John B wrote:
Tristán White wrote:
Planning to go to Kelvedon Nuclear Bunker [...]
(snip)
However, when I try on Journeyplanner.org, it says that the whole journey
will take 3 hours each way, and will involve a 50 minute walk from Kelvedon
Hatch town centre to the bunker. But none of their routes appear to mention
the 501 Townlink, making me think that they clearly mustn't have that route
on their system.
They don't: TfL coverage outside Greater London is patchy, generally
limited to airports and other sites of (they presume) special interest
to Londoners.
Which, IMO, is fair enough - TfL 'do' Greater London - one must look to
other sources for journey info elsewhere. But read on...
So my question is:
(a) does the Townlink take you straight to the bunker or does it still
involve a 50 minute walk from the town centre? I assume that the
Journeyplanner.org site said it takes so long because they don't appear to
list the Townlink service.
According to Transport Direct ( www.transportdirect.info ), the 501
takes you to Langford Bridge Garden Centre, which is a 3 minute walk
from the bunker.
I've used Transport Direct before and found it useful if somewhat
clunky. However the south east bureau of Traveline [1] (each region is
operated quasi-independently) uses the same journey planner engine as
TfL [2] (i.e. the same software & interface) which I like, replete with
the facility to get PDFs of bus timetables and the clear PDF maps it
creates that feature on TfL's journey planner. I recommend it.
The 501 bus is the route given when I queried the journey planner for a
journey from Epping to the bunker (using the bunker's postcode). In
addition the full timetable for the 501 bus can be retrieved.
The information from the Traveline bureaux *might* be more accurate as
the bus operators are one of the partners in each regional partnership
that runs each regional bureaux [3].
(b) is there a 501 Townlink timetable I can see online? I Googled it, and
found nothing useful
http://tinyurl.com/pamkz
This is also available from Traveline SE - look under timetable search
at the top. The fomat of the timetable means it looks a bit different
but the timings are all the same.
The 501 isn't part of the London Buses network (it's too far out), so
you'll just have to stump up the fare so take some change with you.
Remember that sometimes you can buy a cheaper return ticket on your
outward journey so you can but ask.
Enjoy the bunker - it's a massive excavation, and a fascinating day
out.
I once read or heard somewhere a theory that the Epping - Ongar stretch
of the Central line was kept going, despite its very poor patronage, on
the request of central government because it would've provided
conveniant rail access to the bunker from central London, should the
decision ever have been made to man it. I don't think that's an
entirely ludicrous theory - and its demise after the end of the cold
war (in '94) would fit in to such a theory.
What is ludicrous however is the notion that any of the plans for the
continuation of government would actually have worked.
-----
References
[1] Traveline National portal with map showing each region
http://www.traveline.org.uk/
[2] Traveline South East journey planner
http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk/
[3] About Traveline - see "Who runs Traveline?" q&a
http://www.traveline.org.uk/about.htm