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There's little to say about this
route now that it's been comprehensively ruined.
Complaints are pouring in against TfL, and
interestingly, loadings on the 476 have shot up,
which was perhaps the idea behind introducing
that route in the first place, even though it
only goes as far into town as Euston. Before,
passengers would ignore the 476 and wait for the
73, on which they knew they could always get a
seat - a comfortable seat, facing forward, with a
view out, and with the presence of a conductor to
look after them while they travelled. Now it's
the opposite. I had a hand in the Standard's
piece on Monday, rising at the crack of dawn to
cover the first inbound morning peak of the 73
with artics. Stood at Tottenham Court Road, I
observed an 18-minute gap followed by seven in
six minutes, two of which were curtailed to
Marble Arch and one of which was displaying
blinds for the 149, which doesn't even run from
the same base! And this was only at 7:30, before
the peak really got going! After the copy was
filed, I didn't hang about for the evening peak,
and I'm not likely to in the future.
To give the
73's new operating garage, Lee Valley (LV) its
due, the staff are doing their best with what
they've been lumbered with, but it remains that
the whole concept is wrong. What I'm trying to
articulate (so to speak) is that the buses just look
wrong. No matter how efficiently they run, they
don't belong on mainstream trunk routes like the
73. They don't tell you that you're in London,
and thus better than everyone else for being
there. There's not an ounce of charm to them -
they're just conveyances.
I had a ride on
the new MAs for the first time on Sunday
afternoon with a trip into the West End.
Irritatingly and predictably, the call came over
the radio to turn short, and I was thrown off at
Marble Arch where I'd wanted Hyde Park Corner.
Both for riders and observers, there are palpably
fewer buses, and I observed long stretches in
Oxford Street where 73s are completely
non-existent - turning travel to Victoria from
points west of Bond Street (where the 8 turns
off) from a certainty into a complete crapshoot,
which can become unnerving when you need to get
to work at a certain time and not after.
On the way
back, here comes MA 52 (BX04 MYW) round the
Park Lane roundabout. The bus is going north, but
the driver has neglected to change the blind from
the southbound trip. As threatened, the 73 has
been withdrawn between Seven Sisters Station and
Tottenham Swan, as the
buses have to turn off via the one-way system to
reach their garage - and not that many journeys
seem to get further north than Stoke Newington as
it is.
So, not
disastrous, but not satisfactory - and not
satisfactory's not good enough, I'm afraid.
Another thing -
is it true the photographer who took the picture
of a bendy bus's concertina for the propaganda
pamphlet (from which this piece's title is
adapted) got paid four figures for doing so?
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