In my posting from Milan I wasn’t able to add a couple of pictures of the local transport, here they are now.
We always used the number 15 tram between my daughter’s home and the centre of Milan, the 15 is always a new style tram. Here it is in the centre of the City alongside an older stlye tram.
And here is a bendy trolley bus. It looks like it’s running on the tram lines but it’s not – see the pneumatic tyres.
Day two and we’re having a fantastic time! Milan has a fully integrated public transport system which is both very cheap and efficient, It is made up of a metro system, tram system, bus system and trolley bus system. Journeys cost a flat rate of 1 euro each. We purchased passes valid for 10 journeys at the local bar, these cost 9.20 euros so you get a discount on an already cheap price by buying 10 journeys at one time. As soon as you board a tram, bus or trolley bus you put the ticket into a machine which prints the time and date on the reverse of the ticket you then have 75 minutes of travel allowed to you. You can swap bus, trams etc during this time, or even pop into town and collect something before returning, all so long as it can be done within 75 minutes. However if you use the metro the definition of a journey changes from 75 minutes to a single metro journey – getting on at one station and off at another constitutes a journey.
I’ve got a few pictures which I can’t upload at the moment (I forgot the camera USB lead) of trams and trolley buses, I’ll add these when I’m back.
Tomorrow morning veeeeeery early we leave for 4 days in Milan. My daughter lives there and although I’ve visited her before she’s recently bought, and done up, a new apartment so we off to see the new place as well as her. Hope to go and see The Last Supper again, visit the Duomo and lots of other things. I’ll try and get a picture of a local bus or two so that when we’re back and I post the pictures they’ll be relevant to the blog ;-)
Did an early duty today which was the Megabus feeder from Portsmouth, via Southampton, to Winchester followed by 2 hours of Park and Ride. Had a very irate lady come up to me at one of the stops in town saying I’d almost hit her when she was on the pavement, she placed this as nearly a mile back from where we now were. How she managed to get to this bus stop as a pedestrian and be there for my arrival is a mystery! I told her that I’d seen no one at the point she mentioned and that there was a Park and Ride bus going along there every 5 minutes at that time of day. She still insisted that it was me and “only a few minutes ago”. I told her I didn’t think it was possible but said that I was sorry if a bus had seemed to come close to her and that thankfully she seemed to be OK! She was obviously OK because she stamped off saying “I’m going to put a complaint in”.
I was in Brighton again yesterday and spotted a Big Lemon bus on four seperate occasions, apart from the last sighting which was to be actually following one up Lewes Road, I never saw a single passenger being carried! The one I followed had a solitary passenger, I overtook the bus as it pulled into a stop where a Brighton & Hove bus was already loading the people waiting there. I don’t know whether the Big Lemon gained a passenger/s there. The other thing I noticed was how quickly their buses have become shabby :-( I know a 2 or 3 bus company can’t afford a bus wash but ladders, buckets, soap and water aren’t too dear! There were diesel spills on the yellow paintwork as well as signs of coolant overflows. It happens all the time to our buses and we don’t give them a full wash at the time when we get these spills, but we do wash the effected area. The Big Lemon buses didn’t have the look of a mini-fleet which someone loved and was proud of. If they are a dirty inside as outside I’m not surprised they weren’t carrying passengers.
….. yes, 193! Even the Megabus part of the duty caused a headache today. In total 28 young Germans had booked Southampton to London, some had tickets for 1, some were 2,3, and 6 in a group, the largest group was 10. My heart sank as I approached the bus stop, not only did it look like a large group of people but the amount of luggage looked frightening. Each passenger had at least one large suitcase many of which certainly exceeded the 20Kg limit. It took me nearly 10 minutes just to get the luggage loaded. I then told them that groups must board together so that I could count them onboard – this bit worked fine. First a group of three, then a couple of singles, group of 6 etc. The final reference number produced was for a group of 10. 1, 2, 3, 4, ……. 8, 9, 10 …..11! My arm went out to bar the way of the last person boarding and I asked for their ticket. The girl then pointed to the person who’d given the reference number for the 10 passenger group of which she was now the eleventh. I let her get on and then did a head count of everyone on the bus to compare with the total number of booking references used. This confirmed that there was one more person on the bus than tickets paid for. I then told everyone what the problem was, hinted that they may all have to get off and board again in order to check with the person presenting the group tickets that they were actually in that group. Ended by saying “It would make it a lot easier if someone who hasn’t got a ticket could let me know”. It worked, one of the young Germans said “May I buy a ticket now?”. It was good that I’d got to the bottom of the problem but it only made for a new problem as we don’t sell tickets on the bus. If she’d been travelling alone, or with just a friend or two, I’d have made her get off the bus and left her behind. I get quite mad when people try and cheat or trick their way into getting a free ride but can very helpful and amenable to anyone who says “I’ve got a problem can you help?”. She was definitely in the cheat/trick category so should go. BUT, she wasn’t English so being left behind on her own would be a far worse punishment than it would be for a ‘local’ AND she was with 27 honest people who’d paid for their tickets and expected her to be with them. Yes, I gave her a free ride to London but it pi$$ed me off greatly.
As always everything was wrong with Park and Ride which followed. Arrogant passengers demanding to know why I hadn’t stopped at a bus stop where no one was waiting and on the bus no one had got up, or rung the bell. Explained slowly and politely that we stopped when asked by someone putting out their hand to indicate they’d like to board this bus and not the one behind, or a passenger on board preferably ringing the bell to indicate they’d like to get off, or if they couldn’t do that at least getting up and walking forward. “But it’s fare stage stop and you are required to stop at those” was the best bit of nonsense I heard from a passenger today. Also had several hijackings when the wife boarded as I was about to pull away saying “My husbands just buying the parking ticket”. Time, and my Park and Ride bus, waits for no man!
Yesterday was the first day I’d seen the new Megabus routes to Birmingham offered for booking on the website with journeys commencing 1 October. I first priced a Bournemouth to Birmingham ticket which was offered at £5.00 Next I priced a Winchester to Birmingham ticket which was offered at £1.00! This gave me an idea, how much would the Bournemouth to Winchester leg cost as a separate ticket? It was also offered at £1.00! So by buying two individual sector tickets on the one bus, and never leaving your seat, you could travel from Bournemouth to Birmingham for only £2.00 quite legitimately. The return on the same day is similarly priced at £5.00 or the two sectors separately ticketed for a total of £2.00 Anyone fancy a Bournemouth to Birmingham return on the inaugral bus at £4.50 (inlcudes the 50p booking fee)?