New countdown sign locations
 

A list of new locations for bus countdown signs has been published by TfL:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...mes/11560.aspx

I think it's strange that Walthamstow Bus Station isn't on the list.
According to Wikipedia it's the third busiest bus station in London. There
are several other bus station on the list.

--
jhk

New countdown sign locations
 

"Jarle H Knudsen" wrote:
A list of new locations for bus countdown signs has been published by TfL:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...mes/11560.aspx

I think it's strange that Walthamstow Bus Station isn't on the list.
According to Wikipedia it's the third busiest bus station in London. There
are several other bus station on the list.


I'd suggest you've missed the big announcement here - which is that
Countdown/iBus information is at last coming to the web (including a mobile
web version) and also there's to be a text message service. This has been in
the pipeline for some time, but it appears that it'll eventually arrive some
time this year.

Which just leaves me to say some joke about three new things all arriving at
once.

New countdown sign locations
 

In message of Wed, 30 Mar
2011 13:13:29 in uk.transport.london, Jarle H Knudsen
writes
A list of new locations for bus countdown signs has been published by TfL:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...mes/11560.aspx

Thanks for that.


I think it's strange that Walthamstow Bus Station isn't on the list.
According to Wikipedia it's the third busiest bus station in London. There
are several other bus station on the list.

It certainly did not early in 2009, when I last looked at it.
In theory, available staff should mean that it is unnecessary.
In practice, station staff have no better information than customers.
I found this at White City.

I am delighted Hayes and Harlington Station will have one. I Used
Surface Transport customer services to confirm the stop to be
instrumented is "Towards Jeathrow or Hatton Cross".
TfL does not yet publish bus stop names and numbers.

Changing at HAY is sometimes a good interchange to Heathrow using
Heathrow Connect.

Oyster is not accepted between HAY and HXX.
I find the excess cost of HCon to Heathrow outrageous.

To and From Heathrow Airport: Single Fare Open Return
Hayes & Harlington £4.90 £9.80 Book at ticket office
London Paddington £8.50 £16.50 Book online

Be advised: "A penalty fares system is in operation on this route
between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington. Please ensure you
purchase your ticket prior to boarding the train."
--
Walter Briscoe

New countdown sign locations
 

"Walter Briscoe" wrote:

I am delighted Hayes and Harlington Station will have one. I Used
Surface Transport customer services to confirm the stop to be
instrumented is "Towards Jeathrow or Hatton Cross".
TfL does not yet publish bus stop names and numbers.

Changing at HAY is sometimes a good interchange to Heathrow using
Heathrow Connect.

Oyster is not accepted between HAY and HXX.
I find the excess cost of HCon to Heathrow outrageous.

To and From Heathrow Airport: Single Fare Open Return
Hayes & Harlington £4.90 £9.80 Book at ticket
office
London Paddington £8.50 £16.50 Book online

Just to quickly note, there's no discount available for buying Heathrow
Connect tickets in advance online compared to buying on the day from a
ticket machine/ ticket counter (unless one can find a valid promo code -
ISTR there was a half-price offer last summer for Heathrow-Paddington and
v.v. journeys on HC).

Railcards (inc. the Network Railcard) do however give a discount, including
for H&H to Heathrow and v.v. journeys.

New countdown sign locations
 

Walter Briscoe wrote

I am delighted Hayes and Harlington Station will have one. I Used
Surface Transport customer services to confirm the stop to be
instrumented is "Towards Jeathrow or Hatton Cross".

TfL does not yet publish bus stop names and numbers.


Bus stop names (England, Wales and Scotland) are available from

http://www.nextbuses.mobi/

I assume the code in the url shown when you click on a stop is what you
want

http://www.nextbuses.mobi/departureb...869F6E7C2D1EAF
D0C285A5E144.busmobile-p2?stopCode=40004405052B

So "Hayes and Harlington(stop E)" (140 to Heathrow etc) is probably
what you want, stopcode 490001144M

http://www.nextbuses.mobi/ also answers Paul Corfield's complaint about
services with no displayed timetable just "every 8-12 minutes" since,
even before Live Departure information is available, it shows the
actual underlying timetable,


--
Mike D

New countdown sign locations
 

On 2011\03\30 20:31, Paul Corfield wrote:

I still find it very odd that bus stations are seemingly excluded from
the lists and yet if you look at Walthamstow virtually every stop before
/ after the bus station has a sign. Some of those stops are closer to
town centre facilities than the bus station is. It doesn't make much
sense to me given that bus station officials can't / won't say when a
bus is due so they're not an option. If the argument is that everyone
has a smart phone or can text then that's justification for not putting
signs at any stop anywhere! If you look at the design of any new bus
station outside London they nearly all have a master departure board
listing all the buses due from every stand - sometimes in real time but
more often just based on the timetabled time. What makes London so
different other than a denser network and more frequent services? You
could turn that round and say why bother providing real time info
because the likely waiting time for a bus is so much shorter than most
other cities where frequencies are not as generous.

Presumably taxis aren't allowed in the bus station, so passengers there
are a captive market, whereas passengers at nearby stops can choose the
taxis which are returning to the neighbouring rank. Although since I
think nearly all bus journeys are already paid for as part of a season
pass or daily cap, I don't know whether the fear of losing passengers in
this way has any cash value in the equation.

New countdown sign locations
 

In message 01cbef23$178b73a0$LocalHost@default of Wed, 30 Mar 2011
22:22:13 in uk.transport.london, Michael R N Dolbear
writes

Thank you for an astoundingly interesting posting.


Walter Briscoe wrote

I am delighted Hayes and Harlington Station will have one. I Used
Surface Transport customer services to confirm the stop to be
instrumented is "Towards Jeathrow or Hatton Cross".

TfL does not yet publish bus stop names and numbers.


Bus stop names (England, Wales and Scotland) are available from

http://www.nextbuses.mobi/

I assume the code in the url shown when you click on a stop is what you
want

http://www.nextbuses.mobi/departureb...869F6E7C2D1EAF
D0C285A5E144.busmobile-p2?stopCode=40004405052B

So "Hayes and Harlington(stop E)" (140 to Heathrow etc) is probably
what you want, stopcode 490001144M

Sadly, it is not. TfL places stop codes at its stops. At most stops they
are on the bottom of the bus stop flag, showing the stop name. They are
also placed at the bottom left corner of stop timetables.
You can use http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...hemes/11560.as
px to link to the "List of stop locations" at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/as
sets/downloads/corporate/Agreed-stop-locations.pdf where you can find

Stop Code Stop Name Borough
....
15979 Hayes And Harlington Station London Borough of Hillingdon

I could not see that stop code (15979) at http://www.nextbuses.mobi/.

[snip]
--
Walter Briscoe

New countdown sign locations
 

"Basil Jet" wrote:

On 2011\03\30 20:31, Paul Corfield wrote:

I still find it very odd that bus stations are seemingly excluded from
the lists and yet if you look at Walthamstow virtually every stop before
/ after the bus station has a sign. Some of those stops are closer to
town centre facilities than the bus station is. It doesn't make much
sense to me given that bus station officials can't / won't say when a
bus is due so they're not an option. If the argument is that everyone
has a smart phone or can text then that's justification for not putting
signs at any stop anywhere! If you look at the design of any new bus
station outside London they nearly all have a master departure board
listing all the buses due from every stand - sometimes in real time but
more often just based on the timetabled time. What makes London so
different other than a denser network and more frequent services? You
could turn that round and say why bother providing real time info
because the likely waiting time for a bus is so much shorter than most
other cities where frequencies are not as generous.

Presumably taxis aren't allowed in the bus station, so passengers there
are a captive market, whereas passengers at nearby stops can choose the
taxis which are returning to the neighbouring rank. Although since I think
nearly all bus journeys are already paid for as part of a season pass or
daily cap, I don't know whether the fear of losing passengers in this way
has any cash value in the equation.

I don't think that will have featured as a consideration *one iota* here -
the buses people aren't out to get at taxis.

I'm curious as to where you got the idea that "nearly all" bus journeys are
paid for with a season ticket or daily cap - leaving aside the fact that,
with a bus-only cap (different with multi-modal caps), the first four bus
journeys of the day are paid for (even if the last one currently costs
10p!), I really don't think that's the case - there'll be a very good number
of people who just make one or two bus journeys a day (i.e. on a single bus
each way).

If people are commuting by bus, then if they use a single bus for their
journey it works out cheaper paying by Oyster PAYG if they commute five
times a week - i.e. 10 x GBP1.30 - or indeed even six times a week, compared
to buying a weekly bus pass at GBP17.80 (or indeed a GBP68.40 monthly, at
least for a five days a week commute). Of course a bus pass might be
desirable anyway, to cover other non-commuting journeys or provide the
flexibility to bus-hop on the way to or from work.

New countdown sign locations
 

Walter Briscoe wrote

Sadly, it is not. TfL places stop codes at its stops. At most stops
they
are on the bottom of the bus stop flag, showing the stop name. They
are
also placed at the bottom left corner of stop timetables.
You can use
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...hemes/11560.as
px to link to the "List of stop locations" at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/as
sets/downloads/corporate/Agreed-stop-locations.pdf where you can
find

Stop Code Stop Name Borough
...
15979 Hayes And Harlington Station London Borough of Hillingdon

I could not see that stop code (15979) at http://www.nextbuses.mobi/.

No, thus when the the text message interface starts up the users will
no doubt have to use a prefix, texting say Lon15979 since the Tfl codes
are not unique, country wide as the Nextbuses ones have to be.

The TFl site seems to have a dozen or more pages for every bus stop,
not just the "new iBus display" ones in the above PDF, and each one
gives the relevant Tfl stop code.

I Googled [ Hayes Harlington "stop code" site:tfl.gov.uk] and got
several, so TfL does in fact publish bus stop names and numbers and you
can feed the names back into Nextbuses.

Try [ "The Dysart" "stop code" site:tfl.gov.uk]

--
Mike D

New countdown sign locations
 

"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:

No, thus when the the text message interface starts up the users will
no doubt have to use a prefix, texting say Lon15979 since the Tfl codes
are not unique, country wide as the Nextbuses ones have to be.

The TFl site seems to have a dozen or more pages for every bus stop,
not just the "new iBus display" ones in the above PDF, and each one
gives the relevant Tfl stop code.

I Googled [ Hayes Harlington "stop code" site:tfl.gov.uk] and got
several, so TfL does in fact publish bus stop names and numbers and you
can feed the names back into Nextbuses.

Try [ "The Dysart" "stop code" site:tfl.gov.uk]


Yes, I was going to start a new thread about this revamped 'stations and
stops' element of the TfL site which has recently appeared.