This morning I walked down to the New Inn in Ombersley Road at 08-50 in good time to catch the 08-58 number 37 into Crowngate, the display was showing this bus as 29 minutes late and the 09-30 departure on time. When the clock time approached 09-30, yes 09-30, the 08-58 service just disappeared off the display; now I would have thought the least that could have been shown was 'sorry cancelled' which is the way that all railway stations operate. In the event the 08-58 was missing altogether and the 09-30 was running just 3 minutes late. This meant that bus users didn't have a Firstbus for 98 minutes between the 07-56 and what became the 09-34 departure in the peak period - yes 98 minutes just 2.5 miles from the centre of a City of over 100,000 population.AdamH wrote: ↑11:47 Wednesday 23rd November 2016I would have though the display should show "0 mins" or "Now" when your bus arrived. Anyone who arrived one minute later would be pleased to read they only have a short wait, yet in reality they have missed it.
Was the bus running two minutes early by chance?
My 37 service has deteriorated markedly since the timetable changes, this same working was missing altogether about a fortnight ago, and prior to that the 08-58 departure bus came straight up the Ombersley Road at approx. 09-20 to the Green Lane terminus, missing out Northwick Green and the top end of Grange Avenue completely. Again anyone on the loop didn't have a bus for at least one and a half hours.
From the City I was waiting for a lunchtime bus at Crowngate a couple of weeks ago and the bus was on the stand well before departure time, but no driver came and it was eventually driven away and parked up and we all had to wait 30 minutes for the next bus.
Today the bus arrived into the bus station on time, but the changeover driver eventually got us under way 15 minutes late, he may be RTA, but it looks bad for the dozen or so passengers waiting to get home!
Last week we departed on time but only made it round the block because of either a flat tyre or offside suspension collapse. Back in the bus station we were herded off the bus and told to wait back in the relevant stand, again another half hour vigil for the next bus. All the while number 35 buses were leaving every 7, 8 or 10 minutes to Warndon and none was pulled off to obviate an hour gap for passengers waiting to come into town from the northern end of 37. Just not good enough and worthy of some fine old Anglo-Saxon expletives!
These are only MY experiences, and many other passengers relate that they too have experienced other buses missing altogether, many running very late and no changeover drivers to take a bus over on the Crowngate stand. Some are so disillusioned that they prefer to use the Diamond 303 BECAUSE IT IS MORE RELIABLE (Yes Diamond more reliable!) and walk up to half a mile home up the steep Grange Avenue climb from the New Inn.