Rail Replacement buses

In my experience, scheduled Rail Replacement Bus services are rarely
well-organised, and yesterday I experienced a typical example. All
services from Sheffield to Derby (so including East Midlands Trains to
St Pancras) were replaced all weekend. I know that RRB's from
Sheffield now start from the bus station so that is where I went,
expecting to find some indications within the bus station of where and
when these important services departed - there was nothing. Guessing
that platform E was likely I asked the large gaggle of Stagecoach
staff gathered there who suggested it was from E6. In fact the only
coach present was on E5 which is indeed where it departed from. It
appeared no-one made any effort to pro-actively direct potential
passengers and the coach duly left 5 minutes late from E5, with a
grand total of 8 people on board. I would be surprised if they were
the only people wanting to travel, even at 10:30 on a Sunday morning.
No attempt was made at any point to check tickets and no assistance
was offered to the coach driver who happily admitted he had no idea
where Derby railway station was - I had to help him navigate once we
got to Derby. This again is typical in my experience of RRB's. Just
what those Stagecoach employees were doing I have no idea - but it
certainly wasn't customer focused. Arrival at Derby station was 5
minutes late, leaving a bare 5 minutes to make the connection south. I
made it OK, but I'm not sure everyone would have done - and again
there was no visible effort made to assist passengers in any way. On
the return journey there was at least a member of staff directing
pasengers to the coach for Sheffield - but again no ticket checking
took place. A stuffy and uncomfortable journey with a full coach
ensued.

On Sep 1, 7:54 pm, "Peter Masson" <peter.mass...@> wrote:
> "MIG" <googles...@doreenbird.co.uk> wrote
>
>
>
> >Now there is a permanent sign saying where replacement buses will pick
> >up
>
> These started appearing outside/near South Eastern stations well before the
> current franchise, certainly in South Eastern trains times, and possibly
> back to Connex.

I think the St Johns one is only a couple of years old, although I
don't go that way as regular as I once did.


>
> Though of course, depending on how the passengers direct the bus driver,
> it's quite likely (at Longfield) that the bus stops then other side of the
> road from the bus stop.
>
> Peter

"MIG" wrote:

>In the past, one could arrive at St Johns knowing that trains weren't
>running, but find that there was absolutely no indication of where to
>go.

>The station entrance is in a road too narrow for a bus, and about 150
>yards in either direction are two major roads with bus routes which
>could be the route of any replacement.

>So you had the choice of walking to one of those roads and standing
>there till you gave up and walked to the other road, assuming you
>could guess the spot where the bus would stop.

>Now there is a permanent sign saying where replacement buses will pick
>up

Seaford - Lewes is a bustitution this Sunday. The posters at all of the
branch stations show the pick up/drop off point for Southease & Rodmell Halt
as being Southease Church, on the western side of the Ouse valley.

On the last few occasions the branch has been bustitiuted, buses have indeed
called at the Church in the 'Up' direction. Towards Seaford, however, buses
have called at (or sped through) Southease on the A26, on the eastern side
of the valley - about a mile from the Church, albeit much nearer to the rail
station. This is not an entirely academic point, as Southease & Rodmell is
where the railway crosses the South Downs Way, and generates most of its
meagre traffic from weekend walkers.

Chris