Why London’s Bus Ticketing Is Right
To use London’s buses, you need either to have an Oyster Card, a bank or credit card you can wave at the reader, or cash. If you’re lucky like me and have survived to a certain age, you can have a Freedom Pass, if you live in the city.
Today, this flexibility was well illustrated.
I had lunch with a friend, who had to get to Euston afterwards, to get home to Liverpool. The easiest way was to take a bus and a 390 arrived to do the honours. I used my Freedom Pass and I lent her my Oyster Card, that I always carry for visitors or for my own use on the cable-car and river buses.
When we had sat down, I realised she could also have used her contactless credit card. It didn’t occur to me at the time, as my cards don’t have the feature. She did say though, that she would use the buses in London with her’s in future.
It just goes to show how I think that London is going the right way and I think they’ll come a time, when a contactless bank or credit card is the standard method of buying a bus, tram, metro or train ticket all over the world. Her city of Liverpool is already planning to introduce the system on trains.
We are going to see a revolution in ticketing in the next few years and those places that don’t go with the flow will find themselves in the slow lane for visitors and tourists.
I Choose The wrong Way Home
I regularly have supper near Oxford Circus station, just as I did tonight.
To come back, I have a myriad number of ways.
1. I can take a 73 bus virtually all the way or change at the Angel for a 30, 38 or 56, which stop closer to my house. I use this route, when I’ve got a big parcel from John Lewis, as the 3 stop, is right outside the front door of the store.
2. I can take the Central line to Bank station and then take a 21, 76 or 141 bus.
3. A similar route is to go to St. Paul’s station and then a 56 bus.
4. I can take the Victoria line to Highbury and Islington station and then take a 30 or 277 bus.
5. Another route is to take Victoria lie to Kings Cross and then take a 30 bus to home.
On the other hand, one of the advantages of Kondon’s transport system, is that there are innumerable ways of getting from A to B.
The number of routes seems to keep growing.
Tonight, I tried to get home, using route 2, but there had been an accident, so the buses had virtually stopped running.
It was a very wrong choice.
In the end, I took a 43 to the Angel and theb git a 56 ti my house.
Is Any Ipswich Town Fan Going To Doncaster On Boxing Day?
I am trying to see every Ipswich Town match this season. The problem is Boxing Day, when we play at Doncaster.
As the trains and coaches aren’t running and to make things worse the Underground in London could be on strike, it would appear that the only way to go is to hire a car and driver, a helicopter and pilot or just hitch.
Unless of course, someone who’s going from London, can fit a small Ipswich fan in the boot of their car!
Any sensible ideas will be welcome!
The Hackney Eight Have Got Tail-Gunners Again
I got the 38 bus back from the Angel this morning, travelling on one of the Hackney Eight.
They’ve now got tail-gunners for the next four weeks as an experiment, according to the driver.
What we really need on the 38, is reinforcements for the loyal eight New Buses for London, we have!
Why shouldn’t the residents of Hackney, Clapton and Islington, not be able to travel First Class?
Chaos In The Balls Pond Road
The roadworks that caused all the problems with the buses, last week are still ongoing. There are no open bus stops and just one narrow lane for the traffic.
One Narrow Lane In The Balls Pond Road
When I left home this lunchtime, I walked to the next stop, where there was an angry crowd and even angrier drivers trying to get onto the Balls Pond Road.
The diversion on Dove Road was congested and totally inadequate, especially as they were running extra buses as the Overground was closed, so putting a large number of extra passengers on the buses. When I returned later in the afternoon, the problems were made worse, by everybody trying to get to the Emirates to see Arsenal at home to Liverpool.
If they’d wanted to organise chaos, they’d created it, in the best way possible.
I was talking to a bus driver and he blamed Boris, which was a bit unfair.
As my background is project planning and management, I believe this chaos was all down to no co-ordination between the parties involved. The Arsenal match has been in the calendar for months, so surely to do the necessary resurfacing work, on a match day was a bad decision. It was probably costly too, as it meant that all of the chaos, meant that not as much progress as had been hoped was made.
Surely too, the Overground should have been kept open, whilst the road was effectively closed, as this closure imposes extra strains on the road network.
The only good thing about the roadworks, was that I could cross Southgate Road with ease.
A Closed Southgate Road
But crossing the Balls Pond Road is difficult for pedestrains, as there are no lights and we’ve been left to our own devices and wits.
No-one seems to have any idea, how long this chaos will go on. Although this notice mentions that Phase 5 ends on the first of December.
I can’t help feeling, that traffic problems in the area would be helped on match days, if the Northern City line was open between Finsbury Park and Moorgate. Perhaps, when Thameslink is fully established this line will get some long-needed improvement.
A Pre-Match Meal In Ipswich
Yesterday, it was football at Ipswich at 19:45 due to SKY, so it was an early train to avoid the rush hour and a pre-match meal in Pizza Express on the waterfront.
PX is the only really coeliac-friendly restaurant in the town centre. I’ve yet to find a good Indian one, close to the football ground.
PX was heaving, so it does appear that the demand might be coming up in the town, which in my view and those of some of my friends is a restaurant graveyard. I always wondered if East Suffolk people go to bed early, ever since my father and I used to walk home from his club in Felixstowe at about 21:30 and see all the houses cmpletely dark.
But getting to and from the quay and PX in the dark is a walker’s nightmare, with uneven pavements and all sorts of barriers everywhere. How many drunks will tip into the dock?
However there did seem to be a lot of good development going on at the waterfront, but knowing Ipswich as I do, I doubt that it will be complete for upwards of five to ten years.
The quay might end up as a good place to go, but it’s not that close to the town centre, the railway station and the other attractions in the town, like Christchurch Mansion, the Wolsey Theatre and the football ground.
If ever a town was crying out for a free circular bus-route that ran around the town centre like Manchester’s Metroshuttle, it is Ipswich!
At least though the meal was good and walking down the hill to the restaurant from the station was easy, even if I didn’t find the quickest route back to the football ground in the dark. In the light, I’d have had the liths to guide me!
I shall go again in the light!
Buses, Buses Everywhere!
I’d arrived home on Saturday night to a lot of chaos due to road works on the Balls Pond Road.
But today, it was still chaos as these pictures show.
At least though the police weren’t about, as on the Saturday night, where they were giving a wonderful demonstration of how they have forgotten their point-duty skills. They may have kept the cars moving, but it took me and a few others about ten minutes to cross the road, before a gap appeared.
Buses In Edinburgh
Whilst in Edinburgh, I travelled several times on Edinburgh’s buses. They may be understandable to those, who live in the city, but they don’t have the bus maps everywhere, that Londoners and most tourists like in London. So if you’re not with a guide, it can be difficult to find the bus and the appropriate stop for where you want to go.
I was staying with a friend, just outside the city centre, and she can take buses from two companies to get home. So, although you can buy a 24-hour ticket for each company, you can’t buy one for all of the buses that use Edinburgh. And of course, I can’t use my English bus pass in Scotland. I have wondered how many English, who fancy a weekend away, don’t go to Scotland, as their bus passes are not valid. Surely, every UK bus pass, should be valid all over the UK, to encourage tourism.
But the fact that there is no 24-hour pass for the whole of Edinburgh, was a total surprise to me. Many cities in England and of course London, have systems to give 24-hour travel to everybody, who wants it. Surely, this problem will be solved, when every city in the world follows London and allows a bank or credit card to be used as a ticket. There’s a lot here on contactless ticketing with bank cards.
Talking of tickets, will you need a third 24-hour ticket, for the trams in Edinburgh?
Edinburgh has the silly single door buses, that don’t announce their stops, that still persist outside London. Was this why on my several trips on Edinburgh’s buses, I never saw a mother with a baby in a buggy or anybody carrying anything heavy?
What summed up the badly planned nature of Edinburgh’s buses, was this timetable on a stop.
How Not To Do Bus Information
Note how to text to find the next bus, you have to type in an eight-digit number and then use a full mobile number. In London, which appears to be a much bigger city than Edinburgh, all stops are covered by codes that are just five digits and you text the same short number of 87287 at every stop.
I also think that as you can get the buses of two companies from the stop I was using, you actually have to use a different system to get the times for the other company. London,which has several bus companies, merges all the routes and companies together.
An Improved Waverley Station
Trying to improve Waverley station in Edinburgh, must be one of those jobs that architects find challenging to say the least. The site is in a cutting and very cramped and making an attractive station with all the facilities and decent entry and exit for passengers is probably the stuff of nightmares. They had a lot of similar issues at Birmingham New Street station, but seem to have solved them, by virtually demolishing the old station and starting again. But as these pictures show, a new clean roof and escalators can bring about improvements.
One thing that I found rather strange, was that the road opposite the station seems to be reserved for tour buses, which in my view should not be blocking up access to the station. I am surprised that the new trams won’t be crossing that bridge. Surely like Kings Cross, London Bridge and Euston stations in London, interchange with the local buses, should be just a short walk. At least the escalators up to Princes Street, make one entrance to Waverley station a lot easier.
No Directions To Kings Cross Square
I took a Piccadilly line train to Kings Cross today, from where I got a 30 bus to my home.
But there were no signs to the Kings Cross Square and the buses that stop alongside.
The interchange is working well and if I’m coming home on a Piccadilly line train say from Heathrow, I now surface at Kings Cross station and get a 30 bus home or a 73 to the Angel, where I change at the same stop to the 38 for home. It solves the problems of the lack of Underground stations in my area of Hackney.
This interchange will get better, when the second entrance to the Underground opens and the bus routes in the area are improved. The 390 for instance is getting New Buses for London.
Today, the big light was on too, so I was able to bathe in its warmth, as I waited for my bus.
Obviously, not everybody has an energy problem!
The Anonymous Widower 