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links for 2009-07-24

Published on 24 July 2009 in

  • The first bendys are on their way out – and they’re going on the 507 which, as anyone who has ever seen the 507, is the most perfect route for bendy buses in the first place. Nice, straight long roads and huge queues at railway stations to rapidly absorb. Still, it was a manifesto pledge and Boris has duly delivered.
  • TfL make performance reports available for each of its bus routes. Just type in the number and you’re awash with information about average waiting times, and excess waiting times – aka how long people have to wait when the buses aren’t performing reliably. They used to make available average speeds for buses as well – I presume they still measure it although it was always depressingly slow. Anyway, it will be very interesting to see how the new, increased frequency 507 compares on reliability with the bendy version. We’ll find out some point after April 2010. Then I can either go "Rats. Boris was right to ditch them after all" or send pitying messages to those whose journey is worse than it was before. Just be aware, I won’t be offering to eat my hat.
  • What the… Oh hang on. I get it. It’s all a cunning plan. There’s going to be a big campaign to bring back the Bill’s theme tune. And lo, they’ll go "Oh, err… okay!" and launch it back in a blaze of glory. And publicity.