Is it just me or does anyone else find travelling on any London bus now
COMPLETELY HIDEOUS?

Constant, loud, intrusive and unnecessary recorded announcements blasted out
every 15-20 seconds and no escape from it, even with earphones in to attempt
to drown out the background hell...

The drivers must be driven to distraction now having to listen to this ****
all day long, on top of all the other noise pollution (such as beep, beep
beeping doors and screeching children).

A reply to my recent enquiry/complaint to London Buses about it says more
"alight her for (places of interest) will be added to the existing frequent
recorded announcements on all buses by 2009".

So basically, too many intrusive loud announcements on every bus already and
more to be added next year.

And this is called 'progress' ????!!!!

:O(

On 9 Nov, 15:27, "John Holt" wrote:
Is it just me or does anyone else find travelling on any London bus now
COMPLETELY HIDEOUS?

Constant, loud, intrusive and unnecessary recorded announcements blasted out
every 15-20 seconds and no escape from it, even with earphones in to attempt
to drown out the background hell...

The drivers must be driven to distraction now having to listen to this ****
all day long, on top of all the other noise pollution (such as beep, beep
beeping doors and screeching children).

A reply to my recent enquiry/complaint to London Buses about it says more
"alight her for (places of interest) will be added to the existing frequent
recorded announcements on all buses by 2009".

So basically, too many intrusive loud announcements on every bus already and
more to be added next year.

And this is called 'progress' ????!!!!

:O(

Continuing his drive for 'taxpayer value' Mayor Boris has announced
that companies will have the opportunity to sponsor bus stops and
advertise their wares on-board buses via the PA system - e.g. "alight
here for the Harrod's Half-Price sale, where a pack of Harrod's HB
pencils can now be yours for under a hundred pounds". Rumours that
companies might be allowed to sponsor entire routes have not been
denied.

Mizter T wrote:

Continuing his drive for 'taxpayer value' Mayor Boris has announced
that companies will have the opportunity to sponsor bus stops and
advertise their wares on-board buses via the PA system - e.g. "alight
here for the Harrod's Half-Price sale, where a pack of Harrod's HB
pencils can now be yours for under a hundred pounds". Rumours that
companies might be allowed to sponsor entire routes have not been
denied.

That's daft. It's not daft just to announce the next stop, however, in
fact it's very useful if you're on a crowded bus in the rain and can't
see out clearly.

It does have to be mentioned IIRC that the Viacom Tube advertising
contract (which includes the digital moving display stuff) apparently
paid for the bus fares to be kept down to 90p. If Boris wants to use
advertising revenue to keep fares down, that's fine by me, but
everything that's come out says he's going to put fares up above
inflation every year, so presumably you'll pay more to get blasted with
advertising. Add that to the complete lack of investment in developing
new projects and I think we're in the process of being taken for a ride
here - it's not as if TfL is even funded by London taxpayers, it's
general taxation subsidy plus fare income. If Conservative policy is
that they're not interested in creating a better transport system why
are the fares going up? Is Boris under orders to hand back some of the
£40bn TfL settlement to a future Conservative Chancellor for national
tax cuts, or something?

Tom

On Sun, 9 Nov 2008 15:27:49 -0000, "John Holt"
wrote:

And this is called 'progress' ????!!!!

Yes. It's very useful to those who don't use buses frequently, aren't
familiar with the route or aren't paying attention to where they are
and reading the paper. Or, for that matter, those who are blind.

The only thing I'd change about it is to have the route announcement
either removed or only announced every few stops, as it's that (not
the stop announcements) that does grate a bit.

On-board stop displays and announcements have been used for years in
mainland Europe, and it was about time they made it to the UK. More,
please.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...

On-board stop displays and announcements have been used for years in
mainland Europe, and it was about time they made it to the UK. More,
please.

What we *really* want is to replace the front destination blind with a nice
big LED display.

"Q" ..@.. wrote in message ...

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...

On-board stop displays and announcements have been used for years in
mainland Europe, and it was about time they made it to the UK. More,
please.

What we *really* want is to replace the front destination blind with a
nice big LED display.
Not always useful! I ran across the forecourt at London Bridge last week to
jump on what I assumed to be a 149 (bendy) to Liverpool St, only to find the
internal display said "521 to Waterloo". I slunk off shamefacedly feeling
like a tourist.

MaxB

On 9 Nov, 19:09, "Q" ..@.. wrote:

"Neil Williams" wrote:

On-board stop displays and announcements have been used for years in
mainland Europe, and it was about time they made it to the UK. *More,
please.

What we *really* want is to replace the front destination blind with a nice
big LED display.

We do, do we? Err... why do we want this?

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

On 9 Nov, 19:09, "Q" ..@.. wrote:

What we *really* want is to replace the front destination blind with a
nice
big LED display.

We do, do we? Err... why do we want this?

So that on cold wind swept evenings while waiting at a stop which serves 6
buses all of which have non working front blind illumination we don't miss
the one we want...

And the LED displays are much clearer than the paper blinds - and LED's
don't fade in the sun, and don't require a back-light

Errr,Q Have you visited Edinburgh lately..?

Fleet full of absolutely sparkling and totally legible white-on-black
"traditional" scrolls,even the 10 year old buses readable at a distance.

Crisp white backlights AND many vehicles with Side and Rear displays showing
the End Destination also.
All backed up with Parisian style interior rolling "Next Stop" digital
panels on the newer vehicles.

Crikey,the canny Scots even had "Rugby Special" panels for the Murrayfield
specials on the Via scroll.

Then for the really inquisitive traveller Lothian resort to slide-in boards
attached to the front panel for odd workings/intermediate destinations.

IMHO Lothians standard should be adopted by the Industry generally as THE
one to aim for.

PS: An Edinburgh trip also allows direct side-by-side comparison between a
10 year old Lothian "Paper" scroll and a sparkling new First Group LED with
a lenghty Scots placename squeezed into the available space so that its
impossible to differentiate between the numbers and the letters.

On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:07:59 -0000, "Q" ..@.. wrote:

And the LED displays are much clearer than the paper blinds

Disagree. The one thing I hate about the D stock refurb is that the
destination is much harder to read from a distance.