Re: Still too expensive
"The two fecking buses could coordinate to switch passengers and stabilise the timetable,"
I used to travel out of Swindon (unfortunately I had to go back the next day) on a service which always got bunched up by the time it got to the edge of town. The drivers would regularly swap passengers while queuing a cross the motorway junction to allow the first bus to 'go direct'. But that was in the days before CCTV and GPS monitoring - I bet they'd not be allowed to do it now.
In my current city they tried an intelligent bus stop system that shows time to the next bus. They bought it cheap second hand from another council. The bus companies refused to use it saying it was too expensive to integrate with their vehicles. Even on then trial routes it never gave accurate information anyway. One wonders why the original council never used it... Council. Booze up. Brewery.
The only way our bus services will get better and be comprehensive is if they can be run properly on an area basis, rather than this crazy route by route basis where private companies can take profit from busy routes but expect subsidy to run others. Even our dear leader(*) has said public transport would be better if everyone followed TfL's approach - unfortunately he failed to point out that would be illegal under the current transport acts.
* or "Babbling fatberg of dishonesty" as Ratbiter in Private Eye has decided to refer to him
Biting the hand that feeds IT
