Bus Services and related infrastructure

It’s hard to think of a bus stop I enjoy waiting at. Perhaps one of the less busy busway stations (e.g. PA hospital).

On the other hand, train stations are usually quite pleasant to wait at. Most train stations tick every feature you look for in a good bus stop (but usually fail to find).

There are plenty of examples of bad bus stops. I shared an example of a completely inaccessible bus stop in another post recently ( Shade & shelter on the network - #6 by Champion_Munch ).

Of the bus stops that I actually have used, the worst/most infuriating to wait at is probably the outbound platform at Richlands Station. The outbound buses are so unreliable that passengers who disembark from the peak hour train often have to wait longer than their entire journey from the city took.

Somehow the PIDs are even more unreliable than the buses - to the extent that there’s no point even looking at them. When you arrive it may tell you there’s a bus coming in 5 minutes, another in 20 minutes, and a third in 45 minutes. It wouldn’t be unusual for all 3 of these phantom buses to never arrive. The numbers count down and then they simply disappear from the screen. Then a bus arrives that wasn’t on the PID at all. There’s probably a meme somewhere about the Richlands Station bus stop PIDs. They’re really that bad.

While passengers wait for an unknown (but almost certainly long) amount of time for their bus, there is zero protection from the searing and blinding afternoon sun, and no way to stand behind the shelter to try and eek out some shade.

The chronic unreliability of the buses combined with the psychological harm of the overly optimistic PIDs and physical torture of the afternoon sun combine to make this a hellish place to wait. No wonder the enormous park and ride is full by 7am.

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