Travelogue observations - 16th September 2019 - lessons from lifts

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Restaurants and shops on this ship are on the 6th and 7th decks. Guest cabins mostly on decks 8, 9, 10, and 11, and there are pools, outside seating, and the casual eating buffer on deck 12, with an outside area and forward observation lounge - the "Crow's Nest" - on deck 13. Engine rooms, crew quarters, etc, occupy almost all the space on decks below 6

And - looking at my public transport flow analysis - this really helps with making optimum use of the lifts.  If all the eateries were (say) on the lower decks, empty lifts would start at the top and they would fill up as they went down, disgorging passengers at the eating deck.  To set back off up with a full load, but dropping off people along the way and running pretty much empty at the upper end of the run.  This scenario so much like / so similar to we see with a bus headed out from Bath to Easterton, or a train headed out from Paddington to Bedwyn.  "Carrying fresh air" at the outer end, yet having that outer end as a vital part of the route.

Contrast Aurora.  A lift starts full at the 6th deck and heads up. At accommodation decks, people get out, but more people join as the move from their cabins up towards the casual buffer and outer area.  When the lift reaches the top, it's still carrying a good load - just not the same load it had on when it left the lower area.  Good, efficient use.

Now - I am not going to suggest building the new mid-Wiltshire hospital in Easteron, nor a major golf resort at Bedwyn.  But I am going to suggest extending the services onward to places people want to go, but cannot.

Let's take the Bath to Easterton bus ... and the Devizes to Salisbury bus, and combine the two.  You have Bath - Melksham - Devizes - Urchfont - Easterton - The Lavingtons - Tilshead - Shrewton - Stonehenge Visitor's Centre - Wilton - Salisbury.  You allow for all the current flows and you re-instate flows across Devizes. A "Discover" bus for visitors to Wiltshire who can see Salisbury, Wilton House and Outlet Centre, Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Museums in Market Lavington and Devizes, Caen Hill Locks, the glories of Melksham, Corsham, Box, and Bath all on the same route.  The 2 and x72 - combined - on this linked hourly route and a vehicle saved on the 68 / 69 too.   

Let's take the Paddington to Bedwyn train and extend it to Westbury, with (initially) every alternate train extended to Exeter St. David's.  The thin tail of this service beyond Newbury gets bolstered by passengers for Westbury and beyond. Pewsey (which has 4 hour service gaps at present) and the new Devizes Parkway stations have hourly service to both London and the West (and I'm sure you noticed I sent the "Discover" bus via Devizes Parkway - wonder if we can get the timetables to fit!).  Bedwyn, Pewsey, Devizes linked in to Westbury with long-sought connections to Trowbridge, Bath and Bristol - to Yeovil and Weymouth too.  And the extension of "The Bedwyns" to Westbury / Exeter means trains saved from the two hourly semi-fasts beyond Bedwyn.

Joined up thinking ... please, Mr DfT^» (Department for Transport - about), can you enable this - or does it fall into the "too difficult" basket because of the need for a competitive / commercial market - or (rather) a veneer of such a market to meet political principles.

[CyclingSid]

Reading Transport has always said this is not the way to go! Apart from one cross town service (17) they have always said cross town services don't work, in Reading. The problem apparently is in the middle, and they think it is better to run two service that meet in the middle. Probably relates to near permanent slow traffic in the centre. They get away with it because they have sufficiently frequent services that it doesn't become a major issue for passengers (unless you buy two singles!). Other Reading Buses experts can expand on the details and correct me if need be.

Not likely to be so acceptable if the two halves of the service are only hourly, which your examples might be.

[grahame]

Reading Transport has always said this is not the way to go! Apart from one cross town service (17) they have always said cross town services don't work, in Reading. The problem apparently is in the middle, and they think it is better to run two service that meet in the middle. ....

"This" in my description is / was a scenario where the largest individual load points are at the outer ends of the combined routes, and not where the large individual load points are in the centre.  So a cross city service (such as the ones you suggest wouldn't work in Reading) weren't even in my thoughts ... with a congested centre, you're likely to centre serious reliability issues with minimal gain at the thin outer ends.