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Post by thelondonthing on Apr 13, 2021 13:22:46 GMT
A drop in the ocean for the government, however still so much of that has been wasted on mis-timed or unblinded buses which have barely seen usage TfL really failed hard not advertising the services properly. At a minimum they should have done an email blast to all Oyster card holders and schools to pass on information to students. Begged the government to fund the school extras but did nothing to promote their usage. TfL did provide schools with information to promote the enhanced school services, including a dedicated ' Travel guidance for schools' hub, as well as resources such as the STARS Safer Journey Planner (over half of London's schools have signed up to the STARS programme so far). It's the responsibility of schools and local authorities to communicate with students and parents directly to ensure that they are provided with essential and timely information about travelling to and from school safely (this was the case when I was at school over two decades ago, and it remains so today). And as you acknowledged, it was indeed for "schools to pass on information to students", so if that didn't happen, it was a failure on the part of individual schools, as the information was clearly made available by TfL for them to do so. I think it's unfair to criticise TfL for not simply providing a blanket London-wide email that every school could lazily forward on to students. This would be far less useful than a school distilling the information down into the most relevant details for their students (e.g. "buses X and Y will run extra school services past our front gate" etc), rather than simply passing on a generic email with potentially extraneous details, and a list of hundreds of bus routes through which students with short attention spans would be expected to search for 'their' route. TfL additionally provided press releases that were made available to news media across the capital, including local newspapers and online news publishers. Details of school services were subsequently published on major outlets such as BBC News, local news services, and community sites. On top of that, the TfL website prominently featured links to information on additional school services, and TfL also placed posters on some buses, bus shelters and bus stations. Perhaps more could have been done, or done better, but it's entirely wrong to say that TfL "did nothing" to promote the school extras.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2021 13:31:03 GMT
TfL really failed hard not advertising the services properly. At a minimum they should have done an email blast to all Oyster card holders and schools to pass on information to students. Begged the government to fund the school extras but did nothing to promote their usage. TfL did provide schools with information to promote the enhanced school services, including a dedicated ' Travel guidance for schools' hub, as well as resources such as the STARS Safer Journey Planner (over half of London's schools have signed up to the STARS programme so far). It's the responsibility of schools and local authorities to communicate with students and parents directly to ensure that they are provided with essential and timely information about travelling to and from school safely (this was the case when I was at school over two decades ago, and it remains so today). And as you acknowledged, it was indeed for "schools to pass on information to students", so if that didn't happen, it was a failure on the part of individual schools, as the information was clearly made available by TfL for them to do so. I think it's unfair to criticise TfL for not simply providing a blanket London-wide email that every school could lazily forward on to students. This would be far less useful than a school distilling the information down into the most relevant details for their students (e.g. "buses X and Y will run extra school services past our front gate" etc), rather than simply passing on a generic email with potentially extraneous details, and a list of hundreds of bus routes through which students with short attention spans would be expected to search for 'their' route. TfL additionally provided press releases that were made available to news media across the capital, including local newspapers and online news publishers. Details of school services were subsequently published on major outlets such as BBC News, local news services, and community sites. On top of that, the TfL website prominently featured links to information on additional school services, and TfL also placed posters on some buses, bus shelters and bus stations. Perhaps more could have been done, or done better, but it's entirely wrong to say that TfL "did nothing" to promote the school extras. Sorry but a time when lots of people, myself included, have turned away from media both visual and print due to overwhelming and frankly mental health destroying coverage of the pandemic it would have made absolute sense to do an email blast to everyone who has a registered Oyster card. It’s common sense and would have taken 2 minutes to do. Not everyone spends hours searching the TfL site for information and really they shouldn’t be reliant on schools to solely be responsible for passing on their information when they have the available data to do it in a much quicker fashion.
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Post by thelondonthing on Apr 13, 2021 13:43:22 GMT
Sorry but a time when lots of people, myself included, have turned away from media both visual and print due to overwhelming and frankly mental health destroying coverage of the pandemic it would have made absolute sense to do an email blast to everyone who has a registered Oyster card. It’s common sense and would have taken 2 minutes to do. Not everyone spends hours searching the TfL site for information and really they shouldn’t be reliant on schools to solely be responsible for passing on their information when they have the available data to do it in a much quicker fashion. Sure, they could have done that - and as I acknowledged, perhaps they could have done more, or done better in their communication. But you claimed that they "did nothing", and that is completely false.
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Post by greenboy on Apr 13, 2021 19:12:04 GMT
TfL really failed hard not advertising the services properly. At a minimum they should have done an email blast to all Oyster card holders and schools to pass on information to students. Begged the government to fund the school extras but did nothing to promote their usage. I thought the purpose of the school extras was to facilitate existing essential passenger volume whilst keeping to the temporary vehicle capacity limits, rather than to encourage additional ridership? Seems harsh to say TfL failed here... Quite honestly I think TfL failed abysmally, what's the point of running extra buses when most potential users don't know what route the buses are on or where they're going?
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Post by busman on Apr 14, 2021 11:03:53 GMT
I thought the purpose of the school extras was to facilitate existing essential passenger volume whilst keeping to the temporary vehicle capacity limits, rather than to encourage additional ridership? Seems harsh to say TfL failed here... Quite honestly I think TfL failed abysmally, what's the point of running extra buses when most potential users don't know what route the buses are on or where they're going? I would have expected temporary number and destination signs could be placed at the front of the bus, but that would depend on what was covered by government funding. I’ve seen buses with destinations printed on a large bit of paper stuck to the window. Very low cost and better than nothing. The short lead times between funding and implementation, combined with the leaner staffing at TfL make perfection an unrealistic expectation in these circumstances. If TfL had specified buses with digital blinds, the fleet would have a lot more flexibility to handle situations such as this.
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Post by snowman on May 13, 2021 14:15:22 GMT
I am hearing that bus capacity will be roughly doubled on Monday with double decks going to 60
Might vary a bit by type, but capacity will apparently be based on quantity of forward facing seats, (rear facing seats will be blocked off) Standing capacity will not be included at this stage of easing restrictions
Presumably new capacity stickers will replace existing lower capacity ones, although if they will be ready by Sunday evening remains to be seen
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Post by vjaska on May 13, 2021 14:53:41 GMT
I am hearing that bus capacity will be roughly doubled on Monday with double decks going to 60 Might vary a bit by type, but capacity will apparently be based on quantity of forward facing seats, (rear facing seats will be blocked off) Standing capacity will not be included at this stage of easing restrictions Presumably new capacity stickers will replace existing lower capacity ones, although if they will be ready by Sunday evening remains to be seen I’m under the impression that there won’t be any new capacity stickers as is what’s happening in the rest of the UK from Monday but happy to be corrected.
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Post by southlondonbus on May 13, 2021 21:43:53 GMT
I'm assuming that June 21st could theoretically be the start of full capacity again.
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