"Missing" London bus journey

[Joseph T]

I get to school using a quarter-hourly London bus service. Usually I catch it at 07:42 from my station but if late I catch the 07:57. Today, however, I missed the 07:42 but the 07:57 did not seem to exist on the leaderboard, nor on any app. Why might this happen?

 

[Geordie driver]

I get to school using a quarter-hourly London bus service. Usually I catch it at 07:42 from my station but if late I catch the 07:57. Today, however, I missed the 07:42 but the 07:57 straight up did not seem to exist on the leaderboard, nor on any app. Why might this happen?

No bus or no driver.

 

[Deerfold]

I get to school using a quarter-hourly London bus service. Usually I catch it at 07:42 from my station but if late I catch the 07:57. Today, however, I missed the 07:42 but the 07:57 straight up did not seem to exist on the leaderboard, nor on any app. Why might this happen?

Leaderboard?

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Leaderboard?

I took that to mean the electronic "countdown" board at the bus stop(?)

 

[Hophead]

Do London buses ever fail to track? It's not unknown elsewhere (if using the map on bustimes.org)?

 

[ALEMASTER]

London seem to do data differently to the rest of the country and they don't make it easy to see the actual full timetable! The full timetable for London bus routes does appear on bustimes.org but it doesn't seem to have the live tracking against said timetable in the same way that other areas do.

When you say the 07:57 didn't appear to exist, did it actually run and not track or did it not turn up at all?

 

[Deerfold]

Do London buses ever fail to track? It's not unknown elsewhere (if using the map on bustimes.org)?

London bus operators get paid on a basis of mileage operated (with bonuses or penalties on top of that). If a bus isn't tracking, manual paperwork can be submitted to say it ran - but the tracking failure should be reported and if not reported there's a limit to how long they'll accept paperwork instead of the automated tracking. If the system isn't fixed by London Buses' contractor they can continue to submit paper records, but it's rare for that to happen for any length of time - most operators would report it and send out another bus until it's fixed.

London seem to do data differently to the rest of the country and they don't make it easy to see the actual full timetable! The full timetable for London bus routes does appear on bustimes.org but it doesn't seem to have the live tracking against said timetable in the same way that other areas do.

London Buses would like the full mileage to run, but on high frequency (5bph+) routes they're more bothered about the gaps between buses so on high frequency routes trips can often appear to be very late. Nothing will appear on Countdown screens or apps if a bus is not logged in on a trip (unless the app is trying to be clever and getting timetable information from another source) - there isn't the concept of timetabled journeys in the same way as on other systems (the system can be set to do that, but isn't). On low frequency (up to 4bph) routes the trips should match better.

 

[Roger1973]

London seem to do data differently to the rest of the country and they don't make it easy to see the actual full timetable! The full timetable for London bus routes does appear on bustimes.org but it doesn't seem to have the live tracking against said timetable in the same way that other areas do.

Nothing will appear on Countdown screens or apps if a bus is not logged in on a trip (unless the app is trying to be clever and getting timetable information from another source) - there isn't the concept of timetabled journeys in the same way as on other systems (the system can be set to do that, but isn't).

Indeed.

There isn't a 'right' way of doing it.

Outside London, most real time systems will show a scheduled departure time (as in '11 to Station - 1535') rather than a prediction (as in '11 to Station - 3 mins) if the system can't 'see' the bus (either because the kit is faulty or the driver has not logged in properly or because the bus just isn't running) until the scheduled departure time. This annoys people if the bus has been cancelled.

In London, a bus will not show on displays if the system can't 'see' the bus, which can include the minute or two while there's a driver change-over happening. One route I used to use fairly regularly had a spate of buses disappearing off the displays for a few minutes because the system had a particular 'dead spot' a mile or two away (this has now been remedied) - some times I'd see there wasn't a bus any time soon, start walking, and then it would pass me when I was nearly at my destination...

 

[Joseph T]

Leaderboard?

The board at some stops that tells you what buses will arrive and when.

London seem to do data differently to the rest of the country and they don't make it easy to see the actual full timetable! The full timetable for London bus routes does appear on bustimes.org but it doesn't seem to have the live tracking against said timetable in the same way that other areas do.

When you say the 07:57 didn't appear to exist, did it actually run and not track or did it not turn up at all?

I don't think it turned up at all. I took another bus at the time the original one was meant to arrive. I sat in the back to check if the bus was following me, but there was no sign of it whatsoever.

 

[Busaholic]

I don't think it turned up at all. I took another bus at the time the original one was meant to arrive. I sat in the back to check if the bus was following me, but there was no sign of it whatsoever.

So it either wasn't running at all, at least on that part of its route, or was running very late. Either way, it wouldn't appear on the screen you were watching.