With the news of the new N281 (or to be pedantic, 281 as it's simply a
"24-hour" route), who does one petition for a new one?

East Londoners will agree with me that the route from Stratford to Plaistow
Greengate (currently served in the daytime by the 473, the 262 and in a
round-about way the 276) is in desperate need of a nightbus route.

If out drinking late in Stratford, which is the nearest hub of activity for
those South Plaistovians out on the ****, the only way home is via taxi.

There are no minicab offices close to the Stratford shopping centre (you'd
need to walk up towards Maryland or halfway down West Ham Lane), and black
cabs - few and far between at that time of night - cost about a tenner
(compared to £4.50 by minicab).

As a result, more and more of the local chavs are clearly taking their
motors, if some of the late night driving I've witnessed lately is anything
to go by. There was a horrific accident at the Greengate just last week.

Before any UTL wags say "why don't you walk it you lazy ****er it'll only
take you 30 minutes", I'll remind you that the area in question goes
through a couple of, shall we say, slightly more lugubrious areas before
you get to the comparative bliss south of the Barking Road.

So I'd like to petition London Transport to provide a night route (or 24-
hour route) that covers the section between Stratford and the Greengate.
I'll use the arguments I have given he safety for local inhabitants,
etc.

Who would one petition? Arriva? Transport for London? My local Mayor (Sir
Robin Wales)?

Whoever I do petition, I'll be CC'ing the local rag (Newham Recorder) to
drum up some support and hopefully get others to petition them too. But I'd
like to get it right first off. :-)

TRISTÁN

On Wed, 31 May 2006 16:23:57 -0500, "Tristán White"
wrote:

With the news of the new N281 (or to be pedantic, 281 as it's simply a
"24-hour" route), who does one petition for a new one?

East Londoners will agree with me that the route from Stratford to Plaistow
Greengate (currently served in the daytime by the 473, the 262 and in a
round-about way the 276) is in desperate need of a nightbus route.

So the 69 and a N15 is no good then? Yes it involves a change but you
can do the journey.

The 281 change is a bit of a rip off really. It is only being created
off the back of changes to the N77 and N22 which are being chopped about
to create some justification for the N281. In other words it is partly
financed by savings elsewhere and it will make some trips from Central
London to beyond Fulwell much worse than they are now as it will involve
a change off a frequent service into one every 30 minutes with no
guarantee of a connection or a safe place to wait.

So I'd like to petition London Transport to provide a night route (or 24-
hour route) that covers the section between Stratford and the Greengate.
I'll use the arguments I have given he safety for local inhabitants,
etc.

Who would one petition? Arriva? Transport for London? My local Mayor (Sir
Robin Wales)?

You should write to TfL Buses asking if they have any plans for such a
service. The other people to raise it with are your local councillor and
GLA member. It is worth checking how Newham Council work with TfL in
terms of their regular liaison and consultation process. TfL must
consult local councils over changes and the better authorities typically
post information about such issues on their websites - e.g. transport
committee minutes.

Without wishing to sound too pessimistic there are few funds available
for significant improvements to the bus network - TfL are simply
tinkering around the edges with the exception of the West London
congestion charge related stuff. The obvious time for such changes to
be made would be if there was a retendering exercise due - unfortunately
for you all of the routes you quote are not due for renewal until 2009
as two of them have just had a two year extension to the contracts. By
then TfL will be taking a view about what is needed to support Olympic
events and to deal with the local DLR extensions that will come into
play. I would expect to see significant changes from 2010 onwards - in
the meantime don't hold your breath.

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

Thank you Paul for the highly informative reply - albeit being not the best
news as far as me trying to get them to do something about it.


So the 69 and a N15 is no good then? Yes it involves a change but you
can do the journey.


To be honest, I didn't even know the 69 was a 24-hr service until you said
so just now! Although it would still be a bit of a pain, changing buses at
the Abbey Arms and hanging around for the 115. Still, at least there's
plenty of yellow MURDER and SERIOUS ASSAULT boards to read to keep me busy
while I wait for the N15 ;-) (Not joking - once I counted three at the
same time at that crossroads). The N15 service east of Blackwall is pretty
poor to be honest... I've waited often for 40 minutes.

Unless I'm very lucky, that 10 minute journey is easily going to take an
hour if it involves waiting two buses, one of which is that part of the
N15....

I don't believe that they could call it a fair alternative.

SNIP
You should write to TfL Buses asking if they have any plans for such a
service. The other people to raise it with are your local councillor
and GLA member. It is worth checking how Newham Council work with TfL
in terms of their regular liaison and consultation process. TfL must
consult local councils over changes and the better authorities
typically post information about such issues on their websites - e.g.
transport committee minutes.


Very thankful for this. My local councillor lives five doors from me so at
least he'll be aware of the situation, not that he probably ever has to rub
shoulders with the "real" people at 2 in the morning outside a chavvy pub
in Stratford. My local GLA member is John Biggs.

SNIP
renewal until 2009 as two of them have just had a two year extension
SNIP

********! Looks like I just missed my chance then.

Tristán White wrote:

To be honest, I didn't even know the 69 was a 24-hr service until you
said so just now! Although it would still be a bit of a pain,


If 69 causes you pain, perhaps you're doing it wrong. Although if
you're doing it for 24 hours, it may be that you're just doing it for
too long!




--
Bob

"Bob Wood" wrote in news:%apfg.11245$sX1.7879
@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net:

Tristán White wrote:

To be honest, I didn't even know the 69 was a 24-hr service until you
said so just now! Although it would still be a bit of a pain,


If 69 causes you pain, perhaps you're doing it wrong. Although if
you're doing it for 24 hours, it may be that you're just doing it for
too long!


LOL! Good humour on UTL! Whatever next? Oyster card problems all to be
sorted out??? :-)))

nice one

Steve Fitzgerald wrote in
:


Living just up the road from you (West Beckton), I can't say I've ever
noticed a problem. From 'Town' to home is the N50, and from Stratford
is the 69 (24 hour version) to Plaistow. I can (mostly) manage to
walk/stagger from there to home in about 30 mins. Never perceived a
problem on that walk although I could be wrong.


It's certainly not the worst - but you go occasionally pass groups of yoofs
who make the odd comment as you go past. It's not particularly the
fluffiest of East London thoroughfares.

But I'm impressed it takes you 30 minutes to walk from just south of
Plaistow station to West Beckton. I would probably get to Newham General by
then (and probably would be so exhausted, I could do with Newham General!!)

Tristán White wrote:

who does one petition for a new one?

If you queue for it, it will come.

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
Tristán White wrote:

who does one petition for a new one?

If you queue for it, it will come.

.... and then 3 routes will come at once. :-)
--
David Biddulph