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Post by snoggle on May 10, 2018 11:56:25 GMT
After only 3 months wait TfL have finally responded to the Assembly transport committee who'd submitted some further queries to TfL. The Cttee's publication has clearly been delayed by there being no meetings in April and election purdah this year. There are two responses TfL response to reportsBus safety programme updateOn the first one there is only a little bit of news - firstly it seems the Crossrail related bus changes all kick in from December 2018. I find this pretty astonishing given the parlous TfL Rail service levels in West London and the non existent station rebuilding programme. Are TfL really going to try to funnel people on to the rail network through building sites and a shoddy 4 or 2 tph service (depending on the day of the week)? Secondly it seems the programme of "service adjustments" is only ongoing for 12 months. I find this is a bit surprising given the financial challenge that TfL face. I wonder if TfL are still living in "it will be alright on the night" mode when it comes to patronage recovery / growth? Thirdly the Business Plan due in December 2018 will apparently break down bus mileage projections by areas of London. That's interesting as it will rather put the spotlight on where they might be doing nothing / making cuts. Finally there is the usual load of waffle about "trying" (note lack of commitment here) to improve bus services in Outer London. Oh and just to prove that Gareth Powell is either illiterate or doesn't read his own letters look at the spelling howler on the last page of the first letter about Wifi take up - "less than 14% of borders". I didn't know that boundaries between countries rode the bus and tried to use wifi!. This - in a letter to a senior politician with oversight responsibility for the organisation that said senior manager works for. Good grief.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on May 10, 2018 14:50:34 GMT
After only 3 months wait TfL have finally responded to the Assembly transport committee who'd submitted some further queries to TfL. The Cttee's publication has clearly been delayed by there being no meetings in April and election purdah this year. There are two responses TfL response to reportsBus safety programme updateOn the first one there is only a little bit of news - firstly it seems the Crossrail related bus changes all kick in from December 2018. I find this pretty astonishing given the parlous TfL Rail service levels in West London and the non existent station rebuilding programme. Are TfL really going to try to funnel people on to the rail network through building sites and a shoddy 4 or 2 tph service (depending on the day of the week)? Secondly it seems the programme of "service adjustments" is only ongoing for 12 months. I find this is a bit surprising given the financial challenge that TfL face. I wonder if TfL are still living in "it will be alright on the night" mode when it comes to patronage recovery / growth? Thirdly the Business Plan due in December 2018 will apparently break down bus mileage projections by areas of London. That's interesting as it will rather put the spotlight on where they might be doing nothing / making cuts. Finally there is the usual load of waffle about "trying" (note lack of commitment here) to improve bus services in Outer London. Oh and just to prove that Gareth Powell is either illiterate or doesn't read his own letters look at the spelling howler on the last page of the first letter about Wifi take up - "less than 14% of borders". I didn't know that boundaries between countries rode the bus and tried to use wifi!. This - in a letter to a senior politician with oversight responsibility for the organisation that said senior manager works for. Good grief. I'm very sceptical the bus changes will all be able to happen in December 2018, especially the ones in West London seeing as some of the new routes there haven't even appeared on the tender programme let alone been put out to tender. Not to mention the award of the 301 is running really late and the 497 award has been held back for whatever reason. The only changes that seem to have had any progress made on them are the ones in East London - and those are the ones that probably shouldn't even need to happen. Not to mention among those the 304 award hasn't been announced either, talking of which have TfL even worked out where to stand the 104 at Beckton? Quite often you get a bus parked at the alighting point there because of a lack of space. The decking of some routes in South East London doesn't seem to be going ahead now either, this could prove a problem in the 244s case where its buses had already been earmarked for other routes.
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Post by snowman on Jun 12, 2018 8:15:33 GMT
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Post by busman on Jun 12, 2018 17:11:07 GMT
From that press release there are 2 key questions, one of which was: Excuse my naivety here as I don’t work in the transport industry, but if TfL can run transport in other big cities and do so at a profit then why shouldn’t they? TfL’s financial situation isn’t down to profligacy, but rather down to political interference by 2 consecutive London Mayor’s who have given away funding sources and stifled ways of raising additional revenue. For the Assembly to insist that TfL cleans up the mess vomited by politicians on the city of London before it bids for outsourced opportunities in other cities - potential new sources of revenue which incidentally could go towards addressing a budget deficit - smacks of hypocrisy and grandstanding. I feel for those TfL bosses who had to sit in front of those numpties earlier today.
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Post by londonbuses2018 on Jun 12, 2018 18:04:31 GMT
If TFL had Wi Fi I would trail it on the X26 and see how it goes then roll it out eventually.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Jun 12, 2018 18:12:45 GMT
If TFL had Wi Fi I would trail it on the X26 and see how it goes then roll it out eventually. I don't know why you'd trial on the X26 if your aim is to then roll it out to all routes. Surely a trial should be on an "average" route to give a better representation of if people will use it if rolled out on the network?
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Post by YY13VKP on Jun 12, 2018 18:30:13 GMT
If TFL had Wi Fi I would trail it on the X26 and see how it goes then roll it out eventually. Wi-Fi has been trialled before on London's buses, there was a series of New Routemasters in a Magnum ad livery that trialled it in 2015, not too sure what the result of the trial was, but sooner or later Wi-Fi and USB charging on all buses will become mandatory, maybe not now while TfL are in a financial crisis
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Post by sid on Jun 12, 2018 18:33:29 GMT
If TFL had Wi Fi I would trail it on the X26 and see how it goes then roll it out eventually. Do we really need a trial? It's pretty much standard everywhere else just like LED's are.
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Post by ibus246 on Jun 12, 2018 19:38:01 GMT
If TFL had Wi Fi I would trail it on the X26 and see how it goes then roll it out eventually. Wi-Fi has been trialled before on London's buses, there was a series of New Routemasters in a Magnum ad livery that trialled it in 2015, not too sure what the result of the trial was, but sooner or later Wi-Fi and USB charging on all buses will become mandatory, maybe not now while TfL are in a financial crisis Mandatory?
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Post by ServerKing on Jun 12, 2018 20:01:28 GMT
Wi-Fi has been trialled before on London's buses, there was a series of New Routemasters in a Magnum ad livery that trialled it in 2015, not too sure what the result of the trial was, but sooner or later Wi-Fi and USB charging on all buses will become mandatory, maybe not now while TfL are in a financial crisis Mandatory? WiFi Enforcement Officers will have the power to strip operators of routes if they fail to provide working WiFi or USB Ports, with the same diligence we pursue Operators in connection with Blind Banditry I'm not sure if Exterion charged for the WiFi in their trials or it had to be subscribed to, hence the low take-up, whereas Arriva and others outside TfL Land provide WiFi for free within the bus, I assume enough to get you on the Daily Fail, BBC News, but I doubt anything racy
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Post by danorak on Jun 16, 2018 12:36:33 GMT
If TFL had Wi Fi I would trail it on the X26 and see how it goes then roll it out eventually. Do we really need a trial? It's pretty much standard everywhere else just like LED's are. It's becoming more common but it's a long way from being standard - the last set of bus statistics showed that 25% of buses in England are equipped with free wi-fi.
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Post by snowman on Nov 14, 2018 14:14:08 GMT
Assembly : TfL finances, the end of the line report Section 6.1 says plan is to save £ 375m on cost of bus services, which is about double the 9% proposed cut to bus services. Looks like the Operators are going to be squeezed for tens of millions each year (about £180m if no efficiency changes) The Board papers show Q2 year to date bus cost as £968m (and income of £670m) so I am calculating £375m as about 18% off bus costs. Maybe some will come from extra fares revenue (no sign of that going up currently), so doesn’t make sense to me as Bus companies aren’t going to offer tender bids at big losses
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Post by southlondonbus on Nov 14, 2018 14:41:48 GMT
Expect some to leave London then like First and Stagecoach did (of course Stagecoach returned) as if they are so squeezed they are operating for no profit.
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Post by SILENCED on Nov 14, 2018 15:53:03 GMT
Expect some to leave London then like First and Stagecoach did (of course Stagecoach returned) as if they are so squeezed they are operating for no profit. If they squeeze too hard ... an operator can threaten to jack it in, sell their garages to developers and take their buses with them
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Post by southlondonbus on Nov 14, 2018 15:59:45 GMT
I think operators have had to get used to reductions happening during the duration of contacts or even terminated all together only a couple of years in like potentially with the 48 and the shortening of the 19, 67 etc or extended for a few mroe months like the 9/N9. The have probably learned it's best not to complain and just accept revised PVRs etc.
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