The New Bus for London Was On Time
This morning, I consulted my timetable and walked round the corner, so I got to the stop at 10:34.
And what happened?
A New Bus for London sailed into view and several pleased passengers got on to go to the Angel and in some cases, like me, to pastures further on.
You can’t complain about that!
There Are Mormons Everywhere!
Everywhere there are adverts for Mormons.
There Are Mormons Everywhere!
I suppose religious adverts on the buses follow the same rules as films. The more adverts there are. the worse the religion.
It gives me a bit of a problem in that I don’t travel on a bus advertising something I don’t like or disapprove of. Oxford Circus is also wall-to-wall with the adverts, so that gives me another problem, as that is a difficult station to avoid.
My Personal New Bus for London Timetable
My regular bus journey on a 38 is from the Balls Pond Road to the Angel Islington, so why shouldn’t I travel First Class as many times as I can, when I use the route.
New Buses for London are scheduled to leave Balls Pond Road at the following times after 0900.
0934
1004 1034
1104 1124 1154
1214 1244
1314 1344
1414 1434 1454
1516 1539
1602 1625 1650
1712 1735
1816
1900
And they return from the Angel.
0930 0954
1013 1033 1054
1116 1146
1216 1247
1307 1337 1357
1427 1457
1527 1557
1617 1637 1655
1718 1741
1804 1829 1851
1916 1955
2043
It will be interesting to see if this is up-to-date information, as I have to be by Piccadilly Circus this morning at 11:30, so that means catching the 10:34.
I got the information from here. Someone actually issued a Freedom of Information request to get it. It would surely have been less time consuming and expensive to stand on the corner and use the Mark One eye-balls and the back of a fag packet or what the equivalent is these days.
On A Bus To Oblivion
I was away when Oblivion opened, but it got two stars in The Times and this was the summary of their review.
Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion but that is about all that this derivative sci-fi has to offer
It certainly is appearing on lots of buses, which is always the sign of a dire film.
On A Bus To Oblivion
I suppose that the shape of bus ads makes Tom Cruise look taller.
Do Oxford And Regent Streets Need New Buses for London Now?
After breakfast, I walked down Regent Street and didn’t make too much progress, as the pavements were crowded. I eventually got on a bus, but progress was even slower due to an accident in Trafalgar Square.
This double congestion often seems to happen.
Would New Buses for London, with their hop-on and hop-off capability be an asset in getting pedestrians along these streets faster?
I think they would! Remember too, that London’s fare system means that say doing six or seven small journeys on a bus is the same price as one, so you wouldn’t be costing yourself anything.
After shopping, I actually caught a New Bus for London back towards home. Progress was slow due to the same problems as earlier and people seemed to be hopping on and off the bus all over the place.
When these buses were mooted, the dismal Jimmies predicted all sorts of accidents and consequent lawsuits. But I’ve never seen any reports of even any minor incidents.
Perhaps, those that jump off and on are on the whole sensible people? Or as I believe, most people actually know their limitations well. And that includes the ninety-year-old with a Zimmer frame!
Could London have reinvented the people mover? Only when most of the buses on somewhere like Oxford Street are New Buses for London, will we know!
An Orphaned Bus Shelter
I took this picture at Piccadilly Circus.
The bus stop sign was mysteriously ten metres to the left.
I suspect that they moved the shelter and forgot to move the sign.
The New Buses for London Are Arriving
Transport Engineer, which I would assume is a serious web site has just published this article about New Bus for London production.
The article doesn’t say directly, but it does seem to indicate that production is on schedule for the start-up of services on route 24 on June 22nd.
However, it does say this about emissions from the buses.
Emission testing on an early vehicle that has been in service for eight months and covered more than 15,000 miles show levels at 2.048g/km of NOx – around four times less than the fleet average for existing hybrid buses.
CO2 has been measured at 690.23g/km, which is marginally better than the fleet average for hybrids (864g/km) and almost half the fleet average for diesel buses (1,295g/km). As for diesel particulates, the figure is 0.012g/km, one quarter of the fleet average for hybrid and diesel buses together.
As to the local pre-production examples on route 38, they seem to be quietly trundling between Victoria and Hackney Central. The only negative reaction you hear, is when you joke that we’ll be losing the Hackney Eight to the toffs in Hampstead.
Cambridge Annoys Bus Passengers
Yesterday, I wanted to go to the football at Ipswich, but as there is no decent place to eat near Portman Road and I didn’t want to travel out in the rush hour, I decided to go to to Cambridge for lunch and then have a drink with an old friend at Thurston, just outside Bury St. Edmunds.
I haven’t been to Cambridge for a few months and when I got there I found I couldn’t find the bus stop to get me to the centre. I had missed the only information in the station.
Bus Information At Cambridge
There was nothing else and no-one to ask.
I did find a fellow passenger, who showed me to the stop, but she added the new stop position, meant that she regularly missed her train, because of there being no drop-off in front of the station, as there used to be.
It does strike me, that the new traffic layout at the station has been designed to get the buses out of the way of cars and taxis. But then how many councillors and City officials responsible for signing off the new layout actually use the buses.
I think with Cambridge’s unique traffic problems and large numbers of visitors, that something better could have been done.
But whatever is done, some better information in the station is needed.
Munich’s Information-Rich Buses
To get back from the English Garden, I used a bus.
They were on of the most information-rich buses I’ve ever seen.
As London buses do, they also give you a running commentary of the route.
The only thing they lack, is decent maps at the bus stops.
Note how they use real video displays, whereas British buses and trains use simpler displays using LEDs.
Bus-Only Tunnels Under Cambridge
This story popped up, when I displayed the previous one about the lorry on the busway.
i know Cambridge well, and as a study in the City showed in 2008, the concept might just work.
Cambridge is a traffic nightmare at the moment and will only get worse, unless something is done.
I suppose, a cross-city tram, powered as in Seville or Nice is another possibility.
Some very radical thinking is needed.
The Anonymous Widower 