30th July 2018
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| Lincoln Central Bus Station |
After a short break I returned to Lincoln by train, arriving an hour later than planned due to a blockage on the line between Manchester and Sheffield that necessitated a diversion via Leeds. This meant I had just 10 minutes before the first bus of the day - PC Coaches service 47 to Newark - which was not a problem for once as the bus station in Lincoln is just over the road from the railway station.
The 47 was, unexpectedly for such a rural route, a double-decker although in term time the mid-afternoon journey would probably cop for a load of schoolchildren at some point. Fortunately, being late July I was spared this. We set off south from the city and were soon doing a complete tour of the suburb of North Hykeham- I'm sure we passed along every road in the village - some of them twice! But once out-of-town we sped along a network of minor roads at a rate of knots through the picturesque villages of Haddington, Auburn, Bassingham and Carlton-le-Moorland until we reached Brant Broughton, where our headlong progress came to halt for the driver's cigarette break! Two passengers joined him on the pavement for this ritual and when I mentioned it to a friend who joined me later he said that the same thing had happened to him when he last used the service - so obviously a standard feature of the journey!
The River Trent is such a significant feature in the landscape around here that one would reasonably expect it to form the county boundary, but it doesn't. Both banks are well within Nottinghamshire and so it was after leaving the A17 briefly to pass through the village of Beckingham (no one boarded, no one alighted) we crossed the county boundary at an unmarked spot on the A17 and I only realised we had done so when the bus stop signs in the next village of Barnby-in-the-Willows were sporting Nottinghamshire County Council insignia.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: County town - Nottingham
Nottinghamshire appears to have been largely untouched by the Local Government Fiasco of 1974 and, quite conventionally, has its largest city - Nottingham - as its county town. Perhaps its only drawback is a rather unhealthy fixation on the legend of a certain outlaw who dwelt in a nearby forest. Surely something else must have happened in Nottinghamshire since the middle ages?
Meanwhile, back on the bus almost as soon as we entered the county we came across this sign in the middle of the road:
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| Unexpected road closure on the 47 |
Bus drivers are unhappy when they come across unexpected diversions. Although they know the routes they work very well, they aren't necessarily local to the area so can't be expected to know their way around once off the scheduled route. Unlike car drivers they have to consider whether the suggested diversion is actually suitable for their vehicle. Are there any low bridges or overhanging trees; any sharp bends or narrow bridges that large buses can't negotiate and if they can't get through is there anywhere they can turn round!
At least with modern mobile phones the driver can contact the depot and seek advice, but that didn't seem to help our driver who eventually resorted to flagging down oncoming traffic (not difficult as he was stopped right across the junction) and asking drivers for their opinion! He opted to take a chance - and we carried on along the diversion which took us well to the south of Newark and meant we entered town along the line of the old A1 - the original Great North Road. As often happens in such cases a passenger asked to be set down when we were still a long way off our normal route and she must have been pleased to have been saved a long walk home.
There had be a slight hope that I might have made a "minus connection" (when the bus you want is due to leave just before the bus you are on is due to arrive) but the diversion meant that wouldn't happen. I therefore had three-quarters of an hour to enjoy Newark's old town centre and a coffee in the market square. There was some confusion about the next bus - a prime example of how new or occasional passengers can experience difficulties:
I knew I needed Marshall's service 90 on to Nottingham, but the timetable wasn't included in the display case that appeared to show every other service in the bus station. Neither was the 90 listed on the electronic departure screen. I eventually found a very small "Where to Catch Your Bus" poster tucked away in a corner and that seemed to tell me that the 90 didn't use the bus station after all and stopped instead on the main road outside. This seemed odd, but I found the stop in question about 50 metres up the road and on the far side. I thought I'd better check the timetable and it just as well I did as that document informed me that the 90 only used this stop in the evenings and that DAYTIME BUSES DON'T STOP HERE but back in the bus station!
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| Service 90 at Nottingham |
I returned to the bus station and, sure enough, now that it was nearly departure time the service was showing on the electronic display and I caught it, as advertised from stand B. Needless to say, it left the bus station and then stopped at the main road bus stop after all to pick up a passenger who looked as if he caught it there every day! Seasoned bus travellers are used to such things but it must be very confusing for new users.
After that we had a straightforward run down to Nottingham along the A46. There was a small diversion to serve an RAF Camp outside Newark but then we avoided all the settlements - large and small - that lay off the main road ( a rare feature for buses) and arrived in Nottingham just in time for the driver to pick up another load of passengers for his return trip. I meanwhile had a very short walk just around the corner to the hotel I had booked for the night and when booking in tried not to appear too smug to the person next to me who was having the rather convoluted arragements for car parking explained to him by the receptionist!
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