Friday, 1 August 2008

The buses are talking!

Quite a while ago I noticed that the number 9 bus (Aldwych to Hammersmith) had started talking. There was a display in the bus and a voice over which told you the route, the destination and the stop that you were at. I thought that this was a) overdue and b) useful. The first time I came across this was about a decade ago in New York where the buses would tell you where you were. As a tourist I found this amazingly helpful, especially in the sometimes confusing grid-layout of NYC. I kept wondering why the same thing didn't happen in London, at least in Central London.

Well, it isn't just Central London. The Bexleyheath buses (486 and 422) have also started talking. I'm thinking now that as they are run by the same company and that the buses round here run by a different company don't do this it must be a company specific thing. Getting on the 486 the other evening it informed me that it was the "486 to Bexleyheath Shopping Centre". It also called out (most of) the stops. The 422 I got on tonight did the same thing. Way to catch up with technology London buses!