Trivia: What things don't you see on buses these days?

[TheGrandWazoo]

Exact Fare boxes - no change given!

Do any operators still have them - Nottingham?

NXWM, Newport Bus, CardiffBus

 

[Dai Corner]

Exact Fare boxes - no change given!

Do any operators still have them - Nottingham?

Newport Transport. Even on their brand new Chines-built battery buses I think.

 

[Brooke]

For anyone from W Yorkshire: red and silver Saver Strip machines, along with all the little cut off bits scattered on the floor. “Kerching a Saver Strip” as the ads went!

 

[PG]

Exact Fare boxes - no change given!

Do any operators still have them - Nottingham?

Aberdeen (First) still have them.

 

[cnjb8]

The Mercedes-Benz Sprinters (ex Stagecoach Ashford, now doing Teesflex DRT) are manual

They're scattered across the Stagecoach divisions too. Arriva have a batch of Mercedes Benz Sprinters, are they manual?

 

[Bletchleyite]

The blue tinted interior lights, used to see it on Lothian buses and services to Borders. Think it was for driving in the dark

More usual for the frontmost lights to just turn on/off automatically with the door these days, but I think a few of the Arriva MK buses still have the blue.

 

[BrianW]

Conductors

Is it ok to refer to 'Clippies'?
Ticket machines like this (Gibson?):

London Transport ticket machine used by bus conductor issuing tickets to passengers / passenger on buses in 1970 1980 's & 1990s Stock Photo - Alamy

Download this stock image: London Transport ticket machine used by bus conductor issuing tickets to passengers / passenger on buses in 1970 1980 's & 1990s - GYJ8HA from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors.

www.alamy.com

or this? https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-u...t-machine-with-coloured-tickets-43687613.html
Hold very tight please ...

 

[Eyersey468]

Used to wave the running sheet at the other drivers if there was an inspector around when I used to do it.

That was the code where I work as well

 

[Jordan Adam]

The Mercedes-Benz Sprinters (ex Stagecoach Ashford, now doing Teesflex DRT) are manual

They're automatic.

 

[AM9]

Is it ok to refer to 'Clippies'?
Ticket machines like this (Gibson?):

London Transport ticket machine used by bus conductor issuing tickets to passengers / passenger on buses in 1970 1980 's & 1990s Stock Photo - Alamy

Download this stock image: London Transport ticket machine used by bus conductor issuing tickets to passengers / passenger on buses in 1970 1980 's & 1990s - GYJ8HA from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors.

www.alamy.com

or this? https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-u...t-machine-with-coloured-tickets-43687613.html
Hold very tight please ...

Ah yes, clippies - often at the centre of marriage breakdowns.

 

[leedslad82]

For anyone from W Yorkshire: red and silver Saver Strip machines, along with all the little cut off bits scattered on the floor. “Kerching a Saver Strip” as the ads went!

We had these on bus when i went to school. Ideally u had 2 queues to speed up boarding. Left side for cash right side if you were using a saverstrip. At least half the time the machine didn't work so the driver would clip it which meant next time it jammed in machine

 

[Whistler40145]

In the North West, buses now only have front opening doors

 

[Welshman]

Pay-as-you-leave - used to the the case in Guernsey for journeys from Town, until at least the 1980s I think . . . and also used by some NE independents. (Touch-n-touch-out doesn't count.)

Hulley's of Baslow used Pay-as-you-leave - even to the early 1980s, when I used them from Chesterfield-Bakewell.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jan 2021 ==

Change-dispensers positioned high-up by the drivers left shoulder from where the coins rolled down a chute into a cup on the cab door - Halifax/Calderdale and Leicester both used this system (was it a coincidence that Geoffrey Hilditch was GM of the former and then the latter?).

Drivers unhooking them, and carrying them under their arms on their way to the canteen during layovers.

The triangular [and illuminated?] "Pay as You Enter" signs on the outside offside front panel, and the sliding sheet which was meant to be used to cover the sign when a conductor was on board.

And, really going back, drivers extinguishing the interior lights before attempting to start the engine!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Inspectors - aka Blakey’s!

Or Hector(s) !

 

[Deerfold]

For anyone from W Yorkshire: red and silver Saver Strip machines, along with all the little cut off bits scattered on the floor. “Kerching a Saver Strip” as the ads went!

I have one of those. GM had Clippercard which was functionally identical. When I first visited Copenhagen was surprised to see them there, though they've phased them out over the last 5 years.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jan 2021 ==

We had these on bus when i went to school. Ideally u had 2 queues to speed up boarding. Left side for cash right side if you were using a saverstrip. At least half the time the machine didn't work so the driver would clip it which meant next time it jammed in machine

In my experience the machines usually clipped, but often had the wrong date on them, making them poor when tickets were checked (and going further back, a right pain when you clipped your DayRover and got the wrong date printed on it).

In Copenhagen I don't think I ever found one that was more than 10 minutes out.

 

[Andyh82]

Buses in Tyne and Wear had a kind of ’block’ about 40cm by 10cm, usually affixed to the dash or hanging from the ceiling, so it was visible through the front windscreen to prospective passengers. The ’block’ could be rotated to show different messages, which were vinyl stickers affixed to the block. Typical ones after deregulation were ‘MetroLink Transfare Bus’, ‘TWPTE Secured Service’ or the operator name/logo. Think there was also a ‘Via Town/City Centre’. Quite a good idea, but fell out of use as fleet was (slowly) replaced in the 90s/2000s.

They had those in South Yorkshire as well, used to rotate around to say stuff like “via Moorfoot”

 

[Ken H]

the ticket machines used by conductors that I remember were the Bell Punch Ultimate used by the Municipals in W Yorks - https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/im...db089a85566ce248/version/1373949338/image.jpg. There was a different model for PAYE buses.
And the Setright used by the out of town buses like West Yorkshire and West Riding. And Sammy Ledgards

https://www.englishsalvage.co.uk/upload/images/shopprod/old-original-setright-vintage-ticket-machine_27616_pic3_size3.jpg

And the pendamatic change dispenser. used to rattle quite a lot. Sorry, can only find an ebay link - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-PENDAM...278068?hash=item4b773178b4:g:MB8AAOSwgaZehK9S

 

[DunsBus]

Aberdeen (First) still have them.

And Lothian. First introduced in ECT days, in 1973 on two services, the 30 and the 43, as a trial before being rolled out across the network from the following year. I remember the machine gun-like noise that the Autofare machines made when issuing tickets.

 

[Whistler40145]

In the 70s and early 80s, memories of Blackpool Corporation Leyland PD3s with a manual gearbox, conductor and open platform, what a joy in Winter.

 

[WM Bus]

NXWM, Newport Bus, CardiffBus

Claribels Coaches as well.

And in regards to "A decent load of passengers". Some East Birmingham buses do seem to still carry "a decent load of passengers" on some journeys. On 11A/11C, 55/94, 28 etc. Even in lockdown, etc.

 

[neilmc]

Adverts for beer or cigarettes

Conservative councils which didn't have a proper concessionary scheme issuing plastic tokens to pensioners

Long queues of pensioners proffering 1p and 2p coins (or plastic tokens) to late-running drivers on the "first pass bus"

Kids unscrewing tungsten light bulbs and throwing them out of the windows

Kids being expected to catch the nearest normal service bus from home to school and being entrusted with the common sense to be able to change buses if necessary

 

[Robin Saunter]

"To and from (tourist places)" placards below the front nearside window on London Transport RMs and RTs

 

[Bungle158]

Videmat ticket machines. They printed an image of the coins you had fed into the machine hopper, on the back of the ticket.

 

[duncombec]

Has anyone suggested green or orange handrails yet?

Is it just my imagination, or have bus interiors generally got brighter in recent years? Leaving aside compulsory changes (such as to handrail colour), you now expect an interior to be shades of grey, beige, white, yellow, etc.... not dark brown wall panels and seat backs, green handrails, dark moquette.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Has anyone suggested green or orange handrails yet?

Is it just my imagination, or have bus interiors generally got brighter in recent years? Leaving aside compulsory changes (such as to handrail colour), you now expect an interior to be shades of grey, beige, white, yellow, etc.... not dark brown wall panels and seat backs, green handrails, dark moquette.

It depends. In the 1960s, they were fairly light in terms of laminates though often with darker seats.

Interior of Eastern Counties Bristol RE - RL685 (DRX628K) - 1982

Explore BristolRE2007's 35569 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

Then we had the 1970s and into the 1980s where there was a lot of brown....which was the case for the 1970s generally!

LEYLAND LEOPARD VUD32X INTERIOR

VANGUARD BUS & COACH SALES LEYLAND LEOPARD ECW VUD32X INTERIOR LOOKING REARWARD

www.flickr.com

By the 1980s, it seemed more greys and the like. Though I am gobsmacked by the atrocities that were specified by London and Country in the mid 1990s where the dash was a great slab of dairy milk

N238VPH London&Country DSL38

Dennis Dart SLF with East Lancs Spryte bodywork in Greenford London August 1996

www.flickr.com

and the seats were chocolate brown and bright green; a real throwback to the 70s

B8506 - London & Country - 510 L510CPJ

Customer: London & Country Chassis: Dennis Dart 9.8SDL Chassis Number: 3055/1939 Body: East Lancashire Coachbuilders Body Number: B8506 Seats: B40F Delivered: May 1994

www.flickr.com

Credit to all photographers

 

[Jordan Adam]

Norm for First is it not in urban areas at least.

Makes sense, with the advances in "smart payments" there's not really the need to give change in urban areas.

Generally a hangover from inherited ops; Bristol doesn’t have them, nor Oldham or Yorkshire.

I'd expect it's more a Union issue as drivers carrying change can put them at greater risk.

 

[Simon75]

Local depot phone number you can contact instead of a 08/03 number in another part of the company

 

[swt_passenger]

Sign written notice indicating “Children travelling with half fare tickets must give up their seats if adults are standing.” 1960s Newcastle.

 

[py_megapixel]

Sign written notice indicating “Children travelling with half fare tickets must give up their seats if adults are standing.” 1960s Newcastle.

That seems like a rather silly policy to me - I'm glad that kind of thing is gone!

 

[Jordan Adam]

Sign written notice indicating “Children travelling with half fare tickets must give up their seats if adults are standing.” 1960s Newcastle.

The older First vehicles here (Pre-2009) have a yellow notice down at the front which states "Children under the age of 5 may travel free on the understanding that they may not occupy seats to the exclusion of fare paying passengers" - although it's a policy i've never seen or heard of being enforced!

Linked below is an image showing the notice.

62201 (X696 ADK) - First Aberdeen

Some older notices still on show behind the cab. I think the yellow one is actually of Grampian era, although I'd imagine the principle still applies today. The sign above still has 'Transforming Travel' on it. I had the joy of driving 62201 as my last bus before Christmas for a short run...

www.flickr.com