(f) Problem of London bus service:
(i)
(ii)
Bus services penetrate nearly every part of Greater London
and for large numbers of people are the only transport
service immediately available.
For many passengers, however, travelling by bus can often
be an uncomfortable business.
(iii) Long waits at unsheltered bus stops, ended by the simultaneous
(iv)
arrival of several buses in a bunch, are all too common. The
journeys themselves are on average too slow.
And both waiting and travelling times are too variable to enable
passengers to judge with any accuracy the times they will
reach their destinations.
(v)
These problems are accentuated by the combined effects of
staff shortage and traffic congestion with the former in
particular having increased sharply in the recent past.
(vi)
In spite of the wide coverage, there is still poor access to
bus services in some areas.
(vii) Some buses in the fleet are too old, uncomfortable, difficult
to board, and mechanically unreliable.
(viii) There is insufficient information about how the bus network
itself actually operates, and lack of understanding by users
and potential users.
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