Laurence Payne wrote:
On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:00:48 +0100, Paul
paulroberthill wrote:

I agree. There's nothing worse than being on a bus going to somewhere
you're not familiar with.

Yes there is. Try sitting through "Woman In White" :-)

Ah, but it's not so bad. By buying Woman In White tickets you
(probably) helped pay my salary!

--
Paul

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:13:04 +0100, Paul
wrote:

Yes there is. Try sitting through "Woman In White" :-)

Ah, but it's not so bad. By buying Woman In White tickets you
(probably) helped pay my salary!

I was the guest of a cast member. Though doubtless HE paid, unless
His Lordship was feeling peculiarly generous :-)

In message , Ian Jelf
writes
Trying to persuade some of my LU colleagues to use a bus when it is more
convenient than the Tube can prove somewhat challenging! "But it's a
bus?!"
I turned up to a training course north of Wolverhampton by 'bus once.
No-one else on it could believe that I'd done so. It was as thought
I'd just announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion. No one wanted me
to go back by bus though; everyone felt obliged to offer me a lift!

I get that too when I appear at places. Even though I'm happy to use
the bus/train and get free travel too, people still feel sorry for me
and want to give me a lift.

They often get quite offended too when I say I'm happy to get home on
the bus/train too - even though I would be taking them out of their way
to do it.
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:54:42 +0100, "John Rowland"
wrote:

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
.. .

Much of this was also covered in a superb Berlin
Atlas that shows all the transport routes overlaid
on a very clear street atlas complete with schematic
diagrams and frequency guides for every bus,
tram and U Bahn line. First and last times are
included together with times between every stop
and what routes you can interchange to at each
stop. Their stop specific information is also a model
of clarity. Please can we have this for London !!!!!!

Have you considered how large it would be? Berlin is a tiny city by
comparison with London, and yet the Berlin atlas is too large already.

fair point John but I feel that we need much better quality and detailed
information in London. The dumbed down approach of TfL is something I
strongly dislike.

If push came to shove you could produce a more than adequate Berlin
Atlas style book that matched the current quadrant London bus maps. The
current local guides with their lack of maps and provision of spider
diagrams that can still completely miss whole routes within an area [1]
are not very good at all.

[1] the Walthamstow guide does not show the 123 - a main trunk route -
because none of the spider maps are located at a place served by the
route. This is lunacy given that it is the main way, with a change of
bus, to get from Walthamstow to places like Gants Hill and Ilford.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

In article ,
EMOVE (Colum Mylod) wrote:

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 00:53 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:
...
The concept is of a public transport system, which is treated as a
whole. Not individual and distinct modes. Oyster would be an
absolutely ideal way to implement this kind of thing, as it could
cap single journeys involving multiple buses (for example) even if it
didn't reach the Travelcard cap.

Indeed. Far too sensible for whoever is Transport Secretary this week,
though.

And well-covered in a "Yes Minister" episode which was repeated
recently on BBC4. Jim Hacker is appointed Transport Supremo to push
integrated transport until he cops that it's Whitehall's poisoned
chalice. Now if that was a joke in the '80 it's a very long-running
not so funny joke.

It was well past its prime even then. :-(

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Paul wrote
[...]
I agree. There's nothing worse than being on a bus going to
somewhere
you're not familiar with. You have to hope there is a shop sign or
road
name that will give a clue to the location.

But there has been a recent improvement in London's bus stops (and some
elsewhere) with location information added to the bus stop sign.

Indeed all over Britain road signs at junctions now tell you, eg,
"Crooked Billet Roundabout" (which matches the traffic reports anyway)

--
Mike D

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 19:19:07 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 20:05:24 +0100, Ian Jelf
wrote:

Fear of terrorist attacks doesn't seem to affect Londoners or overseas
visitors. Just people form other parts of the UK for some reason.

Which is in itself bizarre, as most people in UK cities grew up with
the IRA and are therefore used to the idea!

While I wouldn't say I ignored it completely[1], it certainly has no
bearing on whether I would go to London (or any other British city) at
any given time.

A number of people I knew expressed surprise when I went to
(London-)derry and Belfast on holiday in the past.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

In article 01c5cf67$6ecae920$LocalHost@default,
(Michael R N Dolbear) wrote:

Paul wrote
[...]
I agree. There's nothing worse than being on a bus going to
somewhere you're not familiar with. You have to hope there is a
shop sign or road name that will give a clue to the location.

But there has been a recent improvement in London's bus stops (and some
elsewhere) with location information added to the bus stop sign.

Indeed all over Britain road signs at junctions now tell you, eg,
"Crooked Billet Roundabout" (which matches the traffic reports anyway)

Not always though. Try working out where Hyde Park Corner - *Cambridge*
is.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article , Paul Corfield
writes
me - "Oh South London, I just went to see what it was like and how to
get there on a bus."
friend - "on a bus? you must be mad"

Some years ago I had a two-night stay somewhere in New Joisey. On both
evenings I took a train (PATH, more precisely) into Manhattan to meet up
with friends.

On the second evening the other person (a banker) asked me what I had
done the previous evening.

Me: I met up with a friend and we rode around the subway.
He: You rode the *subway*? For **fun**?!?

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Please reply to the Reply-To address, which is:

In message , Clive D. W. Feather
writes
In article , Paul Corfield
writes
me - "Oh South London, I just went to see what it was like and how to
get there on a bus."
friend - "on a bus? you must be mad"

Some years ago I had a two-night stay somewhere in New Joisey. On both
evenings I took a train (PATH, more precisely) into Manhattan to meet
up with friends.

On the second evening the other person (a banker) asked me what I had
done the previous evening.

Me: I met up with a friend and we rode around the subway.
He: You rode the *subway*? For **fun**?!?

Well he *was* a banker.......

Actually, talk of New Jersey has just reminded me of a story I may have
recounted here before.

In about 1993 I went with a group of Tramway Museum Society members on
my first trip to the US. While staying in New York, three or four of
us went early one morning over to Newark to ride on the then PCC cars
running there.

We were standing on an overbridge above Heller Parkway when a local (?)
lady came along and said, in a rather puzzled way, "Why are you
photographing the trolleys?".

One of us began his reply with "Well, we're from England and......." and
she said simply "Oh *right*" and walked off, as though possession of
English nationality immediately explained any kind of eccentric
behaviour.

It is a national trait of which I for one am very proud! :-)

--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk