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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 24, 2021 20:33:55 GMT
Since Covid alot of people have really lost it become careless amongst other things the craziness on the roads is getting so much worse. I had 2 very close calls on the 326 today towards Brent Cross in 1 trip. One unwise woman decided to cut across me at the mini roundabout near the Sainsbury's (give way to the traffic approaching from the right means nothing!) Then at Hendon Central on the dual carriageway an Old guy in a Lexus decided to cut across me from the middle lane to aprk up on the left, instead of waiting until I went past. The worst thing about this is when I pulled away from the Hendon Central bus stop he was already at the lights and the left lane was completely free, so he had the choice to be in the lane in the first place!! I've had trouble on that roundabout outside NB Sainsburys before. A serial PITA roundabout junction is the pair at the top of Bruce Grove/bottom of the eastern arm of the Roundway. I have lost count of the number of cars that have pulled out on me there - I have come to brace myself for it.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 17, 2021 22:05:57 GMT
Can see the benefit in being able to park the car in/jump on a quick bus to Epping and get a tube to London on zone 1-6 fares. I don't understand in any logical way how this extrapolates into actually sending the Central line itself up to Harlow. TfL and associated bodies will want their dollar back if an extension were ever built through the Essex countryside - I wouldn't expect the fare to London to be much less than that on NR, for a journey that would take much longer. Unless there is some undiscussed merit in linking areas such as Harlow and Woodford, Leytonstone and Redbridge, which the existing NR services do not.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 16, 2021 22:27:13 GMT
I was kind of surprised back in the 2001-2003 that TfL didn't replace one of the Dittons/Brighton Road routes and run a service from Kingston to Esher in addition to the less direct K3. I'm guessing SCC and the commercial world have always managed to provide something fairly sustainable along that section to not need TFL to step in back then. It’s always seemed to me to be a bit of a gap, but I guess it’s partially because it has a pretty decent service anyway (currently mostly 458, 715) but also a TfL service on the direct run to Esher would probably mean either a lot of broken journeys on the current 458/715 (as they couldn’t compete with TfL they’d likely to have to be cut to Esher terminals somewhere - which would be interesting as there’s not a lot of space left to park buses in Esher!), or TfL would have to take on the 458 either in its entirety or at least Kingston to Walton, as well as the Kingston to Cobham part of the 715 - nowhere else to turn on that part of the route except possibly at ACS Cobham, in Fairmile - the school has a turning circle - but it’s a bit of a nowhere terminal - you may as well continue into the village. Agree with all of this - it is about the kind of service you could actually provide along there. When the bulk of commercial services in Surrey collapsed in the early 00s there was a fairly neat carve up of support on what were deemed 'necessary' services - TfL stepped in on routes skewed towards the London area with truncations where necessary (405, but axed Redhill - Crawley left to 100; 406, axed Epsom to East Surrey Hospital left to 460 etc), and where routes were harder to break and/or ran a short distance across the boundary Surrey provided the support. Surrey had the 471 service out as a contract to TGM along Portsmouth Road, though the 218 was at least part-commercial until 2002. In reality, the section of Portsmouth Road within the GLA's remit is very short and most of it is within walking distance of the various bus services along Claremont Road. A similar situation exists with St. John's Road in Uxbridge, which is adorned with TfL totems and shelters but only served by First Slough's 3.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 11, 2021 19:32:52 GMT
I wouldn't mess with the 4 too much. While it is true that day to day loadings north of Finsbury Park are quite light, the 4 manages to pass within 10 minutes walk of almost every secondary school in the Borough, and it does a job in getting pupils across the borough to class - the loadings at the northern end do spike to reflect this and I don't think a single decker route would cope. It also plugs the Whittington Hospital into the parts of Islington that are missed by the 43 and 271, from the Clerkenwell Road to the Andover Estate and Highbury Hill, and hospital links are one of the few things still sacrosanct in TfL route planning. The 263 does now help in Highbury, though!
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 6, 2021 22:10:59 GMT
This is not a rant, rather the opposite of one but I wasn't sure which thread to put it in. We are always so negative on this forum (myself included) about operators, types, performance data, drivers etc so I wanted to ask a positive question. Which route do you think is the best operated route in London? As in the operator does a brilliant job in every way? Even better if its a challenging, high PVR route. My nomination is the 65. Very reliable and a very professional group of drivers, FW make this challenging route look like a piece of cake. The 65 is a route that is relied on by so many but also has plenty of obstacles to a smooth service, whether that be Kingston, Kew Bridge, Ealing Broadway etc. Curtailments are dished out when required but not overdone, and helpfully usually to only two places (Ham and Great West Road, Ealing Road). For the enthusiast, It's also had an interesting mix of iconic types over the years. I truly believe RATP deserve this new contract and can't wait to see where this route goes next. I could go on for hours about how brilliant this route is! I'm interested to hear your responses. I'd say Arriva on the 29, Go Ahead on the 5 and Stagecoach on the 25 are all really good examples of routes doing well. While they are frequent, you can pretty much always rely on them to turn up and take you where you need to be. All three are among the busiest routes in London so the operation on these routes really shows. Another vote for the 29, encounters some pretty awful traffic along the length of the route but seems well run for it. WN have had it for decades and I've no doubt the quality of the service is down to how much expertise and experience is tied up in the day to day operation. It can be delayed by traffic and made unpleasant by some of the clientele, but you can be assured any problems aren't Arriva's doing.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 6, 2021 21:54:37 GMT
Fully agree and it’s a topic close to heart (have been driving for just over 2 years now so “fresh” views from me!) A13 is definitely the worst (beats even the A406 which is 2nd). The whole of east London in general is quite poor but the A13 takes the cake for sure. Almost ironical because almost as soon as you cross the M25 it becomes fairly tranquil I have seen such lousy driving on the A13 that it’s just impossible to describe. Lane change without signals, overspending, weaving, tailgaiting etc is common but there have been a few fairly dangerous ones: - eastbound at the Gale street junction once I was in the middle lane, a car went from the outside lane straight onto the exit at Gale street! All of this happened at around the 50mph mark! - westbound just before the Canning Town flyover where the speed limit all of a sudden drops from 50 to 30, I have had at times people coming up so fast behind me abs then somehow swinging out of the way. I always make it a point to move onto the inside lanes beforehand But even leaving these aside - there is a general drop in standards. Take motorway driving - esp on the M25 you will get so many road hogs. The 1st lane remains empty (some stigma attached to it as it is only supposed to br used by slow lorry drivers!) and you get a few odd vehicles in the 2nd lane, then the 3rd lane is the most crowded as everyone tries to stick to the limit on that lane! So one is forced to go to the outermost lane to overtake all the time. Last weekend I think I overtook (undertook!) 30+ cars (all in lane 3 and some in lane 2) between J8 and J9 of the M25 while I was driving in the innermost lane just below the speed limit! The inside lane was completely empty, and the 3rd lane seemed to be like barking road, so many cars were on it I have now also had cars changing lanes on motorways without indicating (a black cab did it last Saturday on the M25 forcing me to change my maneouvre). It’s getting lousy and dangerous frankly Similarly 'fresh' here having passed my test at the beginning of 2019, at the tender age of 32. I picked a driving school close to my office, deep in zone 1 - my first roundabout lesson was around the Museum of London roundabout and St. Paul's gyratory! The nearest test centre to home was Wood Green, which had recently been given the unfortunate accolade of having the highest failure rate in the country, so I took some advice and selected Hendon for my test instead, which has a slightly better standard of driving and more forgiving routes. A typical lesson in the last three months or so would involve my instructor meeting me at Seven Sisters (he lived in Walthamstow and I was his first pupil of the day), us driving up through Muswell Hill to the A406, along to Henly's Corner, then up the A1 to Hendon/Mill Hill where we would practice some test routes then drive down the A41 back to West Hampstead before diving into some backroute runs through Hampstead and Kentish Town back to Bloomsbury. It was a great variety of routes and did get me confident on busy inner London roads and three lanes of 50mph dual carriageway, which would be handy for the sort of drives I'd end up doing once qualified. I was a nervous test pupil but did pass first time with a forgiving route on the day and no visit to Apex Corner! Three days after passing I jumped on a train to Peterborough and gave someone over ten years younger than me about month's wages in cash for a car which I then drove home down the A1, solo, in a torrential storm. I've found that different parts of the country have different 'antisocial' driving elements and surprise hazards. The things that come up in this thread - overall poor roadcraft, speeding, erratic lane changes, seem especially to be a London/SE thing, but also common in most other large urban areas. Birmingham is probably the scariest city I've driven in, as the motorway-style grade separated junctions run right through to the centre and you have to know your lane and be ready to change lanes with confidence, else you end up on a flyover sailing away from your intended destination at the skip of a beat. Inner city Birmingham has some of the highest insurance premiums in the UK because of the state of the driving there, as well as vehicle crime. Up the country, much of the A1 through the East of England is two lanes and very heavily used by lorries from the container ports (Felixstowe, Tilbury, Thamesport) to the North/NW of the country - here you will get lorries in both lanes as one attempts to overtake another at 0.5mph difference. At times of the day/week lorries will constitute over 50% of the traffic and the drivers do think they run the show - it is their working day. It is also the working day of the 12mph tractor that pulls out from a side road at the first sign of a gap! I'm often tailgated on rural roads where local drivers know the corners and passing points well, but I don't. In turn, there are rural routes in Bucks/Herts where I can find myself up the tail of a less confident/familiar driver and have to check myself to hang back and give some room. It is called courtesy. Within London, I do think the standard of driving on the A13 is probably the poorest of the bunch, with the A406 slightly behind, while the A40 and A4 tend to be OK, if not examplar. Nasty junctions like Hanger Lane tend to be OK as long as you commit to the best lane well in advance, stick to it and keep an eye out for anyone trying to cut over. I do consider myself a fairly brisk driver, though (within legal limits) which might ward off some chancers. The tossers were in force when I qualified, all my experience has done is open my eyes to the extent of it, IMO.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 6, 2021 20:11:52 GMT
You have reminded me about the mad roundabout in Barking where cars on the roundabout have to stop give way to cars approaching! PS I have to say I strongly disagree about Redbridge roundabout - its awful
If you think that Barking roundabout is odd, you should try driving on the magic roundabout at Swindon. It is 5 mini-roundabouts around another so can go clockwise on outer lanes (as normal), or counter-clockwise around the central roundabout (opposite to normal), of which there are upto 4 lanes imgur.com/gallery/OQaDN/comment/550966225Apparently it’s 4th scariest junction in UK to drive through (but I don’t know what top 3 are) There's a similar junction in Hemel that I drive through occasionally. I consider myself an experienced driver but my brain just does a big fart every time I get near it. Have shot off on the wrong road more than once. Sure if I was a local/regular, like any of these junctions, it would be much less daunting.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 3, 2021 19:36:33 GMT
Another similarity is they both have amenities at the "other end" from the primary tube/train station end, Greenford and Muswell Hill respectively (the local journeys you were talking about). Plenty of against the flow ridership as people from Greenford Avenue and Castlebar Park area shop and use amenities in Greenford and the same for Crouch End and Muswell Hill. Multiple different uses for these routes, not just bus-to-train commuting. Oh I'm sure they do use them for uses such as those - certainly are two well used routes.
I do think the W7 is one of those routes that would be better suited to bendy operation because of the short distance journeys it entails, two other examples would be the 472/EL1.
On paper the sort of flows and volumes make it make sense, in practice the stand arrangement in the middle of Muswell Hill roundabout would make it unworkable.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 2, 2021 7:16:51 GMT
I thought it was the Carriage or the island at its that prevented double deckers getting around it. So can these trees be pruned or not? They probably can I am doubtful. This streetview photo shows the location of the overhanging trees in the island - note the gentle lean into the carriageway and the pinchpoint provided by the car parking spots.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jul 29, 2021 7:54:59 GMT
The PVR was 72 from memory when converted and I believe the high PVR was done to effectively ease the conversion from MA’s to DW’s & T’s so as not to be caught out if they specified too low a PVR & frequency to match demand given it was the first one to be done. As every conversion happened, the safety net on each one was reduced so the PVR bump wasn’t as large EDIT: redexpress beat me to it I think it was awarded as 72 but stated off with 70 when it was decided to cut every other bus to Hackney Central Monday to Fridays. The 38 was a bit of a special case in getting a less harsh PVR reduction than some other routes on conversion from DD operation - lessons had been learned from the issues on earlier conversions such as the 25, then a generous PVR increase relative to bendy vehicle capacity on return to double deck operation. Double bump, as it were.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jul 29, 2021 7:50:17 GMT
If allegedly an unused garage in North London is being retrofitted with electric charging facilities (I assume Stamford Hill), there could be plans for the 73 and 243 as central London routes to go fully electric in future, that could allow HVs to move and replace older stuff if required. (Speculation ) ULEZ comes into force in outer London (N and S Circular roads) in October Used car dealers are taking advantage of the ULEZ! No bargains around! I was thinking of getting a new car but some prices are silly.
Sorry very off topic Quickly indulging in this OT tangent to say that my fairly economical german petrol hatchback is now worth the same with 9,000 extra miles on it as what I paid for it, used, last September!
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Post by thesquirrels on Jul 27, 2021 21:05:34 GMT
I would extend the 317 to Cockfosters to simply give Cockfosters a direct link to Enfield as you have to currently take either the 298 or 299 to the roundabout and then take the 307 from Bramley Road. I would also bring the 231 from Enfield Chase to the LPG terminus to replace the 317 there. Let me know what you guys think about this Not sure this is really necessary. Most of Cockfosters Parade is within easy walking distance of Cat Hill roundabout. Doubt there is much demand for a link between Enfield Town and Cockfosters tube itself - Oakwood provides the railhead facility to and from Central London, and bus trips from Enfield to Westbrook Crescent etc can be done with a change in East Barnet village. Cockfosters is short on stand space too. There is Trent Park though, which is hugely popular at weekends and during the summer and visiting cars can jam up the access road at those times. Public transport access could be better. A modest start could involve extending the 377 straight up Westpole Avenue, giving that road a bus service, and a Sunday daytime service. The bus would have to terminate at Cockfosters as the park roads are too tight to take a bus, unless it was sent up to Hadley Wood to turn around.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jul 21, 2021 7:49:48 GMT
All I can see in the report is predictions that demand on the A1010 corridor will continue to increase - it is the increase in streetscape works along the route by the Boroughs, as they seek to intensify the use of those High Streets, in return for more footfall and revenue, which will make it more difficult to operate bus services as road capacity is removed further and bus journey times are extended further still. It is sensible that they acknowledge this challenge. There has to come a crunch point where it makes more sense to bolster the parallell rail service to mop up the railheaders who can afford it, and leave the buses to those who need them. The idea of flooding Fore Street with 40bph+ at average speeds of less than 8kph looks, objectively, like a poor use of TfL resources when there is so much potential in a directly parallel rail route. And, for better or worse, the long terraced streets behind the High Road and Fore Street are getting popular with a new generation of homebuyers and renters who are more likely to be able to afford the train and will use it if it is attractive enough. The line up to Edmonton Green has had a 10 minute service all day in the past - Network SouthEast tried it for a period, reviving the historic 'Jazz Line' brand, but I think the 1990 recession did for it. So the existing signalling should allow for it, though there are probably concerns about taking up spare paths needed for when the Tottenham Hale line is out. Without very expensive resignalling work it is very unlikely that TfL will be able to get any paths above 6tph, so I can't see the rail service becoming so frequent as to fatally undermine any bus provision in a hurry. The modelling tells us a 10 minute service is the tipping point where people will decide it's worth waiting around - at sometimes quite hostile feeling stations - rather than jumping on the first bus down. I have watched the 279 corridor gradually get slower over the last 25 years. There is a definite and demonstrable need for a high frequency service, and that isn't going to change, but travel speeds have dropped to the point where there has to be a better and more cost effective way to get people north and south through Tottenham and Edmonton. Sorting out the rail issue may not be easy, its the bottleneck at Bethnal Green as the line's traffic merges into a tight and narrow 2 tracks as the rest of the tracks are for the GEML. There are current talks that could free up spaces at the Bethnal Green approach once the Elizabeth Line opens diverting some of the traffic. Something that could make space for a possible tweaking in frequency, may make 6tbp from Edmonton but only 3tph on the Enfield and Cheshunt Branches Even if a 6tph service is on the line, only 3 tph will serve North of Edmonton, That's were the busses could still be high. There are already servere overcrowdings on the 279 and the 349 during the peaks north of Edmonton and is likely to increase further with developments taking place at Edmonton Green TfL's intention seems to be to send the southern end of any supplemental service on to Barking via the South Tottenham curve rather than try to shoehorn any more services through the bottleneck section. Can the turnback facility at Cheshunt take 3tph? I thought there would need to be a 4/2 split with Enfield getting the benefit. Agreed that the section north of EG absolutely wouldn't be able to take any further reduction and any Overground enhancements would likely not benefit that section - apart from anything else there are only two stations - three if you include Theobalds Grove, and two of those are some distance from the bus corridor. My thoughts are mostly directed at the slog section between Edmonton Green and Tottenham/Seven Sisters.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jul 20, 2021 22:50:49 GMT
There are definitely some concerns in this proposal - one of which is the suggestion that the A1010 could see reduced demand and this for me could be the end for the 349, it's IMO been on a tight string since it's cutback from Stoke Newington but definitely capacity will be missed north of Edmonton. This is another one of TFLs ways like with the Uxbridge Road to move people onto the train and I think by the sounds of the Woodbury Down development the 259/279 sound pretty safe.
Another concern for me is the W3, this will make the route problematic if extended to Meridian Water, Harbet Road as that junction can get very bunged up in the peaks when the North Circular goes under and the route would suffer, especially at the southern end where that, the 210 and the W7 can leave with extremely full loads and need reliable routes to roll off the stands. I think this would not be a good idea but having said that Angel Road Superstores may be reasonable.
The worst one has got to be the W11, I don't know how that will be done. Will a double run be done round Chingford Hill Estate as its not clear on the diagram? For a route designed to specifically link the Chingford Hall Estate and Blackhorse Road area into Walthamstow Central I think this will be a complete mess, the route will almost be a circle and I would not be surprised to see the route fall into the congestion problem on the A406. Harbet Road isn't two way also just because the proposal said. I would worry Chingford Hall & Blackhorse Road would likely end up with a less reliable service.
Said my piece on what would be the LV1/2, don't understand their purposes and if one had to be added it would probably be the LV1 if it was me. Pretty ironic coming from TFL though
The way TFL estimated the transfer onto the train from busses is rather shocking, The corridor from Tottenham to Waltham Cross via Edmonton, Ponders End and Enfield Lock has a very high proportion of people from low income backgrounds as they tend to take the bus than pay for expensive rail fares for money savings. Shouldn't have an assumption everyone will be fine All I can see in the report is predictions that demand on the A1010 corridor will continue to increase - it is the increase in streetscape works along the route by the Boroughs, as they seek to intensify the use of those High Streets, in return for more footfall and revenue, which will make it more difficult to operate bus services as road capacity is removed further and bus journey times are extended further still. It is sensible that they acknowledge this challenge. There has to come a crunch point where it makes more sense to bolster the parallell rail service to mop up the railheaders who can afford it, and leave the buses to those who need them. The idea of flooding Fore Street with 40bph+ at average speeds of less than 8kph looks, objectively, like a poor use of TfL resources when there is so much potential in a directly parallel rail route. And, for better or worse, the long terraced streets behind the High Road and Fore Street are getting popular with a new generation of homebuyers and renters who are more likely to be able to afford the train and will use it if it is attractive enough. The line up to Edmonton Green has had a 10 minute service all day in the past - Network SouthEast tried it for a period, reviving the historic 'Jazz Line' brand, but I think the 1990 recession did for it. So the existing signalling should allow for it, though there are probably concerns about taking up spare paths needed for when the Tottenham Hale line is out. Without very expensive resignalling work it is very unlikely that TfL will be able to get any paths above 6tph, so I can't see the rail service becoming so frequent as to fatally undermine any bus provision in a hurry. The modelling tells us a 10 minute service is the tipping point where people will decide it's worth waiting around - at sometimes quite hostile feeling stations - rather than jumping on the first bus down. I have watched the 279 corridor gradually get slower over the last 25 years. There is a definite and demonstrable need for a high frequency service, and that isn't going to change, but travel speeds have dropped to the point where there has to be a better and more cost effective way to get people north and south through Tottenham and Edmonton.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jul 17, 2021 19:47:21 GMT
Route 189 used to be single deck So was route 139 for a few years. Both were then converted to TP together around late 2002. The 189 was concieved in 1997 as a single decker, initially as a Kilburn Park to Brent Cross route for the first few months in part replacement for the 16A which was axed at the time. It was when the 139 was single decked in early 1998 that the 189 was extended to Oxford Circus, via Abbey Road and Baker Street along the 139 route. The 139 retained it's former 8 minute frequency with the conversion, but the 189 provided the same frequency again. So the single deck service between the foot of West End Lane and Oxford Circus was genuinely doubled compared to the previous 139 offering - a good result for the time, though the Edgware Road to Kilburn corridor did lose 5bph with the loss of the 16A.
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