immi■■■11 Going for a walk in a bus

13th September 1968, Page 97

13th September 1968

Page 97

Page 98

Page 97, 13th September 1968 — immi■■■11 Going for a walk in a bus

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SAMPLING THE 'SATELLITE' FLAT-FARE BUSES

by Derek Moses

• Last Saturday in London there was a home match at White Hart Lane, a cat show at Alexandra Palace and, just to add to the fun, a complete reorganization of bus services in that particular area of North London. The long-awaited Wood Green area satellite scheme—part of LTB's new bus reshaping plan—had begun at last and the 25-seater plus 48 standing passengers flat-fare buses had arrived on the scene.

I allowed LTB the morning to get over the first hurdles of its new bus system, but by lunchtime curiosity was getting the better of me and I set off (by car, I must confess) to investigate, only to be waylaid by the cat show. It was 15.00 hours before my wife and I queued outside "Ally Pally" for one of the new single-deckers which that day had replaced the former 233 double-deckers on that route.

When the bus appeared, it stopped with the central exit opposite us and started to disgorge the cat lovers. Only when unloading had finished were the entrance doors opened and we started to board. This did not take as long as I had expected—but we discovered that two LTB "plain clothes men" were explaining the procedure to be adopted for getting through the turnstiles.

With a full load we set-off for Turnpike Lane bus station—a pretty uneventful journey as at most stops the bus was settingdown only. The adaptable Londoners were fairly quiet and I kept quiet, too. When seats became available up on the "poop deck" we sat down, just in time to overhear the remark by a youth sitting behind us— "They should have bought Skoda buses from Czechoslovakia—they carry more passengers and are built for the job", he said.

There was some chaos at Turnpike Lane station, but we soon boarded a W2 bus heading for Alexandra Park (Victoria) and were off again, with a full load and a driver entirely on his own. One impression we got was that the public had already learned one fact—they needed sixpenny pieces for the new buses. London Transport, which widely distributed new local timetables headed Your new bus service to householders in the areas affected by the new scheme, had done its homework right.

The mistake I made was in not having a tape recorder with me. to tape the running commentary between passengers and the driver, who answered-back the louder re marks with his own comments over the public address system. The word "cattle trucks" cropped-up several times—I was afraid it would—as the good-natured banter continued.

Driver: "Anyone for this stop?" Reply from female passenger: "Not — likely. Sixpence just for this distance?" We continued on our way. Eventually the bell rang and we did stop. Some people alighted, but many were still standing in the space between the turnstiles and the exit. Driver: "Is everyone off?" Chorus: "Yes!" Driver: "Thank you very much". At that moment a male mumbled "We pay more and have to stand like cows!"

Another stop. Driver: "Anyone else to get off?" Chorus: "No!" It was then that I overheard the delightful remark "It is like going for a walk in a bus!" The driver intervened: "Sorry for the delay—this is the first day. It will be all right next week." Good public relations man. I thought. And we arrived at the terminus, where an inspector was waiting. We alighted and watched while a woman asked the inspector if her rather large folding push chair could be accepted. The inspector consulted the driver, who said it was OK.

On Tuesday I set out again, to ride on the busy W4 (Winchmore Hill—Turnpike Lane) route in the company of Mr. A. C. Bevan, deputy area traffic manager, Wood Green. Saturday had been hell, he told me and Monday was not much better. However, he was pleased with the way things were going that day. Our ride was again fairly uneventful, though I was glad to notice that the driver used the public address system to announce the stops, and also to ask boarding passengers to use both sides of the turnstile. People seemed to head for the offside fare-collection machine at the expense of the nearside.

At the terminus I sampled the driving position to see for myself what visibility the driver had to the rear. The interior-view mirror seemed adequate unless a really tall person stood in the way of the exit screen. And an outside mirror gave a very clear view of the exit.

On the return trip, we loaded 12 people

at one stop in well under 60 seconds—good going for a new system. Mr. Bevan told me that in tests he had carried out, 73 passengers could be loaded in I minute 58 seconds, assuming that all passengers were au fait with the system. This compared with 2 minutes 5 seconds to load a conventional crew-operated double-decker with 65 passengers.

But it was the driver who had the last word. "I have been' driving for 22 years, starting with trolleybuses, and these are the best vehicles yet to drive. I used to be an SRN, but I prefer bus driving."

Whether or not the public will come to accept the new standees remains to be seen, but one cannot complain at being charged sixpence for a journey which would be is 6d on a double-decker travelling over the same route. Incidentally, between 16.00 hours and 18.30 hours there is a minimum fare of 9d for passengers travelling northwards from Turnpike Lane on existing double-deck routes, to encourage local passengers to use the new flat-fare buses.

I hear that the new Red Arrow services in central London are doing well—better than reports in the daily Press suggest. These services operate on the principle suggested in CM July 16 1965. There is every reason to believe that both they and the satellite flat-fare buses will be an outstanding success.