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Post by vjaska on Jul 21, 2018 23:44:30 GMT
Looks like good weather for the Essex Bus Rally/The Londoner In The Country tomorrow. Interesting assortment of new and old buses in attendance. I'll be there - good lineup including an event celebrating the Titan & Metro and the admission prices are very cheap too - just £4.95 (if you booked ina dvance, it was £3.95) |
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Post by redexpress on Jul 22, 2018 0:50:39 GMT
Are there any buses still in London that use a manual gearbox or is every single bus automatic? The last London buses that I can remember with a manual gearbox would have been the Iveco midis that briefly worked the 377 when the route was created in 2001. These had previously been used on Arriva East Herts & Essex's commercial routes 363 & 517, which were withdrawn at relatively short notice, leaving TfL to scramble together replacements for the London sections, including the new 377. Arriva London had ordered new Dart SLFs for the route, but because of the short lead time, had to use the Ivecos for a short while. IIRC at least some of them had manual gearboxes, so had to be driven by Leaside Travel drivers at Edmonton, as many of the regular Arriva London drivers had auto-only licences.
This is all from my rather hazy memory so I may well be wrong on the details! |
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Post by cl54 on Jul 22, 2018 4:57:25 GMT
Are there any buses still in London that use a manual gearbox or is every single bus automatic? The last London buses that I can remember with a manual gearbox would have been the Iveco midis that briefly worked the 377 when the route was created in 2001. These had previously been used on Arriva East Herts & Essex's commercial routes 363 & 517, which were withdrawn at relatively short notice, leaving TfL to scramble together replacements for the London sections, including the new 377. Arriva London had ordered new Dart SLFs for the route, but because of the short lead time, had to use the Ivecos for a short while. IIRC at least some of them had manual gearboxes, so had to be driven by Leaside Travel drivers at Edmonton, as many of the regular Arriva London drivers had auto-only licences.
This is all from my rather hazy memory so I may well be wrong on the details! Back in the London Transport days, when the government introduced licences for automatic transmission only, they only taught/tested new drivers on automatics. This prevented them leaving soon afterwards and working as coach drivers. Prior to this you could pass a test in an automatic and drive a manual. RTs and RFs had pre-selector gearboxes and therefore manual. Many of the RMs replaced trolleybuses and their drivers were only used to two pedals. The Routemasters were automatics as a result. |
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Post by rugbyref on Jul 22, 2018 8:07:05 GMT
Tfl refuse to listen to reason. When the Orpington ‘consultation’ was taking place I pointed out the frequent confusion in Orpington High Street, with R1 and R11 both destination Green Street Green but via totally different routings. Those with less than perfect sight or attention would often misread one for the other. As there is no R12, I suggested they renumber the R11 as R12 as part of the wholesale changes, but the suggestion was met with deafening silence.
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Post by sid on Jul 22, 2018 9:05:08 GMT
Tfl refuse to listen to reason. When the Orpington ‘consultation’ was taking place I pointed out the frequent confusion in Orpington High Street, with R1 and R11 both destination Green Street Green but via totally different routings. Those with less than perfect sight or attention would often misread one for the other. As there is no R12, I suggested they renumber the R11 as R12 as part of the wholesale changes, but the suggestion was met with deafening silence. Yes that would make sense, there is a lot of confusion regarding the R1 and R11. |
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Post by DT 11 on Jul 22, 2018 17:41:13 GMT
Tfl refuse to listen to reason. When the Orpington ‘consultation’ was taking place I pointed out the frequent confusion in Orpington High Street, with R1 and R11 both destination Green Street Green but via totally different routings. Those with less than perfect sight or attention would often misread one for the other. As there is no R12, I suggested they renumber the R11 as R12 as part of the wholesale changes, but the suggestion was met with deafening silence. Renumbering routes cost money both routes go to complete different places. They both go to Green Street Green and will get you to Green Street Green. The majority of people using the R routes are regulars anyways. I imagine people when boarding these routes would ask the driver anyways like anyone else would. Anyone who is blind will generally ask the driver what route is this anyways. You’ll be surprised the amount of people who mix up the 181 & 284 which both go to some of the same places the 284 to Grove Park Cemetery. |
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Post by cl54 on Jul 22, 2018 18:01:08 GMT
Tfl refuse to listen to reason. When the Orpington ‘consultation’ was taking place I pointed out the frequent confusion in Orpington High Street, with R1 and R11 both destination Green Street Green but via totally different routings. Those with less than perfect sight or attention would often misread one for the other. As there is no R12, I suggested they renumber the R11 as R12 as part of the wholesale changes, but the suggestion was met with deafening silence. Renumbering routes cost money both routes go to complete different places. They both go to Green Street Green and will get you to Green Street Green. The majority of people using the R routes are regulars anyways. I imagine people when boarding these routes would ask the driver anyways like anyone else would. Anyone who is blind will generally ask the driver what route is this anyways. You’ll be surprised the amount of people who mix up the 181 & 284 which both go to some of the same places the 284 to Grove Park Cemetery. Similar problems everywhere. If you're in Greenwich and want to go to Woolwich the last bus you should get is a 386. However, TfL have decided to reduce the choices come December. 177 only unless you want to go via North Greenwich. |
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Post by galwhv69 on Jul 23, 2018 17:51:27 GMT
As I recently wrote to TFL customer services,I recieved an email today with a survey on their customer service experience.The experience was ok but they also asked aboit the transport services in general which tbh imo aren't the best.Did anyone else recieve one recently?
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Post by ibus246 on Jul 23, 2018 20:57:30 GMT
As I recently wrote to TFL customer services,I recieved an email today with a survey on their customer service experience.The experience was ok but they also asked aboit the transport services in general which tbh imo aren't the best.Did anyone else recieve one recently? Yes |
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Post by busaholic on Jul 23, 2018 21:17:11 GMT
In the course of selling a couple of transport books today to a sprightly 84 year old he mentioned having lived in Enfield and travelling to school on the 310 bus. He then revealed his father had been a bus driver with the London General Omnibus Company, starting in 1927 at Palmers Green before moving to Tottenham, so he'd almost certainly have driven on the 76.
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Post by ronnie on Jul 23, 2018 21:49:01 GMT
Realised a couple of days ago that Threadneedle Street westbound is closed for. O specific reason. There is no construction etc going on on that road so doesn’t make sense to close that road (given half the roads are closed in the area anyway)
A cabbie mentioned that the road is closed as “the road can’t cope with traffic given the volume of other roads closed”. This seems like a lousy excuse to me
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Post by ibus246 on Jul 23, 2018 22:47:46 GMT
Realised a couple of days ago that Threadneedle Street westbound is closed for. O specific reason. There is no construction etc going on on that road so doesn’t make sense to close that road (given half the roads are closed in the area anyway) A cabbie mentioned that the road is closed as “the road can’t cope with traffic given the volume of other roads closed”. This seems like a lousy excuse to me Been like that for over two weeks now - as you say no roadworks or anything happening. Only thing I could think off is they are working on that building adjacent. |
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Post by rugbyref on Jul 24, 2018 7:08:28 GMT
Tfl refuse to listen to reason. When the Orpington ‘consultation’ was taking place I pointed out the frequent confusion in Orpington High Street, with R1 and R11 both destination Green Street Green but via totally different routings. Those with less than perfect sight or attention would often misread one for the other. As there is no R12, I suggested they renumber the R11 as R12 as part of the wholesale changes, but the suggestion was met with deafening silence. Renumbering routes cost money both routes go to complete different places. They both go to Green Street Green and will get you to Green Street Green. The majority of people using the R routes are regulars anyways. I imagine people when boarding these routes would ask the driver anyways like anyone else would. Anyone who is blind will generally ask the driver what route is this anyways. You’ll be surprised the amount of people who mix up the 181 & 284 which both go to some of the same places the 284 to Grove Park Cemetery. That’s why I suggested it at the time they were making wholesale changes, issuing leaflets, renumbering R3 as R7 etc, as the incremental cost would have been minimal. |
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Post by DT 11 on Jul 24, 2018 7:33:21 GMT
Renumbering routes cost money both routes go to complete different places. They both go to Green Street Green and will get you to Green Street Green. The majority of people using the R routes are regulars anyways. I imagine people when boarding these routes would ask the driver anyways like anyone else would. Anyone who is blind will generally ask the driver what route is this anyways. You’ll be surprised the amount of people who mix up the 181 & 284 which both go to some of the same places the 284 to Grove Park Cemetery. That’s why I suggested it at the time they were making wholesale changes, issuing leaflets, renumbering R3 as R7 etc, as the incremental cost would have been minimal. Not really because it wouldn’t be at the operators expense. R12 means updating existing blinds too. No change to the route other than Foots Cray, Tesco but change the route number for no apparent reason. The R11 was introduced to actually replace the R1 between St Paul’s Cray & Queen Mary’s Hospital, and LT / TFL have been numbering replacements routes similar numbers to the original host for many years, so wouldn’t have numbered it R12 at the time and don’t see why they change it now. There’s the 253 & 254 using the same bus type. I wonder how many people get confused which one is which from time to time. I’m sure there are plenty more examples The R3 & R7 were not renumbered. The R3 was withdrawn to Orpington Station without the requirement to replace any blinds at MB and R2 withdrawn to Walnuts Centre and R7 extended to Chislehurst & Chelsfield Village all 3 routes retaining existing numbers. |
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Post by sid on Jul 24, 2018 7:58:38 GMT
That’s why I suggested it at the time they were making wholesale changes, issuing leaflets, renumbering R3 as R7 etc, as the incremental cost would have been minimal. Not really because it wouldn’t be at the operators expense. R12 means updating existing blinds too. No change to the route other than Foots Cray, Tesco but change the route number for no apparent reason. The R11 was introduced to actually replace the R1 between St Paul’s Cray & Queen Mary’s Hospital, and LT / TFL have been numbering replacements routes similar numbers to the original host for many years, so wouldn’t have numbered it R12 at the time and don’t see why they change it now. There’s the 253 & 254 using the same bus type. I wonder how many people get confused which one is which from time to time. I’m sure there are plenty more examples The R3 & R7 were not renumbered. The R3 was withdrawn to Orpington Station without the requirement to replace any blinds at MB and R2 withdrawn to Walnuts Centre and R7 extended to Chislehurst & Chelsfield Village all 3 routes retaining existing numbers. It would have been better numbered R12 from the outset, obviously potential for confusion and people misreading the number. |
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