It is one of the classic problems of urban transport that once
a unit (Bus, train, tram, anything) gets behind, it gets further
behind. Since it is behind, more passengers arrive at the stops, they
take more time to get onto the unit, and the unit gets heavier, so is
slower, and the problem spirals out of control. Buses can sometimes
overtake, but too often the following driver enjoys having the stops
cleared for him and doesn't want to take on the work of clearing the
stops for the driver in front, so he doesn't overtake. With any other
kind of transport, overtaking is actually impossible, a situation
which sometimes led to the yellow Newcastle trolley-buses being called
"bunches of bananas". But bunching is notorious with London diesel
buses. The only other way of stopping this problem is for the unit IN
FRONT to be slowed down. This is done on the Paris metro.

Some years ago there was a much publicised programme of
fitting Dublin buses with radios "for control", to give the advantages
of a metro using fairly cheap technology. Thinking about it now, I
think that solving this problem was one of the objectives.

Am I right in this guess? What happened to this programme? It
seemed to be one of those things whose start was trumpeted loudly and
was never heard of again.

Michael Bell
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