5 Jun 2010
Time
One main difference between coach work and bus work (stage carriage) is the timing points. On the coach they are mainly more than 30 mins between points against 5-10 minutes on bus work. The times are set for an average journey time that seems to be based on a worse case scenario. ( wet school day). This means you are often running early. By that I mean arriving at a stop and having to 'wait your time' This is rather nice for the driver, time to read the paper, speak to passengers as they board etc. However passengers can get a bit annoyed as they think the driver is being awkward. An example of this was on the no 5. I left a point a little late and due to the lack of passengers arrived at the next point early. I waited my time and loaded a few passengers. As I approached a stop the bell went and a passenger wanted to get off before the stop as I had made him late as I had waited at the stop. I explained the situation. His answer was 'why could you have not left the last stop late?'. It took me a while to realise what he has said. Obviously if I ran early and he missed the bus that would have been fine! As the saying says, 'you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time'
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2 comments:
This is quite normal behaviour for bus users. You should get back on the coaches as soon as possible.
it's worse for passengers, because some drivers ignore all the intermediate timing points, so the passengers learn they should arrive five minutes before the timetable indicates they should need to. So when a diligent bus driver who completely observes the running card arrives, they then have to wait when a less rule-abiding driver would have them at their destination five minutes early.
Some route timetables suggest the timetable setters are funny funny clowns who like to make a joke at the travelling public's expense. For instance, a local route where the bus runs down a largely uncongested hill towards the city centre, with no significant intermediate stops. At the bottom of the hill, at a stop where absolutely no-one wants to get on or off, they place a timing point which typically requires the bus to wait three or four minutes. Immediately after the timing point is one of the most congested roads in the whole city, a tiny narrow road carrying an A-road's worth of through traffic alongside people trying to find somewhere to park, trucks making deliveries, and at least one scaffolding truck parked by a driver who thinks every other road user is driving a moped and will have no problem getting between his wing mirrors and the bollards on the opposite kerb. So the bus driver has a dilemma. Obey the running card, wait five minutes for the imaginary persons who wants to go from the edge of the city centre to the middle, then potentially get stuck for fifteen minutes while a park and ride bus tries to get past the FedEx van, or blithely travel through and risk being prosecuted by the Traffic Commissioner and face the ultimate ignominy of getting fired by a bus company?
It would be funny if this didn't exactly describe three of the local routes...
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