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Old November 28th 10, 02:59 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Lewis A Lewis A is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Oct 2010
Posts: 3
Default Is Countdown usually this confused?

On Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:29:26 +0000, Paul Corfield
wrote:
On Sat, 27 Nov 2010 12:38:34 -0600,
wrote:

I arrived at a bus stop in front of King's Cross station this morning
planning to catch a 45 or 46 to Grays Inn Road. The 63 also calls at the
same stop but my destination was further from Farringdon Road so it seemed
better to stick to the Grays Inn Road routes.

When I arrived the first two buses shown on the Countdown screen were a 45
and a 46 (or vice versa) due in 4 or 5 minutes. Then a 63 appeared on the
screen as "due" and disappeared again. A few minutes later a 63 bus did
appear but wasn't showing on Countdown at all. Then a 45 showed as due and
disappeared without a bus turning up. No 45 or 46 bus came but it showed
several due in the next 5 minutes or so.

Then suddenly the screen changed, just after the 63 had left, with three
45s or 46s due, but only in 12 minutes! Then a 45 appeared after a couple
of minutes with Countdown showing the next bus due in 10 minutes.

?Que?


Yes it can get confused. My guess is that because the 45 and 63 start
one stop earlier at St Pancras International there is something odd
about how it deals with reality against possibly using a scheduled
departure time (i.e. the timetable). I may, of course, be talking
complete nonsense!


Could there have been a diversion? I've experienced similar behaviour
from Countdown in Broad Green, Croydon while waiting for a northbound
60. There was one due within five minutes but disappeared from the
display, as did other routes' buses when their due times dropped to
3-4 mins or so. A 60 arrived about ten minutes later which was
consistent with it 'going the wrong way', and dropping off the radar
near West Croydon station, and its physical reappearance on the
correct route at a junction near me. A travel bulletin on the radio
announced that an earlier shooting had resulted in road closures in
the area.

I happened to see that the Countdown displays on Oxford Street outside
John Lewis were all happily displaying bus arrival times even though the
entire street was closed for the VIP event and no bus will turn up for
about another 2 hours!


Please say there were people queueing, looking at their watches and
tutting!