tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post1381763752575684332..comments2024-03-25T22:17:35.616+00:00Comments on Public Transport Experience: It's About Time (2)fatbusblokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06833340546527596517noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-89817988532407205432018-05-16T22:04:19.224+01:002018-05-16T22:04:19.224+01:00As per Dennis above. Why do TV documentaries have ...As per Dennis above. Why do TV documentaries have to be so hyped up and unnecessarily over dramatic these days. Spoils potentially interesting programmes for me. Countrybushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14329278669475079798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-9182107314070674662018-05-16T21:40:07.437+01:002018-05-16T21:40:07.437+01:00Perhaps we're dealing with several different d...Perhaps we're dealing with several different demographics - the gadget generation at work or on a night out, the "oldies" going to the shops, kids going to school or the leisure centre. Each may access the information in different ways (and need different kinds of information).Andrew Kleissnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-79979721492514208802018-05-16T09:33:46.536+01:002018-05-16T09:33:46.536+01:00The HST programme on Channel 5 had its share of ga...The HST programme on Channel 5 had its share of gaffes and journalistic hype (working against deadlines, the HST saved BR from death etc etc) but nowhere did it claim that the HST tilted-it clearly contrasted it with APT which did.Dennis Dratnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-50062756897363471142018-05-16T09:25:44.247+01:002018-05-16T09:25:44.247+01:00Sadly FBB has slipped into the trap yet again. The...Sadly FBB has slipped into the trap yet again. The bus industry has to do what its customers and potential customers want, not what someone observing from afar likes.<br /><br />You'll note I use the term "customer", not one I'm generally comfortable with, as I still prefer passenger, but actually when thinking of the overall package "customer" is probably more accurate. No longer is someone happen to merely pass[enger] from A to B, but they wish to consume the WiFi and USB charging, enjoy the air con, the tables, the designer interior (and whatever else the industry has dreamed up this week). And "every 10 minutes" perhaps prefixed "up to" or suffixed "Monday to Friday daytimes" etc is part of that package.<br /><br />Now I can hear our blogger saying that WiFi, USB charging, air con, etc are all unnecessary to him, and I'd agree that they are for me too. But with low ENCTS reimbursement rates the focus needs to be elsewhere. After all how dire does a service need to be not to use it when its free? <br /><br />So take the next step, the gadget enabled target generation probably care nothing for timetables and actual frequency, but are more likely to have their regular journey saved to their app and with a click or a swipe can see that the bus is, say, 3 minutes away. Does it matter if its late, off headway or otherwise upsetting to the timetable studier? Not one bit. In reality its more a case of "I'll get the one if its a few minutes away, if not I'll grab a coffee and get the one after".<br /><br />Times change, in more ways than one!TE3011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-23313874588973182582018-05-16T08:45:53.612+01:002018-05-16T08:45:53.612+01:00Research, by user groups not operators, has pretty...Research, by user groups not operators, has pretty much universally shown that peak passengers aim at a specific journey that will get them to & from work on time. This means that:<br />a. Frequency is less important than reliability.<br />b. Simple to remember headways aren't as important at these times as people remember the times of their bus not all buses. (when I used the bus to get to work I caught the same pair of buses in every day, the return would be slightly more variable as it depended how quickly I could get out as to whether I could get the bus in front after it had looped through the bus station with a small list of times for my buses home as there were 4 routes which ran from different stops as the only common point was between some of them was the junction at the end of my road as one pair crossed the others).<br /><br />Off-peak people are often less time-tied (so won't always catch the same journey every time) so a simpler & easier to remember headway timetable is better. As greenline has said we no longer see the big uplift in peak passengers that existed in the past so you can't afford to just add extra resource in (a couple of vehicles coming off school withstanding) to carry no extra passengers. Also driver shortages mean trying to avoid too many unattractive or anti-social shifts such as split shifts which are often caused by putting extra buses out just to cover the peak periods (so again extra cost for no real extra income to fix a problem that the customers don't really care about).dwarfer1979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-74737061895434578282018-05-16T08:34:08.297+01:002018-05-16T08:34:08.297+01:00Current Cardiffbus Service 57/58 (same along most ...Current Cardiffbus Service 57/58 (same along most of the route but each serves a different loop in the Pentwyn estate for about a mile). https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/passenger-line-assets/ccts/CB/57-timetable-20171212-5c64d223.pdfAndrew Kleissnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-45407800551094878362018-05-16T08:31:21.657+01:002018-05-16T08:31:21.657+01:00Ipswich trolleybus timetable (December 1939 - came...Ipswich trolleybus timetable (December 1939 - came with my Corgi model!). Not bad for a smallish town, albeit with quite a lot of industry. But they were different days ... https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5041/5229914470_e2fc8137a8_b.jpgAndrew Kleissnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-44187856970237758272018-05-16T08:23:18.014+01:002018-05-16T08:23:18.014+01:00Yorkshire Traction bought Sheffield Omnibus. The ...Yorkshire Traction bought Sheffield Omnibus. The ASO name was used by YT for the combined Terrier and Omnibus network in the end. <br /><br />You forgot about the shorts to Commonside and Elm Tree which fitted in to the 6 minute frequency in the peaks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323264902617108.post-72547246830068834562018-05-16T07:03:52.969+01:002018-05-16T07:03:52.969+01:00There's a wee bit of a conundrum when planning...There's a wee bit of a conundrum when planning bus service frequencies at present . . . . it goes like this:<br /><br />When do most of the passengers travel? At present, it seems to be off-peak.<br />Do they pay lots of money? Erm, no . . . generally they pay nothing, and bus companies get reimbursed (poorly) by someone else.<br />So who are the passengers at other times? Well, in the evenings not many people at all, because the pubs are closed and satellite TV has killed off the cinemas.<br />What about the "rush" hours? Well, not so many passengers now, as people work in all sorts of places, many where a commute by bus just isn't feasible any more; that means that congestion gets more severe, which stops buses progressing at good speed.<br />So how does this affect bus timetables? Well . . . . it's not sensible to add more buses into the cycle when fewer passengers are travelling, so the answer is to gently widen the frequencies to add in extra running time.<br />But won't that put passengers off? Actually, probably not . . . if the bus is advertised as every 10-11 (or every 12-13) minutes, the waiting time for Joe Passenger is insignificantly increased, and if the bus then arrives at 17:23 instead of sometime after 17:23 depending on traffic, then everyone's happy!!<br /><br />That's why, on high frequency routes (which TfL classify as every 12 minutes or better), times get widened slightly at peak times. Remember that, unless the frequency is 1>9 minutes, the TC's require a full timetable for monitoring purposes.<br />I'll bet that, in most conurbations, buses shown as "every 5 minutes" are actually scheduled at every 5-6 minutes at many times!<br /><br />Who'd be a bus timetable planner? Everyone thinks they can do better!!greenline727https://www.blogger.com/profile/03033268278026535109noreply@blogger.com