There are over 3000 bus stops used by Stagecoach in Devon. Almost all of them have timetables displayed that are easy for the passengers to see, not all that easy to read and for some of the passengers, impossible to understand. I have always said the reading timetables should be on the National Curriculum. I ask you, which is more important, knowing how long Queen Victoria rained for, or standing at the bus stop at Victoria Park and knowing how long you have been waiting for the next bus to Brixham so you can moan at the driver when it turns up late? Or even knowing how to spell reigned?
Anyway, twice a year the times of the buses change and our bus stop man has to go round all of the bus stops and change all the timetables. And here he is attempting to change those on the bus stop near the depot on the Newton Rd. The driver watching is thinking, "Driving a bus really isn't that bad a job after all."
Also to be seen in the photo is the type of class adverts our passengers get to read while they are waiting for a bus. No wonder they moan at us when we are late. Which doesn't happen often. Honestly.
9 comments:
That photo says it all!
The driving instructor
Our timetables are all done by the PTE, so they show all services not just those of a particular operator.
I do love the way however that timetables are often removed and replaced with a notice saying "A timetable will be available shortly". If there's enough manpower to print out and put up a notice saying "There will be a timetable soon", there must be enough to put up an actual timetable!
At least you have timetables on your bus stops!
90% of the stops here have no timetables, intact adverts or even glass/plastic. Heh.
Passengers make up their own times anyway, you are always late for someone.
We have timetables on our stops, but the vandals wreck them ! To be fair, whatever my complaints about stagecoach in swindom, they do usually run on time, give or take a few minutes, and whats the point of moaning about a few minutes? It always puzzles me why people stand at the front of the bus, whinging at the driver for being late, if they are already late then standing there whinging isn't going to make the bus get to the destination quicker is it ? In fact the longer the passenger stands and whinges the later the bus will run ! Now thats logic to me, but sadly not to all it would seem.
I too work for a fairly rural Stagecoach company and nearly every bus stop across the patch has a timetable display - group standards for keeping these updated are very exacting too...
Our displays are "personalised" to specific timing points...ie it's a departure list - far easier for passengers to read than a traditional timetable, but very time consuming and demanding of network-knowledge to prepare on a stop by stop basis (think about the implications of routes criss-crossing each other in an urban scenario, often between timing points...how many of each to prepare etc)...
If the displays in the PTE area Tom mentions are the same, (and knowing PTEs they probably are), then withrespect, he's talking through his arse...(heh heh heh)
At least your timetables are kept up to date, the ones at my bus stop are 2 years old and even when they were in date they contained departures for 3 routes that didn't exist.
What's more 3 years ago all the timetables were reduced to departure times only with no route indication.
Thank God for online journey planners.
When I go up to Manchester I am always impressed by the bus timetables, they are the time from this stop type, and I feel if they can do it in a place as big as Manchester they could do it here in Torbay.
One answer to the question,"Why are you late?" is, "Because I have spent so much time explaining to everyone on the bus why I am late." I don't use it any more because someone then said, "Well why exactly are you late, you've told all them, now tell me."
Down here in Thanet (Stagecoach in East Kent) the principal bus stops have departure times with approximate journey times to various destinations. Our very popular Loop service runs every 7-10 minutes so there's not a timetable for customers as such, just turn up at the stop and one will turn up in a few minutes (in theory). Other stops have the number of the Call centre on it, so assuming you have your mobile phone with you, the idea is you can call them up for the time of the next bus etc.
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