhaps things will be better at Fort William’s bus stops. Here is one at the southern end of the town centre.

Hmmm? 

A brief scoot round c/o Google Streetview reveals a mixed bag of bus stop information. Most stops have a shelter with a “flag” and a pole with a “flag”. (Why both?). The shelter has a large frame, ideal for a network map but said frame  is usually empty. Mostly the pole has a frame with a departure list in it.

But some had nothing in either.

And. just to confuse everyone, some had nothing on the pole but a larger departure lists in the shelter.

It was a bit of a mess.

So fbb was able to do a thorough audit of roadside information at Fort Augustus (as in Loch Ness Cruise) and at Dornie (as in Eilean Donan Castle). These are two important tourist destinations where you would expect good quality information.
We shall see tomorrow.
Sniff : shiver : sweat : cough : ache : sneeze : dribble : etc.

 Next Highland Bus Stop blog : Thursday 2st Sepyember 
Categories: CamCab

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