Once over (or under) the channel, a public transport user will notice that information and instructions will be in several languages. In the UK we do not bother with that sort of thing; expecting Johnny Foreigner to speak english. And indeed so he should.
A chum has been in Corfu playing croquet - competitively. He and his Mrs went into town on a bus and sent fbb the leaflet. Routes are described in FIVE languages
No such capitulation to the European ideal in East Devon!
But under pressure from the EEC, Transport for London is considering producing a leaflet to explain how to use buses in London. Young Nigel, from the publicity office, passed GCSE French at grade C, so he offered to have a go.
fbb has obtained a copy of Nigel's outline document; which is currently being "evaluated" by Leon Daniels, boss of the buses.
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Voici un autobus de Londres très vieux.
Mais ici est un autobus de Londres normale.
Vous pouvez monter par les trois portes.
Vous pouvez sauter sur le plate-forme mais pas si la porte derrière est fermé! Ouf!
Quelquefois ces autobus ne portent pas un chef d'orchestre et la porte derrière est fermé à clé. Puis it faut monter par la porte en avant seulement.
Si vous faites un erreur vous devez payer un beau temps de 80 livres!
Bienvenue à Londres!
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P.S. a rare picture of TfL revenue protection officers at work:-
Young Nige doesn't think that London Buses will use his material. "I have been a bit cheeky," he said, "but surely a bit of British sense of humour is a good idea?" Nigel's current girl friend, Tarah, has been to Paris and revealed that "it's simpler there, all the same; and a lot cheaper as well."
"Cornwall" returns tomorrow
Next bus blog : Monday 30th June
Hélas, les informations de Nigel sera bientôt mis à jour. Du 6 Juillet, il y aura pas de tarif de trésorerie et aucun distributeur de billets en bordure de route. TfL voudrais que vous utilisez votre carte Oyster ou une carte bancaire interactive. Comme un cas particulier, les titulaires d'un retour de Super Off-Peak Honiton à Londres Zones 1-6 avec une carte senior ferroviaire seront autorisés à vagues que le conducteur. Pour les autobus de plus de deux portes ce doit être par la porte avant.
ReplyDeleteI guess Nigel's magnum opus was conceived some time ago.
ReplyDeleteClose relatives have at times brought back leaflets from Corfu and looking on the web the network appears to be fairly extensive and I believe reliable. Though I understand long distance passengers can find themselves stranded in town when buses get overcrowded by short distance passengers.
ReplyDeleteBy comparison my daughter has just come back from Lefkada an island to the south. The timetable they were given by the holiday rep covered the main 'tourist corridor' on the eastern side of the island and a few trips on the west. The bus station website has a timetable which shows some different timings and additional services to villages inland and to the west. Both of these timetables are departure lists rather than the columns we are used to. In theory they should be transferable into a column format but a number of timings etc just don't add up when put that way! There is at least one other version on the web and the High Summer timetable for July and August has at least one additional service to a 'tourist beach' and refers to cross town journeys which must involve long waits in town.
Most islands I have referenced so far on the web claim to have bus or minibus services though some blogs say the timetables are unreliable.
The main pattern seems to be a journey from rural areas into the town around 0700 with a return at about 1400 on Mondays to Fridays. There may be journeys in between and sometimes a later service. There tend to be fewer journeys on Saturdays and not always much on Sundays.