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Post by thesquirrels on Feb 17, 2015 23:55:29 GMT
Are some commuters just clever or stupid? Today whilst on board a rammed packed 133 in Borough, Vex Passengers with Screwfaces all looking at the bus when the bus goes past Borough Station Bus Stop and funny all put there hands out and wave repeatedly for the bus to stop. Seriously I do wonder what Qualifications some people got in Maths end of School or when they last visited Specsavers for an Eye Test, if there is no room on a bus why bother, why get peeed off when the bus drives past something they cannot control . Nelson from the Simpsons should stand at Busy Stops and say "Ha Ha" lol. Oh come on. I've done the "mad wavey angry gesticulation" at a bus which drove past the stop after I've waited 25 minutes in the freezing cold when it was perfectly clear there were seats upstairs even if downstairs was busy. I've even had a bus drive past a stop with 15 people at it and the bus had seats clearly available on both decks. Instead we were forced onto the overloaded bus following behind because the bus drivers had decided at a previous stop how they would stop at the stops and sod the passengers. That one got reported to TfL immediately as that's a disgrace. I've lost track of the tweets I've had retweeted into my timeline of late where people are livid about waiting up to 30 mins for buses which should be umpteen times more frequent than that. Plus drivers ignoring passengers, driving past stops, berating passengers etc etc. If the tweets are even vaguely representative of reality (i.e. allowing for some being exaggerated or untrue) then something is seriously wrong with the tube, bus services and traffic in general. It looks to me that in the peak the system simply cannot cope anymore on some corridors because there are simply too many passengers and nowhere near enough capacity. Yes sometimes passengers are clueless but we know that routes like the 133 are chronically busy in the peaks. It is not the passengers' fault if buses are full - it is up to TfL to put more buses on to carry the people who want to travel. The fact it can take *years* to do this does not in way make the passengers daft. It simply makes them cross and justifiably so given the fares people have to fork out. Where's the millions of quid from buses going cashless? Has that been spent on making buses better? Why do passengers have to be clued up to use a bus anyway? It should be simple, straightforward and not stressful. I think these shortcomings in the network have always existed, although the pinchpoints have moved around in the game of London Buses whac-a-mole. You focus on certain corridors known to have chronic issues, and even as those are attended to others will appear as, to paraphrase Chris Morris, "problems we know nothing about". Yes, zone 1 has its traffic problems, but the pre-CC situation on roads like Gower Street/TCR and - especially - Baker Street reminds me that things are generally better, so long as TfL/Crossrail aren't tearing up bits of road.. which of course they now are. I really do think have had a honeymoon period of about 10 years where resources have been pumped in and routes created, but I think that is it now without a change in the political climate. The 1990s services - if that is to be considered a benchmark of successive stingy 'conservative' administrations - were *generally* acceptable with some shortcomings and a few pockets of utter embarrassment - I think that is the sort of state we are likely to return to now. But the sluggish reactions to pocket areas are nothing new - look at Centrewest/LT/TfL's handling of the 28/31 corridor - it was blindingly apparent that midibus operation was unworkable within two or three years of their conversion from RM yet it took until 2004 for deckers to be restored. Crush level overcrowding and huge gaps had been routine the entire time. I recall waits for a 31 on the combined 28/31/328 stretch in Notting Hill (24bph+) where it took 30 minutes for anything to appear on any route. And yes, frustrated waves at 31s towards Camden in Kilburn as a 25 minute wait resulted in two buses, both with passengers compressed against the doors, sailing past on a route with a nominal service of 12bph. That was by no means unusual. When it is like that day after day you become angry at the situation. I'm not sure things like poor staff attitude and flooring it past stops are a sign of TfL losing grip as much as a continuation of the status quo - it has always happened and I have always seen it happen. If you are seeing a greater incidence of shortcomings appear in your twitter TL I'd wager that mostly much down to clearer channels of communication and better search/aggregation on social media. Who is looking for these tweets that get RTd into your timeline? Bus provision is an increasingly political issue under the broader TfL/Mayoral umbrella, twitter is a politicised space, and the system is still maturing. Users have their agenda and a wealth of information to draw on once they have the right skills honed. Plus, once people know they are going to be heard/RTd with their bus rants, the more likely they are to pipe up again. I do it myself.
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Post by thesquirrels on Feb 13, 2015 22:45:05 GMT
It was in the very early days - Grey Green (as part of Arriva) ran the Sunday 19 from Stamford Hill from gaining the route in '98 until mid 2000. I think Tottenham had a very brief stint when SF was mothballed. Seven Sisters Road was quite busy with 168 and 19 dead runs for a few years. There was also a similar thing with route 68 around 98- 2000 I saw some vehicles blinded for the X68 on 7SR from time to time as well, did AR/SF have any formal involvement on that route?
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Post by thesquirrels on Feb 13, 2015 22:35:29 GMT
Similar to when Arriva ran the route - Sunday allocations at various times ran from North London garages. Was this in the early days of Arriva running the 19 as during the latter days of Arriva operation, didn't BA ran it solely. I know after that then BN ran it with some vehicles stored at N whose involvement in the route went no further than that. It was in the very early days - Grey Green (as part of Arriva) ran the Sunday 19 from Stamford Hill from gaining the route in '98 until mid 2000. I think Tottenham had a very brief stint when SF was mothballed. Seven Sisters Road was quite busy with 168 and 19 dead runs for a few years.
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Post by thesquirrels on Feb 12, 2015 8:13:57 GMT
The Citybuses on the 176 as a passenger were outstanding. I think what happened was when LondonLinks Walworth Garage was closed, the service transferred to Cowie South London at N, which led to a mix of old style LT Olympians and the horrible Kentish Bus ones where as an average height man, the legroom was next to non existent! Those ex-KB olympians were pretty dire from a passenger POV. Wonky bench seats and very poor legroom. Would let one go on the 253 if an Alexander L was in sight.
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Post by thesquirrels on Feb 5, 2015 22:03:41 GMT
I note from the updates section of Robert Munster's site that route H32 is to receive a new temporary timetable to factor in delays around Western Road in Southall. A typical Sunday early afternoon departure from Southall Town Hall will be timed to take 43 minutes to cover the two miles to the shops on Convent Way Estate, up from 19 minutes in the old timetable. Daytime journeys during the rest of the week, and 7 days a week in the opposite direction, take 15-25 minutes.
I know from experience that traffic can be bad through Southall at all hours but what is causing this? And why is it only on Sundays?
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Post by thesquirrels on Feb 1, 2015 11:00:59 GMT
I dont like any of the S/T reg DLAs anyhow and if anything the s reg with no lower deck rear window were uglier than the rear of abellios mmcs. So much hate towards the S/T reg DLAS!!! 'Old Dog' DLA63 & DLA64 were some of the best buses London has ever seen. Always made for a 'characterful' journey, especially when the driver of a heavily laden S-reg DLA on the s/b 221 would conveniently 'forget' to call at the Engel Park/Rushden Gardens stop in Mill Hill for fear of never getting it moving again!
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Post by thesquirrels on Jan 13, 2015 19:19:20 GMT
Two s/b 17s sighted together at the Bank this afternoon. That was the only example of route bunching I saw at all today.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jan 12, 2015 19:58:13 GMT
Ensignbus where providing the extra's between Canada Water and Waterloo, buses this evening included - RM54 - LDS279A
- Ex Brighton & Hove 911 (Y861GCO)
- Ex Arriva London HW3 (508 LJ58AVK)
- 127 - WLT307
- Ex Brighton & Hove 912 (PK02RDO)
- RMC1485 - 485CLT
- 143 - X343NNO
- 192 - 392MBF
- Ex Wilts and Dorset 909 (T748JPO)
- RM25 - VLT25
Extra 21's - MEC7, PVL248, PVL66, PVL69 Extra 381's - 9751, Extra 47's - 17556, Also clocked DM2646 and an unidentified RMC? parked up on the Embankment around lunchtime. Whether or not they were involved I don't know.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jan 9, 2015 21:17:05 GMT
Given how horrendously the traffic on Ludgate Hill/St. Paul's Churchyard can seize up I'm minded to say that rerouting up Queen Victoria St is a good idea. There could be journey saving of 3-4 minutes at many times of the day, especially towards Shadwell, and especially getting into the high tourist season later in the year when the zebra crossing on Ludgate Hill is seldom clear enough to let a car go with all the jams that creates. Given how many routes interface on the streets leading down to Ludgate Circus the links lost are minimal, and still only a short walk in any case.
I cycle in central London as part of my job and while I agree with some of these works I certainly don't agree with them all. There will be painful network changes as a result of this that are going to annoy my 'bus user' side. But I think this particular one will have a net benefit.
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Post by thesquirrels on Dec 7, 2014 20:38:16 GMT
In the case of the 172, St. Paul's > St. Bartholomew's Hospital (it stands outside the 'new' main entrance on Little Britain, with set down and pick up stops close by). Question arises of whether it would cause confusion re. interchange possiblities with 46, which would require a walk. I consider this more accurate as the final stop and stand are one stop beyond St. Paul's Station and a full three stops beyond the Cathedral itself.
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Post by thesquirrels on Nov 20, 2014 20:31:30 GMT
The areas covered by the borough of Epping Forest still have a good few concrete standards knocking around (mostly Philips MAs affixed but some Thorns too). Also some impressively wonky/sagging ones along the main road through North Ockendon. A few side roads in Haringey have theirs in situ, although in most cases the Thorn Alpha-Ones once common in Tottenham have been swapped for the usual Urbis ZX3s. Salisbury Road and Harringay Road still have vintage low pressure sodium jobbies of varying sorts, though.
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Post by thesquirrels on Nov 18, 2014 20:33:28 GMT
It has been announced that 27 four car class 387s have been ordered for Gatwick Express Railway Gazette linkThey will replace the 442s in 2016 There have been rumours the 442s will be depowered and used as push pull sets with new locos. I remember seeing the first one on a test train about 1987 whilst it still had the double luggage van and the end coach was a composite, even the tiny dot matrix destination was working. Not sure any went into service with the second luggage compartment (changed part way through construction, with earlier ones altered) or the dot matrix displays in use. The 442 carriages should be put into HST sets as these are based on Mark 3 coaches. Good to hear that 387's will finally replace those dreadful piggies that replaced the purpose-built Class 460's. Could be put into HSTs - maybe, with enough work. Should? By 2016 the first of the new IEPs will be less than a year away, in turn freeing up plenty of HST stock from FGW's patch. I don't think the need for extra carriages at that point will be so dire that taking the 442s and modifying the interiors and undercart (the latter containing components dating back to the 1960s in some cases) would be economical - especially to augment a fleet that will be celebrating it's 50th anniversary in 2016 - it's days will certainly be numbered by then.
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Post by thesquirrels on Nov 11, 2014 8:09:03 GMT
I do whatever I can to avoid the 86 (i.e. I'll get a GA train!). It is basically the 109 of East London, and the 5 isn't much better.. but there isn't really an option B to avoid the 5 for much of it's route! With the 5, what about the 115 between East Ham and Canning Town as an alternative? Or the 387 between Barking and Becontree? The 387 is handy if one appears, but if the 5 has fallen over then it isn't going to move many intending passengers by itself. Granted, the Barking Road corridor is well served all round but Canning Town to East Ham is only two and a half miles of a ten mile route - about the same as the stretch the 128 covers at the other end. So, yes, some routes exist to cover more localised trips, but any major distance is left to the 5. Or, hobsons choice, a trek to the district line...
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Post by thesquirrels on Nov 10, 2014 19:23:01 GMT
I do whatever I can to avoid the 86 (i.e. I'll get a GA train!). It is basically the 109 of East London, and the 5 isn't much better.. but there isn't really an option B to avoid the 5 for much of it's route!
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Post by thesquirrels on Nov 8, 2014 17:53:00 GMT
Not sure there would be stand space at Caterham Station for the 407 and 466, it's a bit of a squeeze on that bit of road already. Why not send the 407 up the hill to Westway Common instead?
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