On 9 Nov, 17:15, (Neil Williams) wrote:
On Sun, 9 Nov 2008 15:27:49 -0000, "John Holt" wrote:
And this is called 'progress' ????!!!!

Yes. *It's very useful to those who don't usebusesfrequently, aren't
familiar with the route or aren't paying attention to where they are
and reading the paper. *Or, for that matter, those who are blind.

On the majority of buses I've been on in the past few months, the
audio announcements have been turned off - whether by switch
on control panel or enraged driver applying a heavy object to the
PA amp I don't know.

The only thing I'd change about it is to have the route announcement
either removed or only announced every few stops, as it's that (not
the stop announcements) that does grate a bit.

It only plays after stops at which the bus has stopped... which is
of course when it's needed.

On-board stop displays and announcements have been used for years in
mainland Europe, and it was about time they made it to the UK. *More,
please.

Yes, but all the bus systems on the continent that I've been on seem
to travel a much greater distance between stops, so the frequency
of announcements is much less.
By contrast London crams in so many that off-peak there are quite a
few that the bus would have difficulty stopping at, if you waited for
the
spoken announcement ("Hampton Court Green - Cardinal Wolsey"
being one I use a lot, and just its name shows the problem).

Hth

Henry