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Post by danorak on Oct 1, 2019 22:52:45 GMT
Long ago there was talk of the 188 being cut to Elephant as part of a package of improvements for Conveys Whalf with I think another Greenwich to central London route. Hard to see that happening now with a move away from buses in central London. More likely just be cut back anyways now. I have a colleague who lives in Greenwich/Maze Hill.
This is his assesment of the 188, and why he no longer uses to get to work:
'I love the 188, I really do, its such a useful route, and a great one to have on your doorstep. Unfortunately its not viable for me to use to get to work. I accept that if the route were rerouted to run directly from Waterloo to City Hall, its patronage would take a huge hit. However, it would also create new useful links making the route much more direct. I think there should be two routes. The 188 should be cutback to Waterloo to improves its reliability, as at the moment with the traffic on Tower Bridge Road you can get huge gaps, and buses crawl along there. Another route should be created which runs directly from Russell Square to Greenwich, but via the 381 between Waterloo and City Hall.' That's not an exact quotation but hopefully it gives you an idea of his view. The 188 is one of my favourite routes in London, I'm no expert but I do this that having a direct route, and one to Elephant could work.
I used to use the 188 quite often from Aldwych to Greenwich (admittedly in pre-Jubilee Line days) as an alternative way home when I wasn't in a rush. It used to be pretty speedy and direct but the journey is now interminable.
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Post by danorak on Oct 1, 2019 23:02:18 GMT
How are the N53's loadings doing? Not seen any N53s but I am going to climb aboard my favourite hobby horse again - the County Hall terminus of the 53. The Lower Marsh first stop is teethgrindingly useless. I've been to a few events in Central London over the last few weeks, particularly on the South Bank, and it's just so inconvenient. Trying to get past the Park Plaza hotel from the north side of Westminster Bridge is not as straightforward as it should be. Standing under a bridge, with water dripping on the intending passengers, isn't a great passenger experience. Each time I've waited there there's been a fairly decent number of people at the stop.
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Post by vjaska on Oct 2, 2019 0:22:48 GMT
How are the N53's loadings doing? Not seen any N53s but I am going to climb aboard my favourite hobby horse again - the County Hall terminus of the 53. The Lower Marsh first stop is teethgrindingly useless. I've been to a few events in Central London over the last few weeks, particularly on the South Bank, and it's just so inconvenient. Trying to get past the Park Plaza hotel from the north side of Westminster Bridge is not as straightforward as it should be. Standing under a bridge, with water dripping on the intending passengers, isn't a great passenger experience. Each time I've waited there there's been a fairly decent number of people at the stop. And to think, it was easily resolvable by having the 53 stand at Lambeth Palace instead and the last stop on Lambeth Palace Road opposite the hospital rather than under a dank, gloomy bridge dripping with water.
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Post by rif153 on Oct 2, 2019 5:54:46 GMT
How are the N53's loadings doing? Not seen any N53s but I am going to climb aboard my favourite hobby horse again - the County Hall terminus of the 53. The Lower Marsh first stop is teethgrindingly useless. I've been to a few events in Central London over the last few weeks, particularly on the South Bank, and it's just so inconvenient. Trying to get past the Park Plaza hotel from the north side of Westminster Bridge is not as straightforward as it should be. Standing under a bridge, with water dripping on the intending passengers, isn't a great passenger experience. Each time I've waited there there's been a fairly decent number of people at the stop. Its such a shame. There are so many better locations for a first stop on the 53 which could be found although one I will touch on is the stand. I see no harm in making the 53's stand a first stop on the route, would save people walking to Lower Marsh and standing under that bridge, some may feel unsafe standing under that bridge where its dark and water drips. I know there's stand space for four buses at County Hall, and the 53 and 381 share the stand using any space they can get, but either the 53 could be allocated the front two spaces at the stand, or passengers could just wait at the stand and look to see which bus opens its doors first.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Oct 4, 2019 19:05:03 GMT
Something I noticed yesterday was the fact a scrolling message has been added to the 48. "For more information visit tfl.gov.uk/pembuschanges" It only seems to scroll every minute and there's no indication at all on it that the 48 is being withdrawn, it's like they're trying to cover it up as much as possible right until the last day which I imagine is when the withdrawal notice will be added to that message on the iBus display. An update to this. I saw the same message on the bus today, completely useless on its own. However as soon as we hit Shoreditch it started to be supplemented by another message which read "Route 48 will be withdrawn after the last bus on Friday 11th October". From my observation this message then vanished after we passed Bakers Arms and just the "For more information visit TfL.gov.uk/permbuschanges" message was scrolling again. Now I'm not sure if this is just a co-incidence or not but it seemed far too ironic that the message would only display between Shoreditch and Leyton, which funnily enough is exactly the bitthe 55 parallels. It's almost as if TfL don't want the people along the 48s unique sections where there's no 55 or 26 to not know about this right until the last minute.
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Post by southlondonbus on Oct 4, 2019 20:14:40 GMT
One week to go and the final 48s will be running. Almost unthinkable 3 years ago really.
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Post by rif153 on Oct 4, 2019 20:24:48 GMT
One week to go and the final 48s will be running. Almost unthinkable 3 years ago really. It is heartbreaking that such a vital and busy trunk route will be no more soon...
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Post by southlondonbus on Oct 4, 2019 20:49:28 GMT
Atleast 2 thirds of it will be maintained by the 55 down to Shoreditch.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2019 21:36:07 GMT
Atleast 2 thirds of it will be maintained by the 55 down to Shoreditch. Yes but with the added pressure of the 48 passengers having to squeeze on a already busy 55!
I might be proven wrong but think this could be a cut that backfires on TfL.
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Post by rif153 on Oct 4, 2019 21:41:02 GMT
Atleast 2 thirds of it will be maintained by the 55 down to Shoreditch. Two thirds of the 48's line of route will be maintained. Meanwhile Lea Bridge Road looses 6bph, and will be down from 26.5bph to 16.5bph with the 55 and 56, that's a loss of other a third of bus capacity along there. Hackney Road does gain some bus capacity but only a pointless increase on the 26 which will see a rise in patronage mopping up some Cambridge Heath-City demand, but a frequency increase on the 55 would reap far greater benefits. The 55 is already a busy route as it is, something its harder to say about the 26.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Oct 4, 2019 21:55:15 GMT
Atleast 2 thirds of it will be maintained by the 55 down to Shoreditch. Yes but with the added pressure of the 48 passengers having to squeeze on a already busy 55!
I might be proven wrong but think this could be a cut that backfires on TfL.
I think TfL's data regarding both the 55 and 48 will be skewed as both routes use LTs so will have many passengers not tapping in, not to mention the areas they pass through are of sorts that attract that sort of behaviour. If the 55s start to struggle and if patronage shoots up when front door boarding is introduced then I am hoping something will then be done to effectively reverse the change. Let's see how things pan out, a fair few passengers will probably switch to rail although I don't see them jumping between buses everywhere.
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Post by rif153 on Oct 4, 2019 22:02:11 GMT
Yes but with the added pressure of the 48 passengers having to squeeze on a already busy 55!
I might be proven wrong but think this could be a cut that backfires on TfL.
I think TfL's data regarding both the 55 and 48 will be skewed as both routes use LTs so will have many passengers not tapping in, not to mention the areas they pass through are of sorts that attract that sort of behaviour. If the 55s start to struggle and if patronage shoots up when front door boarding is introduced then I am hoping something will then be done to effectively reverse the change. Let's see how things pan out, a fair few passengers will probably switch to rail although I don't see them jumping between buses everywhere. I wonder if TfL think that the Overground will pick up some of the slack for travel from Walthamstow to Hackney and the City.
I agree about LTs, the issue is you put them in areas where there is deprivation, and people will of course take the temptation. Hackney with its many LT routes must be a prime example of this, ditto Peckham with the 12 and so on. I know you're in the viccinty of Barking so I wanted to ask you how often you see fare dodging on the EL routes.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Oct 4, 2019 22:06:20 GMT
I think TfL's data regarding both the 55 and 48 will be skewed as both routes use LTs so will have many passengers not tapping in, not to mention the areas they pass through are of sorts that attract that sort of behaviour. If the 55s start to struggle and if patronage shoots up when front door boarding is introduced then I am hoping something will then be done to effectively reverse the change. Let's see how things pan out, a fair few passengers will probably switch to rail although I don't see them jumping between buses everywhere. I wonder if TfL think that the Overground will pick up some of the slack for travel from Walthamstow to Hackney and the City.
I agree about LTs, the issue is you put them in areas where there is deprivation, and people will of course take the temptation. Hackney with its many LT routes must be a prime example of this, ditto Peckham with the 12 and so on. I know you're in the viccinty of Barking so I wanted to ask you how often you see fare dodging on the EL routes.
The ELT routes have fare dodging all the time, I am a fan of open boarding on it as it mops up the crowds quickly however the fare evasion is ridiculous at the moment.
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Post by rif153 on Oct 4, 2019 22:10:56 GMT
I wonder if TfL think that the Overground will pick up some of the slack for travel from Walthamstow to Hackney and the City.
I agree about LTs, the issue is you put them in areas where there is deprivation, and people will of course take the temptation. Hackney with its many LT routes must be a prime example of this, ditto Peckham with the 12 and so on. I know you're in the viccinty of Barking so I wanted to ask you how often you see fare dodging on the EL routes.
The ELT routes have fare dodging all the time, I am a fan of open boarding on it as it mops up the crowds quickly however the fare evasion is ridiculous at the moment. Are you seeing much revenue inspection btw? I've noticed a recent rise in revenue inspections on the LT route I use the most, the 148.
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Post by george on Oct 4, 2019 22:14:16 GMT
The ELT routes have fare dodging all the time, I am a fan of open boarding on it as it mops up the crowds quickly however the fare evasion is ridiculous at the moment. Are you seeing much revenue inspection btw? I've noticed a recent rise in revenue inspections on the LT route I use the most, the 148. I have had three inspections this week. On route 343, 15 and 6. Although 15 and 6 was the same people so technically my pass wasn't inspected on the 6.
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