A visit to Hereford
Posted: 08:18 Saturday 26th November 2016
MattB and I both had a day off work on Tuesday and as his preserved TWM Volvo needed moving from it's home near Hereford, we headed into the city to take a look around first.
The depot is totally unchanged but a little (OK a lot) overgrown. It seems to have become the unofficial city free car park as the land to the front was packed with parked cars. If First wish to use the site for anything, say vehicle storage, they will need to arrive early or they wont be able to get in!
Tesco bus station is a mess in every sence of the word. Yeomans have taken to parking buses on the garden near the back wall and this has spread mud across the entire site. It is clear there are way too many buses in there at times with no organisation so it is total chaos.
We took a ride on an afternoon Service 71 driven by one of our forum members. I remember taking TimBrown on the same route before the depot closed and the bus was very busy, but this one was quiet. I asked about passenger numbers and was told they have now doubled the frequency to run every 30-minutes. The return journey was a 71A but nobody used the Green Lanes section.
There is a new Service 78X which runs to Rotherwas under contract. With that now serving Putson, the 79 and 79A no longer run to Putson and just head direct up the main road to Red Hill.
I had a chat to a number of ex-First drivers in Tesco bus station. Not as many as I had hoped as it seems quite afew have left. It was still good to catch up with my old mates and they all agreed on one thing... Life was better with First.
Finally we took a ride on a Service 426 to collect Matt's bus. This route is now run by Lugg Valley but otherwise seems unchanged. After collecting the Volvo we headed back to the city to get my car from the depot, and I drove via Broad Street to avoid the right-turn into Barton Road. Despite being in Travel West Midlands livery and showing a totally fictional 4-digit Birmingham route on the display the locals were keen to flag us down... Clearly they don't want Yeomans either!!
The depot is totally unchanged but a little (OK a lot) overgrown. It seems to have become the unofficial city free car park as the land to the front was packed with parked cars. If First wish to use the site for anything, say vehicle storage, they will need to arrive early or they wont be able to get in!
Tesco bus station is a mess in every sence of the word. Yeomans have taken to parking buses on the garden near the back wall and this has spread mud across the entire site. It is clear there are way too many buses in there at times with no organisation so it is total chaos.
We took a ride on an afternoon Service 71 driven by one of our forum members. I remember taking TimBrown on the same route before the depot closed and the bus was very busy, but this one was quiet. I asked about passenger numbers and was told they have now doubled the frequency to run every 30-minutes. The return journey was a 71A but nobody used the Green Lanes section.
There is a new Service 78X which runs to Rotherwas under contract. With that now serving Putson, the 79 and 79A no longer run to Putson and just head direct up the main road to Red Hill.
I had a chat to a number of ex-First drivers in Tesco bus station. Not as many as I had hoped as it seems quite afew have left. It was still good to catch up with my old mates and they all agreed on one thing... Life was better with First.
Finally we took a ride on a Service 426 to collect Matt's bus. This route is now run by Lugg Valley but otherwise seems unchanged. After collecting the Volvo we headed back to the city to get my car from the depot, and I drove via Broad Street to avoid the right-turn into Barton Road. Despite being in Travel West Midlands livery and showing a totally fictional 4-digit Birmingham route on the display the locals were keen to flag us down... Clearly they don't want Yeomans either!!
