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Trains no longer waiting for pulling-up train
On Jan 23, 4:55 pm, "Mizter T" wrote: MIG wrote: MIG wrote: (snip) I never understood it that way for all the decades when the distinction applied, although the rule was kind of handed now rather than found in writing. However, now I can't find anything about request and compulsory stops on the TfL site at all, so I've sent a question. I'll continue scratching around in my stuff though. And almost immediately I find a bus map from 1981 with pictures of the two types of stop and explanations as follows. (White backgroud, red ring, black bar) "This is a 'compulsory' bus stop where every bus on the route concerned will stop without being hailed. At busy times it is quicker (and fairer) to form a queue." (Red background, white ring and bar) "This is a 'request' bus stop where the bus will only stop if you signal it to do so by waving your arm or by ringing the bell once if you are already a passenger." I always thought it was odd when my mother said "wave" but actually she, and everyone else, simply stuck their arm out. That's not waving really, is it?I remember such information being commonplace. However the only contemporary mention I can find is in the notes accompanying the five area bus maps (Central, NE, NW, SE & SW) and it only relates to night buses. There is a picture of a red-backgrounded request stop accompanying this text: "All bus stops are treated as request stops between 0100 and 0430. Additionally N-prefix night bus routes stop by request only at all times. Please clearly signal to the driver when you wish to get on or off the bus." You can also find mention of when the system was introduced in 1935 in this Designed for London education pack from the Transport Museum (page 30 [1]): ~~~~~ 1935 'Fixed stop' system for buses introduced First LT programme of compulsory and request bus stops started" ~~~~~ I'm not an expert on bus stops but I do know they're a surprisingly late innovation - the above suggests as late as 1935, in London at least. I don't know if someone else can flesh out the history of this a bit. Back to the present, I guess there is some argument for rolling out the night bus rules to all buses - i.e. all stops are request stops. Given that current TfL literature doesn't mention the two types of stops (apart from with regards to night buses) perhaps things are just slowly evolving that way anyway. Though I, like the others here, would of course be interested to know what London Buses' policy or thinking about this issue is, if any. I got this reply from TfL "Thank you for your recent email about bus stopping arrangements. I can confirm that the rules of compulsory and request stops still apply. Our drivers are trained to stop at all white compulsory stops. They should also stop at red request stops when a passenger presses the bell or hails the bus from the bus stop. If another bus is blocking the stop, the driver should wait until it has moved away to ensure he doesn't miss any waiting passengers. It is disappointing to hear that these basic procedures weren't followed on the day concerned. London Buses monitors driver behaviour through its regular, network wide monitoring, such as Customer Satisfaction and Mystery Traveller surveys. In addition, the Driver Quality Monitoring (DQM) programme, carried out for TfL by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA), checks for safety and also assesses the overall quality of driving standards" I didn't mention a "day concerned", and whatever the rule is, we seem to be agreed that buses don't generally stop unless firmly requested to. |
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