On 21/04/17 10:05, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , charles
wrote:

In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Another John wrote:
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
Surely there is no point in running empty buses just in case
someone
need it?

That was the whole point of public services: they were there. You
knew they were there, and you knew you could rely on them, and (in
the case of buses), you could rely on a regular, frequent service.
So people used them -- and I for one would use them again, if any
of those attributes still existed around here.

But if the busses are running empty, it's rather obvious people aren't
using them. And saying you would use them if they were there it what
everyone says - but strangely didn't use them when they were there.

This was the argument used by Beeching to remove branch lines. Change the
train times so that they are useless - don't make connections, etc, and
then claim nobody uses them.

Ah was that what he did, then? You know this do you?

I suspect that would have been completely unnecessary, there was no
shortage of tiny branch lines with no traffic already.

Indeed. I vividly remember waiting at a Devon station for a saddle tank
with just one carriage to puff up and take us another ten miles nearer
our destination. Late 50s or early 60s. I think we were the only passengers.


Even then it went to the wrong place and needed a pickup from the
grandparents and a further 30 mile drive.

Fundamentally trains dont work except for high volume and either
longish distances or a massively high population density.

They are utterly unsuitable, as are buses, for rural densities.

What is needed is to integrate them with driverless electric shuttle
taxis for the last 20 miles etc etc.


--
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such
time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic
and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally
important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for
the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the
truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

Joseph Goebbels