Route N68

[Deleted]

Does anyone know why the N68 now has traditional (ie not stop-specific) timetables posted at bus stops?

[Ice Prxnce]

The N1 also has those timetables aswell. They look a bit confusing and I hope TFL are not trying to introduce them on other routes aswell.

[southlondonbus]

much easier to produce I guess as you just produce one for the whole route and print it off many times. With basically only 2 journeys an hour I guess TFL consider tem good enough. My gripe with them was always the lack of specific point. Your prob looking at Old Cousldon/Tudor Rose, Coulsdon Town, Purley/Tesco, South Croydon/Swan and Sugar loaf, East Croydon etc so you end up getting to your stop early as you don't know the exact time.

[l1group]

Routes N1 and N113 have them. I think it's for low frequency night routes. Remember - London used to cope with these before we had the current 'departure list' display we have today, so it'll definitely give a mixed reaction.

In any case, here is the N1 example (note it is in white): www.flickr.com/photos/wltmauc/13892426317/
And also, here is the N113 example: www.flickr.com/photos/wltmauc/13924478458/

It may coincide with the new night bus branding with spider maps with a background of black, instead of white.

[6HP502C]

They are a throwback to 1990s style timetables, even lacking a wheelchair symbol. Why, I don't know, but I will ask around!

[LX09FBJ]

May 3, 2014 0:59:02 GMT 6HP502C said:

They are a throwback to 1990s style timetables, even lacking a wheelchair symbol. Why, I don't know, but I will ask around!

Another example of the recent 'throwback' policy at TfL, with WOBs, roundels and the return of the Night Bus Owl.

Although nowadays I think that there is no need for a wheelchair symbol, as 99.88% of the network is now low floor, and the 0.12% which isn't are the heritage routes which are covered in full by wheelchair accessible buses.

Who knows, maybe liveries (and even interior designs) such as the one on 36343 might even become a reality!

[lonmark]

Is it law to make all buses to have low floor / wheelchair abroad by 2015/2016 ? However London area is done except 9H / 15H.

[snoggle]

May 3, 2014 1:46:49 GMT LX09FBJ said:

Who knows, maybe liveries (and even interior designs) such as the one on 36343 might even become a reality!

It'll be gold fleetnames and numbers next. As I said in another place the Tardis has landed in Palestra and someone has taken a ride back over a few decades and nicked an idea from each one.

I don't mind things like "proper" timetables re-emerging but I do wonder at the cost of all of this at a time when there's allegedly no money to sort out the fundamentals of the service where people can't travel reliably or in reasonable comfort. Also having spent a long time achieving a level of consistency in information provision we need seem to be heading away from it for no apparent reason.

Where's the logic, after a decade of aligning information on stops, maps, timetables, blinds and now Countdown, for it all to be fiddled with thus throwing things out of kilter and risking confusion for people who use varying info sources?

[Eastlondoner62]

The N86 has them, but I've not seen any N15 timetables like this

[l1group]

May 3, 2014 13:34:19 GMT Eastlondoner62 said:

The N86 has them, but I've not seen any N15 timetables like this

As I've suggested above, it's only for low frequency night routes like N1, N86, N113, but can't really be done for complex/high frequency night routes like N9, N15 and N29, for example. You can't fit the whole N9, N15, N29 timetable into a space as small as a normal timetable, unless you like unreadable font sizes (obviously not all of them together)!

Departure lists are here to stay for most routes (high frequency routes), unless TfL become too confused... Imagine the 25 with that sort of timetable! That route instead has vague frequencies which aren't that bad to wait on!

[vjaska]

The N137 also has these timetables too.

[Deleted]

May 3, 2014 21:12:37 GMT vjaska said:

The N137 also has these timetables too.

I saw that also. Noticed that instead of listing every departure time that one states "and then every 15 minutes" guess this style can be used for high frequency night routes then.

[eggmiester]

Production costs and the fact the routes generally operate a small number of trips will no doubt be the reason.

[Deleted]

Personally I've never liked the new style departure lists. I think they look cluttered for the total information they purvey, and that the amount of information is actually less than a 'traditional' timetable (or 'timetable', as its known...).

I would say the information design peaked with this style of timetable: www.flickr.com/photos/22640996@N07/6273104098/ (excellent photostream btw).

Some passenger benefits over 'departure list' style:

# Expected duration of a particular journey is shown in one place (just read down the column), instead of requiring the user to find departure time then look elsewhere at line diagram for duration.

# Information for other journeys in same direction but not from this stop is included.

# Obvious to see that journey times are different ouside off-peak weekday durations. Whats more, the magnitude of such difference is explicit. Surely this is an important point, as a peak time journey can in some instances be suprisingly longer than an off peak one because of congestion.


One further point; I fail to see why its a bad thing to encourage people to turn up a few minutes early for their bus to be 'on the safe side'

[ThinLizzy]

May 3, 2014 13:34:19 GMT Eastlondoner62 said:

The N86 has them, but I've not seen any N15 timetables like this

The new N15 timetable is in the "new/old" format- timetable panels must have been changed this afternoon as the old style timetable was at the N15 stop just before BK at 5 this morning