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.

"John Holt" wrote ...
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...

Do what the regulars do - ignore it.

After the first few trips, you won't even notice, and they are useful for
tourists and others.

I don't know which route you take, but on the many routes I travel, they are
not as frequent as you state.

Or get an iPod?
--

Andrew

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.

On Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:15:08 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:

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

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

Yes. [...]

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.

I think we could probably do without the spoken route announcement and
just leave it as something to be displayed, like in Paris. Another
feature of the Parisian system is (again, only displayed and not read
out) an estimated journey time to the next major destination and
terminus. This seems to be done in real-time and is quite useful.

I find the route announcement grating only because of the annoying
pauses in it. I had assumed that this was something to be fixed later
but I'm still waiting! Can anyone confirm that iBus installation has
swept away the awful arse-covering door opening and closing
announcements on some London Central/General buses? Now *they* were
annoying.

Richard.

In message , John Holt
writes

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...

On the 33, the route I use most often, the announcements are almost too
quiet to hear, so I imagine there must be a volume control. Have you
tried asking the driver if it can be adjusted?

--
Paul Terry

"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 Sun, 9 Nov 2008 15:27:49 -0000, "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(

Is it not a Disability Discrimination Act requirement? It means those
visually impaired will know where and when to get off.