It was my other half's birthday this weekend and I was working doing a
London walk on Sunday, so we decided to make a weekend of it playing the
tourist in London and taking in a show on Saturday evening. Not
something I ever really get to but it was a useful insight into really
intense use of public transport over three days. Just some random
observations:

With the Circle/District EC-Whitechapel not operating over the weekend,
loadings on the 15 to the Tower were very high. As no rail replacement
bus services as such were provided, some extra runs on the 15 would have
been useful. The overcrowding was severe from early morning until well
into the evening. It would have been a good use of manpower to station
an inspector at the Tower stop in particular to control passengers and
give information.

That said, the abuse being suffered by the member of staff guarding the
gate at the (closed) Tower Hill station had to be seen to be believed.
You would have thought he had personally and on a whim decided to close
that part oft he system.

Do drivers believe that they have any role in helping people who are
unsure of where they're going? The driver on a 15 we caught from the
Tower was asked by three foreign but English-speaking girls if he wen to
Embankment Station. At first he simply ignored them but when they
persisted he told them "no". I then intervened to tell them to get off
at Charing Cross station, which they did, quite happily. Before anyone
reminds me that the chap was there to drive a bus not act as a Tourist
Information Officer, can I say that I don't expect drivers to know every
street everywhere but surely major stops and stations in the Central
area isn't too much to ask?

Does anyone believe in queuing in an orderly fashion at bus stops any
more?

I don't know whether I was just unlucky this weekend (this isn't a
problem I've seen before) but there was a pretty frequent problem with
people trying to board via the middle doors of double deckers.

We took a couple of journeys on the 9, just for old time's sake (and to
go to the Science Museum). I really *do* prefer Routemasters. The
conductor called out stops, it was well ventilated and I *still* find
the legroom better than on new buses. (On one journey we sat next to
what appeared to be an enthusiast, with notebook taking details of RMs
going the other way. If you're reading this, "hello"!)

Last night we used the 205 for the first time, to get from Whitechapel
to Marylebone. Great idea and well used but given that it's a station
linking service and therefore very likely to be used by people
unfamiliar with London, on this route above all others I think that
there should be a way of announcing the stops, either by the driver
doing it or with a GPS TV system, as was used on the RV1 (but now seems
not to be?).

But these are really just observations. In two and a half days' really
intensive use of the system, it managed to get us there everywhere every
time. It did it late in the evening, when Paris's transport system
would have been skeletal and that of most other British cities
non-existent and my essential belief in London having a Good Transport
System was not shaken.

Interesting to be a tourist, if only for a while. It reminded me why I
love London so much.



--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk