What to do if bus timetables aren’t working

Real Time Passenger Information is the technical term for what you see on the illuminated displays at bus stops that tell you when the buses are on their way. They are handy if you’re trying to decide which bus to take, or whether it’s quicker to walk. I know that they are useful because when (occasionally) a display is out of order, people tell me! Here’s a short post on how to get them working again quickly.,

Last week, the display was broken at the stop on Hills Road opposite Marshall Road and outside Homerton College. First, it simply gave the times for the day before – then went completely blank. Although it had been reported to a bus driver, the County Council were unaware of the malfunction. When I reported it on Friday last week, the traffic manager at the County Council, Mr Gerry Watkins, promised it would be working again in two days. I am pleased to report that Mr Watkins went one better and had it restored to working order in just one day – extremely impressive.The Council has a smart system of ‘interrogating’ the displays remotely every six hours to check for malfunctions, but this time, the remote check had not detected the fault. Mr Watkins said he was pleased people find the displays useful and commented,’There are still certain circumstances in which we have to rely on someone visually noticing a problem and informing us. It is our aim to respond and correct within two working days.’

SO: If this or any other timetable display is not working, ring the County Council traffic department on 0345 0450675 or email them from their website.

The County Council was consulting councillors on good locations for new timetable displays earlier in the year. Based on the feedback we received, George, Jean, Geoff and I recommended additional displays for the Citi 1 and Citi 2 routes and we hope to see some new ones soon.

Amanda Taylor

What to do if bus timetables aren’t working

Leave a Reply