On Nov 13, 5:59*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:36:02 -0800 (PST), MIG





wrote:
On Nov 13, 5:23*pm, (Roy Badami) wrote:
I'm curious about how debendification affects the London bus system
from a user perspective.

My first question, somewhat academic since it is easily sidestepped
simply by using Oyster, is about "pay before you board". *The rule
about paying before boarding, as stated in the January 2009 fares
leaflet (the last one I have a PDF copy of) was:

* * Cash single fares are not available on buses in the Pay Before You
* * Board area in central London, on bendy buses or on route
* * W7. Before boarding, you must have enough credit on your Oyster
* * card to pay as you go or have a valid ticket.

Assuming this rule is still current, debendification would presumably
take a number of bus routes outside the scope of the above rule. *Do
routes cease to be "pay before you board" when they get debendified,
or what?

They cease to be "pay before you board" when they remove bendy buses.
The roadside machines are taken out of service overnight and then
progressively removed. The yellow round number "tiles" on the stops and
the yellow "pay before you board" banner on the bus stop flag are
usually removed a couple of days before hand. This was certainly what
happened with the 149 - one reason I took extra care to photograph the
bus stops and a roadside machine. A bit of operational history that will
soon be gone.

My other question regards boarding. *I had understood that one always
had to board a bus by the front door (even if one had, say, a
travelcard or concessionary pass) *unless* it was a bendy bus. *But
Mizter T explained last time we were discussing debendification that
on some routes the bendies have been replaced with single decker buses
that allow boarding through both doors.

There are only two exceptions to the general rule - these are Red Arrows
507 and 521. They are so busy and have such a huge proportion of
pre-paid travellers that allowing all door boarding is the only way they
can work post bendy operation. Commuters got used to lining up with the
three doors - now they line up with the 2 doors on the rigid Citaros
that took over. Waterloo and the 521 is the best place to see this in
action.

So what *is* the rule for boarding non-bendy buses, now? *How does one
know whether or not one is permitted to board via the rear door?

You board at the front on all conventional routes except the 507 and
521. Bendy routes 25, 29, 73, 207, 453 and 436 retain all door boarding
until conversion.

I had a quick chat to a route 18 driver when I was out with my camera
the other weekend. They were not looking forward to conversion because
they felt the multi door boarding worked really well on what is a long
and very busy service. It is interesting that 2 bendy routes (18*, 25)
are long enough to stretch from zone 1 to zone 4 - this is really very
rare in the bus network as routes from zone 1 rarely stretch into zone 3
never mind zone 4.

* allow me one day's indulgence. I know it's converted today.

And why is this all so complicated? :-)

It isn't that complicated really. *People have adapted very quickly to
cashless operation although I'll concede the central area can confuse
some tourists.

There are considerable benefits in keeping dwell times very low. *You
only need go outside London to any busy city and see the inordinate time
taken to board a bus at busy stops with everyone paying cash. Buses
stand still for minutes at a time. *It might be good cash flow for the
bus company but it does nothing for operational efficiency in terms of
keeping total run times and thus peak vehicle requirements down.

How do you find out where the Pay Before You Board area starts anyway?

You look at the yellow banners on the stops.

It's not obvious from a quick look at the TfL site. *Is there a map
somewhere?

The privately produced Greater London Bus Map shows it in outline on the
Central London side of the map.

http://www.busmap.org/downloads/No31Page%201.pdf

If I wanted people to have paid in advance before using buses in a
particular area, I think I'd make a bit more effort to let them know
where that area was before they were at the point of getting on a bus
in that area.