London Banter - View Single Post - Route 73

Neil Williams · May 12th 05, 08:59 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On 12 May 2005 07:23:30 -0700, wrote:

1. "Faster boarding ...", because they believed most passengers had to
board through the front door and because increased numbers of standing
passengers near the doors of the bus made it difficult for others,
especially those in wheelchairs, to board and alight from the bendy
buses;

Not my experience, except when the bus is full. The difference, of
course, is that it can crush-load while a Routemaster would leave
people standing. If they *are* crush-loading all the time (which
looks to be the case), the simple answer is that there are not enough
of them.

IMX, few people board at the front - most at the centre and rear -
very similar to my experience in Germany. Indeed, the ability to do
so has resulted in people boarding double-deckers at the rear, with
associated delays to those...

The advertisers also said ticket inspectors along the route had been
given customer service training and added that bendy bus drivers were
provided with an on-board public announcement system that they were
encouraged to use to keep passengers informed.

It would be nice if it was used to announce the next stop - I've only
heard this done once. It would also have been better if TfL had moved
on from their archaic insistence on the use of roller blinds, when the
rest of the country has moved onto the vastly superior LED technology,
and installed an integrated passenger information system with internal
LEDs showing next stop and route information.

The technology exists, and has done for *many* years. It's not even
that expensive, and it is well-proven.

Neil

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Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
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