David Cantrell wrote:
On Thu, Jan 11, 2007 at 08:45:18AM -0800, Jon wrote:

A few years ago there was a circulat bus route linking all the main
London stations, using low-floor vehicles with loading ramps. It was
indeed slow. The idea was to serve travellers who needed ro-ro loading
for wheelchairs, prams, etc and so could not use the Underground at
all, although the service was open to all users. I think (someone here
may know better) that it disappeared for lack of customers. Perhaps few
wheelchair users make cross-London journeys or maybe most doing so
prefered a taxi transfer.

Of course, another issue is that few wheelchair users *exist*, and those
who do exist might very well like to use the bus to get from one station
to another if only they could get on the trains in the first place.
Given that they can't get on the trains (either because of steps in and
out of the train or steps in and out of the stations at either end of
their journey) they have to start off using a car and it would really be
a bit silly to join two car journeys together with a bus in the middle!

It would be interesting to see just how much money TfL has spent on
making buses etc wheelchair-friendly, and whether it would have just
been cheaper to give them free taxi rides.

And remember, most (all?) buses now have low floors, so a dedicated
low-floor route wending its way around all the stations is no longer
needed.

I think the economics of accessible buses actually stack up quite well.
There's no additional procurement cost beyond that of replacing aging
vehicles, because new vehicles are low-floor as standard anyway.
Meanwhile, provision of "free taxi rides" was essentially done via the
Dial-a-Ride service, which is extremely expensive (per passenger-km) to
run. Having the mainstream bus fleet accessible to wheelchair users will
*save* TfL money with lower demand for Dial-a-Ride.

Additionally, low-floor buses are much more attractive to customers with
prams, pushchairs and heavy luggage, and so will attract more custom
from those groups, further enhancing the business case.

The economics of step-free access to the Underground are somewhat
different because of the capital cost involved. Given that, step-free
access is usually incorporated into rebuilds that would have happened
anyway, and as with buses, new custom does not just come from wheelchair
users but also from those with prams, pushchairs, luggage etc.

--
Dave Arquati
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London