"Roland Perry" wrote:

In message
, at
02:45:34 on Thu, 27 Jan 2011, George
remarked:

I thought that buses running out of service were ordered to avoid their
service route where possible, because people waiting for buses get
annoyed if they see a bus with their chosen route number running out of
service.

A simpler solution is to replace the number with either "Not in Service"
or blank. Buses don't have the route number painted on them permanently!

Of course LED displays would solve this, just a touch of a button and
all routes nembers displays are removed.

I can't remember the last time I saw a bus that didn't have a changeable
display. Round here some of the single-deckers still have the manual
scrolls, but all the double deckers and the newer single deckers have
electronic displays.

The "manual scrolls" aka destination blinds used on London buses at least
are not manual but rather automatic aka motorised, so they can be and indeed
are changed at the touch of a button.

I don't think there's really a problem in London w.r.t. out of service
buses - I shall try and be a bit more observant of such things, but I think
the appropriate "Not in Service" blind is often used when buses are running
out of service, meanwhile when it's dark this isn't necessary because both
the lightbox behind the destination blind and the interior lighting will be
switched off and the bus quite evidently won't be in service.

I've never come across this notion that buses running out of service aren't
supposed to run on their service route before - I can think of numerous
examples of out of service buses running twixt their garage and start/end of
their route using a different route, but that's simply because the route
taken makes sense.

Perhaps worth noting that Paul C, who knows of George from other recesses of
the internet, said a few things on here when George first starting popping
up recently - my understanding of the crux of it was that Geroge's stance is
essentially that TfL's bus operation is a disaster, that they can't do
anything right, and that bus operators elsewhere outside of London are a
paragon of virtue in comparison, or at least something along those lines.
Thus far George's posts appear to subscribe to that general negative
worldview. I travel on London buses, I take a rather different view, but I
don't think I really need to elucidate any further.