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Post by busaholic on Dec 29, 2018 23:25:09 GMT
Had a wander around Hyde Park and Oxford Street yesterday. Some observations: At the height of Saturday passenger traffic, 23s were at best carrying penny numbers to/from Hammersmith. Job done. Almost every bus I saw on Oxford Street was busy to full, even 7s and 113s. 94s were seemingly the busiest buses, whereas surprisingly 139s were close to empty, more so than 159s! Was there a wall of red vehicles? No. It was a wall of taxis and minicabs continuously stopping to pick up anyone and anything. Why is Oxford Street traffic so bad? Continual traffic lights and the plethora of non-bus vehicles. Wigmore Street was very heavily congested and appeared unsuitable for ANY buses. Was in Oxford Street today, most buses reasonably loaded, routes 94, 98 and 390 in particular. The proposal to cut back route 94 to North Row is ridiculous given current loadings east of Selfridges. Took a 139 from Oxford Street to Strand early evening which showed the stupidity of reducing four bus routes over this axis to just one. Bus was horrendously crowded from Oxford Circus onwards, long dwell times at stops, people boarding through rear doors to try and squeeze on, awful for the wheelchair user onboard and those with pushchairs. Certainly need to extend route 15 to Oxford Circus to restore through link to Regent Street from Aldwych/Fleet Street and relieve the 139. Alternatively when route 9 is reinstated to run via Piccadilly Circus, route 6 could be restored to its old routeing via Oxford Street. The round the corner link at Hyde Park Corner might be nice to have but not if you can’t do the basics of shifting the crowds between Oxford Street and Strand. Agree about reinstating route 73 to serve the John Lewis stop, would have helped shift the large crowd I saw waiting for route 390. The 15 should certainly be re-extended: TfL could use some of the savings from axeing the 15H. It would also give an alternative, continuing route to 25 passengers wanting to get to Oxford Circus, by changing at Aldgate.
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Post by sid on Dec 30, 2018 0:07:54 GMT
Had a wander around Hyde Park and Oxford Street yesterday. Some observations: At the height of Saturday passenger traffic, 23s were at best carrying penny numbers to/from Hammersmith. Job done. Almost every bus I saw on Oxford Street was busy to full, even 7s and 113s. 94s were seemingly the busiest buses, whereas surprisingly 139s were close to empty, more so than 159s! Was there a wall of red vehicles? No. It was a wall of taxis and minicabs continuously stopping to pick up anyone and anything. Why is Oxford Street traffic so bad? Continual traffic lights and the plethora of non-bus vehicles. Wigmore Street was very heavily congested and appeared unsuitable for ANY buses. Colour me not surprised at all. The whole Oxford St bus route rationalisation exercise is a disaster - unless you are a cab / minicab driver. It demonstrates incompetence on a large scale. It's not perfect but it's hardly the catastrophe some people would like it to be.
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Post by redbus on Dec 30, 2018 0:22:50 GMT
Could also include Redhill (405) for C Including their non TfL work, PB stretches from St. Albans (84) to Walthamstow (34) to Trafalgar Square (N20, N91) Not so long ago, Finchley's buses could be seen at both Crystal Palace and Edgware, and on day routes at that! I think NX though would be hard to beat with Farningham (Kent), Hounslow and Turnpike Lane/Tottenham all reached, but I can't be sure there was a date when all those coincided without consulting Mr Armstrong's tour de force. Very true, but then there were all sots of interesting Sunday workings then, including TC (Croydon) going as far north as West Hampstead.
For daily workings you had N going to Golders Green, AK (Streatham) to West Hampstead, and numerous others besides.
Back to topic, I have taken the 139 numerous times around the West End and onwards and it is generally busier than before the 10 / 23 changes, although the big uptake in passengers came after the Finchley Road changes and the re-routing of the 13.
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Post by redbus on Dec 30, 2018 0:30:49 GMT
Colour me not surprised at all. The whole Oxford St bus route rationalisation exercise is a disaster - unless you are a cab / minicab driver. It demonstrates incompetence on a large scale. It's not perfect but it's hardly the catastrophe some people would like it to be. People will always find other ways around, or perhaps like myself vote with my feet and make fewer journeys into the West End. For me personally, Amazon is a beneficiary of these (but particularly previous) changes as I now buy more from them on the internet instead of going into town.
Bus users tend to be a stoic lot and not complain too much and so will manage. That however doesn't make the changes right, but TfL were told to reduce buses in Oxford Streert - and so they have.
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Post by vjaska on Dec 30, 2018 2:28:24 GMT
It's not perfect but it's hardly the catastrophe some people would like it to be. People will always find other ways around, or perhaps like myself vote with my feet and make fewer journeys into the West End. For me personally, Amazon is a beneficiary of these (but particularly previous) changes as I now buy more from them on the internet instead of going into town.
Bus users tend to be a stoic lot and not complain too much and so will manage. That however doesn't make the changes right, but TfL were told to reduce buses in Oxford Streert - and so they have.
I've been using Amazon a lot more over the last two years though I still do a fair number of high street shopping trips but they're very rarely include Central London - I'd much rather use the likes of Bromley, Surrey Quays, and even further afield places like Gallions Reach & Greenwich Peninsula instead. The only time I recently used a shop in Central London was the Apple Store regarding my phone and that's it
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Post by busaholic on Dec 30, 2018 12:39:32 GMT
Not so long ago, Finchley's buses could be seen at both Crystal Palace and Edgware, and on day routes at that! I think NX though would be hard to beat with Farningham (Kent), Hounslow and Turnpike Lane/Tottenham all reached, but I can't be sure there was a date when all those coincided without consulting Mr Armstrong's tour de force. Very true, but then there were all sots of interesting Sunday workings then, including TC (Croydon) going as far north as West Hampstead.
For daily workings you had N going to Golders Green, AK (Streatham) to West Hampstead, and numerous others besides.
The NX workings I was referring to were all Monday to Friday or Saturday - almost unbelievable now!
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Post by redbus on Dec 30, 2018 18:38:36 GMT
I was in Oxford Street today and not many buses at all. All buses that I saw had good loads, especially the 390 and 94.
I waited for a 139 bus in Portman Street (first stop after Selfridges going towards Baker Street) and the bus came in pretty full. There was some standing space below, all seats taken upstairs, including four people standing upstairs. The bus left the stop absolutely rammed full and left people behind at the next bus stop. Whilst I appreciate this isn't a typical Sunday, Oxford Street was busy but not obviously much more so than a normal Sunday. Dare I say that maybe Sunday frequencies need improving.
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Post by vjaska on Dec 30, 2018 18:52:41 GMT
I was in Oxford Street today and not many buses at all. All buses that I saw had good loads, especially the 390 and 94. I waited for a 139 bus in Portman Street (first stop after Selfridges going towards Baker Street) and the bus came in pretty full. There was some standing space below, all seats taken upstairs, including four people standing upstairs. The bus left the stop absolutely rammed full and left people behind at the next bus stop. Whilst I appreciate this isn't a typical Sunday, Oxford Street was busy but not obviously much more so than a normal Sunday. Dare I say that maybe Sunday frequencies need improving. I'd agree about Sunday frequencies increasing but not at the expense of Saturday frequencies - I do a lot of my journey's on Saturdays and there are still so many routes that are very busy on these days. I do find it a shame that Sunday has now become just another ordinary day rather than the day where people mainly stayed in other than going to market (or if religious, went to church).
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Dec 30, 2018 20:58:18 GMT
On the way home from work this afternoon every bus was heaving along Oxford Street, and it was a Sunday night. I hope TfL are proud they've cut a load of routes and they're planning to cut more. Picture 1 Picture 2
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Post by southlondonbus on Dec 30, 2018 21:15:16 GMT
I think tfl think that people will walk to Marble Arch to get on the 94 in the future.
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Post by redbus on Dec 30, 2018 21:20:47 GMT
I think tfl think that people will walk to Marble Arch to get on the 94 in the future. No, no, everyone is expected to go onto Crosssail which started earlier this month!!! Not!!!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2018 21:27:36 GMT
I tried to bus it both ways to Oxford Street yesterday but gave up as it took me much longer via the 115 and 15 (then a long walk) instead of the 115 then the 25 so got the tube home. Thanks TfL
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Post by sid on Dec 30, 2018 21:35:36 GMT
On the way home from work this afternoon every bus was heaving along Oxford Street, and it was a Sunday night. I hope TfL are proud they've cut a load of routes and they're planning to cut more. Picture 1 Picture 2The 94 and 148 are two of many routes with an inadequate Sunday service, in many areas Sunday shopping hours are busier than Saturdays.
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Post by vjaska on Dec 30, 2018 23:02:29 GMT
On the way home from work this afternoon every bus was heaving along Oxford Street, and it was a Sunday night. I hope TfL are proud they've cut a load of routes and they're planning to cut more. Picture 1 Picture 2The 94 and 148 are two of many routes with an inadequate Sunday service, in many areas Sunday shopping hours are busier than Saturdays. But there are a number of routes which have a higher Saturday PVR than during the week so I think it's more a case of Sunday shopping hours becoming as busy as Saturday shopping hours which are still very busy in their own right.
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Post by galwhv69 on Dec 30, 2018 23:11:27 GMT
On the way home from work this afternoon every bus was heaving along Oxford Street, and it was a Sunday night. I hope TfL are proud they've cut a load of routes and they're planning to cut more. Picture 1 Picture 2Seen. it on twitter,absolutely shocked about it!It can't cope and tfl are trying to cut the service!
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