{"id":2907,"date":"2023-06-28T01:31:33","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T01:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/finding-fastrack-frustrating-1\/"},"modified":"2023-06-28T01:31:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T01:31:33","slug":"finding-fastrack-frustrating-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/finding-fastrack-frustrating-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Fastrack Frustrating (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Bluewater Innit?<\/span><\/p>\n

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It started in 1999!\n
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If you want to go to Bluewater by train, you might try Greenhithe for Bluewater station. But you would probably want to catch a bus! Fastrack B will get you there.<\/p>\n

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But let’s indulge in a little;e nostalgia.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Once upon a time the village of Greenhithe sat happily on the lush and verdant banks of Old Father Thames between Dartford and Gravesend. Ruddy cheeked children could play safely in the street …<\/div>\n
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… or continue along Station Road to see a train thunder through – slowly!\u00a0\n
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Dad could enjoy a pint at the White Hart …<\/div>\n
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… whilst mum took her washing down to the banks of the river and scrubbed away enthusiastically.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Ah, the joys of living in the Garden of England!\n<\/div>\n
Sadly someone’s gone and built on it!\n
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Bluewater is bus border territory where Transport for London meets Arriva! and there is a huge bus station at Bluewater …<\/p>\n

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… with only one stop marked on Google Maps – for everything!<\/p>\n

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The Sapphires (probably no longer so branded), the 483 and the Fastracks are Arriva, the red ones are TfL and the X80 was Ensign and is now First. At a cursory glance, fbb could not identify Connect 1 and 228 but maybe a little morre effort will resolve the anonymity!<\/p><\/div>\n

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TfL, of course, provides no timetable information, just departure lists …\n
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… and Arriva’s web site is unreliable and awful even when it works.<\/div>\n
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Kent County Council has joined the BOSTIC club. (B<\/span>us O<\/span>perating S<\/span>ervice\u00a0T<\/span>otal I<\/span>nformation C<\/span>haos). fbb could find nothing of any use whatsoever on the County web site, except, of course, information about service withdrawals and reductions.<\/div>\n
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But it was the news that the contract with the BOSTIC people had been awarded to GoAhead, and furthermore, that Arriva had not submitted a bid,\u00a0 that encouraged fbb to explore!<\/div>\n
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fbb was very interested in Fastrack. It was ages ago BBC** that the less old man took a tour of Fastrack – it was in the early days when empty buses were zooming through building sites, green fields, along half made-up roads\u00a0 and carrying very few passengers!<\/div>\n
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** BBC – Before Blogging Commenced.<\/div>\n
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The services ran evey 10 minutes …\n
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… and the 10 minute headway remained on the two routes …\n
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… until 2020 when both were reduced to every 12.\u00a0\n
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There are various versions of the supposedly current A and B route map displayed on line …\n
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… and fbb has found it difficult to spot which one is current.\u00a0<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n


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But nowhere could the frustrated blogger find anything that resembled a network map that offered any sense of reliability. An Arriva map from 2013 on an Ebbsfleet web site was clearly useless.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
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Even if it had been current it is very difficult to follow. But it isn’t up to date so fbb didn’t try.<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n


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fbb also wondered how things were going with the proposals for Fastrack C and Fastrack D, proposals which were revealed a few years back and duly blogged by fbb.\n
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Then there was a map of the development plans.<\/p>\n

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And the map still features on numerous web sites.<\/p>\n

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It looks as if the above expansive plans have been chopped back a bit, because a more recent map (still described as a “proposal”) shows only A B and C routes (no “D”) …<\/p>\n

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… split into two sections to enable our readers to compare them with existing (or possibly non existing) maps and diagrams.<\/p>\n

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Another struggle develops to match this with the existing network.<\/span><\/div>\n

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And then there’s Fastrack AZ? fbb has not found that yet.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Now thoroughly confused …<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n


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But it’s all on line\u00a0
<\/span>
… fbb will attempt to create a definitive geographical map of the current Fastrack A and B for tomorrow’s blog.<\/span><\/div>\n

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He may fail.<\/span><\/div>\n

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But maybe, just maybe, the electric buses are coming!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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More tomorrow.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Poachers Rest Cottage<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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With the rebuild of the outdoor layout indoors, fbb had a gap in his townscape. The gap wasn’t very big, but would be OK for a small cottage. In the far distant past (a modest 60 years ago!) he had constructed an Airfix thatched cottage kit purchased for two whole shillings.<\/div>\n
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But that was too easy to glue but too hard to paint neatly.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Then he happened upon a vintage (well, 2003) Hornby resin model, ready to plant, entitled Poachers Cottage. And it was well priced on EBay.<\/div>\n
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It would definitely fill the gap nicely.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The “Skaledale” range was new back then but models are rarely repeated and the Poachers Cottage is not often seen on EBay with most retailers showing “sold out”.<\/div>\n
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However, as a matter of modelling pride, ALL fbb’s buildings have been adjusted in some way to make them just a little different from their “as sold” state.<\/div>\n
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Maybe the cottage needs a small extension?<\/div>\n
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Hmmm.<\/div>\n
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More from Kent tomorrow.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0Next Fastrack blog : Thursday 29th June\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Bluewater Innit? It started in 1999! If you want to go to Bluewater by train, you might try Greenhithe for Bluewater station. But you would probably want to catch a bus! Fastrack B will get you there. But let’s indulge in a little;e nostalgia. Once upon a time the village of Greenhithe sat happily on the lush and verdant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}