On 30/01/2014 08:50, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jan 2014 16:03:20 +0000, John Williamson wrote:

Public transport will have a job to make a come back, as usage now is
higher than it's been in a *long* while.

So that'll be why our County Council is proposing to axe the subsidy
on a couple of dozen routes up here then. They are basing this on
lack of use and cost. This will mean a number of places have no bus
at all, not even the *weekly* one they have at present.

Not all routes are equal, and the requirement for the council to keep
"Socially desirable" routes in operation has disappeared. Since bus
companies are also banned from cross subsidising routes, any route that
doesn't make a profit, including any subsidy, will be dropped. Another
factor that hasn't helped is the fact that the amount paid to the bus
operator per pass has been reduced by a significant amount this year, so
even busy routes may not be profitable,if the major part of the
travelling on that route is done by pass holders. Meanwhile, peak hour
services from suburbs to work centres are full to overflowing, and often
have to leave pasengers standing waiting for the next one.

Certainly in the London area, there is a lot of crowding at peak hours,
with 100,000 people daily being unable to find a seat during the rush
hour.

So don't travel in "rush hour", why does a paper pushers working day
have to be synchronised with any other paper pusher? Or even don't
travel at all, what is the advantage of sitting in front of a
computer in an plush office over sitting at a computer in a home
office?

Inertia on the accountants' side of life. There are also many managers
who like to see the wage slaves grafting at a hot keyboard, and don't
trust the many technological ways of monitoring work.


--
Tciao for Now!

John.