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Post by snoggle on Aug 4, 2018 19:23:22 GMT
Well it seems the unions wants to do silly things regarding having the buses at the stands take as much time as they want. They have done nothing to pressure management, nor have they even bothered to complain to TfL. They have an open letter criticising the mayor about bus drivers conditions with air conditioning and the heat. But to me they need to pressure TfL to crack down on the operators. It is unacceptable imo that there is nothing in place to stop operators not re-gassing buses and doing things like cutting or removing a/c drive belts. End of the day it is fraud if we also have the same thing being done to new buses switching them off or disconnecting them. If TfL are specifying these items to be on buses.
What can the Mayor or TfL do? There are drivers who do things like stuff newspaper down the demister hoses, knackering out the motors and where the aircon works, have it running full pelt with the cab slider wide open. Every single driver has driven a car at some point and should know better. Sadly the actions of a minority cost the company unnecessarily which probably contributes towards mechanicals and the systems being isolated. General wear and tear should definitely be kept on top of. But what are management supposed to do when their own staff are vandalising the assets? Short of educating or reprimanding the people who are doing it (very difficult to detect who it is), there's not a lot that can be done and the unions should know that really. The unions will know that a minority of their members wreck the assets they are paid to drive. I never ceased to be amazed at the difference between head office buildings and train crew buildings on the Underground. Office workers tend not to wreck kitchens, furniture or toilets. Go to a front line staff building and the damage is just ridiculous. In the last office building I worked in one floor was for front line staff training. The toilets on that floor were a disgrace - damaged cubicles, holes drilled through, broken seats / roll dispensers. One floor up - no such problems. I saw exactly the same when dealing with faults in stations. Some of the public are worse than animals but they don't get into secure staff accommodation and create the same damage. It costs TfL and the bus cos a small fortune. I have zero idea why this is even tolerated - people wantonly damaging equipment and buildings should be sacked. The unions will go to the Mayor for two reasons. One he is the chair of TfL so why go to anyone else but the person at the top? Secondly as the mayor is from the Labour Party they have some additional leverage within the party structure. Furthermore they also know that Assembly Members and campaigners like Comadad are a second line of attack to get at the Mayor. Therefore they have two or even three effective lines of attack outwith the managegment structures of the bus companies and TfL. They're not daft - they got £6m out of TfL for more staff toilet provision for bus drivers by making it an issue that the Mayor couldn't ignore. Note this was by using a Transport Cttee investigation which TfL were forced to respond to. As the Mayor has made "improved safety" a flagship policy the unions have a lovely great big button to press - "But Mr Mayor if you don't something safety of drivers and passengers could be at risk. It would be dreadful if we accidentally told the media that you weren't paying any attention to our legitimate concerns". As the Mayor is so obsessed by his media standing this is a sure fire winner for the unions to use.
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Post by 6HP502C on Aug 4, 2018 21:03:12 GMT
A bit silly to purposely break the AC, with NP you can't get subbed for no AC in the cab anyway. All you can do is write it down on the VCR for it to most likely be ignored by the engineers. Another problem with some AC units is that its simply not cold enough to suffice for the window closed, still its better then nothing. Best to switch it off if it's insufficiently cool!
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Post by sid on Aug 4, 2018 21:12:30 GMT
The temperature this morning was 21C, when I was on it yesterday, the outside temperature was 32C - a 11C difference is a lot and would have a big impact on how hot the bus is. Anyway, I shall leave it there as I do not wish to go any further into the same old debate - ronnie asked for anyone who used one yesterday and I gave my honest experience. In fairness I used LT710/1 quite early this morning when it was cooler and both buses were lightly loaded but I did have an uncomfortable journey later in the day on LT807 on the 16 which was quite packed which obviously didn't help, there was some cool air coming through the vents but it just wasn't enough. I had a worse experience on MV38208 on the 13 which was roasting particularly on the lower deck with very little air cooling, it was slightly better on the top deck but you had to sit in the n/s aisle seats to get the airflow or you roasted. Until we get proper air con on buses they are best avoided in the heat.
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Post by sid on Aug 4, 2018 22:54:42 GMT
Don't the unions have anything to say about it? And operators wonder why they struggle to recruit drivers. Well it seems the unions wants to do silly things regarding having the buses at the stands take as much time as they want. They have done nothing to pressure management, nor have they even bothered to complain to TfL. They have an open letter criticising the mayor about bus drivers conditions with air conditioning and the heat. But to me they need to pressure TfL to crack down on the operators. It is unacceptable imo that there is nothing in place to stop operators not re-gassing buses and doing things like cutting or removing a/c drive belts. End of the day it is fraud if we also have the same thing being done to new buses switching them off or disconnecting them. If TfL are specifying these items to be on buses.
I agree it is fraud and TfL should be looking into this as a matter of urgency.
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Post by vjaska on Aug 4, 2018 22:58:01 GMT
The temperature this morning was 21C, when I was on it yesterday, the outside temperature was 32C - a 11C difference is a lot and would have a big impact on how hot the bus is. Anyway, I shall leave it there as I do not wish to go any further into the same old debate - ronnie asked for anyone who used one yesterday and I gave my honest experience. In fairness I used LT710/1 quite early this morning when it was cooler and both buses were lightly loaded but I did have an uncomfortable journey later in the day on LT807 on the 16 which was quite packed which obviously didn't help, there was some cool air coming through the vents but it just wasn't enough. I had a worse experience on MV38208 on the 13 which was roasting particularly on the lower deck with very little air cooling, it was slightly better on the top deck but you had to sit in the n/s aisle seats to get the airflow or you roasted. Until we get proper air con on buses they are best avoided in the heat. Some Evoseti's do seem be roasting such as the VMH I had on the 30 - haven't had the same issue on Go-Ahead's MHV's before when there was hot weather though admittedly, I've not managed to try one out during this summers heatwave other than in the evening when it's a lot cooler.
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Post by sid on Aug 5, 2018 21:28:17 GMT
HV299 on the 2 must have good cab air con, the driver was wearing a body warmer this afternoon.
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Post by capitalomnibus on Aug 6, 2018 11:46:18 GMT
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Post by 6HP502C on Aug 15, 2018 0:25:15 GMT
I do agree that buses shouldn't be allowed to run with the saloon heating disabled in winter - freezing buses with condensation dripping down the windows and stalactites forming in the ceiling are needlessly unpleasant! Whenever I have asked the engineers to switch it on, they claim the powers that be want it off!
That kind of thing genuinely has made me use demand responsive minicabs in place of the nightbus in the winter.
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Post by capitalomnibus on Aug 18, 2018 15:57:28 GMT
I do agree that buses shouldn't be allowed to run with the saloon heating disabled in winter - freezing buses with condensation dripping down the windows and stalactites forming in the ceiling are needlessly unpleasant! Whenever I have asked the engineers to switch it on, they claim the powers that be want it off! That kind of thing genuinely has made me use demand responsive minicabs in place of the nightbus in the winter. That is one of the major things that puts me off using buses, cold buses with no heating. Its a flipping joke.
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Post by ServerKing on Aug 18, 2018 16:48:20 GMT
I do agree that buses shouldn't be allowed to run with the saloon heating disabled in winter - freezing buses with condensation dripping down the windows and stalactites forming in the ceiling are needlessly unpleasant! Whenever I have asked the engineers to switch it on, they claim the powers that be want it off! That kind of thing genuinely has made me use demand responsive minicabs in place of the nightbus in the winter. That is one of the major things that puts me off using buses, cold buses with no heating. Its a flipping joke. Sit at the back of the bus by the engine. If the performance is anything like the 123's DWs, the engine would be warm from constant thrash Only thing I hate in cold weather is there's always one berk who will open a window as soon as they get on the bus and sit down
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Post by snowman on Aug 18, 2018 17:00:44 GMT
That is one of the major things that puts me off using buses, cold buses with no heating. Its a flipping joke. Sit at the back of the bus by the engine. If the performance is anything like the 123's DWs, the engine would be warm from constant thrash Only thing I hate in cold weather is there's always one berk who will open a window as soon as they get on the bus and sit down I too find that annoying, no one seems to realise (and the bus operators don’t provide stickers stating) that you need to open the window in front, not one next to you, otherwise person behind gets cold instead. Better still, do what they do in sensible countries, save weight by not fitting opening windows, then provide proper climate controlled ventilation so all seats same comfortable temperature.
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