What PERILOUS STRUGGLE are Fulham (MY TEAM TOO) in? And HA for getting rid of Harry Ramsden’s in favor of “OH I HAVE SUFFERED” Marco PW.

As a newbie resident within striking distance of Stamford Bridge I have very quickly learned to double check the fixtures to see when HORRIBLE CHELSEA are playing at home and plan my travels accordingly to avoid unexciting World’s End logjam…as far as supporting a local team is concerned I am absolutely going with Craven Cottage, al Fayed or no al Fayed, since (a) Fulham FC are football team rather than cold rationalist multinational concern and (b) they currently have a PERILOUS STRUGGLE with which it’s easy to identify and sympathise.

(also S/Bridge are EEJITS for getting rid of handily situated Harry Ramsden’s and replacing with latest crap Marco PW soup kitchen)

we should not settle for this. they must be better trained and equipped to deal with passenger enquiries, which will be made by everyone from time to time.

‘reduces the chance of the inebriated getting off in the wrong part of town’

helpful maybe but hopefully they devote more time and resources to encouraging people to not become so inebriated that they find themselves in this position on a bus in the first place. but i’m saying that as someone who has only fallen asleep on a bus home ONCE (altho it was actually the Oxford Tube…yes you see where this is going…) and stumbled off a bus blind drunk maybe just a couple of times (many years ago now!). but i think when you’re that drunk most of the time you wouldn’t even understand what some disembodied digital voice is parroting at you anyway.

the driver must have sussed his game because the doors only opened a tiny bit before they were countermanded and shut again — EHT said cheerfully “haha that usually works!” to an elderly black lady standing next to him — she sucked her teeth at him and glared

i think there probably IS a “pestering the driver when he’s concentrating” issue being inadequately addressed — i’ve seen drivers be very curt with people asking questions or standing in the wrong place (too far forward), tho this kind of stuff varies lots from route to route — on a route to the HORRIBLE WEST i saw another EHT being very extremely rude to a driver for not setting off as soon as he’d like, trolling for a response basically, which he ended up getting so that EHT was then able to unleash his (very lame) killer sarcasm and look triumphantly back at his pals

(i buried myself in my book obv: i was in that snug little seat just tucked in beind the driver which is my favourite)

For me it’s not a question of ‘why should they have to ask’ but ‘how much of a problem is it for them to ask and for the driver to answer? set against the cost of installing and maintaining annoucement systems that isn’t actually useful 95% (estimation) of the time’. I don’t think this is equivalent to the wheelchairs/pushchairs access issue which works well (provided there’s enough space on the bus in the first place). Aiding their independence is good but most passengers will ask drivers for info regarding routes now and then. As I implied above I think the system would work better for EVERYBODY if these sorts of measures could be activated only when needed. Persistent announcements for me constitute a noise pollution issue almost as bad as mobile phone music.

Re routemasters and conductors, they went hand in hand for a reason. Conductors had room to move around on them because standing room was so limited. No chance of that on the veal-cart Bendy buses during peak hours.

(nb: through the eighties and nineties when we regularly used to get the 19 back from Pic. Circus to King’s Road the most reliable “conductor” on that bus was in fact Slim Gaillard who always sat on the long seat to the left of the exit)

Oh yes - didn’t Routemasters have these?

How bloody dare anyone say the blind or partially sighted should have to ask the driver! Don’t you think people who can’t see already have to ask for enough help during the day? Wouldn’t you be grateful for anything that aided your independence? I know I would. For shame.

In any case, drivers are often grumpy/inaudible/heavily accented and I can’t hear/understand when I ask them to let me know where I’m supposed to get off. Also you would have to sit/stand near the driver because they’re not going to shout it out for you loud enough and going by a vague “after the lights by the Somerfields” type description is fraught with potential for confusion. Maybe the volume needs tweaking, but in principle this whole scheme is a good thing. As it is on the Tube too. It’s a safety issue for nightbuses too - anything that reduces the chance of the inebriated getting off in the wrong part of town is a good thing.

This isn’t about curtailing driver/passenger interaction either; if anything a courteous hello/thanks to the driver means all the more if it is done for no other reason than to be polite.

i don’t mind it, but then i don’t travel on busses anywhere near as frequently as i did a year ago. complaining about it existing (although not the frequency)is a bit like complaining about them removing routemasters, ie just disablist

What is WAY more useful is the name of the stop being WRITTEN on the LED display at the front of the bus - that way when you have headphones on to block out the annoying announcey woman you can still tell when you are at your stop without having to look out of the window at the horrors of Dalston. It’s well annoying when it stops working and just puts a ‘*’ up there instead.

Part of the reason for my ire is that a few months back I got on a 242 and the announcement system was going haywire. The driver seemed unable to fix it or even turn it off and so we had to listen to it listing every stop and the destination over and over again for the entire journey.

Announcing the destination is presumably for the blind etc. (actually is there an etc.?) but its frequency is rather offputting and the volume could be lowered.

It’s still preferable, however, to the Thatcher impersonator who used to come through the tannoy at Earl’s Court tube in the eighties; if you were in the lift and the door couldn’t shut “she” would bark out “YOU ARE DELAYING THE OPERATION OF THIS LIFT! STAND! CLEAR! OF! THE! DOOOOOOOOOOORS!!” Talk about no turning back!