In local Bow bus news, the D8 is being downgraded this morning from high-frequency to low-frequency. Until yesterday it ran every 12 minutes during the daytime but from today it only runs every 15. So that's bad.
TDS Busman: Actually I think you'll find the D8 ran every 15 minutes until a frequency increase on 24th May 2008, so all we're doing is going back to how things were 20 years ago.
The D8 is the only route down the A12 dual carriageway, a road with massively more flats than ever existed here 20 years ago, so the frequency cut is particularly baffling.
TDS Busman: Actually I think you'll find it was the 108 which followed the A12 20 years ago, that is until the D8 and 108 swapped routes between Bow and Poplar on 1st October 2016.
This is evil incarnate and for no good reason.
TDS Busman: Actually I think you'll find a new contract has been awarded. The previous fleet was nine 10.4m Geminis and the new fleet is seven Electric Volvo BZLs, so TfL are saving on two vehicles here.
So it's all to save money, and screw the local population.
TDS Busman: Actually I think you'll find the previous D8 tender was for £2,088,386 (or £6 a mile) and the new tender is for 2,823,500 (or £10 a mile), so the new electric buses cost a lot more.
I've never understood why the D8 is operated by double deckers anyway, most of the time passenger numbers could easily be accommodated on a cheaper single decker.
TDS Busman: Actually I think you'll find the D8 got double decker vehicles in 2016 "to meet very peaked demand from Bow School". It makes economic sense to cater for peak capacity rather than run special school buses.
But nobody cares that the route's getting new buses and saving the planet, they'd rather have more frequent buses.
