On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 at 21:24:31, Peter Smyth
wrote:

The conductor is correct. The request/compulsory stop distinction only
applies to people getting on, if you want to get off you have to ring the
bell at any stop.

Peter Smyth


Since when? I've never heard *that* one......
--
Annabel Smyth
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/index.html
Website updated 8 March 2004

On Sat, 1 May 2004 12:36:09 +0100, Annabel Smyth
wrote:

On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 at 21:24:31, Peter Smyth
wrote:

The conductor is correct. The request/compulsory stop distinction only
applies to people getting on, if you want to get off you have to ring the
bell at any stop.

Peter Smyth


Since when? I've never heard *that* one......

It seems to have sneaked in sometime in the last ten years or so!

I don't think the TfL website is entirely clear. It states, in
describing the types of bus stop 'Compulsory Buses will
automatically stop, unless they are full, except Night Buses -' but
this is subtly under a 'boarding' heading.

Also 'When you want to get off the bus ring the bell once, and well in
advance to let the driver know..' It would help if it said this
applied to all types of stop. (In fact it doesn't even explain that
the bus will only stop to let you off at a bus stop sign!)

I wonder if bus companies outside London use the same rules?
--
Peter Lawrence

Peter Lawrence:
the TfL website ... states, in describing the types of bus stop
'Compulsory Buses will automatically stop, unless they are full,
except Night Buses -' but this is subtly under a 'boarding' heading.
...
I wonder if bus companies outside London use the same rules?

Do British bus companies outside London generally *have* the distinction
between request and compulsory stops? It doesn't exist on any bus system
in North America that I know about, and likewise for continental Europe.
--
Mark Brader | "It can be amusing, even if painful, to watch the
Toronto | ethnocentrism of those who are convinced their
| local standards are universal." -- Tom Chapin

(Mark Brader) wrote in :

Peter Lawrence:
the TfL website ... states, in describing the types of bus stop
'Compulsory Buses will automatically stop, unless they are full,
except Night Buses -' but this is subtly under a 'boarding' heading.
... I wonder if bus companies outside London use the same rules?

Do British bus companies outside London generally *have* the distinction
between request and compulsory stops? It doesn't exist on any bus system
in North America that I know about, and likewise for continental Europe.

No, just London. Everywhere (?) else is request (like continental Europe).
The system worked reasonably well until "Bus Stopping" signs started to
appear on buses (the continent has had them for years); most passengers are
now ringing the bell for compulsory stops and some drivers are now
expecting it.

It is time the distinction was abolished.

David

On Sun, 02 May 2004 10:47:20 +0000, David Jackman wrote:

No, just London. Everywhere (?) else is request

Yep.

Milton Keynes is an oddity, mind. Even on the hail-and-ride routes,
drivers tend to know almost instinctively who wants the bus even if they
don't signal for it.

(like continental
Europe).

Nope. Hamburg operate on a "compulsory" stop system, or certainly did
when I was there. The idea was that if you do *not* want a bus to stop
and pick you up, wave it past. If you *do* want the bus, no signal is
necessary. If no-one is at the stop, the bus doesn't stop, however.

This tended to work because the routes tend to be very rationalised, so
the idea of 20-plus routes at one stop like is common in the UK is very
rare.

To alight, however, use of the bell was necessary, except when very
heavily loaded when the driver would activate the bell himself so the
"Wagen haelt" sign lit up to save passengers having to fight their way to
the button.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
Mail me on neil at the above domain; mail to the above address is NOT read

On Mon, 03 May 2004 17:42:09 +0100, Neil Williams
wrote:

Nope. Hamburg operate on a "compulsory" stop system, or certainly did
when I was there. The idea was that if you do *not* want a bus to stop
and pick you up, wave it past. If you *do* want the bus, no signal is
necessary.

What the bus you want comes along and somebody next to you waves it
on??

Charlie

--
Remove NO-SPOO-PLEASE from my email address to reply
Please send no unsolicited email or foodstuffs

On Tue, 04 May 2004 18:59:41 +0000, Charlie Pearce wrote:

What the bus you want comes along and somebody next to you waves it
on??

Generally, if a stop has several people at it, the bus will stop anyway
momentarily, and proceed on noticing that no-one is moving towards it.
Also most Germans have more sense than to wave it on if someone else may
want it, unlike the typical British public transport user.

The situation, however, is pretty rare, as Hamburg's bus network (yes, one
of those, not a typical British motley collection of unrelated routes) is
very highly rationalised, and few stops have more than a handful of
services.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
Mail me on neil at the above domain; mail to the above address is NOT read

In article , Mark Brader
writes
Do British bus companies outside London generally *have* the distinction
between request and compulsory stops? It doesn't exist on any bus system
in North America that I know about, and likewise for continental Europe.

Cambridge doesn't have the concept - all stops are request.

However, when I was growing up in the Southend-on-Sea area, the bus
stops there divided into Request (green writing, IIRC) and Compulsory
(red writing). Buses always stopped at the latter even if nobody was
waiting.

I didn't travel on buses much outside S-o-S and London, but my
impression was that this wasn't something special to the Corporation
Transport area, but applied at least to all Eastern National stops.

--
Clive D.W. Feather, writing for himself | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Written on my laptop; please observe the Reply-To address

On 01/05/2004 21:52, in article , "Mark
Brader" wrote:

Do British bus companies outside London generally *have* the distinction
between request and compulsory stops?

Birmingham certainly used to have that distinction, but since I no longer
live in the city I can't check right now. Ian Jelf might be able to tell us
if he's around ?.

"Bob Watt" wrote in message
...
On 01/05/2004 21:52, in article , "Mark
Brader" wrote:

Do British bus companies outside London generally *have* the distinction
between request and compulsory stops?

Birmingham certainly used to have that distinction, but since I no longer
live in the city I can't check right now. Ian Jelf might be able to tell
us
if he's around ?.

Back in the 1950s the East Kent had compulsory and request stops. If you
rang the bell before a compulsory stop, the driver was liable to take it as
a "Don't Stop" signal and carry on past. One of the few occasions when a
fusilade of bells was needed to correct the error by the passenger.

On the other hand, I don't think that Red & White or Bristol Tramways had
any compulsory stops.
--
Terry Harper, Web Co-ordinator, The Omnibus Society
75th Anniversary 2004, see http://www.omnibussoc.org/75th.htm
E-mail:
URL: http://www.terry.harper.btinternet.co.uk/