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Again hearkening back to the old
days, good or bad, the introduction of OPO
conversions was often accompanied by an
irritating shortening of the affected routes to a
point just short of where people would need to
go. In spite of the fact that traffic is at
stifling levels and will continue to rise, TfL
and predecessors still don't quite realise that a
great deal of passengers are through travellers,
bargaining the extra travelling time and lower
cost (as opposed to trains) for the certainty of
a seat and a view. I and many others hate having
to change in the middle of nowhere. Such will be
the case for people having to get on the new 349. The 349 was introduced
because today's conversion of the 149 to
articulated buses (today's ill thought out quick
fix, just as OPO buses were thirty years ago)
featured a most unnecessary withdrawal of the
route between Edmonton Green and Ponders End. If
they were that convinced that artics were so
suitable for the 149, why didn't they introduce
them to the whole of the route? Enfield garage,
in whose forecourt the old 149s turned, and which
operated the route itself for many years,
remained an ideal location with plenty of space
outside. Instead of the extra expense of ferrying
drivers about from Stamford Hill to Edmonton and
back, could they not have swapped the 149 into
Enfield instead and turned the whole route over
to artics?
Instead the 349
terminates at Stoke Newington, which is no use
for Ridley Road market (always crowded), nor for
the City. I reckon this will make the 149 grossly
overloaded and leave the new 349 running about
half-empty. I was also dismayed to see that the
key southbound stop at Edmonton Green (another
busy market) has been re-sited today, with
redevelopment about to begin (when, and into
what?). I didn't think bendy buses would be able
to fit in here, but I knew I'd see cross words
exchanged between passengers trying to flag buses
that continued to pass through the bus station
but didn't stop.
How about an
extension to Hackney Central Station to support
the 276? That would fill in a glaring gap where
there are no links from the far north of London
to the East End, and help out a route whose
single-deck configuration has always swamped it.
It looks like
Stamford Hill has lost its short DLAs, with just
long ones left to run the new 349 (plus two VLWs
sneaking across from the 254). Here at its
penultimate stop by the station is DLA 101 (T301 FGN).
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