Errors And Omissions

SL3 Bormley to Thamesmead

The section of the non-Loop not-so-Supet starts in Saturday 24th February. TfL reveals all on iits web site, Wowsers!

… and what purports to be a timetable but isn’t.

Maybe you elderly blogger is a bit on the dense side, but he could not find any start date for the SL3 on the TfL site.

Contrast and compare with Reading buses’ 4/X4 as featured in an earlier blog. fb gives just and extract of the whole-toute map below.

And, of course, there are detailed maps of the busy/complex areas.

Reading also provides that which is forbidden to London users of the TfL wen site, namely …

… a proper timetable.

Robert Munster had yet to post his fill set of SL timetable in various useful formats but Roger French sent fhb a link to the Bustimes.org site.

The timetable, as with all routes on this system, shows all journeys and all stops …

… which is OK for a Limited Stop service but really too much for a normal route with a hundred stops! The information is also cluttered by really irritating adverts which clog and slow access to the information you want.

The map is …

… nuff said. It does enlarge to show every bus actually running, as below in Thamesmead.

Clearly this data is being delivered by a mindless computer rather than by someone who knows where the buses run, as they do i Reading.

A reminder of fbb’s two Public Transport Information mantras …

If only TfL could do a proper job …

One or two of fbb’s readers were mystified by his poetic pastiche in a blog about new colours and new names for Overground lines. Here is the song from the show!

The story of Joseph from the book of Genesis is a truly remarkable account of the rise of a nomadic nobody to the portion of big cheese number 2 in Egypt, then one of the world’s super powers.

Matching the tale of Jacob’s rag bag of family farmers is, understandably, difficult – but history does tell us that at the time of the Bible narrative Egypt was recruiting people with business and technical skills from anywhere and everywhere to help then in their economic and political expansion.

Joseph, using hid God-given skills of the interpretation of dreams, was able to counteract the unmanageably cycles of plenty and famine that dominated Egyptian life at the time.

BUT …

Joe never has a multicoloured dreamcoat …

… not even a striped one, let alone the excesses of a theatrical production.

Dad’s gift was an embroidered coat with long sleeves as seen below in a modern and trendy near-equivalent.

Early Bible translators did not actually know what sort of garment was being described, but geology, ethnology and historic technology has identified the garment given by a father to his firstborn (oldest son).

But Joseph was Jacob’s eleventh son! And that was why the story turned nasty and not at all pretty.

But God had a good outcome planned …

Josephine (renamed Zaphenath Panea in Egypt) would have needed to hire vast quantities of camels and donkeys (Egypt’s equivalent of freight public transport) to gather the grain into his store rooms.

Back at the beginning of February both Roger French (in blog) and Geoff Marshall (on video) were extolling the virtues of TfL’s new SL5 from Croydon to Bromley. Geoff even offered a repurposed chocolate bar by way of celebration.

Chortle chortle!

Now that esteemed member of the Fourth Estate, The Guardian, has sent its man off to try out the SL5; He was not impressed by the vehicle quality …

… but most of the article was “vox pop” from passengers happy to be quoted. One innocently made a telling comment about TfL’s usual lack of publicity.

Note, “without knowing anything about it”.

Others complained about the slowness of existing services pre SL5. One comment interested fbb muchly.

It is not clear where “from here” is and the 352 and 358 do run into Bromley …

… but the roundabout at the junction of South Eden Road and Hayes Lane seems likely; quite close to Bromley.

However, the 352 and 358 do not serve Croydon, so hardly a fair comparison with the benefits of the faster SL5. A proper comparison, as per Geoff”s summary map, is with the 119 which is the all-stops slower route.

Another interviewee made a strange statement.

But there are no direct trains between Croydon and Bromley – you need either one or even two changes. And look at the fares!

It is cheaper with 2 changes –  but one minute slower!

Even the slow and tedious 119 is quicker than the train and, of course, costs only £1.75.

The 119 continues beyond East Croydon to South Croydon station and Croydon Airport.

fbb did intend to do a full contrast and compare but the main all-modes source, viz Traveline, seems totally unaware of the SL5!

In case you wondered, the 119 to Croydon Airport terminates at the Colonnades, a Shopping Centre …

… opposite the former terminal building.

The only plane is rather well tied down!

Tomorrow we play the numbers game …

… with Andy Burnham at the table!