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Old January 21st 09, 01:52 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Andrew Heenan Andrew Heenan is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Nov 2008
Posts: 288
Default Oi! Boris! Wot abaht the bus shelters?

"Paul Corfield" wrote :
It's interesting that you cite quite clear reasons for problems
with FirstBus's I-Bus performance - how do you know it is
garage or driver set up that is the cause of the problems?
I've recently experienced buses not knowing where they are
(* on the display) and then springing in to life further on.
Drivers can't use the equipment if the bus is moving and the
change in the display happened while we were moving.
Perhaps a signal to and from the bus was magically restored?


Not i-bus problems - Countdown problems. I don't think the two are linked
(yet), and I've read somewhere that much of the countdown system is
obsolete, which is why I'm wonderuing about how / when renewal will happen.

All services are prone to the occasional 'lost on route' (*), this is a
feature(!) of countdown (and i-bus to some degree) and large lorries / other
buses.

But it's a personal experience thing - I take a number of bus routes
regularly, mostly East London, Arriva (N), Metroline and First (E). Buses
appearing from nowhere is a rare occurrence on other routes - but fairly
frequent on First. Buses counting down for ten minutes then disappearing
forever (ghost buses) appears to me to be more frequent on F services, too.
And this is routes where the incoming 1+ mile is shared with other services
that have no problems.

I've no way of knowing if it's driver or bus that's 'wrong' - but it sure
ain't 'the system'!

And while we're naming names - I've found any Countdown issues with Arriva
and East London to be as rare as Hen's Teeth, though I've seen them here and
there with most other companies from time to time.

Spend half an hour waiting at the Angel on bitterly cold evenings, and you
notice these things!
--

Andrew