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Old October 1st 19, 12:17 PM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
Roland Perry Roland Perry is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Aug 2003
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Default Countrywide smart ticketing [was:Boris's bus related jinxes continue]

In message , at 10:05:41 on Tue, 1 Oct 2019,
Recliner remarked:
David Cantrell wrote:
On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 12:22:22PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:

And today Boris's latest idea is to spend (or is he expecting someone
else to spend) ?220m on new buses (and all contactless payment) because
the Roastmaster was such a success, apparently.


I don't get this antipathy to the Boris buses. I'm a passenger,
frequently. They do their job well, combining the benefits of a normal
double decker with the one benefit of the bendy monstrosities - quick
boarding - without the humungous downsides of the bendies taking up too
much road space and blocking junctions.


They're very heavy, which limits their capacity as does the rear platform
and second staircase, the hybrid system has never worked properly, perhaps
because of the very limited space for the power unit under the rear stairs,
like the bendies they have double the fare evasion of normal buses, and
they cost almost twice as much as a conventional double decker (£350k vs
£190k). They acquired their 'Roastmaster' nickname because their
air-cooling didn't work and they lacked ventilation, which had to be
retro-fitted.

So, we have a bus that's 84% more expensive, with less capacity, longer and
heavier than a normal double-decker, less comfortable, worse fuel
consumption and whose entire reason for existence, the open rear platform,
is not used. No wonder the hoped-for sale of the design to other cities
never happened.

It's truly a fitting metaphor for the Boris Johnson mayoralty.

And let's hope his Brexit deal isn't as bad as his bus.


He was wittering on about buses on BBC Breakfast again this morning.

Mentioned smartcards as one of the ways to drive up usage.

Now, what happened to this initiative:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...smart-cards-tr
avel-across-country-2018-network/

Every rail commuter will be able to use a pay-as-you-go smart
card to take them anywhere in the country, Chris Grayling says
today [December 2016].

Last time I looked, it wasn't 2018 any more. And while a very few
commuters can load season tickets onto smartcards, are there any at all
(outside of Oyster which already existed) doing PAYG? [Obviously he must
also have meant capped PAYG, or it makes no economic sense to the
traveller].

ps Has anyone with more stamina than I waded through yesterday's
announcements to identify which is the all-electric-bus town they
have in mind.

I'm reminded of Northstowe being Gordon Brown's first eco-town. Not
only is it not an eco-town, but they only started building ten years
after his announcement.

And in megaphone-policy-convergence, the local hospital has been on
its knees the last decade on account of the lack of predicted
additional demand from new town. Latest rumours are they are going
to close its A&E.

But hurrah, Northstowe did get its guided buses, for no-one to need
to use. And their fancy smart-ticketing scheme was still-born too.
--
Roland Perry