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Old March 31st 11, 11:47 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Mizter T Mizter T is offline
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"Basil Jet" wrote:

On 2011\03\30 20:31, Paul Corfield wrote:

I still find it very odd that bus stations are seemingly excluded from
the lists and yet if you look at Walthamstow virtually every stop before
/ after the bus station has a sign. Some of those stops are closer to
town centre facilities than the bus station is. It doesn't make much
sense to me given that bus station officials can't / won't say when a
bus is due so they're not an option. If the argument is that everyone
has a smart phone or can text then that's justification for not putting
signs at any stop anywhere! If you look at the design of any new bus
station outside London they nearly all have a master departure board
listing all the buses due from every stand - sometimes in real time but
more often just based on the timetabled time. What makes London so
different other than a denser network and more frequent services? You
could turn that round and say why bother providing real time info
because the likely waiting time for a bus is so much shorter than most
other cities where frequencies are not as generous.


Presumably taxis aren't allowed in the bus station, so passengers there
are a captive market, whereas passengers at nearby stops can choose the
taxis which are returning to the neighbouring rank. Although since I think
nearly all bus journeys are already paid for as part of a season pass or
daily cap, I don't know whether the fear of losing passengers in this way
has any cash value in the equation.


I don't think that will have featured as a consideration *one iota* here -
the buses people aren't out to get at taxis.

I'm curious as to where you got the idea that "nearly all" bus journeys are
paid for with a season ticket or daily cap - leaving aside the fact that,
with a bus-only cap (different with multi-modal caps), the first four bus
journeys of the day are paid for (even if the last one currently costs
10p!), I really don't think that's the case - there'll be a very good number
of people who just make one or two bus journeys a day (i.e. on a single bus
each way).

If people are commuting by bus, then if they use a single bus for their
journey it works out cheaper paying by Oyster PAYG if they commute five
times a week - i.e. 10 x GBP1.30 - or indeed even six times a week, compared
to buying a weekly bus pass at GBP17.80 (or indeed a GBP68.40 monthly, at
least for a five days a week commute). Of course a bus pass might be
desirable anyway, to cover other non-commuting journeys or provide the
flexibility to bus-hop on the way to or from work.