Changes

This is the bus stop I get off at when I am on my way to work. It has only been in this position a few months and there used to be a grass verge where the bus stop now is. When the council put the stop up they also put a slab of concrete down so passengers would not have to step from the bus onto the grass. But this slab was only about a foot square. Today as I tried to get of the bus the slab was occupied by a woman trying to get on the bus while I and a few other passengers were trying to get of and she would not move. Eventually pressure from behind forced me to gently push my way past her and I decided that when I got into work I would mention this problem to some one at managerial level and see if they could get the council to extend the concrete slab. But some thing else came up and I forgot. But it would seem that some down at the council offices is a mind reader because when I got back down to the stop there they were extending the slab. You can see the barriers in front of the bus waiting time at the stop. I took the photo from the cab of a bus on the pointing the other way to the one in the photo, both of us are waiting time and the photo clearly shows the problems motorists have with the position of these two stops.

When I did get into work the assistant operations manager was there and I asked him about a recent renaming of a fare stage. He explained the problem and I took the opportunity to ask if a couple of other fare stages could be renamed. These changes concern a slight but annoying problem with how some fare stages are displayed on the ticket machine. Torquay Railway Station is fare stage 37 but the display is only big enough to show Torquay. Fare stage 34 is the centre of Torquay and Torquay also appears on the display so it is possible to be in Torquay and sell a ticket from the railway station. An example of this is someone wants a ticket to Torre, fare stage 31 so you punch in 31 press single and then issue. A ticket comes out and you ask, politely, for 60 pence. Because you have sold tickets to Torre thousands of time there is no need to look at the display to know the fare. But because you have read Torquay on the display but not noticed it is for fare stage 37 you are unaware that the ticket is for £1.40. A loss to the driver of 80 pence. If four people had got on then the lost is £3.20. A second change I asked for was Paignton Zoo, fare stage 116 to be changed to Zoo so as not to confuse with Paignton Bus Station, fare stage 44 but both display Paignto. I know the n is missing but the display is only big enough for 7 letters. A line was drawn when I wanted Windy Corner renamed WC.