| Non-motoring > Taking the bus | Miscellaneous |
| Thread Author: Crankcase | Replies: 19 |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 12:25
Taking the bus - Crankcase
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I see today the Government wants to be seen to be doing something about the busses in England. Faster, cheaper, more frequent. After all, the BBC article says. "Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "Buses are this country's favourite way of getting around. Government figures from 2019 show that 7% of people travelled to work by bus, while 68% commute by car." I like the definition of "favourite". Anyway, we don't have bus passes, so a trip into Cambridge and back is £14 odd. We tend not to do that. Will this initiative get you onboard? |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 12:37
Taking the bus - Bromptonaut
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At the moment we're a stop on an hourly service from Northampton to Daventry and vv via the villages. Even viewed from the service's Northampton end (we're on the last 5 miles) it's not direct. The last regular service leaves Northampton at 18:10, not good if you're working until 18:00 and might get caught on a long call. Would need to be direct and at least half hourly and for another hour or two. Twenty minute frequency and it's almost turn up and go. It needs a properly regulated service as in London. Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 15 Mar 21 at 12:39
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 12:42
Taking the bus - The Melting Snowman
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I rarely use the bus but do not rule it out if it proves convenient for a journey. I thought the initiative I read about yesterday was interesting. A trial run by one of the councils in the Midlands where if you scrap a car you get £3k in credits to use on public transport including taxis etc. There must be conditions applied. I think it was on the BBC news website. They showed what looked to be quite a tidy Citroen C1 being scrapped. A bit of a shame I thought. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 12:45
Taking the bus - sooty123
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| Can't say I would, been a couple of years since I was last on a bus. Before that again a couple more years. Round here, the last bus is around 5/6 in the evening Mon-Fri, half service on a Saturday, none at all on a Sunday. There's only one bus route as well that goes all the way around the houses to get into the nearest town. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 13:24
Taking the bus - Dog
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Where we live now I can see the double-decker going from Lanson to Plymouth - it's almost always empty. The last time I got on a bus was when we used to regularly go from Los Cristianos to Barranco del Infierno 1994 -1996. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 13:37
Taking the bus - Zero
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BUS? Isnt that the thing full of pee smelling pensioners and drunks getting warm? I dont do Buses. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 13:48
Taking the bus - tyrednemotional
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>> >> I dont do Buses. >> ....I though you did do buses.....? |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 14:01
Taking the bus - No FM2R
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There is essentially no train service here so bus companies are thriving business for long distance and intercity travel. The buses are pretty nice but the drivers are fairly dreadful. I'm sure the lack of train service is nothing to do with the bus service licences being owned by politicians. There is an old freight service improvement project which the coach companies keep blocking but I think will eventually happen. Even then though that will only be between Santiago & Valparaiso. Buses in cities are the main form of transport I think and there are two types, the lethal and the ridiculous. The lethal are those where the drivers share the fares. This was stopped in Santiago some years ago because of the carnage but still exists in most other cities. The drivers race each other from stop to stop, cutting each other up and try to be first to the busy stops. The safe but ridiculous form is in Santiago. When they got rid of the owner/driver arrangement they implemented new official bus routes rather than the organic ones which had grown up where they were needed. Mostly they got it wrong and sometimes you have to take several buses to get across the capital. There's one junction I pass on the school run where about 10 different routes stop. It is not unusual to see several hundred people queuing in the mornings. It is cheap though. Depending on the time and day the first trip is anywhere from 40p to 70p. Subsequent trips starting within 15 minutes of a previous trip are half price (to avoid penalising long trips). The metro is very good, though they keep setting fire to it, and covers a lot of Santiago. That's a bit more expensive at between 60p and 90p a trip. We have a BiPCard, which is pretty much the same as an Oyster card. Local buses rurally from village to village are very cheap. We also have these group taxi things. It is essentially a [old & tatty] car, marked up as a taxi, but it has an assigned route. It can pick up and drop off anywhere on that route and is very cheap. 10 - 20p. They're supposed to carry driver + max 4 but they look pretty well packed to me sometimes. So they pootle along their route, fairly slowly with frequent stops, but if you don't mind that and being lumped in with strangers they are convenient and safe. Of course the primary advantage that public transport has here, as well as cost, is that the traffic is a total disaster in rush hour. Not as bad as places like Sao Paulo or Bangkok, both of which I've commuted in, but pretty bad. On the school run I pretty much have to take the car - the buses are packed, the metro is packed, the route is challenging and with school bags, musical instruments, sports kit etc. etc pretty much impossible. To get from the outskirts of town into the centre by car will never be less than an hour on a weekday and often a great deal more. It would drive me insane. There is little in the way of 'official' car parks in the centre and those that exist are damned expensive for daily use. £10 per day. Which is a lot for a Chilean office worker. Consequently most people park on the street. I was in hospital a while ago, in a room on the 20th floor or so, and until 7:00am the streets are deserted. By 8:00am there isn't a parking space anywhere and every street is jammed. After all that irrelevant stuff, I do use busses in the UK when I can. Certainly between cities & airports and locally when there's a convenient route. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 13:35
Taking the bus - tyrednemotional
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I'm not sure of the validity of the model today, but in the years prior to 1986 (and bus deregulation by the then Government) the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire invested heavily in the publicly owned transport infrastructure, and particularly the buses. Services had far-reaching routes and extended-hours timetables, and the fares were capped for years (at a maximum of around 10p, I think, though it was a long time since I'd spent much time there). It was held up as an example of what an invested-in, ubiquitous public transport system could achieve. Bus occupancy and passenger-miles were at an all time high, and it had a noticeable effect on passenger car miles in the authority area, which was made much more obvious once deregulation led to removal of investment, significant increase in fares, and timetables being decimated, with a large-scale return to individual transport. It at least gives some sort of visibility of what might be achieved with a little effort. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 13:43
Taking the bus - Bromptonaut
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>> It was held up as an example of what an invested-in, ubiquitous public transport system >> could achieve. I think Manchester had similar going back before Greater Manchester (1974) when there was a South East Lancashire/North East Cheshire PTE. London escaped deregulation altogether though many routes were contracted with some buses no longer red. They got it back together in the nineties. Any number of contractors, Parisian RATP is a big player, but all the buses look similar and run to timetables set by TfL. Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 15 Mar 21 at 13:43
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 14:01
Taking the bus - neiltoo
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Haven't been on a bus for just twelve months now. prior to that we only used it to visit the pubs in the next village, with friends - ten minute journey. It's an hourly service with the last bus home at just before 11.00 pm. We were frequently the only passengers coming home, and even going out at sevenish, there would never be more than four other passengers. Hopefully we'll be there again in a couple of months. Last edited by: neiltoo on Mon 15 Mar 21 at 14:03
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 14:04
Taking the bus - Robin O'Reliant
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I started using the bus to get into town when I retired from full time work and had all the afternoon free, plus having a bus pass, though down here bus journeys are free at weekends. Living in a rural area a trip to Haverfordwest or Cardigan was quite pleasant on a summers day, but as soon as the virus kicked in I stopped. Talking to people who have to use them it has been a nightmare through the winter as they run with all the windows locked open, and even with the heating full on the passengers are freezing. It will be a long while before I'm tempted back on one. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 14:25
Taking the bus - Mapmaker
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| In the last twelve months I think I've caught three busses and three tubes. And done a lot of cycling. Can't see that changing in the new world. But otherwise, love busses. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 19:39
Taking the bus - Terry
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I haven't caught a bus for a decade or more - apart from the ones that run from the car park to the airport terminal. In a large city they may have a role - in rural areas or small provincial towns there is just too little traffic to keep them running once the kids have come home from school and other workers home after a hard days graft. I suspect that driverless modules, likely to be feasible within a few years, will dominate these areas making investment in buses somewhat pointless. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 21:46
Taking the bus - Bobby
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When I started my new job in Jan 2020 I was training in Edinburgh for 2 weeks. First time I have used a public bus (other than City sightseeing busses) for decadea. I was mightily impressed with the set up, the bus stop had a digital display showing the next buses due and when. The app on my phone showed the same but also by inputting my destination, could filter the busses to the ones appropriate for me. And they all had a flat fare of (I think) £1.90 for any single journey within the city centre. All done on app/contactless. If I lived in a city like Edinburgh, with that sort of service, I think I would use it willingly over the car. When we go to big cities for City breaks / holidays, we always take the city sightseeing bus tours to get a feel of the city and some local knowledge. Best I have had is the Dublin one (and yes it was a real Dubliner telling the stories of the City). Always felt strange working in Glasgow and seeing the City bus tours. I have never done Glasgow and I bet theres lots I dont know either! Ach, I'll add it to my post-covid to-do list! |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 22:44
Taking the bus - legacylad
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Seven mile wander this afternoon to Clapham via Feizor and Austwick. Our usual route but no pub(s) open today. Bus back to Settle, £3, with only one other passenger apart from our motley crew. In pre Covid times we caught the 13:30 bus to Kirkby Lonsdale once a month to take light refreshment. Previous to that we’d catch the 11:30 bus but we came to realise that the extra two hours drinking resulted in a downward spiral of banter after several hours. Buses really are a jolly good means of getting about safely. Until you miss the last one or fall asleep and wake up 15 miles past your stop at the terminus in Skipton.. |
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New Mon 15 Mar 21 23:15
Taking the bus - henry k
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| Pre Covid I would sometimes use the local bus service but recently they started using buses with start stop engines. i really found this " feature" quite unpleasant so I hope the next models will be electric or Hydrogen.:-( I |
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New Tue 16 Mar 21 09:44
Taking the bus - bathtub tom
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I haven't used a bus since lockdown, but the local ones were twenty-odd seater, diesels. How do they make a diesel tickover so roughly? They would rattle everything, metal panels, windows, fillings! |
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New Tue 16 Mar 21 12:48
Taking the bus - VxFan
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>> I haven't used a bus since lockdown I haven't used one since Feb 2015. |
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New Tue 16 Mar 21 13:07
Taking the bus - R.P.
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| Pre-Covid I used to take a bus to and from the pub. Great service. Obviously being no pubs any more haven't been for a year. But as and when we move house (long story) the new place is on the same bus route ! Wales Government kicked to 60+ Bus Pass thing (where they thought of aligning with England) into the long grass and assured current 60+ holders that they wouldn't be affected. What's not to like about being chauffeured to and from the pub ? |
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