public transport

[colin timney]

today i had to take the surf to a garage in newcastle 16 miles from my home,when i dropped the car off it was 1.30 ,i could have waited for mrs t to finish work be she was not going to leave work till 6pm,so i made the brave step to use public transport for the first time in four years, never again. i got on the tyne and wear metro at byker at 1.30pm paid what i thought was a reasonble £2.60, i had to change lines two stops in to my ride, got the connecting train to sunderland travelled a good few stops all was fine, then we got to a stop called east bolden when the driver said this was as far as he could go as somthing up the line was stopping him, so he terminated the train. i was about five stops away from where i needed to be.I followed a group of people to the bus stop,the bus came, as i went to enter the bus the driver said he was full,and he took great pleasure telling me the next bus will be in 20 mins.Then it started to rain,the bus came, it cost me £1.65 for about 4 miles, it took me to sunderland where i had to catch another bus, the driver was pole i could not understand him and he could not understand me,after a bit of guess work he charged me £1.50.i arrived home at 4.30. three hours after i left newcastle which is only 16 miles away a journey that took half an hour to drive there.
HOW CAN THE GOVERMENT TELL US PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS WAY WE SHOULD BE TRAVELING.i think it will be another four years before i will be using it again.
colin

[da SLUG man]

all we have is empty Vodafone staff busses that drive straight past.

what always gets me is the "exact fare only"... how am i supposed to know how much it's gonna be??... last time i got a bus to town i was 15 and it cost 90p return!

in Dublin, there were 6 of us getting the bus so thought a £20 (or french equvalent) note would be fine... the Diver moaned like $$$$!!...

[POPEYE]

Totally aggree with you Colin, i use the bus every friday night for the short hop from havant to cosham (about two and a half miles, in a straight line), it takes anything between 20 min and 45 min depending on wot driver you get, some stop at every stop regardless if there's anyone there or not and a few hardly stop at all, a couple of times not stopping when there was someone waiting, it's a real white knuckle ride sometimes, only use em so i can have a beer without worrying, the fast one is handy comeing back as im usually busting for a slash but you get a slow one and it's murder, waiting in the cold and wet plus all the gobby $$$$$$$$s you get on there and they wonder why more people done use the busses

[marky]

Public Transport feels so Degrading its not nice

[AuldNick]

Roads here are full of empty buses chucking out black reek.

[kitesurf_phil]

I take the First Capital Connect (the announcers friend) train to London Bridge, then go one stop to Waterloo East on South Eastern every working day. It takes 1 1/4 hours each way to travel about 35 miles and costs nearly £80 for a weekly return. I mostly only work 4 x 12 Hr days out of seven (so I never get my moneys worth). You can bet that on at least one of those days the trains will be $$$$ed for one reason or another. Last week it was trespassers on the line (fit the trains with cow catchers and $$$$ 'em) signal failure, driver shortages, points failure and a broken down train.

The alternative is the M1 widening works between J11 and J6, where numpties tailgate each other in the contra-flow and there is at least three rear-enders a day. Add to that the broken down cars, HGVs and the 40MPH speed limit ($$$$$$ lucky to make 20MPH on a good day). I costed it out and with the Congestion Charge and rise in diesel it works out to about £80.00 to drive in for four shifts.

At least on the train I can read, listen to five teenagers playing different tunes at the same time on their mobiles and have a couple of strong beers on the way home.

[Apache]

today i had to take the surf to a garage in newcastle 16 miles from my home,when i dropped the car off it was 1.30 ,i could have waited for mrs t to finish work be she was not going to leave work till 6pm,so i made the brave step to use public transport for the first time in four years, never again. i got on the tyne and wear metro at byker at 1.30pm paid what i thought was a reasonble £2.60, i had to change lines two stops in to my ride, got the connecting train to sunderland travelled a good few stops all was fine, then we got to a stop called east bolden when the driver said this was as far as he could go as somthing up the line was stopping him, so he terminated the train. i was about five stops away from where i needed to be.I followed a group of people to the bus stop,the bus came, as i went to enter the bus the driver said he was full,and he took great pleasure telling me the next bus will be in 20 mins.Then it started to rain,the bus came, it cost me £1.65 for about 4 miles, it took me to sunderland where i had to catch another bus, the driver was pole i could not understand him and he could not understand me,after a bit of guess work he charged me £1.50.i arrived home at 4.30. three hours after i left newcastle which is only 16 miles away a journey that took half an hour to drive there.
HOW CAN THE GOVERMENT TELL US PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS WAY WE SHOULD BE TRAVELING.i think it will be another four years before i will be using it again.
colin

16 miles in 3 hours is nearly walkable at a fast pace! Thats bleedin ridiculous!