The trials of public transport

[Bryan]

I try to minimise the use of our car, I don't enjoy driving and feel the need to reduce our CO2 emissions as much a possible, hence my use of public transport. Most of the time it's fine, but......

 

Some of the things that have gone wrong -

 

Trains

 

Uniquely, when another organisation was paying the bill, I was given a first class ticket.  The train arrived without any first class carriages.  I did get a refund.

 

Transpennine train failed to turn up, happened twice.

 

Transpennine train turned up but after a short distance lost its driver and no replacement forthcoming. Transferred to another train. That train held up for an hour due to an incident on the line.

 

LNER train 1hour late, they provided a refund without my asking.

 

Buses,

 

Bus unable to climb hill after minimal snowfall, had to walk a considerable distance to catch a Metro train.

 

Power steering failed on bus, caught another bus.

 

Rear brakes locked on bus, and bus unable to move, fortunately not too far from home, had to walk.

 

Any other tales of woe ?

 

 

 

 

 

[NYCat]

You may have heard that our subways are having a crime problem. Sometimes it seems our entire country is having a crime problem. The latest thing with the subways is that our governor is sending the national guard to search bags. Any police are a step in the right direction but searching bags? Nutty people on the buses is my worst problem and the drug use in the bus shelter nearest me. The bus drivers have learned that having someone in the shelter doesn't necessarily mean that they need to stop. They just slow down and take a look and pass by if no one is stepping up. Actually, I think we are lucky in NYC with our public transportation. You can get pretty much anywhere for $3 (half that for seniors). 

 

Paulette

[Bryan]

7 hours ago, NYCat said:

You may have heard that our subways are having a crime problem. Sometimes it seems our entire country is having a crime problem. The latest thing with the subways is that our governor is sending the national guard to search bags. Any police are a step in the right direction but searching bags? Nutty people on the buses is my worst problem and the drug use in the bus shelter nearest me. The bus drivers have learned that having someone in the shelter doesn't necessarily mean that they need to stop. They just slow down and take a look and pass by if no one is stepping up. Actually, I think we are lucky in NYC with our public transportation. You can get pretty much anywhere for $3 (half that for seniors). 

 

Paulette

Sorry to learn about the problem with crime on the subway. We made extensive use of the subway system when our son lived in Brooklyn and found the system to be reliable and safe, but that was years ago now. Our main gripe was with the lack of passenger information, although if you looked confused other folk would often offer to help !

 

Fortunately there isn't much rouble on our public transport, occasional vandalism and maybe problems with drunken oafs, but that's about it. I do find people using mobile phones loudly to be a pain, why can't they use a headset and talk quietly ?

 

Re the buses, in this neck of the woods you have to hail a bus by sticking out your arm if you want it to stop. They won't stop if you just stand there.

 

 

[sb photos]

I used to drive to an Oxford Park and Ride, then use my bus pass for the trip into Oxford City Centre. I now catch a bus or coach from a stop only a 10 minute brisk walk from home. The coach gets me into the city centre quicker than driving and park and ride, also its better for the environment and at no cost with my bus pass. I do quite well with licensing Oxford images. No trouble on that bus route so far. I do note an increase in stabbings everywhere, knife crime is slowly becoming a bigger problem. 

[Bryan]

2 hours ago, sb photos said:

I used to drive to an Oxford Park and Ride, then use my bus pass for the trip into Oxford City Centre. I now catch a bus or coach from a stop only a 10 minute brisk walk from home. The coach gets me into the city centre quicker than driving and park and ride, also its better for the environment and at no cost with my bus pass. I do quite well with licensing Oxford images. No trouble on that bus route so far. I do note an increase in stabbings everywhere, knife crime is slowly becoming a bigger problem. 

 

We have to visit Leeds fairly regularly as our elder son and his family live there. I've experimented with both the train and express coach as well as driving. The coach was surprisingly good, you get a much better view of the countryside than when driving as you sit higher in the vehicle, and it was reasonably speedy and relatively cheap. However if you arrive in Leeds city centre around rush hour your have to wait ages for a service bus to take you out to the burbs. There should be a 10 minute service, but, such is the density of traffic, that the buses are unable to stick to the timetable and long waits ensue.  We also visit our other son and his family in Manchester and there the Metrolink tram system gets priority over the cars and the service is excellent. Leeds please take note, once upon a time there was a tram service in Leeds, it's high time it was restored, or measures taken to control the cars in or near the city centre.

Edited March 10 by Bryan

[spacecadet]

We had our fastest ever bus change last night- 10 seconds at the stop. I think the other driver waited a bit although he had shut the doors- perhaps we weren't quite quick enough😀

Public transport is free when you get to 60 in London, after 9am. It used to be all day but after the pandemic the government decided to chisel a bit more out of London Transport because London doesn't vote Conservative.

Edited March 10 by spacecadet

[Cecile Marion]

The Paris metro system is free for under age four, and also for residents sixty-five and older who have a reduced income. 

 

I feel your pain, Bryan. There are lots of transportation options here in Paris, but you never know when something is going to go haywire and possibly ruin your day. I thought Friday was the day from hell, with late buses having to detour around certain neighborhoods, closed because of 1) a gas leak, and 2) a demonstration. Plus, the automatic line #1 trains ceased to stop in my nearby station for some odd reason. However, on Saturday, a very petite older woman, getting off the bus in front of me, had the doors slammed on her, squeezing her shoulders and arms. It looked awful, but she didn't seem to be harmed and just shook it off. The driver appeared to be more upset than the woman. 

[Martin L]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

We had our fastest ever bus change last night- 10 seconds at the stop. I think the other driver waited a bit although he had shut the doors- perhaps we weren't quite quick enough😀

Public transport is free when you get to 60 in London,

Unfortunately you have to live there to qualify 😭

[Vincent Lowe]

3 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

We have to visit Leeds fairly regularly as our elder son and his family live there. I've experimented with both the train and express coach as well as driving. The coach was surprisingly good, you get a much better view of the countryside than when driving as you sit higher in the vehicle, and it was reasonably speedy and relatively cheap. However if you arrive in Leeds city centre around rush hour your have to wait ages for a service bus to take you out to the burbs. There should be a 10 minute service, but, such is the density of traffic, that the buses are unable to stick to the timetable and long waits ensue.  We also visit our other son and his family in Manchester and there the Metrolink tram system gets priority over the cars and the service is excellent. Leeds please take note, once upon a time there was a tram service in Leeds, it's high time it was restored, or measures taken to control the cars in or near the city centre.

 

There are plans for a tram service linking Leeds and Bradford, though I doubt it will make much difference to city-centre traffic.  Leeds was supposed to be getting a trolley bus system a few years ago but the scheme was scrapped.  https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2024/03/07/2bn-leeds-to-bradford-tram-plan-unveiled/

 

Manchester Metrolink is indeed an excellent service - I live about ten minutes walk from a tram stop and I use it a lot.  It does have its problems though, usually caused by dozy car drivers - last week was particularly bad with three seperate crashes.  There's also the odd driver who decides to take a short-cut on the off-road sections.  It usually doesn't end well....

 

Edited March 10 by Vincent Lowe
spelling

[Alexander Hogg]

4 hours ago, spacecadet said:

Public transport is free when you get to 60 in London, after 9am. It used to be all day

In Scotland for 60's and older you can use the buses all day for free and as for the trams in Edinburgh is free for local residents only For longer journeys there is a £1 booking fee for the buses Cannot use our passes in England at all at the moment  

[Bryan]

15 minutes ago, Alexander Hogg said:

In Scotland for 60's and older you can use the buses all day for free and as for the trams in Edinburgh is free for local residents only For longer journeys there is a £1 booking fee for the buses Cannot use our passes in England at all at the moment  

In most of England pensioners travel free on local buses after 9:30 a.m. on weekdays and all day at weekends. The age at which this becomes available is steadily increasing, I was lucky and have been using my bus pass for years, but the age limit has now gone up to 66.   We can't use our passes in Scotland. 

 

Bus pass holders in Tyne and Wear can buy an annual travel pass on the Metro rail system for £12, this covers both the Metro and the river Tyne ferry.  Excellent value.

 

There is an argument for having some public transport completely free. It might persuade folk to leave their cars parked, free up the streets and reduce the traffic pollution and chaos, while making travel to work more viable for youngsters.

 

It would also make sense and be more fair if these allowances and restrictions  were to be uniformly applied throughout the UK.

Edited March 10 by Bryan

[spacecadet]

Luxembourg made all public transport free in 2020. We would- and do- go anyway but it's something of an incentive to go back. It's free in Tallinn, Hasselt and Montpellier as well, but only for residents. Of course in most of Europe transport is regarded as a public service and fare income is a fraction of total revenue- only 10% in Luxembourg. No such luck here.

Edited March 10 by spacecadet

[NYCat]

9 hours ago, Bryan said:

Sorry to learn about the problem with crime on the subway. We made extensive use of the subway system when our son lived in Brooklyn and found the system to be reliable and safe, but that was years ago now. Our main gripe was with the lack of passenger information, although if you looked confused other folk would often offer to help !

 

Fortunately there isn't much rouble on our public transport, occasional vandalism and maybe problems with drunken oafs, but that's about it. I do find people using mobile phones loudly to be a pain, why can't they use a headset and talk quietly ?

 

Re the buses, in this neck of the woods you have to hail a bus by sticking out your arm if you want it to stop. They won't stop if you just stand there.

 

 

 

From the mid 90s until about 2014 we had an amazingly safe city. There was a combination of good governing from mayors and an  efficient police system. Now things are so bad with morale in our police department that the old families in policing here (see the show Blue Bloods) are no longer wanting their kids to go into law enforcement. Fortunately, I think our fire department is still respected and greatly admired for their work on 9/11. I'm glad New Yorkers were stepping up to help you. We can get way too busy to stop.

 

Paulette

[sooth]

7 hours ago, NYCat said:

Fortunately, I think our fire department is still respected and greatly admired for their work on 9/11.

 

9/11 was so long ago, people woke up to the fact that they are still the same conservative organization that's resistant to change. most of its members are still white, anti woman, anti diversity, living in gated enclaves and politically conservative neighborhoods. the fact that the mayor appointed a woman fire commissioner leading to multiple fire chiefs quitting their jobs in protest; and people booing and chanting "trump" while the new york attorney general, a black woman, speaking at a fdny ceremony, speaks volumes about the organization.

Edited March 11 by sooth

[NYCat]

Sorry I opened the door to politics. I'll try to be more careful.

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell]

Back in the early 70's I had a main line train wait for me at York station.

 

Allan

 

[Bryan]

48 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

Back in the early 70's I had a main line train wait for me at York station.

 

Allan

 

 

Intrigued, care to elaborate ?

 

Way back in the day of British Rail I once boarded what I thought was a Newcastle bound train from Derby station. It transpired that my train was running late and that which I had got on was headed to Leeds.  The guard didn't see this as a problem and told me to catch another train from Leeds. I duly did, and again no problem. I can't imagine a similar situation occurring today with multiple different operating companies each with their own rules etc. For example Northern Rail charges a £100 penalty fee if you board one of their trains without a correct ticket.  BR was far from perfect, but I'm not sure that the current arrangement is any better, and, if my experiences with Transpennine Express are anything to go by, far worse.

[Betty LaRue]

On 09/03/2024 at 13:55, Bryan said:

I try to minimise the use of our car, I don't enjoy driving and feel the need to reduce our CO2 emissions as much a possible, hence my use of public transport. Most of the time it's fine, but......

 

Some of the things that have gone wrong -

 

Trains

 

Uniquely, when another organisation was paying the bill, I was given a first class ticket.  The train arrived without any first class carriages.  I did get a refund.

 

Transpennine train failed to turn up, happened twice.

 

Transpennine train turned up but after a short distance lost its driver and no replacement forthcoming. Transferred to another train. That train held up for an hour due to an incident on the line.

 

LNER train 1hour late, they provided a refund without my asking.

 

Buses,

 

Bus unable to climb hill after minimal snowfall, had to walk a considerable distance to catch a Metro train.

 

Power steering failed on bus, caught another bus.

 

Rear brakes locked on bus, and bus unable to move, fortunately not too far from home, had to walk.

 

Any other tales of woe ?

 

 

 

 

 

What I’m wondering, is what happens with a passenger with a handicap, one who through disability or pain issues who can’t do what you did & walk to catch that Metro train? Seems like unacceptable and frightening service to me because I’m there, unable to walk over a half block without body parts locking up on me. While shopping, because the gait is slow with many stops, I’m fine. I just can’t purposefully walk far, even with slower speed.

[Rebecca Ore]

Jinotega is too small for anything bigger than van buses in town, but taxis are shared and I've never in over 13 years had any seriously uncomfortable moments in a taxi (Luis often goes with me, so, yeah).  Only time I've had an uneasy moment was in Matagalpa after an afternoon Spanish lesson when a drunk got in the cab.  Did overhead a cab driver tell a passenger about some gringos who'd asked for a English-speaking cabbie in Jinotega.  My Spanish was good enough to understand what was said.  The cabs charge fixed fares for in town during the day, in town at night, and out beyond the city varies.   Day charge currently is 20 Cordobas, a bit over 54 US cents, up around 5 cents from what it was in 2010.  The cabs get subsidized gasoline prices, I think, and are unionized.   Driving a cab is considered a good job for a Nicaraguan working class man.   Never have had a woman cab driver either here or in either Matagalpa or Maanagua, though I understand there are women drivers on call for women who want that in Managua (capital, around 1 million population in the metro area).

 

One shop on a corner near me will loan me a chair to sit in until Luis gets a cab.  I've got two dodgy knees and use crutches, but can walk pretty well with them. 

 

Jinotega is small enough for walking most places and furniture ad appliance stores deliver within 20 or 30 minutes of buying larger things.   I have no trouble walking to the central park and Claro (telco) office and a couple of smaller grocery stores, about a half a mile.  Bus stations either north or south.  Can walk to the one for buses north; take a cab for Cotran Sur for he buses to Matagalpa or Managua.   Don't currently do buses, though the new air-conditioned Chinese buses are running on the route between Managua and Jinotega as my brother took one when he came here in November. 

 

Electric car charging places are in San Juan del Sur (resort area) and Managua (more recently), but not here yet.  Chinese or Japanese electric cars are for sale in Managua.  Haven't seen electric bikes or motorcycles advertised.  Nothing electric here  for sale that I know of in Jinotega.    Love walkable small cities, but Jinotega and Nicaragua in general have more and more cars on the roads, so much so that we have some traffic lights in town now.

 

The Hilux is the national truck for people who either have a finca (farm) or pretend to, or are owned by the Policia National (the arrested sit cross legged in the bed with their hands cuffed behind their backs and a cop or three standing up over them).   Cop Hiluxes are blue and white.

 

I love not having to own a car. 

[Bryan]

2 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

What I’m wondering, is what happens with a passenger with a handicap, one who through disability or pain issues who can’t do what you did & walk to catch that Metro train? Seems like unacceptable and frightening service to me because I’m there, unable to walk over a half block without body parts locking up on me. While shopping, because the gait is slow with many stops, I’m fine. I just can’t purposefully walk far, even with slower speed.

 

Our buses and trains are all equipped to deal with disabled passengers Betty.  The modern buses dip down at the stops to let me people board easily, while they also have a folding wheelchair ramp and a space allocated for wheelchair users.  In addition, the seats nearest the door are reserved for the elderly or disabled.  I suspect that, in the situation that I described when I had to walk through snow, the driver may have phoned for a taxi for anyone unable to cope. 

 

I hope to be able to continue to use public transport for the remainder of my days ! 

[Allan Bell]

18 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

Intrigued, care to elaborate ?

 

Way back in the day of British Rail I once boarded what I thought was a Newcastle bound train from Derby station. It transpired that my train was running late and that which I had got on was headed to Leeds.  The guard didn't see this as a problem and told me to catch another train from Leeds. I duly did, and again no problem. I can't imagine a similar situation occurring today with multiple different operating companies each with their own rules etc. For example Northern Rail charges a £100 penalty fee if you board one of their trains without a correct ticket.  BR was far from perfect, but I'm not sure that the current arrangement is any better, and, if my experiences with Transpennine Express are anything to go by, far worse.

 

 

Sorry Bryan but if I was to elaborate I would be breaking the terms of the Official Secrets Act I had to sign.

 

Allan

 

[Alamy]

In alignment with our new ways of moderating the forum, we're locking this topic at it's not photography related.

 

Thanks

 

Alamy