Trolley Buses - any enthusiast?

[GB]

I'm paying for that! You must have been pretty ill at the time, but if you could afford a taxi I'm not sure why you weren't put in one?

It takes me under 20 minutes to walk to the local underground station.

20 minutes to Euston. I would probably aim to arrive 20 minutes before the train leaves. So, that's an hour.

There's no 3 hours waiting on platforms. It's a direct train from Euston to Brum, see.

I'm not sure why I'd putatively go to Birmingham, but if the final destination is fairly central, I'd be there 30 minutes after I get off the train.

I'd rather do that than drive, although the driving time might be comparable, but that's just a personal preference as I don't like driving. I'm looking forward to getting a car that can do most of the driving for me, but that day has not arrived, unfortunately.

Obviously, if you live near Bury St Edmunds, your journey is entirely different. I'm quite surprised that it makes sense for you to go to London City to get a plane to Birmingham, though.

I think you mean that you disagree. It's hard to think of a reason why I would be dishonest about this.

Were you able to share the driving?

[GB]

That's true.

I've been all the way to Cyprus on the DLR. ;-)

[Bob Eager]

It's an ambulance that, instead of scalpels, carries a riving knife.

[Tim Streater]

I've not seen any figures, but I suspect they don't. Look at Edinburgh. It becomes a political choice. Personally, I'd say trolleys are better than trams because they are more flexible, as I said yesterday.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, they flop about. When I moved there in 1968, they had trams and trolleys. They pulled out all teh trolleys and then all the trams except one line. Then in the 80s they started putting trams back in. My mate queried the Geneva Council who simply replied: "We have done a study". I don't think he was able to find out any more or see the study, which tends to be how continental governance works. PR, so you're a councillor for life.

[harry]

I lived in Huddersfield As they had no door, heating would be pointless. If the pole came off, it was spring loaded, it went up in the air. They were hooked on/unhooked with a long bamboo pole.

[harry]

They went like shit off a shovel. You had to watch out overtaking a parked/stopped one.

[newshound]

Except that the big cities are really a collection of villages. One of my lads lives on the edge of Hackney Marshes, so has in one direction the canal with (in normal times) a great collection of hipster bars, ethnic food shops and restaurants, etc, and in the other a pretty fair expanse of countryside. Plenty of dismal spaces in and around cities, of course. The decline in manufacturing had already killed Detroit. It's interesting how the centres of so many northern cities had become quite pleasant spaces in the past 20 years or so. But I agree, there are going to be a lot of changes now.

Absolutely

Indeed. I only tolerate a visit to my local malls because I know I can stop for a decent coffee or, in many cases, a glass of something with some Tapas

[harry]

Drivel. If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just drove past.

[harry]

The reason they were scrapped was that in the 60's everyone was buying their (first) car. There was no bus timetables, there was a bus every 20 minutes. When it was busy, there were whole gaggles of buses.

The problem was maintaining the overhead lines. Which had to be done regardless of how many buses there were.

[tabbypurr]

Buses, trams etc made sense when they were the cheaper option & lots of people had no other practical transport. Today they reduce congestion when full - if the legacy of covid is that they're mostly empty then as you say they'd cease making sense, the cost would rise severalfold and they'd no longer reduce congestion.

A rethink is very much needed on transport. It's not too hard a nut to crack in new build areas, MK doesn't suffer significant gridlock. There's also a US town that has a network of golfcart lanes, and that works fairly well by moving a large number of short journeys off the roads.

But for our established towns & cities it's a major problem. There are various options but all are truly problematic. Building new towns rather than developing the old seems the sensible way forward at this point.

NT

[Andy Burns]

Levy something else?

[The Natural Philosopher]

During lockdown all the (other) NHS services have been completely under utilised.

No one else was using it and I was sort of on the way to Addenbrookes anyway

And do you commute to Brum on a regular basis?

Its coming.

I didn't say that it did. I was comparing London to Birmingham times.

I have to do ten miles to catch any public transport at all, apart from a two bus a day service a mile down the hill. Or phoning a taxi

No. Why would I?

More or less non stop apart from 40 winks near the German border. And breakfast on the Ferry

[The Natural Philosopher]

My transport professional friend indicated that all public transport is really a *political* decision and cash goes to the gimmes if they can virtue signal their way to subsidies and grants. Almost none of it is profitable.

It's jobs for labour voters, subsidised by taxpayers. So call 'studies' are simply biased to indicate the answer someone after money wants them to go.

When I asked him what the biggest single improvement for least money could be made to the railway network he replied 'get rid of all level crossings'. Dangerous, interfere with road traffic and slow trains down sometimes.

If all the money being spent on HS2 had been spent on improving the track we already have..

[harry]

[Andrew]

Cardiff had them. When the pantograph slipped the conductor had to pull out a long ?bamboo pole with a hook on the end, that was stored under the whole length of the ground floor, and hook the pantograph back onto the overhead wires.

[Andrew]

You chose to live in the middle of nowhere !!.

[Andrew]

But it isn't easy to anywhere by walking because it is so spread-out. You are forced to use a car, bike or bus.

[Max Demian]

Blocking off the road, or the rail?

[John]

...

Pantograph?

[Scott]

Any consequences if one pole but not the other became detached?