twice in recent times ive been on a bus thats waited at a particular stop
for up to 5 mins cos they were "ahead of schedule". the first time it was
before the terminating stop, so i dont think it was for the benefit of any
customers who may miss the bus.

is this normal, or is it a new policy? and should passengers accept the
wait? this morning i coulda walked faster to the the station, and would have
if i knew the driver would delay.

--
Remove "0" from from daveb07890 to reply
"spammy" wrote in message
...
twice in recent times ive been on a bus thats waited at a particular stop
for up to 5 mins cos they were "ahead of schedule". the first time it was
before the terminating stop, so i dont think it was for the benefit of any
customers who may miss the bus.

is this normal, or is it a new policy? and should passengers accept the
wait? this morning i coulda walked faster to the the station, and would
have
if i knew the driver would delay.

If its ahead of schedule, and the driver says so, get off and walk to the
next stop. With the congestion charge reducing traffic levels, buses can and
do run ahead of schedule and being caught running early leads to being
disciplined. There was probably an inspector recording arrival times at the
terminating stop. Early running can be avoided by waiting. Late running can
be down to a variety of things.

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 12:20:37 +0100, "David B"
wrote:


--
Remove "0" from from daveb07890 to reply
"spammy" wrote in message
...
twice in recent times ive been on a bus thats waited at a particular stop
for up to 5 mins cos they were "ahead of schedule". the first time it was
before the terminating stop, so i dont think it was for the benefit of any
customers who may miss the bus.

is this normal, or is it a new policy? and should passengers accept the
wait? this morning i coulda walked faster to the the station, and would
have
if i knew the driver would delay.

If its ahead of schedule, and the driver says so, get off and walk to the
next stop. With the congestion charge reducing traffic levels, buses can and
do run ahead of schedule and being caught running early leads to being
disciplined. There was probably an inspector recording arrival times at the
terminating stop. Early running can be avoided by waiting. Late running can
be down to a variety of things.


Sounds like the schedules need adjusting.

If this happens on a regular basis, I'm sure TfL/London Buses would be
interested.

Give 'em a ring on 020 7918 4040.

Rob.
--
rob at robertwoolley dot co dot uk

"David B" wrote in message
...

twice in recent times ive been on a bus thats waited at a particular stop
for up to 5 mins cos they were "ahead of schedule". the first time it was
before the terminating stop, so i dont think it was for the benefit of
any
customers who may miss the bus.

is this normal, or is it a new policy? and should passengers accept the
wait? this morning i coulda walked faster to the the station, and would
have
if i knew the driver would delay.

If its ahead of schedule, and the driver says so, get off and walk to the
next stop. With the congestion charge reducing traffic levels, buses can
and
do run ahead of schedule and being caught running early leads to being
disciplined. There was probably an inspector recording arrival times at the
terminating stop. Early running can be avoided by waiting. Late running can
be down to a variety of things.

Surely most buses in London (particularly in the congestion charge zone) are
frequent enough that being early shouldn't matter. If a bus was every half an
hour then it definitely shouldn't be allowed to leave early but when they are
running every few minutes it doesn't make a difference whether a bus is early
or not as most routes don't give full timetables anyway.

Peter Smyth

--
Remove "0" from from daveb07890 to reply
"Peter Smyth" wrote in message
...

"David B" wrote in message
...

twice in recent times ive been on a bus thats waited at a particular
stop
for up to 5 mins cos they were "ahead of schedule". the first time it
was
before the terminating stop, so i dont think it was for the benefit of
any
customers who may miss the bus.

is this normal, or is it a new policy? and should passengers accept
the
wait? this morning i coulda walked faster to the the station, and
would
have
if i knew the driver would delay.

If its ahead of schedule, and the driver says so, get off and walk to
the
next stop. With the congestion charge reducing traffic levels, buses can
and
do run ahead of schedule and being caught running early leads to being
disciplined. There was probably an inspector recording arrival times at
the
terminating stop. Early running can be avoided by waiting. Late running
can
be down to a variety of things.

Surely most buses in London (particularly in the congestion charge zone)
are
frequent enough that being early shouldn't matter. If a bus was every half
an
hour then it definitely shouldn't be allowed to leave early but when they
are
running every few minutes it doesn't make a difference whether a bus is
early
or not as most routes don't give full timetables anyway.

Peter Smyth

Each individual driver is running to a timetable he/she has which gives
precise times to pass certain points - the duty card. The inspectors book
also has these times. Timetables are necessary to prevent 'bunching' so
buses do actually come say, every 5 minutes instead of 6 buses in a row,
then nothing for half an hour. Of course due to traffic and other things
this seems to happen anyway

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 11:18:13 +0100, "spammy" wrote:

twice in recent times ive been on a bus thats waited at a particular stop
for up to 5 mins cos they were "ahead of schedule". the first time it was
before the terminating stop, so i dont think it was for the benefit of any
customers who may miss the bus.

is this normal, or is it a new policy? and should passengers accept the
wait? this morning i coulda walked faster to the the station, and would have
if i knew the driver would delay.


It's certainly not a new policy - from personal memory this was a
common occurence on route 14 around 1985-6 when I used if a lot in the
evenings. In practice it usually happened then if a crew was going
off duty as they didn't want to get to the garage too early.

Martin

"David B" wrote in message
...


Each individual driver is running to a timetable he/she has which gives
precise times to pass certain points - the duty card. The inspectors book
also has these times. Timetables are necessary to prevent 'bunching' so
buses do actually come say, every 5 minutes instead of 6 buses in a row,
then nothing for half an hour. Of course due to traffic and other things
this seems to happen anyway


ok, and thats fair enough. but surely theres something wrong with their
cards or the way that thy follow them if they gain so many minutes that they
have to stop for five at one single stop? surely the cards woulda made them
stop a minute or so over the past few stops?

--
Remove "0" from from daveb07890 to reply
"spammy" wrote in message
...
"David B" wrote in message
...


Each individual driver is running to a timetable he/she has which gives
precise times to pass certain points - the duty card. The inspectors
book
also has these times. Timetables are necessary to prevent 'bunching' so
buses do actually come say, every 5 minutes instead of 6 buses in a row,
then nothing for half an hour. Of course due to traffic and other things
this seems to happen anyway


ok, and thats fair enough. but surely theres something wrong with their
cards or the way that thy follow them if they gain so many minutes that
they
have to stop for five at one single stop? surely the cards woulda made
them
stop a minute or so over the past few stops?



The timing points can be quite far apart. For route 24 the points are :
Pimlico, Victoria, Trafalgar Sq, Tottenham Court Road, Warren Street,
Mornington Crescent, Camden Town and Hampstead Heath. There are many stops
in between certain timing points, like Victoria and Trafalgar Sq, whereas
Mornington Crescent and Camden Town are quite close together. Also some
stops are not suitable points to lose time, like if they are obstructing
traffic flow. My ex colleagues tell me it is very hard to lose time on some
routes with very generous timetables.

The danger with tightening times is that if traffic does cause late running,
services have to be curtailed, turned away from their usual destinations to
get back on time and this is registered as lost mileage which in turn is a
measure of performance.

"David B" wrote in message ...
--

The timing points can be quite far apart.

We could even try to finely tune schedules and times and pick
passengeres up and return them there the next day on time for thhe
work day, so you could meet a carpool the next day and be back on
schedule. . I have already submitted a leave slips with anticipation
of not coming in a lot. I can understand how it will require very
careful planning..., and see what happens.

For route 24 the points are :
Pimlico, Victoria, Trafalgar Sq, Tottenham Court Road, Warren Street,
Mornington Crescent, Camden Town and Hampstead Heath. There are many stops
in between certain timing points, like Victoria and Trafalgar Sq, whereas
Mornington Crescent and Camden Town are quite close together.
..

However, many are so sick of snow and wet weather...I would really
feel more comfortable if we have dry weather to deal with .I am just
not looking forward to another day of stress if we get the 2-4 inches
of snow , with more on the way , and having to struggle with driving
in . I thought about how I could perhaps drive in vehicles up and
then back down the next morning and not lost in trying to find my
way.

Also some
stops are not suitable points to lose time, like if they are obstructing
traffic flow.

and see what may happen. . I told myself this morning as I was
preparing to come in to work..."if I make it safely home again
tonight, I will not return to work tomorrow....it's just too much
stress trying to drive without incident to and from".

My ex colleagues tell me it is very hard to lose time on some
routes with very generous timetables.

.. I would love to move back. I know that they are predicting more
snow


The danger with tightening times is that if traffic does cause late running,
services have to be curtailed, turned away from their usual destinations to
get back on time and this is registered as lost mileage which in turn is a
measure of performance.

Well, here we are anticipating another snow storms. I'm ready to see
it from a more relaxed standpoint...at home.

mk5000

"Kate and I are lucky enough to be well away from the fires, but we're
keeping a close eye on the Simi Valley blaze, which was quite visible
from my uncle's house. Our prayers go out to all in the line of
fire."--don tootin

Ummm...... I think I may have missed something here. Can someone please
explain it to me? I was only trying to be informative........

--
Remove "0" from from daveb07890 to reply
"marika" wrote in message
om...
"David B" wrote in message
...
--

The timing points can be quite far apart.

We could even try to finely tune schedules and times and pick
passengeres up and return them there the next day on time for thhe
work day, so you could meet a carpool the next day and be back on
schedule. . I have already submitted a leave slips with anticipation
of not coming in a lot. I can understand how it will require very
careful planning..., and see what happens.

For route 24 the points are :
Pimlico, Victoria, Trafalgar Sq, Tottenham Court Road, Warren Street,
Mornington Crescent, Camden Town and Hampstead Heath. There are many
stops
in between certain timing points, like Victoria and Trafalgar Sq,
whereas
Mornington Crescent and Camden Town are quite close together.
.

However, many are so sick of snow and wet weather...I would really
feel more comfortable if we have dry weather to deal with .I am just
not looking forward to another day of stress if we get the 2-4 inches
of snow , with more on the way , and having to struggle with driving
in . I thought about how I could perhaps drive in vehicles up and
then back down the next morning and not lost in trying to find my
way.

Also some
stops are not suitable points to lose time, like if they are obstructing
traffic flow.

and see what may happen. . I told myself this morning as I was
preparing to come in to work..."if I make it safely home again
tonight, I will not return to work tomorrow....it's just too much
stress trying to drive without incident to and from".

My ex colleagues tell me it is very hard to lose time on some
routes with very generous timetables.

. I would love to move back. I know that they are predicting more
snow


The danger with tightening times is that if traffic does cause late
running,
services have to be curtailed, turned away from their usual destinations
to
get back on time and this is registered as lost mileage which in turn is
a
measure of performance.

Well, here we are anticipating another snow storms. I'm ready to see
it from a more relaxed standpoint...at home.

mk5000

"Kate and I are lucky enough to be well away from the fires, but we're
keeping a close eye on the Simi Valley blaze, which was quite visible
from my uncle's house. Our prayers go out to all in the line of
fire."--don tootin