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News and Comment April 2014

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4 April (Part 5) - Which cretin do we blame for this?

After spending half the day at King’s hospital yesterday I thought I would get myself to Sidcup for some street photography but I dozed off on the train to Lewisham and realised I was too exhausted to make the extra journey. Instead I sat tight on the train to do a quick bit of shopping in Bexleyheath. As everyone knows, except perhaps Teresa O’Neill, Bexleyheath hasn’t really got a railway station despite its name. It ought to be renamed Bexleyheath Parkway to give some indication of just how far out of town it is. Barnehurst station is closest to Bexleyheath and much nearer to the new Civic Offices as I see they have been christened.

So the choice was to get off at Welling and get a bus, at Bexleyheath and get a bus or Barnehurst and get a bus. I chose Bexleyheath; another bad travel decision.

When I got to the bus stop I found there were no buses at all running through the shopping centre because Bexley council had closed Avenue Road completely. The reason seemed to be to replace the four year old speed humps and you probably won’t be surprised to hear that absolutely no one was at work. The photos below were taken at exactly three o’clock.

Avenue Road Avenue Road Avenue Road Avenue Road

I walked to Broadway and hopped on a bus to the Clock Tower.

I was in and out of Argos in five minutes and found a dearth of 229s to get home. After the best part of twenty minutes I took a B11 which is actually a quicker route if a bus turns up quickly.

The B11 filled up to the extent I couldn’t see much out of the window and because of the road works shown above it continued towards Crook Log. There it got stuck for 20 minutes.

Have you ever looked at Crook Log from the point of view of a west bound driver needing to turn right? Few would normally need to do so as Avenue Road is the obvious choice. Certainly it’s not built for buses and there is no right hand filter to Brampton Road.

As a result, the number of vehicles getting around the corner at each light change did not even average one. There was a queue of buses in front of mine, hence the long delay. When I went past the same spot this afternoon I saw the footpath was covered in tyre tracks. This was the silliest ever diversion by the ridiculous Mike Frizoni. I appreciate there is no alternative route but the answer to that is not to close the whole of a road at one time. And especially not to close it for a week and have no one work on it. The man is a hundred and eight thousand a year moron.

When the bus eventually got to the end of Long Lane and had emptied a bit a man got on and sat next to me. He said that southbound traffic on Brampton Road (which joins Long Lane at that point) was ”queued past the chip shop” or in more precise terms, for more than three quarters of a mile.


BusAnd while I am in rant mode I am going to mention the driver of B11 bus number YX60FCU which eventually got to Abbey Wood at four twenty on Thursday 3rd of April. The bus was full of school children, all well enough behaved but the driver didn’t like them and kept shouting at them to move down. There was nowhere for them to go so he pulled over and switched off the engine to shout at them again.

When there was just enough room for a mother with pushchair to get on he refused to open the rear door to give easier access to the buggy space. She had paid and stood her ground and refused to get off until the driver relented.

After that the driver decided he would ignore the bell which rightly annoyed the children on board and they did what anyone might do, constantly ring the bell. Then he thought it would be funny to turn the heaters on full blast. It was a warm day and there was a heater under my seat and I had an Easter Egg with me bought for my granddaughter.

When the aisle became a little clearer I asked the driver to turn the heaters off. He refused. Then he ignored the bell at the top of Lodge Hill and a very frail white haired lady was taken quarter of a mile half way down the hill. Those familiar with the B11’s very peculiar route will know there is no way back. It’s walk or nothing and she had two bags of shopping.

If I ever find the time TfL are going to get a complaint from me. As a regular bus user I must emphasise that behaviour like this doesn’t even reach 1%, unprecedented might be a better description, but this B11 driver should be out of a job. The fact that Mike Frizoni must be the biggest frustration to Bexley bus drivers to have ever walked this earth is no excuse.

 

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