Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I find walking any significant distance (other than somewhere particularly nice as a hike) really quite boring. Cycling yes though!
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Why are so many people ashamed of riding the bus or walking?
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I find walking any significant distance (other than somewhere particularly nice as a hike) really quite boring. Cycling yes though!
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RailUK Forums
Strangely I enjoy urban walking near town/city centres. One of my favourite walks is Hampstead heath to St Pancras via Camden, closely followed by Rusholme to central Manchester.
Industrial estates and suburbia are less interesting, but that's what Spotify is for!!
I also share your love of cycling though.
She didn't (or, at least, there's no evidence she ever said it).
It has also been attributed to a Duchess of Westminster I think - but that too seems to be a myth.
edwin_m
Veteran Member
Indeed. However it has a "ring of truth" to it as something she might well have said. Rather like she said to the British Rail board that if any of them were any good they wouldn't have been there.
Nothing wrong with walking, I have always done a lot of it. I don't use the bus as much as I used to because of the price of fares (unless I have a bus and train ticket). For example, the mile from my home to town costs about £2.60 each way. For the price of £5.20 I can have my dinner in town and have change, so I regularly walk it and help to keep myself fit. The only exception is if it is a very wet day when I will use my car.
Another problem I have with buses, is that since 20 - 30 years ago bus routes have been cut to the bone. For example, there used to be 3 routes from Wigan to Manchester, one an express that took just 61 minutes. Now there are no direct services during the daytime. I have also found that after 6PM on a Saturday evening, there are few buses. It has often took me around 35 minutes to come from Manchester on the train and I have then waited as long for a bus to take me the mile home.
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Lucky ,I have the 31 at every 30 mins
Yeah I have the 1s, 2,6 closest to me then the 3 and X4 are about a 10min walk away so I don't think there's many better areas in Glasgow to stay
You can't be far away from me! Technically the 3 is my closest bus, but if I use it (normally I walk, take the train - also very close - or I'm going somewhere I have to drive) I use the 1 or 2 because they're not much further and run more often. Avoid the 6 like the plague though, had bad experiences with the route years ago and stopped trusting it.
Yeah the 6 isn't so good but I use it because of having friends in East Kilbride. Just need the 1s to be less late more often. I tend to go for the 1C as it's closer and more reliable
I use the 6 occasionally between town and EK , its the second nearest bus to my house , still a 20 min walk though . I use it after 920 (last 31 to ek is at 920 and it runs later with nightbus ). Ive had issues with 6 not turning up ,intervals all over the place , rarely runs every 12 mins . Seems to be busier on southern portion of route .
I stay in EK so my local route is 31 then a 20 min walk away is the 6 and train .Last 31 to EK is at 920 , quite often only person on the 31 on these evening buses .
Yeah I've been on the 31 quite a lot just because I get bored of the 18 and the 21 takes too long at peak times and doesn't run early enough to Gardenhall on a Saturday so when my girlfriend and I go to visit her mum and dad we occasionally get the 31 as it's far quieter
Journey to nearest big town for me and a partner/friend:
By bus. £5.50 each return. One bus every two hours. Total £11.00.
By car. £7.44 in total running costs for the 24 mile round trip (all annual costs including insurance, tax, depreciation, servicing, maintenance, breakdown cover, real world mpg). £2.50 for up to 6 hours parking. Total £9.94.
Add in the harder to quantify costs of quicker journey by car and at times we'd like to travel and the private car wins hands down.
By bus. £5.50 each return. One bus every two hours. Total £11.00.
By car. £7.44 in total running costs for the 24 mile round trip (all annual costs including insurance, tax, depreciation, servicing, maintenance, breakdown cover, real world mpg). £2.50 for up to 6 hours parking. Total £9.94.
Add in the harder to quantify costs of quicker journey by car and at times we'd like to travel and the private car wins hands down.
Statto
Established Member
Another issue that put a few off from using buses, is what feels like constant changes to the network, frequencies, ecc, Arriva are one of the biggest culprits of death by a thousand cuts.
One of my local companies Stagecoach Wirral & Chester is changing the network again in September,, X8 is being replaced by the X1, X1 Liverpool-Chester will replace most of the X8 & the 2 Ellesmere Port to Little Sutton, then you have the proposed Liverpool City Centre changes in the new year, most buses either only going as far as Queen Square, or Liverpool One.
Also how many network changes which include renumberings have there been in the West Midlands over the last few years, even i forget what the new numbers are, like Wolverhampton to Stourbridge used to be 256, i often forget it's now 16.
One of my local companies Stagecoach Wirral & Chester is changing the network again in September,, X8 is being replaced by the X1, X1 Liverpool-Chester will replace most of the X8 & the 2 Ellesmere Port to Little Sutton, then you have the proposed Liverpool City Centre changes in the new year, most buses either only going as far as Queen Square, or Liverpool One.
Also how many network changes which include renumberings have there been in the West Midlands over the last few years, even i forget what the new numbers are, like Wolverhampton to Stourbridge used to be 256, i often forget it's now 16.
Tom B
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I live in London these days. Almost any journey is easiest by public transport, and my workplace, which employs in excess of 800 persons, has precisely a dozen parking spaces. Typically, they are used by contractors, and staff are permitted to use them in exceedingly rare circumstances - though more liberally at weekends by shift workers, especially with the late Sunday start to many lines.
It takes me 45-50mins, shift permitting, to get the tube and bus to and from work. Car would be longer, although weekend earlies it is quicker (my record being 19 minutes at 5.30am on a Sunday...).
I wrote a similar post to the below about 10 years ago - but I think it still stands, albeit an extreme example :
Now, suppose instead I lived in South Yorkshire. Let's assume that I live on a "main" bus route and work in a town centre (since radial services are almost extinct), and work permanent days (since there is no night service, and the frequency is low as early as 6pm). My employers likely have a free car park with ample spaces. I own a car which I use to get to and from work - doing around 40 miles per week, I buy around 1.5 gallons of petrol (less than a tenner) for commuting.
Let's say that such a person decides to try the bus, perhaps his car is in the garage or maybe he just thinks he should give it a try. He knows that buses pass on the main road, since the racket of ill maintained engines trying to climb a hill can be heard regularly. So the next morning, he goes down to the bus stop. There are timetables for five different services on the stop, with five different service numbers, although eventually he discovers that they are a supposedly integrated service which, combined, runs every ten minutes. That being said, the timetable does say that some services may not run during school holidays, but doesnt specify which, just for the added excitement. Oh, and there is no indication on the stop of how much the fare is! Still, there's a bus in a few minutes.... only the time comes and goes with no bus in sight. He thinks to ring the number advertised for enquiries, and gets through to a call centre who say they don't know anything about when the next bus is, since they are from the PTE and the buses are privately run. After a while, the bus behind turns up, and the surly driver is not happy being asked about fares, and even more unhappy when the passenger proffers a ten pound note. But, having parted with £4.90, the passenger takes his seat and admires the graffiti-covered interior, with litter from yesterday still strewn everywhere, and enjoys an elongated amble around back streets and other estates (covering for previously withdrawn minibus routes) arriving in town some time later. Oh, and in town there's a diversion, but nobody advises the passengers of this, so he ends up some distance away from where he reckoned.
Next time, he gets a lift with a friend!
It takes me 45-50mins, shift permitting, to get the tube and bus to and from work. Car would be longer, although weekend earlies it is quicker (my record being 19 minutes at 5.30am on a Sunday...).
I wrote a similar post to the below about 10 years ago - but I think it still stands, albeit an extreme example :
Now, suppose instead I lived in South Yorkshire. Let's assume that I live on a "main" bus route and work in a town centre (since radial services are almost extinct), and work permanent days (since there is no night service, and the frequency is low as early as 6pm). My employers likely have a free car park with ample spaces. I own a car which I use to get to and from work - doing around 40 miles per week, I buy around 1.5 gallons of petrol (less than a tenner) for commuting.
Let's say that such a person decides to try the bus, perhaps his car is in the garage or maybe he just thinks he should give it a try. He knows that buses pass on the main road, since the racket of ill maintained engines trying to climb a hill can be heard regularly. So the next morning, he goes down to the bus stop. There are timetables for five different services on the stop, with five different service numbers, although eventually he discovers that they are a supposedly integrated service which, combined, runs every ten minutes. That being said, the timetable does say that some services may not run during school holidays, but doesnt specify which, just for the added excitement. Oh, and there is no indication on the stop of how much the fare is! Still, there's a bus in a few minutes.... only the time comes and goes with no bus in sight. He thinks to ring the number advertised for enquiries, and gets through to a call centre who say they don't know anything about when the next bus is, since they are from the PTE and the buses are privately run. After a while, the bus behind turns up, and the surly driver is not happy being asked about fares, and even more unhappy when the passenger proffers a ten pound note. But, having parted with £4.90, the passenger takes his seat and admires the graffiti-covered interior, with litter from yesterday still strewn everywhere, and enjoys an elongated amble around back streets and other estates (covering for previously withdrawn minibus routes) arriving in town some time later. Oh, and in town there's a diversion, but nobody advises the passengers of this, so he ends up some distance away from where he reckoned.
Next time, he gets a lift with a friend!
johnnychips
Established Member
I’ve had to get to work by two buses daily recently for the past two months in Doncaster. It takes about forty minutes compared with twenty by car (broken at the moment). I’m immune, but what would put other people off - not old buses, worn seats and to some extent litter - are swearing by, not necessarily badly-behaved, secondary schoolchildren; and noisy badly-behaved younger children, and the equally loud, sometimes equally sweary, responses of their parents trying to control them. Of course this doesn’t include the slow journey calling everywhere. I hope this doesn’t appear condescending, but it is realistic.
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Tom B
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On a visit back home, I accidentally caught a bus which passed Christchurch just as Hall X were kicking out, ye gods it was some experience.
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