(04 Apr 2020, 10:27 am)Adtrainsam wrote Promotion for buses in London is next to non existent. When bus routes are changed, bus stops and spider maps are not updated. Compare that to the North East, where you’ve got companies selling their bus routes with posters and adverts. Bus use in London is falling, because the bus routes are so disorganised. There are times where I don’t even know which bus stop the bus stops at! There isn’t any branding in TfL land, it’s all red. And any attempts at branding has been shambolic.

The reason why you don’t see 38A and 38C in London is because TFL have the idea of “Take it or Leave it”. The reason why you see route variations in the North east is because they are catering to demand. If they run a route that is making a loss, then they can’t run it. And nobody was using it anyway.

Sorry but this is just wrong in so many ways.

Firstly bus passenger usage drops are much worse up here than in London and have actually increased over the last 20 years whereas the rest of the country has decreased badly.
Secondly the bus network up here is horribly disjointed, I live just over the SE Northumberland border and if I want to travel to Chester Le Street, the only realistic ticket is an explorer ticket at £10.90. Whatever you want to say the Oyster system is an amazing system and the fact 20 years later most the country has nothing like it is a disgrace.
Thirdly there's spider maps which show you every bus - http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps...4-0120.pdf for example for Ealing Broadway. We have absolutely nothing like that, if I wanted to go to Chester Le Street I'd have to check the Arriva site, then check the GNE site, then maybe check the Metro to see if that's quicker then work it all out what connects here and where or rely on Google Maps. Not to mention bus timetables at bus stops around here are wrong, if they exist at all. Not to mention the TFL route checker which gives you ideal routes to use to get places and the intergrated ticketing with the tube, DLR, National Rail and overground
Fourthly, 'There isn’t any branding in TfL land, it’s all red. And any attempts at branding has been shambolic.' That's a good thing, buses are a public service it's not about who runs, most people don't give a toss.
Finally, to seriously suggest we have a better network than London you must either never use buses up here or live 2 metres from Gateshead or Newcastle as no way in any sense is that true and I think Arriva NE, GNE, or Stagecoach thereselves would agree there but that's due to the amount of subsidies that TFL pump in which we will never get and shouldn't neither.