20 November (Part 2) - Bexley’s buses are bloody awful
Please excuse a personal rant, but do you find that Bexleyheath is full of
near half million pound electric buses but they are rarely going where you want
them to? The situation is not helped by the fact that space considerations
dictate that there are five separate bus ‘stations’ (three are
alighting points only) within 150 yards of each other and the services to Abbey Wood
depart from four different bus stops.
It has been noted at Transport Users’ Committee meetings that the departure
indicators tell lies and this may be, in the case of the 301, because most of them
stop for a while in Arnsberg Way and then proceed to the Highland Road roundabout to turn
around and return to The Clock Tower stop. The transponder therefore sometimes
shows a bus due but in reality it is parked in Arnsberg Way but maybe more often
the transponder is off so a bus turns up unexpectedly at The Clock Tower. Some
arrive with Woolwich displayed on the front and others say Bexleyheath and
usually depart empty to Bus Neverland.
Yesterday I was at Lion Road and there were no SL3s to Thamesmead indicated for
25 minutes - which may or may not be an accurate estimate - so I took a bus to
The Clock Tower to test my luck on a 301. I didn’t have to wait at Lion Road and
at The Clock Tower there was a 301 waiting with Woolwich on the front. It must
have been around 5 p.m. by then.
I trotted along to join the queue but the doors did not open and the lights went
out. The bus was slightly short of its stop as is very often the case but the
driver was remonstrating from within the darkened bus with the
would-be
passengers. She wanted them to get away from the edge of the kerb so that she
could safely pull forward. Few could hear what she was saying so she came to the
exit door and was rather rude to the waiting throng. She then realised that she
was getting unnecessarily agitated so made an apology, the excuse being that she
had become rather stressed.
It then became clearer what she was trying to do. The ramp was activated for a
man in a wheelchair but it turned out that he didn’t actually want to get on a
301, so the ramp was withdrawn and the doors closed on a bus that was still in
darkness. Why was a
wheelchair user encouraged to get on a bus without lights?
With all doors closed the driver went to the front and fiddled for ages with the driver log-in machine.
After keeping everyone waiting for ten or twelve minutes in the freezing cold we set off towards Abbey Wood and Woolwich.
When we got to the Pickford Lane junction the bus was stopped and the lights
went out again and we were told to get off. I think it was stress again. We were
assured that the next bus was right behind us and the stressed driver set off.
After about five minutes standing on the footpath more than a little numb with cold
I checked my bus app. It said the next 301 was due in nine minutes. After what
seemed ages I checked again and it said seven minutes and then it went up to
eight. Meanwhile three SL3s went by while 15 or so
people stood around in the 1° cold.
I got home at three minutes past six. 73 minutes from Lion Road.
Today I got off a 96 from Dartford at The Clock Tower at
1:15 and was pleased to see a 301 was due in one minute. It never turned up.
Ditto several minutes later. A third 301 was eventually advertised and one showed up with Bexleyheath on the
front but changed it to something else while moving past and did not stop. Not even to let
passengers off. 25 minutes after getting to The Clock Tower in literally
freezing conditions a bus driver deigned to stop and let passengers on. She drove
like the proverbial clappers and the journey home took only 49 minutes. More than
twice what it should have done.