London Banter - View Single Post - Route 73

Paul Corfield · September 10th 04, 06:20 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On 10 Sep 2004 02:36:12 -0700, (Tim) wrote:

At the end of the first week of operation of the route 73 benders,
here's a few notes I have made on the level of service:

[snip details of waits]

Conclusion: These are all trips I could have completed easily on a 73
two weeks ago; compared to the service on RouteMasters, the
bender-operated 73 route is appaling if your want to get to/from Seven
Sisters.

I've only travelled on it once and that was a trial go on the way in to
work earlier this week. It was much earlier than the time you travelled
/ observed but buses toddled round every 3-4 mins. Not as frequent as
the old depot run out but pretty frequent nonetheless. The trip into
town was OK although we did end up in convoy mode with another 73 and a
476. The bus was 4 mins down when I got off at TCR.

The driver on my bus said a lot of the late running on the first work
day was down to people being very unfamiliar with the cashless concept
of pre-purchase and board via any door.

If you look at the typical experience of these sorts of conversions it
is always bad in the first 2-3 weeks. This has been true of the 149 that
Arriva run but it seems to have calmed down. If Arriva have not got
things running properly on the 73 within 4-6 weeks then there is
something seriously wrong with either the route specification or the
actual route control / execution down on the ground. I'm not sure what
will then happen because you can't pick bendy buses off a tree if they
decide they need more of them. Ditto for drivers.
--
Paul C

Admits to working for London Underground!