[Recliner[_4_]]

Passengers using London's New Routemaster buses will only be able to board
them using the front door in future, transport bosses have said.

The vehicles were originally designed to allow people to enter through
doors in the rear, middle or at the front.

But a Transport for London (TfL) pilot on one route showed fare evasion
rates were twice as high on New Routemasters compared to other buses.

The change will be introduced on the first buses on 25 January.

…

A test carried out by TfL last year where passengers could only board New
Routemasters on route 8 using the front door led to evasion rates being
more than halved.

As a result, the transport body estimates more than £3.6m is lost each year
through people not paying fares on New Routemasters, compared to other
front-boarding only buses.

The pilot was also found not to affect how long it took for people to board
the vehicles, as well as helping people with accessibility needs who were
still able to use the middle doors while not having to compete with other
passengers as previously occurred.

Director of bus operations Claire Mann described fare dodging as "criminal
and unfair".

"Our successful pilot on the route 8 has shown that boarding using the
front door only doesn't delay the service and reduces fare evasion, so we
will change all other New Routemasters to follow suit," she said.

From
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-51062969

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 23:17:07 on Fri, 10 Jan
2020, Recliner remarked:

Director of bus operations Claire Mann described fare dodging as "criminal
and unfair".

As is perhaps the foisting of the new design of bus on the public,
with promises of benefits which were ultimately shown to be false, and
disbenefits we weren't warned about.

[Hmm... promises, sides of buses, what does that remind us of]

"Our successful pilot on the route 8 has shown that boarding using the
front door only

reads much better with a comma here

doesn't delay the service and reduces fare evasion, so we
will change all other New Routemasters to follow suit," she said.

--
Roland Perry

[Theo[_2_]]

Roland Perry wrote:
[Hmm... promises, sides of buses, what does that remind us of]

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...-boris-johnson
sounds very familiar read from today's perspective...

Theo

[Richard J.[_3_]]

On 11/01/2020 08:20, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 23:17:07 on Fri, 10 Jan
2020, Recliner remarked:

Director of bus operations Claire Mann described fare dodging as "criminal
and unfair".

As is perhaps the foisting of the new design of bus on the public,
with promises of benefits which were ultimately shown to be false, and
disbenefits we weren't warned about.

[Hmm... promises, sides of buses, what does that remind us of]

"Our successful pilot on the route 8 has shown that boarding using the
front door only

reads much better with a comma here
I see what you mean, but putting an unpaired comma between the subject and the verb is illiterate. The problem is caused by the position of the word "only", and can be solved by rewording it as "... boarding using only the front door doesn't delay ...".

doesn't delay the service and reduces fare evasion, so we
will change all other New Routemasters to follow suit," she said.

Are they going to make the staircases one way? (Up at the front and down at the back) That would finally make a justification for having more than one staircase.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

[Recliner[_4_]]

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 23:17:07 on Fri, 10 Jan
2020, Recliner remarked:

Director of bus operations Claire Mann described fare dodging as "criminal
and unfair".

As is perhaps the foisting of the new design of bus on the public,
with promises of benefits which were ultimately shown to be false, and
disbenefits we weren't warned about.

[Hmm... promises, sides of buses, what does that remind us of]

Indeed so.

Incidentally, have we heard any more about Boris's claimed hobby of
painting wooden 6-bottle wine boxes to look like double-decker buses? He
probably gets through quite a few red wine boxes, so his fleet of painted
model buses must by now be impressively large. I wonder where he garages
it? Where did he keep them when he was so recently homeless, apparently
living in his scruffy old car? [He must be the first PM who needed the job
for its tied accommodation, the flat above the office and the country
cottage.]

[Recliner[_4_]]

Richard J. wrote:
On 11/01/2020 08:20, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 23:17:07 on Fri, 10 Jan
2020, Recliner remarked:

Director of bus operations Claire Mann described fare dodging as "criminal
and unfair".

As is perhaps the foisting of the new design of bus on the public,
with promises of benefits which were ultimately shown to be false, and
disbenefits we weren't warned about.

[Hmm... promises, sides of buses, what does that remind us of]

"Our successful pilot on the route 8 has shown that boarding using the
front door only

reads much better with a comma here
I see what you mean, but putting an unpaired comma between the subject
and the verb is illiterate. The problem is caused by the position of the
word "only", and can be solved by rewording it as "... boarding using
only the front door doesn't delay ...".

doesn't delay the service and reduces fare evasion, so we
will change all other New Routemasters to follow suit," she said.

Are they going to make the staircases one way? (Up at the front and down
at the back) That would finally make a justification for having more than one staircase.

No need for that.

In practice, the front stairs will remain two-way, as in other deckers, and
the rears will become down-only, for exiting via the rear-door. The front
stairs are ideal for exiting via the middle door.

[MissRiaElaine]

It's all academic as far as I'm concerned. I refuse to travel on these
monstrosities, they are an insult to the traditional Routemaster that
served London so well for so long.


--
Ria in Aberdeen

[Send address is invalid, use sipsoup at gmail dot com to reply direct]

[Recliner[_4_]]

MissRiaElaine wrote:

It's all academic as far as I'm concerned. I refuse to travel on these
monstrosities, they are an insult to the traditional Routemaster that
served London so well for so long.

Presumably it's not hard to avoid them, given that you live in Aberdeen?

[tim...]

"Recliner" wrote in message
...
Passengers using London's New Routemaster buses will only be able to board
them using the front door in future, transport bosses have said.



so the conductor is going to enforce that rule, is he?

tim

[tim...]

"MissRiaElaine" wrote in message
...

It's all academic as far as I'm concerned. I refuse to travel on these
monstrosities, they are an insult to the traditional Routemaster that
served London so well for so long.

so what do you do

go on a round the houses trek on three busses to avoid using one?

tim