Paul Corfield wrote:

London has never been able to make multi stream boarding work properly
- what happens when someone's Oyster card bleeps and they're in the
"non driver" lane. Answer - they either dodge their fare or the job
stops while they back track and queue to see the driver.

Has it ever properly tried it?

I did notice that when regional buses went low floor and the centre pole
went away, operations got slower because you have to wait for everyone to
alight before boarding, while before you could board and start paying on
the driver side of the pole while people alighted on the other side.

The pole also makes things easier for those not in a wheelchair but who
find it easier to have handrails on both sides when boarding.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK. Put first name before the at to reply.

Paul Corfield wrote:

Really? Not more to do with a move towards more single door buses and
ever increasing fares and complex tickets requiring more interaction
with the driver and more change giving.

I was living in Manchester as the first low floor buses were introduced,
and with no fares changes at all, and already with single door operation,
there was a noticeable (but small) slowdown. Multiply that by the number
of stops where people both board and alight and it becomes more
significant.

I later witnessed exactly the same thing in Milton Keynes, where the change
from older Mercedes minibuses with wide doors and centre poles to Beavers
with narrower doors and no poles illustrated the same thing again.

Further to that outside the UK it is still quite common for suburban trains
with 1/3 2/3 door arrangement to have a centre pole, as it separates the
flow sufficiently that two people will use the door side by side. On
newer, more accessible trains it's not unusual just to retain the pole on
every door except the one by the wheelchair space.

For buses, though, two door is of course the most efficient, and London was
right to retain it, of course.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK. Put first name before the at to reply.

On 2012-09-17 10:08:14 +0000, Paul Corfield said:

interesting stuff snipped


Well yes but the lack of steps and the ability to lower the bus to
kerb level do help somewhat. Low floor buses aren't perfect but step
entrance buses do feel "odd" if you're used to just using low floor
buses. I travelled on an old RF last week [1] and it was like climbing
a mountain to get inside ;-)

Before I got to the end of the paragraph I thought that the most
extreme step entrance bus I know is the RF.

[1] special working on the 210.

I'd have liked to travel on that. I used to hate it though when a green
Line RF turned up instead of an RMC. No legroom!