How much is the UK economy being hindered by people being unable to rely on any public transport?
Bristol has just had a huge number of bus routes cancelled at short notice. People had made decisions on where to live based on these bus routes facilitating commuting.
So many people having to wait hours for expensive non-existent trains and buses.
#UK #economy #publicTransport #Bristol
Related, from @[email protected]
The new transport secretary Mark Harper was due in Manchester this morning to deliver a speech at the Great Northern Conference but has opted to prerecord it instead. Presume he didn’t fancy the £369 peak avanti fare and/or the lottery that is uk train travel right now.
https://twitter.com/helenpidd/status/1595331313120301056
“The new transport secretary @Mark_J_Harper was due in Manchester this morning to deliver a speech at the Great Northern Conference but has opted to prerecord it instead. Presume he didn’t fancy the £369 peak avanti fare and/or the lottery that is uk train travel right now.”
“I've been looking at low productivity in the UK. Trying to find examples with data of where it actually happens. Public transport is an ace example. Compared to our more productive neighbouring countries we use far more drivers to transport fewer people. That's low productivity.”
@Letxuga007 Tom has a history of writing really interesting pieces on buses.
His bus tracker project highlighted some of the issues. Years ago, I helped him unpick how so many Dublin buses could arrive at their final destination early (the only advertised departure time was leaving the terminus stop, so the buses didn't need to wait around if running ahead of schedule).
You had to work out based on time of day, weather, traffic etc how long it would take a bus to reach your stop.
@Letxuga007 I cheated a bit in the early 2000s. I would phone the bus depot and ask them where the bus was - I was told to do this after I wrote a very strongly worded letter of complaint that had a Dublin Bus rep come to my home to discuss the issues.
From the 90s (or possibly earlier) Dublin Bus had a really advanced tracking system where the location of the individual buses could be determined from the depot, but they would often radio the driver to confirm.
@DToher mid Bedfordshire have lost large number of routes. People in one town now have 1 bus an hour and it doesn't run in evening or Sunday. It also sometimes goes through early and sometimes late so you can be standing at bus stop for half hour waiting.
So people need a car. Only poor/disabled/elderly use bus so bus companies say nobody uses it. It's also horrendously expensive.
Public transport should be cheap, reliable, frequent and lots of routes then people wouldn't need cars so much.
Nic D 💙✊🏼
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