All over Bar the Counting

But not quite "over" for some!

But you cannot argue with the facts, whatever your political proclivities may be. The figures don't lie. By the time fbb gets home tonight, this will be the total votes cast.

 02  Car

 02  SouthWest Trains

 04  Assorted Transport for London

 02  Eurostar

 11  Tram

 11  Bus

 17  Metro

 08  RER

 02  Funicular

 01  Transilien

That's 60 trips of which 58 were by Public Transport; an average of 10 trips per day. Indeed a very wide ranging Public Transport Experience (and a good overall title for a blog, don't you know!)

But yesterday fbb left you with a tease. After arriving at Antony station ...

... on RER line B, where did fbb go next? It was just one stop northbound to La Croix de Berny, where the station buildings ...

... have been preserved and reused as a happy reminder of the former "Halt".

But why alight at this somewhat obscure station? The answer lay at the foot of the station approach path.

But, yet another RATP bus?

Le Trans-Val-de-Marne, souvent abrégé en Tvm, est une ligne de bus à haut niveau de service) exploitée par la RATP. Cette ligne de bus mise en service le 1er octobre 1993, presque intégralement en site propre, est destinée à faciliter les déplacements de banlieue à banlieue du département du Val-de-Marne, en Île-de-France.

Elle relie la gare de La Croix de Berny à la gare de Saint-Maur Créteil et dessert trente-deux stations sur près de vingt kilomètres. Elle bénéficie d'un statut spécial puisque bien que ce soit une ligne de bus, elle est déjà administrativement incluse par la RATP dans le "mode T", celui regroupant les lignes de tramway.

Not quite; this bus is a tram! It is shown on the Île de France train map.

It has posh articulated buses, rare outside the city.

It runs almost exclusively on its own reserved track with priority at all junctions. It has some very spectacular grade-separated infrastructure ...

... (bridges and flyovers to the man in the street) and stops at tram-like "stations".

It leaves its main-road route to loop through the ginormous wholesale market at Rungis ...

... where loadings became significant after a thin start.

An interchange is made with RER line C a Choisy le Roi ...

... but not with line D just past Pompadour; no suitable station access!

But, approaching Créteil (where fbb passed by the day before at the end of Métro line 8) the bus veers suddenly off the dual carriageway and down a narrow side street. For why, you may ask?

Th answer is to make interchange with RER line A at Saint Maur Créteil station ...

... which has changed a bit in recent years!

From here, fbb took the A train to Paris Gare du Nord (change to B at Châtelet) ...

... then stepped smartly along some more corridors to Magenta station on RER line E. This very deep level facility is almost Moscow-like in its grandeur ...

... but fbb found the trains themselves disappointingly tatty!

This was the age of the train, but despite this, the aim was to travel on Tram 4 between Bondy and Alnay sous Bois.

But the trams looked different; they were blue!

In fact they are not run by RATP.

They carry the "Transilien" brans used by SNCF for local services in the Île de France region.

Together with the leaf logo they also have SNCF branding. The service should, perhaps, be called a "tram-train". More on this oddity later.

From Aulnay it was RER line B back to Gare du Nord whence bus route 42 ...

... conveyed the weary wanderers safely to flagons of tea back at their hotel.

One day left. Thursday's exploits will follow on Monday 11th May.

 Next UK bus blog : Saturay 9th May