You Wait Ages For A Bus

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Fri 10 Feb, 2012 11:24 pm

Bob them along to me Blakey, I'll sort you out [email protected]

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Fri 10 Feb, 2012 11:52 pm

Phill_dvsn wrote: Bob them along to me Blakey, I'll sort you out [email protected] Many thanks Phill - they're bobbing along right now

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Fri 10 Feb, 2012 11:56 pm

There you go Blakey, jobs a good un!

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Sat 11 Feb, 2012 12:14 am

They are nice looking buses Blakey.The new hybrid buses used by First on some routes in Leeds are fine except for the (to me) poor design whereby some rear seats face each other. I try not to use them, as also it seems do most people and when they do use them they are usually clearly uncomfortable facing other people and so try to look in another direction (usually to the floor!).

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Sat 11 Feb, 2012 1:15 am

Leodian wrote: They are nice looking buses Blakey.The new hybrid buses used by First on some routes in Leeds are fine except for the (to me) poor design whereby some rear seats face each other. I try not to use them, as also it seems do most people and when they do use them they are usually clearly uncomfortable facing other people and so try to look in another direction (usually to the floor!). I've only been on a few of those hybrid buses on the 98 route, but I really, really dislike them. I like my bus to at least make a noise like it's moving . It feels like being in a library and no one dares talk. It's a horrible uncomfortable experience that I would avoid at all costs!! Give me a draughty hop on and off back loader with plenty of engine thrash, and diesel fumes belching out of the exhaust any day

BarFly · Post by **BarFly** » Sat 11 Feb, 2012 1:42 am

I always wonder why they make the seats which face each other, as most of the time busses are fairly full so it's not that likely a family will manage to take them. The odd thing is that from what I can tell it's a global phenomenon and nobody likes to sit oposite a stranger.Regarding the latest Arriva shenanigans: Seems to be a good excuse to give so e managers a few days in a hotel, a helicopter ride and a few free diners. Since, if you live in Leeds, you either take the bus or don't due to the bus routes and your income I find it very difficult to beleive that you'd choose Arriva all, of a sudden (over which other bus company?) on the basis of this advert in The Mail. Apologies, but these adverts for things you have no choice about using really get my goat.(Edit: the bus Blakey suggests looks, to me, like a proper bus for modern times.)

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Sat 11 Feb, 2012 2:20 am

The dreaded back seats facing each other is easy to explain really. It's the only way they can fit eight seats over the rear wheel arches. They could only fit four seats on if they wanted to keep them facing the same way.The luggage rack, and stairs cover the front wheel arches. The bus companies are after bums on seats for profit, and passenger comfort comes a poor second.

BarFly · Post by **BarFly** » Sat 11 Feb, 2012 2:46 am

That is likely the reason. I'm not convinced it is the best way to use the space in any country though -- seems to be laziness to me.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sat 11 Feb, 2012 9:36 am

BarFly wrote: That is likely the reason. I'm not convinced it is the best way to use the space in any country though -- seems to be laziness to me. I agree that its embarrassing and unpleasant to have to face others at such close quarters, but this pales into insignificance at the side of another aspect that worries me greatly and I've written about it often at great length. In the midst of all these intertwined legs, hand luggage etc you might just be lucky and find the only "emergency exit" in the entire lower saloon of a vehicle holding upwards on ninety people. This pathetic little narrow door on the offside is worse than useless, especially in two quite possible circumstances. Firstly in the event of a front end collision putting the front door out of bounds - the first one or two passengers might escape into the middle of the road before mass panic floors the rest, particularly if there are around twenty standing. Alternatively an engine compartment fire, far from unknown these days, would send a panicking horde towards the front, where the buggy exchange and other folks panicking from upstairs would soon bring escape to a halt. I really cannot credit that the Ministry will allow such possible hazards to be commonplace at all.Returning to the question of the "interlocked knees" facing seats - this is not confined to modern rear engined vehicles at all and has been a bugbear since long ago, even in cases before WW2. In Leeds remember all the small Mark V AEC Regents (150 in all) and the larger few bodied by MCW as opposed to Roe, and the small Daimler CVG6s. All of these "back loaders" had a seat for five facing backwards behind the driver and the knee clearance on these was at least as bad as on the modern buses.

Uno Hoo · Post by **Uno Hoo** » Sat 11 Feb, 2012 11:10 am

As an avid reader of "Private Eye", the title of this thread reminds me of one of its best-ever cartoons, published at the time of the disastrous privatisation of the bus industry. It showed a line of skeletons waiting at a bus stop, and the caption was:"Typical! You wait ages for a bus, then one doesn't come!"