Great Western Coffee Shop

Gone for a Burton ... or rather "Gone via Burton on Trent to give a course in Ashby-de-la-Zouch".

On the basis of (a) I really don't want to drive, (b) I get more public transport experience and (c) it [should be] less tiring to let someone else drive, I took public transport last week.

Turns out that some of the Wiltshire bus issues we have are mirrored in Leicsetershire / Derbyshire.
* Buses go from the other side of town in Burton (a la Chippenham)
* No signage obvious from train to bus station / stops
* No signs within the town to make it obvious where the buses are (asked a pensioner)
* No map up at bus station showing services that run from there
* Multiple operators on same(ish) routes.  No combined departure list
* Unhelpful driver.  "Do you go to Ashby". "No". "What bus do I need". "Dunno" and that from a driver with the same company I went with, at the same stop.
* Proper timetables not available until (!!) actually on the bus
* Differing fares between two operators. One on notices, the other not
* No buses for a while then two, with different operators, leave at same time.
* Driver has to get change from a bag (looks disgusted). I think everyone else is on some sort of concession or season.
* Bus takes a long and intricate route. AA says 10 miles; time taken 35 mins.
* No indication of where to get off / have to work out which is my stop.

Looking beyond that element of the journey ...
* Old remains of railway and station, no platforms.
* Track (double line!) appears in use but probably for occasional trains only
* Ashby is a town of 12,000 - around half of that or Melksham area

For return journey, I was offered (and accepted) offer of lift to Derby Station
* Dropped at back entrance. Ticket machine but unstaffed
* No easy way to upgrade ticket (timing / had to catch Birmingham express)
* The car journey was being made anyway, so this was green ;-)

There's been an aspiration to reopen the line from Leicester to Burton via Ashby and Coalville for at least 20 years. In the early years it appeared to come fairly close to going ahead, but if I recall correctly privatisation and a consequent spiralling of costs put paid to the idea.

I'm not sure whether it is still alive as a plan.

Leicester-Burton was mentioned in the ATOC 'Connecting Communities' report of June 2009. It would serve 94,000 people excluding Leicester and Burton at a capital cost of ^49M; BCR was evaluated at 1.3:1.

Transport Direct can be your friend....

Indeed ... it came up with same services I used all the way, but added in an extra one (9 mins walk, 4 mins on the bus, 5 mins walk) in place of my walk across Burton.  I *had* looked at my general directions and distance in Burton-on-Trent to give me an idea of distance and direction when I got off the train.

Alas, Transport Direct helps, but doesn't reschedule the busses so they don't run in pairs, nor make one of them integrate at the station.

Here's the current state in Ashby-de-la-Zouch.   It runs on a low embankment most of the way through the town; there's just the one overbridge and that shows a view of the wooded cutting and gives you a rough idea of the condition of the track.  The view looks towards where the station used to be, but as far as I can see the station buildings remain in private hands, but not the platform.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ivan01.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/ivan02.jpg)