There was an excellent work of fiction by the Booker Prize winning London bus driver Magnus Mills titled ''Maintenance of Headway'' that came out to no critical acclaim whatever in the early part of the century. It was an excellent, philosophical novel based nu doubt on the author's experiences of driving buses on the thinly disguised 137 route from Brixton garage, After reading it, my previously broadly neutral views on the subject changed to basically anti ( with regard to buses, not the Underground.) From a public perspective, I think there's a very clear majority of regular passengers who don't 'buy' the concept.
The important thing is not how late or early the buses are, but the headway between them should be as close to 10 min as possible.
Controllers are the key. One of the troubles imo with the fragmentisation of the bus service is that Controller A at x company has no cognisance of what Controller B at y company is doing over a section of road which both routes may share for a considerable length. There used to be quite a lot to be said for having an astute and knowledgable individual at e.g. John Holles Street/Oxford Street or West Croydon bus station, aided by cars/vans, though I know cameras and whatnot have made some of it superfluous. Maybe all the controllers should be based at one building, at least for routes entering Zone 1. The Post Office Tower would seem to tick the boxes, maybe with a side order of binoculars.
This might be good for the operating company for a contractual basis and boosting bonus payments, but is pretty rough on the passengers who may miss a connection through being regulated.
Controllers are the key. One of the troubles imo with the fragmentisation of the bus service is that Controller A at x company has no cognisance of what Controller B at y company is doing over a section of road which both routes may share for a considerable length. There used to be quite a lot to be said for having an astute and knowledgable individual at e.g. John Holles Street/Oxford Street or West Croydon bus station, aided by cars/vans, though I know cameras and whatnot have made some of it superfluous. Maybe all the controllers should be based at one building, at least for routes entering Zone 1. The Post Office Tower would seem to tick the boxes, maybe with a side order of binoculars.
This may be a radical suggestion (and would likely require additional staff) but could Centrecomm (or whatever they're called this week) be granted delegated authority to undertake regulation decisions like that?Controllers are the key. One of the troubles imo with the fragmentisation of the bus service is that Controller A at x company has no cognisance of what Controller B at y company is doing over a section of road which both routes may share for a considerable length. There used to be quite a lot to be said for having an astute and knowledgable individual at e.g. John Holles Street/Oxford Street or West Croydon bus station, aided by cars/vans, though I know cameras and whatnot have made some of it superfluous. Maybe all the controllers should be based at one building, at least for routes entering Zone 1. The Post Office Tower would seem to tick the boxes, maybe with a side order of binoculars.
If they were to take over control of services all incentivisation of performance would have to stop. You couldn't have operators receiving bonuses or penalties based on control decisions that TfL made.
On your last point, yes, but with the right people and the right investment and ethos, it might work wonders in certain situations e.g.. and God forbid, terrorist incidents or rail/tram emergencies, or just particularly bad disruption. With the thinning of routes in the Central area, and some dramatic peak frequency reductions too, the scope for confusion should decrease proportionately too. I know re-centralisation is not a 'sexy' idea these days, but I do believe it can sometimes be justified in the greater good.
In my example, passengers on 2 of the buses would then have unnecessarily longer journeys just to maintain this 10 minute interval, which hardly encourages bus travel. And all these buses parked at stops to regulate intervals cause congestion too, to other road traffic, but also to buses on other routes as they block stops or bus lanes.
That's already done by the TfL people who control traffic lights. I say "done", but their responsibility is to control overall traffic flow, but individual bus routes. Chaos would ensure in that scenario.
In your example it was only two 10 min headways. Controllers consider the overall service.
Exactly, get on and drive, as in your job description! You'll never encourage people to leave their cars behind and switch to buses on a regular basis if the perception is that buses are unnecessarily slow because of being deliberately held back. None of it is helped by the pathetically inadequate use of bus lanes, bus only roads and bus traffic light priority compared to other countries, not forgetting the iron control the cycling 'lobby', dominated by white, 25-55 year old lycra-clad males, seem to have over the highway authorities, to the detriment of the rest of us, especially pedestrians.
As much as the cycle lobby annoys me, it's the car lobby which is the main "evil". It permeates the whole of society with such nonsense as the concocted "War on the motorist" any time there's a hint of proposals anywhere for abolishing a parking bay or introducing a new speed limit. It really is akin to a cult in which people care about their cars sometimes more than their own families.
It really is much more than that. Motorists regularly park or drive on space reserved for pedestrians, cyclists and disabled drivers, yet they regard any legitimate non-motor vehicle road user as trespassing on their roads because they are the ones thast pay 'road tax' (which is a lie because nobody has paid road tax since 1937). The media, (right wing in particular) just play to this ignorance which gives those drivers further entitlement in their minds.
Completely agree. And don't get me started on SUVs.
I'm not disagreeing with you about the obsession of a lot of people with their cars and their perceived sense of injustice whenever proposals are made to mitigate their worst effects on society as a whole. My attitude has always been that a car is there to get me from A to B, maybe specifically via C, when it's the only or best way of achieving that journey, perhaps with family/friends and/or luggage etc. So long as it's mechanically sound and reasonably comfortable I don't much care about its looks, colour, what's under the bonnet et al. Nowadays, though, my car is one remaining small freedom for me as I can only walk very short distances without walking aids like shopping trolleys, and provision for disabled drivers is cursory in many places. Regrettably, I can't foresee ever getting on a train or bus ever again, unless possibly I was in a wheelchair, but that option would mean me losing my fiercely guarded independent living. Only saying all that so I can't be accused of being a hypocrite!
They are the pits!!
Oh yes, of course many people absolutely need a car and always will. In your case especially where you live it's highly unlikely that public transport will ever be sufficiently accessible and as such the car is a lifeline.
Answering my own question, have found out the changes happen next weekend from March 2nd.
The 407/443 split is temporarily postponed (probably because of stand space issues in Croydon due to the Superloop routes) and the S1 changes happened years ago, but changes to the 166, 312, 434, new 439, 455 withdrawn, 470, new S2, S3 and S4 are going ahead on the 2nd March.
I don't necessarily subscribe to the "war" theory, however there are no infrastructure changes made that improve things for cars and all changes impact negatively on cars and sometimes buses too. I write as an owner of two cars, one bike and a regular user of public transport.
I'm a bit surprised the E1 is shifting operator, but will continue with diesel double deck, even though it's only a shorter term contract. Will this be the last time such a thing will happen with a mainstream d/d route?
