Countdown II

On Monday 17th October we launch to the public the full real time information service for bus users. This has been under test for several weeks and the test site address has already spread.

But from Monday it will work from http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses. Much more usefully smartphone users will be taken directly to the new mobile site which is configured for easy reading on such devices.

The new service provides real time information for all 19,000 bus stops on the network. It's like have Countdown in your hand. You can access it on-line, on your phone, and by text by sending the bus stop code to 87287. The SMS text service costs 12p per call - all the on-line information is free.

Already clever people are developing Applications which provide the information and at least one of them is already in the Top Ten of paid-for Applications. This demonstrates how popular the information will be. I am sure there will be many more.

It is better than a Countdown sign which you can only see at the stop. In future you will be able to stay at home, work, or other venue until it is time to walk to your stop. For some people this will bring added security as they will not be waiting at the bus stop for too long. In other cases I foresee, for example, parents being able to predict the arrival times of their children at stops and being able to meet them off the bus.

And we would never have been able to fit Countdown signs at all the stops. We are adding another signs at 500 locations and renewing the entire network of signs. But the cost of doing so in many areas was prohibitive, yet to some, information where the frequencies are lower is actually more important. At a stroke this overcomes the problem of providing information in such places.

I predict that this development which make a big change to the way in which people plan their journeys and use the bus network. Certainly those who have been trying it out already have already indicated just how valuable it is.


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East London line phase 2

I am still catching up so here is another story from last weekend.

On Friday 7th October I did a whistlestop tour around various railway developments and amongst them the progress being made to connect the East London Line south of Surrey Quays so it can connect to Clapham Junction and thus create an orbital railway around London.

This link will be ready in Spring 2012 and follows an old railway alignment which closed in 1911 between Rotherhithe and Peckham. It threads its way through an area alongside Millwall Football Club, between businesses and homes to make this 1.5m connection.

Work was proceeding at a great speed and the day I was there was immediately prior to the arrival of the bridge to span Surrey Canal Road which was at that moment on the motorway being escorted to London.

Above therefore is perhaps the last picture of the site prior to the arrival of the bridge which went into place over the weekend.

The East London Line is growing at a remarkable rate. Dating back to 1869 this quiet backwater of the London Underground was to some extent neglected and unloved. It had a thorough refurbishment in the mid 1990s only to have a complete upgrade as part of a bigger and better Overground and opening again in 2011 after a three year upgrade to Network Rail standards. Now connected to the North London Line it provided new links across north east inner London.

With the new section opened next year the missing link will allow further orbital journeys to give relief to hard-pressed main line stations including London Bridge.

The new bridge being lifted into position

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Show Time

This is the start of some catch-ups - sorry for so little activity recently.

It is show season with the American Passenger Transportation Association event in New Orleans and Coach & Bus Live at NEC Birmingham both this week and only 12 days before Busworld at Kortrijt.

These events very much demonstrate the temperature of the industry's economy and in the case of the UK Show the first thing obvious to visitors was that on the very long walk from the airport/station apart from the Horse of the Year Show there were absolutely no other events going on at NEC. Mile after mile of empty exhibition areas until you arrive at Hall 17, home of Coach & Bus Live which itself only occupied two-thirds of the available space.
Although there is a UK Show every year they alternate between this rather smaller one and a bigger event in even years. Although Volvo and ADL had their own large stands there were relatively few other major manufacturers - King Long, BMC and some others but generally rather thin.

It is not surprising. Despite the very thin times being experienced by NEC the cost of taking the hall is still expensive and the cost of having a stand and manning it easily runs into six figures. More than one manufacturer expresses the view that for the money they could take their best and/or most promising customers to an idyllic island paradise for a long weekend and have their exclusive attention. In contrast those same customers step off one stand duly fed and watered and go straight to a competitor's.

The bulk of these Shows is increasingly taken up by the supporting manufacturers of components, materials and services and perhaps the most interesting continues to be those promoting the benefits of new technology. Some of the more far-thinking operators were clearly engaged in opportunities for improved efficiency and reduced costs by engaging with them.

I had one commitment myself which was to be part of the presentation in the Show's auditorium for operators to learn about the Olympic Games and how it affects London and the other venues.

This took place in an open seated area in the middle of the Show. With a headset microphone to help beat the background noise of the whole event and people coming and going throughout it felt like I was demonstrating a new foot bath in a department store but it was good to see so many coach operators eager to learn about the business opportunities which the Games will bring, as well as the making sure they were prepared for the changes to the way the road network will operate.

A First Wrights-bodied Volvo was on display demonstrating the quality of external refurbishments being undertaken, and in the moments before opening TfL Roundels were being applied.

A nostalgic line-up of AA road vehicles past and present
was an interesting feature of this year's show

Thanksgiving Service

A First London VNW in the courtyard of
St Clement Dane's Church in London at the
Public Transport Workers' Service
of Thanksgiving

Events have, in the past week or so, come past so quickly I am afraid I have been slow to post them on my blog.

How to start - last weekend we had the Tour of Britain Cycle Race London stage and time trial taking place in the centre of town. During this week we announced a further initiative on roadworks in London with the Mayor launching it at Palestra, and then today there was the annual Public Transport Workers' Service of Thanksgiving at St Clement Danes' Church in Central London organised by Winston Dottin.
I am going to major on the last one as it represents a powerful occasion in which staff come together to celebrate their multi-cultural past and express their hopes for the future.



It was of course in the early 1950s that London Transport sought people from the West Indies to fill vacancies at operating and engineering grades. Today the Revd David Tudor gave a tremendous sermon in which he charted the conditions which these British passport holders from the West Indies arrived in Britain. They were less surprised by the weather than they were by the reaction of some to their arrival.
Yet they formed the backbone of London's transport operating staff and many achieved very long service over the years.


For my part I told the congregation that in 2012 once again Londoners will rely on its transport workers to deliver and also that they will be supported by the entire extended TfL family.

Next year is full of big events - the Queen's Diamond Jubilee starts the summer off before we get into the Olympic Games and London will be full of people throughout.

Everyone, those people relying on public transport to get to the venues, to work or for recreation, will rely on London's transport staff. Today's event reminded us that London does so every day. They do during bad weather, they did during the civil unrest only a few weeks ago and they will during the whole of 2012.

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News from the BBC

Passengers tell us that London's bus network is one of the best in the world - frequent, clean, reliable and safe. But, as with most things in life, it isn't perfect.

The BBC's transport expert, Tom Edwards, illustrated this last week with some interesting reflections on the volume and nature of the complaints we receive about buses.

Complaints are really important feedback for us. We use them to identify the root causes of issues and enable us to address them where we can.

But one thing we shouldn't forget is the sheer scale of London's bus network, which is central to keeping the great metropolis of London moving and growing. This helps to put the number of complaints into context.

Buses carry some 6 million passengers a day. Last year, we carried a record 2.25 billion passengers (while, incidentally, the Underground carried a record 1.1 billion passengers).

Every complaint is, of course, important, and many people who are dissatisfied won't complain formally when they experience a poor service. But even taking that into account, 26,000 complaints over a whole year is a tiny proportion of the passengers we carry each day. So, without being complacent, we must be getting quite lot right.

The number of complaints by route also needs some explanation. Our bus routes are not of uniform size. Some are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week every few minutes in busy areas, while others run a couple of times a day on schooldays only. This is why routes like 38 and 73 feature because they are amongst the ones that carry the most passengers.

But as a percentage of passengers carried, the number of complaints is very small. It is where levels of complaint are disproportionately high relative to passenger numbers on the route that we take a particularly sharp interest in them.

We know that for every formal complaint there may be some other dissatisfied customers who didn’t put pen to paper. But we like complaints. Each and every one of them tells us about what went wrong for individuals who used our network. It would cost a fortune to learn this through research, so every single letter, email and phone call is reviewed to see what lessons might be learned.

Where there have been issues regarding staff, we do what we can to identify them and they are followed up. These days, on-board CCTV helps us understand what went on and the behaviour of staff – and passengers – is there for us to see.

I regularly review complaints and take a personal interest in investigations. There is no doubt that some passengers do not get the service to which they are entitled, and in those cases we apologise and, where appropriate, take other steps to put things right.

Many complainants provide good information (date, time, direction, even registration number of bus) so we can quickly get onto it. They are also often written to prevent a repetition in the future rather than to seek compensation. I welcome them because it helps us to take steps to improve our service to customers.

Our services are open to all and occasionally there will be a problem. I’m glad 26,000 people contacted us to tell us what they thought, even if that is a tiny fraction of the passengers we carry every day. In fact, I encourage anyone who has suffered poor service to contact us through the many available channels. It is their chance to make sure we know, and our chance to put it right.

And if that means more people are writing to us – I will be delighted! And, very soon, we will start publishing our complaints statistics across all of TfL's services - buses, Underground etc - so that all of our customers can see how we are doing.

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Return to Imber

Heeding the severe warning of the sign on the left, the first wave of
Routemasters venture onto the military road

The third annual pilgrimage to liberate the abandoned village of Imber, on Salisbury Plain, evacuated in 1943 and never returned, took place yesterday.

This village, like several others, was commandeered during the war. In this case it provided a training facility for US troops ahead of D-Day. Only a very few or the original inhabitants remain alive. But once a year thanks to the efforts of local people and with the co-operation of the Ministry of Defence, the military road across Salisbury Plain is opened. A service takes place at St Giles' church, and relatives can visit their ancestors buried in the churchyard.

An ever-developing bus network allows people to visit the village and also see the views of abandoned tanks, firing ranges and of course the specially-built target buildings installed for military training. In more recent times the persona of the village has been more like urban Northern Ireland. This year the network ventured even further to outlying villages and with the arrangements more widely publicised, an increasing number of people visited.

As already described across on The Omnibuses Blog a fleet of Routemasters delivered the service - thanks to the combined efforts of Bath Bus Company, Stagecoach, First and led by Peter Hendy. The service is properly registered for the day and the Traffic Commissioner for the South West, Sarah Bell, inspected the operation personally. This year Routemasters 1005, 1510, 2344, 2657 and 2735 were involved.

The opportunity to visit this site attracts a good many local people, many of whom have their own stories of the village and its occupants. Real-time aural history abounds on the buses, in the village and at the church.
Once more it was blessed with good weather and enjoyed by all.

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Notting Hill Carnival

This year's Notting Hill Carnival passed without major incident thanks to the hard work of the Police, organisers and many others.

Although I have worked at this event on many occasions this was my first one for TfL. Once again I am hugely impressed by all the work that goes on the prepare for this event. The road closures, diversions, bus service alterations and the supply of information to everyone were all done really well by an experienced set of teams.

There were relatively few arrests, the transport system catered for all the Carnival-goers, and people generally had a good time.

This is my opportunity to thank everyone who was involved, the time they gave up across what is the last bank holiday weekend before Christmas, and for making it such a success.

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