London Banter - View Single Post

Paul Corfield · January 29th 06, 08:28 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 15:42:42 +1030, (Aidan Stanger)
wrote:

The B14 seems to be London's least reliable bus service. Passengers
often don't know whether the bus that turns up is 5 minutes early or 25
minutes late!

Every time there's a change of operator, the service gets worse. When
Crystals originally got the route, the passengers groaned (as Crystals
had once operated the precursor route unreliably) but it got worse when
TGM took it over, and even worse when they lost it!

In each case the company sold out. Crystals sold out to TGM. TGM sold
out to Metrobus. I'm not aware anyone lost the route due to poor
performance.

It's not just changing the operating company that decreases reliability.
When the route was extended to Orpington, it got substantially busier,
but even less reliable (despite the greatly increased recovery time).
AIUI This was partly due to sharing a lot of the route with the R11
which runs every 20 minutes. It was announced in the News Shopper that
the B14 service was going to be increased to 3bph, but that was about 3
years ago and nothing's come of it yet!

I hate to report that there will be no frequency increase when the new
contract starts on 4 Feb 2006. It will be a quality incentive contract
which *may* mean a better overall performance but that will depend on
whether TfL are funding extra resources or running time. Looking at the
performance reports on the TfL website the trend seems to be improving
but I would agree that the actual performance level is very poor.
However be pleased that Centra don't run your services - now that really
is awful.

And now they want to make the service less convenient. Kimberley Drive
(Sidcup) is a long steep hill that many of the local old people (of
which there are many) can no longer climb. Therefore they rely on the
bus to get to Albany Park station or to the doctor's surgery. The B14 in
that area is on a loop, with part of Bexley Lane used twice - presumably
because of difficulty turning right onto it from Longmead Drive.
However, now the operators don't want to turn left onto it from Longmead
Drive either. It has been announced that they intend to make the B14 go
down Kimberley Drive on both northbound and southbound journeys,
depriving pensioners of the only sensible way to get to the top of the
hill!

I don't know the area but this is what the official route change
document says

"Operation retained by Metrobus (Orpington - MB) when new quality
incentive contract commences using existing low floor single deck
vehicles. Re-routed towards Bexleyheath from Crittalls Corner via Cray
Road and Watery Lane to Frognal Place (instead of operating via Sidcup
By Pass (A20), Frognal Corner, Chislehurst Road and Frognal Avenue).
Also Albany Park/Royal Park loop reversed - therefore buses towards
Orpington will operate from Foots Cray Lane via Longmead Drive,
Kimberley Drive, Maylands Drive and Royal Road to Bexley Road
(section of Bexley Lane between Longmead Drive and Royal Road will no
longer by served by buses towards Orpington).

I suspect this confirms what you have said.

Are they trying to run this route down?

I doubt it but there is little extra money around to fund improvements
to routes like this. The next phases of the bus improvement programme
were halted to divert money to the tube and rail parts of TfL. This
will explain why the frequency enhancement never happened - as is the
case London wide with route proposals being axed all over the place.
--
Paul C

Admits to working for London Underground!