I enjoyed a good day out yesterday sampling the intensive rail replacement centred around Derby. I generally found the operation to be well organised and as the blockade is in place through to October I'd recommend heading down if bashing some vehicles which are generally a bit different to the norm is of interest. I started my day in Uttoxeter - with easy access to the A50 and abundant free parking was perfect for me, though it could be just as easy to do a day trip from the NE on Cross Country into Chesterfield. 

All the journeys I made were valid on a Derbyshire Wayfarer, which covers all the blockade routes except the Nottingham Route, which would be available as a £6.60 day return. There's the added bonus with the Wayfarer that it's also valid on local buses if, like I did, you end up off on an unplanned wander. That said, my first journey from Uttoxeter was a freebie. I did attempt to buy a ticket from the Portakabin used as an office but was told by staff just to buy in Derby. The service is hourly throughout the day from here, with peak time extras & expresses. Yesterday this route was in the hands of Viking Travel of Swadlincote, who were using various mid-1990s era Plaxton goodness; all outfitted in a smart livery with friendly drivers. My service was the 11:08, in the hands of UJI 8661. It was scheduled to call only at Tutbury & Hatton en route; one station, serving two villages which are actually in two different counties, the station is pretty much exactly on the border of Staffordshire & Derbyshire. The curtailed train service actually extends as far as Tutbury & Hatton. I understand extending to Uttoxeter as a bus terminal as Tutbury & Hatton's lack of car park would make it logistically difficult as a terminus, but also having the train running between the two as a dupe seems a bit excessive for a rural station, especially as the extension leaves the train with a 50 minute layover. Neither my inward or outbound journeys picked up or dropped any passengers at T&H, the detour from the A50 serving only to fill the coach with the aroma roast coffee from the large Nescafe factory which dominates the village, akin to childhood memories of the Cameron's Brewery fumigating Hartlepool with the scent of fermenting beer.

Scheduled for 50 minutes, the journey to Derby was completed in 45. First impressions at Derby were good, for an almost train-less hub of a mainline station. The incoming coach was met with a welcome party of sorts, a handful of officials greeting passengers and advising where to make their next connection from. There was even a 'Derby 2018' uniformed lollipop man to escort passengers across the road into the station, which was nice. From what I could see there seemed to be more staff than passengers throughout the station. They seemed to be usefully colour-coded into 3 camps - green tabard for Derby Resignaling 2018, offering general advice on timetabling, directions and even giving out chocolate biscuits at one point. Purple tabards represented Stagecoach Rail Replacement, the contractor for road transport and were usually draped over a dispatcher with a clipboard and a furrowed brow. Blue was for East Midlands Trains staff, the operator of most of the affected stations and pretty hot-on revenue protection with ticket inspections on departing buses. EMT formed the weak link of the chain in terms of service, an understandably extra-busy ticket office with just 2 counters open meant a 15 minutes wait to purchase a Wayfarer, not available from self-service machines. Other than this the customer service from everyone was outstanding, I must have been asked 5 times on the brief walk across the station if I was okay needed help from various patrols and fixed information points. A far cry from my experience of the Bolton rail replacements a few weeks ago; Transit vans, taxis and little to no information at stations.  

The areas under construction at Derby were a hive of activity, seeing what is usually 5 or 6 lines towards Derby depot almost completely ripped up puts the scale of this operation into focus. You get a good view of what's happening from the glass walled over-platform bridge, the only practical was to get from the front bus stops (Uttoxeter, Derby, Willington & Matlock services) to the rear Pride Park entrance of the station (Nottingham, Chesterfield & Long Eaton services). The rear of Derby station has been well set-up for the next couple of months as a bus station. Passenger-wise, there were extra toilets, seating and a little pop-up Pumpkin Cafe in a Marquee. 

I hung around for a few while to observe the comings & goings. Observed operators included Stagecoach, Arriva, Johnson Brothers, Notts & Derby and National Holidays, who I'd never seen on such work previously. The busiest services seemed to be the Chesterfield & Burton routes. I only observed light loadings for the Nottingham shuttles, perhaps passengers are defecting to Trentbarton's Red Arrow, with it's higher frequency and more convenient stopping places in the absence of the train? 

It was Stagecoach's Panther 54048 which I plumped for haulage to Chesterfield on. It was looking tired in megabus.com livery, still adorning the recently controversial £1 fare adverts. There were a few Panthers on the Chesterfield route, though this was the only megabus liveried example, most had been repainted in allover white. Can anybody shed any light on these? Are they being prepped for sale after this contractual work? Similar vehicles worked the M35 which I used regularly when I lived in Manchester to return back to Teesside, it was nice to see how they've aged, which other than being expectantly ragged around the edges, was reasonably well. I enjoyed the 50 minute trip to Chesterfield. The non-stop route itself is a good mix of city road, rural, dual and single carriageway national speed limit roads to keep the ride interesting enough. 

Chesterfield Station had the expected gaggle of hi-vis and clipboards dispatching vehicles. Whereas Viking Travel on the Uttoxeter route seemed to have layovers at each end, the Stagecoach operation seemed to have the vehicles immediately turned around at either end, with driver changeovers at Chesterfield. My inbound coach was running about 10 minutes behind by the time it re-loaded, which meant by the time it departed the next working was just pulling in. Realising I had an outside change of being the sole passenger on this next run I foregone my planned lunch stop and sure enough, the driver changeover was complete and the vehicle dispatched with only myself and the driver aboard. My loneliness was aplified by the fact that the working was Stagecoach's Astromega 50235. Making the most of the rare opportunity to have such a humongous vehicle to myself I had a good explore before opting for the downstairs-front seats before we departed. The friendly Mansfield based driver initiated conversation and we had a pleasant chat about the rail replacements and Stagecoach generally for much of the journey. On the subject of them as an employer her offered "If you shut up and do your job they pay you every week, what more do people want?". Sound advice indeed. The Van Hool had no trouble with the inclines demanded by the A61 en-route, cementing these vehicles as one of my favourites to be a passenger on - the driver complimented what a nice vehicle it was to drive and how the work in general was a nice break form Mansfield town services. 

On the journey back in to Derby I planned my next move. An option was to catch the bi-hourly rail replacement to Willington only, connect onto a Trenbarton V3 to Burton from there and back into the city on a Burton rail replacement. The haulage I could hope for would be an Arriva Mercedes Sprinter, Trentbarton Scania & Arriva Pulsar, Streetlite or Citaro, so an okay mix - I'd been wanting to tick off the Sprinter for a novelty anyway and until Arriva Click launches in Liverpool this is the closest they'll operate to me. 

I had enough time to grab some chips from the shop opposite Derby Station when the plan went entirely out the window as Notts & Derby 21 pulled up on unibus service 6. SA52DVZ, a Volvo B7L East Lancs Nordic, is an absolute people moving machine. It wasn't until I was at the driver's cab I realised I spend my change on the aforementioned chippy lunch. I enquired about card payments, not yet available despite Notts & Derby using Ticketer machines. The driver very kindly offered to wait if I went to the cash machine, I ran over to withdraw a tenner and whilst waiting I remembered the Derbyshire Wayfarer in my possession - Doh! I sheepishly returned to the bus offering my valid ticket, an understandable tut and wave on by the driver. I didn't have a clue where I was heading on the 6 so looked the route up to plan alighting, wonders of modern technology! It seemed the terminus, part of Derby University's campus, held a reasonable level of service even in the holidays, so I could enjoy the 20 minute ride to the end. I moved upstairs to sit near the back to really appreciate the length & capacity of these ex-Scotland deckers. The journey carried 5 passengers in total so a Sprinter would have sufficed, but I guess it proves it's worth in term time. 

My onward journey options from the university were a N&D Solo on an inter-site shuttle, meaning I'd have to make another journey to get back to the city, or wandering down to the main road to catch a Trentbarton Allestree, I opted for the later. The offering on this route is E200 MMCs, specifically Trentbarton 166. While I was glad of the USBs after my frantic Googling, my gosh it was banging and crashing around - particularly for a bus under a year old - perhaps the noise was amplified after the relative comfort of my coach journeys so far. The Allestree drops on-street in Derby, a short walk from the bus station. Not fancying the 15 minute walk between the bus & train stations I went to see what was on offer to shuttle me down the road. A Skylink Citaro was just shutting it's doors leaving a Gemini on Arriva's 1/1A or a Yourbus Citaro on their competing service of the same number. Never having sampled a Yourbus vehicle I went for Yourbus Citaro 3018, which was carrying a healthy load despite the intense competition on this corridor. Admitantly I don't know too much about Yourbus, but my impression is they compete commercially with copycat routes on key corridors in the area. My own experience was of a clean & tidy service with a pleasant driver, so all seems well on the surface. 

Back at Derby Station just before 4pm I was in time for the 15:57 back to Uttoxeter. Operated by the capable Van Hool Y303 HIS, I had not noticed this was an 'all stops' via Peartree which added a significant detour on the way to the A50, all for no passengers. Factoring in further traffic delays, I would have been better off waiting for the 16:16 ex Derby express, timetabled to arrive in Uttoxeter at the same time, though in reality probably earlier. It also looked like this would have been worked by their 1998 Volvo B10M which would have been a nice reminder of the type worked in Hartlepool when new, alas 'you win some, you loose some'. In theory I could have added a few more runs the the start and end of my day, as the intensive frequency on the core routes extends well into the evening, but i decided I'd had my fill for the day. I intend on heading back in a few weeks with more of a focus on local travel around Chesterfield during the day as is possible with the £13 Wayfarer ticket and would recommend it as something of a bit different day out for any enthusiast.