When the Bus Stops

Three weeks ago I told how easily I had been persuaded some years ago to respond to an appeal by a young lady I'd never met, and delivered the prologue of last weekend's adventure.  On that occasion I spoke of train tickets on my noticeboard and all being ready.  The more I thought about it, however, the more I realised that all was not quite ready.

The direct trains I had booked in each direction were from the main line station some five miles or so from home and, to get there, I had to get a bus from my 'local' bus stop, which is an eight-minute walk away, across a railway footbridge.  (There is a bus stop right outside my home from which the only service was only night and morning excluding weekends, and has now been completely withdrawn ... but now is not the time to decry cuts to public transport.)

Unfortunately, the most appropriate bus was scheduled to arrive at the train station at precisely the time the train would depart, so I had to set off half-an-hour earlier - at 8.15 - to catch the previous one.  At the other end of the day, the last bus back home would leave the train station about a quarter of an hour after my train would leave York ... some two hours away!  My first job on arriving at the station was thus to purchase a local ticket for a train home once the main line train had brought me that far.  As luck (and the timetables) would have it, the local train left from the other side of the station at the same time as the York train was scheduled to arrive so, once more, I had to wait for the next one and I finally walked home from my local station about 9.0pm.

Once all these finer details had been arranged, the plan worked out perfectly, and the weather played ball too.  By Peterborough we were travelling through bright sunshine, which held for most of the day.  There was a football match that afternoon between Doncaster and Peterborough and for that section of the journey, in both directions, I had the 'company' of quite a lot of fans, who weren't the quietest of travel partners ... particularly on the alcohol-fuelled return journey!

York's famous curved platform

I arrived at the 'capital of the north' at 11.30 and had over two hours to fill before the meeting began at 2.0, so I visited the National Railway Museum, which is quite close to the station.  There's easily enough there to occupy the enthusiast for a whole day, and it gave me my desired interest ... and lunch besides.

The River Ouse from Lendal Bridge

Once I'd crossed the river (after a moment's unjustified panic that I might have found the wrong bridge), it was easy enough, thanks to my preliminary Google perusal, to find the hall where the meeting was to take place and, once my name was recognised, I was warmly welcomed and thanked for making the journey.  The formalities were over in less than an hour and were richly supplemented by the opportunity to chat with Emily, the founder and organiser of The Bus Stop, and some of the other supporters to learn something of the detail of their operation.

The Bus Stop was founded in 2015 with the aim of working alongside local churches and schools to provide youth and community provision and education about the Christian faith.  To do this it has operated within a 30-mile radius of York, making use of a converted double-decker bus, which was supplemented last year by the acquisition of a second bus, which operates in the Scarborough area.  The first bus is now in need of some considerable work and one of their primary considerations is whether or not to replace it, perhaps with something a little smaller, while the long-term aim is to expand to a small fleet of vehicles to provide this service over a wider area.  However, they have to walk before they can run, and slow development will inevitably be the best way.

I find myself strangely warmed to these people, living and working so far from me, and yet in circumstances not dissimilar to my own background.  At such a distance, there is naturally very little I can actually do to help them, but I do ask you, dear reader, to take a look at their website - the link is a couple of paragraphs above - and if you are as attracted as I am to what they're trying so hard to achieve, you can give to the charity here.