The Route Masters: Running London's Roads (BBC2)

[CC 72100]

Now watching it - "Blakey" would be in his element with all the "spy in the cab" equipment monitoring the drivers every move

See when you think about it, he was rather ahead of his time

And for those who haven't seen it:

[youtube]dTO_fpa_diM[/youtube]

 

[scotsman]

Give me an original Routemaster any day - I went on the 15 from Kensington to Trafalgar Square earlier in the year.

That Stagecoach one did seem to be in a bit of a state - that bell was ****ed!

 

[Be3G]

I was disappointed that the programme seemed to focus mainly on busy central routes – I would have loved it to look at the quieter, country-ish routes (e.g. where the drivers and passengers routinely say hello to each other!) for a bit of contrast, to show the variety of the bus network. Still a good programme though.

 

[jon0844]

It seemed to be edited to suggest that the current buses are bad (nobody is nice to the driver, it makes it hard for them to drive) and the Boris buses are excellent - and everyone is dead friendly and talks to the conductor/CSA.

As you say, in the more rural parts of town, and indeed on buses out here 'in the sticks' people are generally quite nice to drivers and say hello and thank you - partly because they usually alight through the front set of doors and actually pass the driver.

I might try and wave to the driver when getting off a London bus (or do so hoping it's spotted on the mirror/CCTV) but there's no way I'd be in central London shouting 'Thanks driver!'.

 

[christopher]

The Routemaster mechanic was a very nice chap - So want to get into the industry as soon as I can to learn the job from these guys.

Hopefully the next episode will see the heritage parts they filmed - Want to see if my first time conducting was filmed!

 

[jon0844]

To repair the Boris bus, I guess you just turn it off and back on?

And when that fails, you get out the hammer.

 

[richw]

In what sense is iBus the only system of its kind in the world? GPS bus tracking is standard in most of Europe.

Even Western Greyhound have it down here in Cornwall and were normally 20 years behind the rest of the world.

WG have been posting on Facebook every day

Good morning! A full normal summer service is operating today. Please note that our hired-in buses are not ours and do not have gps tracking equipment or two way radios fitted therefore it is not always possible to give updates if services are delayed.

 

[Mojo]

Even Western Greyhound have it down here in Cornwall and were normally 20 years behind the rest of the world.

WG have been posting on Facebook every day

Other areas do have such things but the extent to which it is accurate or how it is visualised, or actively operated by the controllers is different.

Whilst I'm sure some areas do have reliable information, I've never felt happy relying on it in other places I've lived as it does not seem to be representative of reality, especially during times of service disruption. In contrast, as a regular user of the realtime system in London I've only had two issues of concern; where buses that turned up in reality weren't on the system.

[I am talking about realtime information here, ie. buses shown as arriving in x Min rather than buses shown as arriving at specific times ie. xx:xx as is often the case elsewhere.]

 

[overthewater]

Stagecoach East Scotland are doing trails of it the now, while Lothian buses have it in place thus and provide the following: http://www.mybustracker.co.uk/

 

[Butts]

Stagecoach East Scotland are doing trails of it the now, while Lothian buses have it in place thus and provide the following: http://www.mybustracker.co.uk/

Gosh - In Falkirk First have not even got "bus due displays" at stops in realtime or any other time come to that

 

[richw]

First Cornwall has erected next bus in x mins signs on the 14/18 routes only at the moment

 

[transmanche]

In what sense is iBus the only system of its kind in the world? GPS bus tracking is standard in most of Europe.

iBus is also the system which announces the route, next stop and destination on the bus (aka 'the shouty lady').

 

[radamfi]

iBus is also the system which announces the route, next stop and destination on the bus (aka 'the shouty lady').

Next stop indicators (sound and visual display) are also standard on buses in most of Europe and have been for many years, long before London got it. Many places have taken it to the next level. They have monitors showing not only the next stop and the arrival time there, but also the arrival time at the next few stops and the arrival time at the destination.

Zurich's system (which seems to cover every S-Bahn, bus and tram in the whole canton, covering a wide rural and suburban area outside the city) even tells you what bus, tram or train services you can transfer to as you approach an interchange point. Not only service numbers and destination points, but also departure times and there even appears to be a box to give notice of any kind of disruption which may apply to that service.

 

[transmanche]

Next stop indicators (sound and visual display) are also standard on buses in most of Europe and have been for many years, long before London got it.

iBus also advises if the next stop is out of use, realitime information of off-route diversions and so on.

Rather than concentrating on just one feature of it, i think the 'uniqueness' that was being highlighted in the programme is the whole integrated system - with the level of active route management it offers along with the ability of controllers to keep drivers and passengers updated.

 

[jon0844]

Many systems we have can be used for a lot more, and you sometimes have to question why they aren't.

 

[IanD]

Last week's episode has reappeared on iPlayer.

Edit: Plays on the laptop but not on the TV for some reason.

I managed to record only the second half of ep 2 so watched the first half on i-player last night. Once I got to the bit I'd recorded from, I watched it on both. In some of the scenes in the control room one staff member in the background had been blurred out on i-player but not on the original broadcast.

Might explain why it disappeared for a while if it needed further anonymising.

 

[jon0844]

That explains it. I wondered if there had been the need to edit the programme in some way.

Sadly Sky+ still can't download it, but perhaps it will fix itself later.

 

[Butts]

That explains it. I wondered if there had been the need to edit the programme in some way.

Sadly Sky+ still can't download it, but perhaps it will fix itself later.

It was repeated on BBC2 at 11.20pm last night, so I wonder which version went out then ?

 

[jon0844]

That's episode 3 though. It's the second one that disappeared.

 

[causton]

It was repeated on BBC2 at 11.20pm last night, so I wonder which version went out then ?

I watchd the repeat but I didn't notice any blurring of people, something I would normally pick up on! Hmm... unless I wasn't looking properly...

 

[notadriver]

I enjoyed the part where the former banker was driving his bus. I was hoping there would be more bus drivers like this in the program but the majority of the drivers seem a bit common. Why is that ?

Also enjoyed the bus driver training clips - wish there was a bit more of them. It's a shame the railway documentary didn't have any train driver training clips

 

[jon0844]

It's a shame the railway documentary didn't have any train driver training clips

It only takes 5 minutes to learn how to drive a train doesn't it?

 

[CC 72100]

It only takes 5 minutes to learn how to drive a train doesn't it?

Indeed, you just sit down, press a few buttons, don't have to speak to anybody... sounds a doddle but quite boring to watch

 

[notadriver]

All joking aside train cab ride videos are very popular on YouTube. There aren't many taken from the front of a bus!

 

[IanD]

I watchd the repeat but I didn't notice any blurring of people, something I would normally pick up on! Hmm... unless I wasn't looking properly...

It's in Episode 2 - I noticed it about 52 minutes in. The guy on the left in the green shirt is blurred out on i-player. Don't know how many other times he appeared in it, I only noticed it then as he was close to the camera.

 

[Mojo]

As to episode 2, when it was initially on TV they got someone's job title wrong yet on the show on iPlayer it has been corrected.

 

[Sheepy1209]

Many systems we have can be used for a lot more, and you sometimes have to question why they aren't.

I just wonder why Blackpool seems to be stuck in the 1980's; OK, they've got a website, but it's static and can't be accessed on a smartphone. There's no real time information anywhere, not at stops, not on the website, not for buses, not for trams. A completely new tram system with no means of communicating to people waiting at the stops.

I found it particularly frustrating when I wrote to BTS suggesting that they do something about the website, pointing out that many of their users have smartphones - and it would be a way of getting real-time information to people. But no - drew a blank, and the response suggested they just didn't understand.

 

[radamfi]

IThere's no real time information anywhere, not at stops, not on the website, not for buses, not for trams. A completely new tram system with no means of communicating to people waiting at the stops

Bizarrely, London's trams don't have real time info on the internet, even though buses, Tubes, DLR and trains do.

 

[Manchester77]

Is it on tonight??

 

[transportphoto]

Nope... TfL tweeted that it'll be back next week.

TP