I recently emailed TFL to complain about the 176 constantly terminating with no warning in Dulwich or Forest Hill. I received the following response today, which I thought I'd share as I found it so completely and utterly useless!!
_______________________________
I am sorry for the delay in responding to your comments of 19 September about the operation of bus route 176. Our reply has been held up by a combination of staff leave and major IT systems failures. London Buses are aware of these difficulties and remedial action is being taken by both organisations.
Throughout the spring and summer and then, following a short break, much of September and October this service has been disrupted by major road works at various points along the route. Delays have varied between 5 or 10 minutes and extremes of 100 minutes. As can be seen, delays such as these do not affect individual journeys by the same amount of time such that services may bunch up. It is then necessary for some journeys to be turned short from their usual destination, either to restore a regular service as soon as possible or to ensure the drivers do not exceed their maximum permitted duty limit, the length of which is strictly governed. Inconvenience has already been caused by the late running and erratic service. Failure to take such action would lead to more buses bunching up as the delays become steadily worse, thus the inconvenience would be increased throughout the day eventually resulting in the cancellation of entire journeys as drivers would be unable to complete them within their remaining spell of duty. Whilst every effort is made to minimise inconvenience by either ensuring that a suitable alternative service is close behind or adjusting a bus on its next trip, I regret that this is not always possible at times of severe disruption.
In the event of a passenger boarding a service which is subsequently curtailed, (although not one which is already displaying a destination short of the end of the route), there is a procedure which can be followed to allow those with cash fares, Oyster Pre-Pay Cards and Saver tickets to continue their journey by a suitable alternative service, (which need not be the same route number as long as it is serving common locations), without payment of an additional fare. The driver is able to issue a transfer ticket, one ticket covering any number of people. Where possible they should also remain at the stop until the next suitable journey arrives, although at times this may not be practical. Experience has also shown that the driver is unlikely to be aware of any Oyster Pre-Pay users on board. If no transfer ticket is offered to you or another passenger please approach the driver, explain you have a Pre-Pay card and request one.
We acknowledge that the service on route 176 is not operating as well as it should be, however we are confident that once the major mains replacement programme has been completed the service will settle down again. In the meantime I would like to apologise for those occasions when you have been inconvenienced.
Yours sincerely
Mrs L Saunders
Customer Services Manager
The 176
What nonsense! I have been turfed off the 176 (designation Penge) more times than I care to remember at Dulwich Plough and Forest Hill - neither place feeling particularly safe for a lone woman on a dark night! It often seemed to me that the driver just didn't feel like going any further and either said there was an engine fault to anyone who dared to question him or just refused to answer!
I am glad it's not just me who has had this happen on numerous occasions. I enjoy taking the 176 into town but hate taking it coming back at night. Full of drunks, usually a mad driver who speeds like anything and I've lost count of how many times we've been turfed out in Camberwell - not even making it as far as Dulwich or Forest Hill!
Guys, if you've had a poor experience with the 176 then please please please complain. If we don't complain, or only a handful of us complain, then it's far too easy for them to ignore the situation or claim that it's only a temporary problem. You can complain online via the TFL website at https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/contact/defa ... type=buses
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richpickings
- Posts: 75
- Joined: 15 Oct 2006 17:05
- Location: Ex of Kirkdale
Whilst I agree that it is a problem that people are being left a bus stops far from home, I thought that her response was refreshingly open and honest and I'm not entirely sure what else she could say or do to to make the situation better. The reasons for cutting journeys short seems perfectly logical and legitimate - although I think they should instruct their drivers to be pro-active when it comes to issuing transfer tickets rather than waiting for passengers to ask.