Public Transport!!

[discobob]

My eldest went to a gig last night in Manchester, he drove halfway there and jumped a train - that was 20 minutes late.

The train back it turns out was a bus service leaving Oxford Road Station at Midnight - and you guessed it - it didn't show up!! Station had already shut it's shutters so no one to talk to there

Cue me - flying up the motorway for 100+ mile round trip to pick him up and drop him for his car. While I was at it I also picked up 3 people that were also stuck who were going to a station before where the lad parks his car - they had just got a price of £100 (one of them was talking to a taxi driver when I pulled up) 

Net result - I didn't get to bed until 3.30am this morning 

It turns out that the bus was actually starting at Piccadilly and (although I doubt it on a Wednesday night) if it was full I bet there is nothing in place to still go and tell people at other stops so the rail company in effect has just abandoned their passengers!

Not a happy chappy 😞

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

But your halo is shining even brighter today!  

[scarecrow243]

up here buses are cancelled daily without any notice  and all you get is leave your car at home and use public transport to save the planet and they save the planet by not running the service

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, so much apathy has set in to our country it even invades our transport system, a lot of working people have got so fed up it , then the train strikes , if they cannot get to work many will not get paid, I use local busses and we do not usually have many cancellations oh except the driver who did not turn up to the depot, and not bothered to phone in,

[welsh1]

Lol, try living in Pembrokeshire, one bus company, that runs the bare minimum, to travel nine miles to work would involve walking a mile and a half to the bus stop, and a change of bus on route, to arrive an hour later in the town where my office is.
But we have two trains a day into the station, one in the morning one at night lol.

[scouser]

That’s what happens when you privatise the bus service.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Ironically, we have a brand new bus service running along Manor Drive in Peterborough.

It stated this week, is all double decker buses, every 20 minutes or so.

So far every time we look there is either one passenger or no passengers as they go past.

Would love to know who thought it was a good idea to bring in a bus service to a new estate after about 600 houses have been built and everyone has got used to travelling by car?

Would have been far better to have the service in place as the houses were occupied.

[discobob]

21 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Would have been far better to have the service in place as the houses were occupied.

That would take Common Sense - and as we all know - it isn't common

This is actually a Bus Replacement Service supplied by the Rail Company - I need to track down which one it is to start the ball rolling - 2 hours of my time plus one hundred miles

I reckon £100 should settle it

[oowee]

40 minutes ago, scouser said:

That’s what happens when you privatise the bus service.

^^^^ This with insufficient regulation. Try getting a rural bus service to run. Private companies bid against providing a new schedule of services, one wins the tender and starts to provide the agreed service. The route starts to be profitable where the tender winner would begin to pay back to the original funding pot. At this point other providers step in run a schedule 5 mins ahead of the tendered provider and the whole route falls apart. 

[30-6]

GOD is watching, karma will be on his  way.

If it is in the form of a big lotto win remember PW members.

P.S.  I have done similar, unfortunately I'm still waiting. 😣

 

[Poor Shot]

1 hour ago, welsh1 said:

Lol, try living in Pembrokeshire, one bus company, that runs the bare minimum, to travel nine miles to work would involve walking a mile and a half to the bus stop, and a change of bus on route, to arrive an hour later in the town where my office is.
But we have two trains a day into the station, one in the morning one at night lol.

Not that much better in Cardiff and SWV's.

I used to work in East Cardiff and commute daily from Cynon valley via the A470. Hour and a half to go 24 miles most days. Same on the way home.

Public transport would have involved taking the last train the night before at 22:30, spending 8 hours in Cardiff Central station then a combination of two busses and a mile walk with the first bus being at 6:30am and then (if you're lucky) arriving at work at 8:45.

Councillors are baffled as to why people still prefer taking the car into the city over public transport. 🙄

[enfieldspares]

2 hours ago, scouser said:

That’s what happens when you privatise the bus service.

+1. When they closed the railway station in Kirby Muxloe they promised we'd not miss it as buses would replace it. We had three buses every hour. Then Thatcher came in a denationalised the buses. So a unified system where the profitable routes subsidised the least profitable ensure full coverage of the local area. Now we have one bus an hour and none at all on Sundays. Yet on the profitable routes there is bus congestion. Arriva, Stagecoach, First Bus, Leicester Bus all running the same best revenue producing routes. 

[discobob]

43 minutes ago, Poor Shot said:

Not that much better in Cardiff and SWV's.

I used to work in East Cardiff and commute daily from Cynon valley via the A470. Hour and a half to go 24 miles most days. Same on the way home.

Public transport would have involved taking the last train the night before at 22:30, spending 8 hours in Cardiff Central station then a combination of two busses and a mile walk with the first bus being at 6:30am and then (if you're lucky) arriving at work at 8:45.

Councillors are baffled as to why people still prefer taking the car into the city over public transport. 🙄

Confounded by the Assembly Madness as well.

I have in the past (last time about 5 years ago) commuted to London on a Daily basis - the first time was catching a train at 0715 from Chester to London to be at my desk by 9.30 - return at 1814 to be home by 9pm

The second time they had jiggled the train times since changing the train type - so it was catch the train 0625 to be at my desk at 9am and alternate daily leaving early one day and later on the next day to get a direct train without having to change at Crewe

TBH - Very little problems - I wasn't catching late/last trains though!!

[Yellow Bear]

2 hours ago, enfieldspares said:

1. When they closed the railway station in Kirby Muxloe they promised we'd not miss it as buses would replace it. We had three buses every hour. Then Thatcher came in a denationalised the buses.

Let us not forget that at this time domestic rates were comparatively speaking 40% higher basic rate tax was 25% up to £750 and 34% up to £7000, and this was down from the 41% it was 10 years earlier.  This was to pay for this utopian public transport dream amongst other wonderful nationalised industries with powerful unions. 

[Scully]

What’s a bus? 
Daughter travels a lot by train, and is forever being let down. Last weekend the connection she was supposed to pick up at Preston was cancelled due to a lack of staff. The train was sat there, just no one to run it. She was two and a half hours late for a function, but will be claiming her fare back. 

[oowee]

1 minute ago, Scully said:

What’s a bus? 
Daughter travels a lot by train, and is forever being let down. Last weekend the connection she was supposed to pick up at Preston was cancelled due to a lack of staff. The train was sat there, just no one to run it. She was two and a half hours late for a function, but will be claiming her fare back. 

I was maybe 17 waiting for a bus (on way to school in Coventry City centre). There is a que and I am at the front waiting for the doors to open. This bloke pushes in front of me. I grab him by the neck and say 'Oi there is a .....que here' .................... I know but I am the driver he said 😱

[Jega]

Gave up with public transport many years ago ,sick of being let down at the last minute with no explanation or apology .

God knows what it's like nowadays with strikes ,engineering works replacement buses etc .

I would call it third world public transport but that would be insulting third world countries .

[Stonepark]

The truth is that a unified public transport service is now an expensive pipe dream.

It cannot replace cars because cars originate and arrive at different destinations, whereas both buses and trains are linear going from point A to point Z.

As society has become more complex, both socially and geographically, public transport is only of use for major arterial routes (and even then is less than perfect) going from city centre to city centre or town periphery to town centre, even though those areas now hollowed out shells of themselves, but ignoring cross town travel in many cases i.e. town periphery to town periphery, village to town periphery, etc etc.

For the "lucky" 10% mainly in cities such as Edinburgh, London, etc whose commute or shopping is possible with public transport as it's is in centre of the towns/cities then they still get to enjoy it's advantages, for the remaining 90% a private vehicle is required, whether for commuting, shopping, picking up the kids or any other manner of travel.

 

[Boybrit]

1 hour ago, oowee said:

I was maybe 17 waiting for a bus (on way to school in Coventry City centre). There is a que and I am at the front waiting for the doors to open. This bloke pushes in front of me. I grab him by the neck and say 'Oi there is a .....que here' .................... I know but I am the driver he said 😱

Which school? I was at Cardinal Wiseman I left in 1965.

[oowee]

33 minutes ago, Boybrit said:

Which school? I was at Cardinal Wiseman I left in 1965.

Foxford. 

56 minutes ago, Stonepark said:

The truth is that a unified public transport service is now an expensive pipe dream.

It cannot replace cars because cars originate and arrive at different destinations, whereas both buses and trains are linear going from point A to point Z.

As society has become more complex, both socially and geographically, public transport is only of use for major arterial routes (and even then is less than perfect) going from city centre to city centre or town periphery to town centre, even though those areas now hollowed out shells of themselves, but ignoring cross town travel in many cases i.e. town periphery to town periphery, village to town periphery, etc etc.

For the "lucky" 10% mainly in cities such as Edinburgh, London, etc whose commute or shopping is possible with public transport as it's is in centre of the towns/cities then they still get to enjoy it's advantages, for the remaining 90% a private vehicle is required, whether for commuting, shopping, picking up the kids or any other manner of travel.

 

I think we can get to a unified system we just need to think of cars in a different way and prioritise other forms of transport.

[Yellow Bear]

55 minutes ago, Stonepark said:

For the "lucky" 10% mainly in cities such as Edinburgh, London, etc whose commute or shopping is possible with public transport as it's is in centre of the towns/cities then they still get to enjoy it's advantages, for the remaining 90% a private vehicle is required, whether for commuting, shopping, picking up the kids or any other manner of travel.

BUT it is these lucky "idiots" who thing everywhere  is like this that are driving things like the 15m city

[oowee]

Just now, Yellow Bear said:

BUT it is these lucky "idiots" who thing everywhere  is like this that are driving things like the 15m city

?

[bruno22rf]

6 hours ago, welsh1 said:

Lol, try living in Pembrokeshire, one bus company, that runs the bare minimum, to travel nine miles to work would involve walking a mile and a half to the bus stop, and a change of bus on route, to arrive an hour later in the town where my office is.
But we have two trains a day into the station, one in the morning one at night lol.

You could use an EAPC to get to the Bus Stop if you have friends nearby to leave it at their property, no need to walk.

Edited November 3, 2022 by bruno22rf

[welsh1]

1 minute ago, bruno22rf said:

You could use an EAPC to get to the station. I'm guessing that cycle parking is free (an EAPC is classed as a bicycle) and it would cost you less than 20p/week?

The bus stop is on a main road, i doubt the bike would be there when i returned.

I have an easier option to get to work, i take my 3 wheeler.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

25 minutes ago, oowee said:

I think we can get to a unified system we just need to think of cars in a different way and prioritise other forms of transport.

Great.

When you can get me in to Peterborough by bus in a reasonable time, oh and back again I will be most interested.

What world are you living in?

Because it's Not the same one the rest of us are.