RE: Go North East: Latest News & Discussion - November 2017
(28 Nov 2017, 9:37 pm)northern156 wrote Can't help but think that dual door vehicles would suit the 21 much more. Thoughts?
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Would have LOVED to see dual doors but didn't think it'd happen.
My views from using TfL buses are that the lower decks always seem more spacious, more standing room and obviously dwell time at stops is reduced through boarding and alighting happening at the same time. When I come back home it just feels like our single door buses are slow and old-hat - I don't get the impression of a modern 'rapid transit' solution.
Through audio/visual tech GNE could quite easily have the NSAs recorded as something on the lines of 'Next Stop, Newcastle Eldon Sq where this bus terminates, please exit via the front doors at this stop' - to solve the termination point issues.
As for access/heightened kerbs - disabled people could have always exited via the front like wheelchair users if the bus's kneeling feature wasn't enough for them. However most non-wheelchair users manage to exit via the centre doors in London though, where kerbs are not heightened.
I'm sure when the Citylink58 bendies were running, (good times
), some bus stops had alterations made to allow either for the length of them, or their 3 sets of doors - correct me if I'm wrong? Not sure if it was GNE and/or local authorities who paid for the work. But council's probably have no funds for that sort of thing anymore. (Although I bet if GNE stopped repainting everything every 5 minutes they could easily pay for changes lol
).
Maybe it would be different if there were proper conversations/longer term plans between the likes of GNE and councils to say, "look, all future bus orders will have double doors as we want public transport to be inviting, quick and easy to use - what can we do to accommodate them kerbside"?
Does anyone know anything about Go Brighton & Hove's recent introduction of dual door buses - what was the thinking behind it / did railings or kerbs have to be altered etc?