Review of Transport in the City

[greatgardens]

I see Glasgow CC is conducting a survey to see "what we all want" in the way of Public Transport. It was in the Glasgow Magazine that I got delivered today and it had a web link:

http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/transport

I filled the form online and it was easier to do than the usual fill it out, put it on top of the fridge to post, find it the day after the end day and my humble opinion of Thugs and Smokers on the Bus were not considered - would they consider MHO anyway.

Worth a look.

GG

PS I am new to the site and there are a lot of interesting local topics - can the mods not advertise this a wee bit more.

[Snapshot]

Interesting ... here's hoping that some good will come out of it... I've filled mine in

[Sharon]

PS I am new to the site and there are a lot of interesting local topics - can the mods not advertise this a wee bit more.

This thread in particular? - or that there are lots of interesting topics covered?

[Pripyat]

I think they should address the issue of the
underground shutting early. Obviously have
to be tucked up in bed before the
"witching hour".

Replace the Glasgow moles with some French
stay up late types

[motman]

I think lots of the foibles with the subway are a remnant of the older system premodernisation. The Outer Circle last trains from St Enoch to Copland Road (aka Ibrox) and the Inner Ones to Govan Cross were around 23h00 then.
Another foible is the mannnng levels, which in turn went back to those days, but that is probably for another thread.

Anyway the stations could do with a bloody good clean, and the trains could do with cleaning off the gunge that appears to have wept from the aluminium panel seams and hardened. It's showing its age already 30 years aftyer modernisation.

[cumbo]

Have to agree motman the underground is not going to last another 10 years in the state it is in today.The basic hygene of stations and rolling stock is a disgrace,I spoted excrement on the wall at St Enoch platform last november, still there three months on! If the transport system in Glasgow can't get the basics right what hope do we have for future plans.
We are never going to get late night underground services in the city because of the unions,they will only work when they want and then only if they can be bothered!

[Dexter St. Clair]

We are never going to get late night underground services in the city because of the unions,they will only work when they want and then only if they can be bothered!

Do you as a worker ever stop and think about the relationship you have with your employer and compare it to the relationship the SPTE has with its workers. Shift patterns, Staffing levels and Health and Safety spring to mind.

http://tinyurl.com/d3l7r

"The strike was the fourth such stoppage held over issues relating to pay and changes to holiday rosters.

The strike resulted in the closure of the Glasgow underground service, disrupting the travelling schedules of thousands of passengers. The Transport & General Workers’ Union said that drivers were concerned over the SPT’s plans to finance a pay increase with countermeasures that would compromise safety for drivers, station masters, and other subway staff."

We all laugh at tthe SPTE PR when they issue a press release on transport issues but some of us then accept thier word on disputes.

Here's a laugh

An unofficial wildcat strike by drivers on Glasgow's underground rail service on Wednesday was met by firm action by Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT) who immediately sacked the strikers. SPT said that they would recruit and train new drivers while operating a skeleton service using managers and drivers who had not gone on strike. But that was clearly not viable as it would have taken several months to train new staff. So after negotiations with the drivers' trade union, the men were re-instated, allowing the underground to get back to normal.

[Mori]

New Pre LRT Proposed for the Clyde
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5048521.html

£250,000 Clyde superbuses will bring back clippies


AN artist's impression of the Clyde Fastlink service


GCC link
http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/GettingAround/PublicTransport/clydefastlink.htm

[cumbo]

£250,000 Clyde superbuses will bring back clippies.
Bugger that just bring back cleaners on the underground

[escotregen]

greatgardens thanks for highlighting this consultation excercise. I know that people can be cynical about these things but they are the public's chance to get some sort of say. If you don't contribute then you can hardly complain about twhat you get.

On the Underground, I agree with the comments about the monopoly-protected staff (including the management) and about the piggin filthy system being a discrace to the city. In my contribution to the consultation I will be saying that a total ban on food and drink being consumed anywhere in the system is the only way to counter a minority the public's appalling eating and discarding tendencies that degrade the system for all of us. I believe other cities enforce this ban... I mean enforce it; unlike Glasgow's un-enforced smoking ban on buses

Dependency of the system seems to have taken a turn for the worse over the past year. A couple of weeks back we had the now-regular rush hour failure of the outer circle, meaning everyone crammed on the remaining trains on the inner circle. Things got so bad and oppresive that I just didn't feel safe. Then the train thumped to a sudden halt before continuing at a crawl for the rest of the journey. When it again came to a lengthy halt between stations I just felt the need to get off and walk the rest of the way to my destination.

[glasgowken]

I'd like to see a decent bus service through the Clyde tunnel from NW Glasgow to the Southside.
Bring back the 19

And refurb the Subway, where possible open up the stations to natural light again. Most are claustrophobic & dingy (& niffy ).

[Vladimir]

open up the stations to natural light again

yes!

[viceroy]

The seats on some of the subway trains look as if they're absolutely filthy. In fact a couple of years ago I saw a ned pummelling one of them for a laugh which was quickly choked off when he got a huge cloud of dust in his face. Served him bloody well right of course but it does make you wonder what we're parking our bums on.

A lot of the litter seems to be flyers out of newspapers which people just drop onto the floor in the morning. What a mentality! Although the SPT do have an employee who sometimes comes on at Govan, where the trains take their lying time, and removes the litter. But this only seems to happen at lunchtimes. So when the trains go out of service at night they're in a mess again.

I remember the stations with skylights from the old Subway before it was refurbished. These were mostly stations on the south side - I think the ones on the north side are all deeper, except possibly Kelvinhall [or Partick X as it used to be called and is there not talk about renaming it Kelvingrove?]. Yes I agree it would be nice to have daylight coming in wherever possible. What's the point of shutting it out?

[HollowHorn]

The seats on some of the subway trains look as if they're absolutely filthy. In fact a couple of years ago I saw a ned pummelling one of them for a laugh which was quickly choked off when he got a huge cloud of dust in his face. Served him bloody well right of course but it does make you wonder what we're parking our bums on.

Now, meaning NO offence to anyone, I remember an incident, years ago, when a believer in the faith of Mohammed ( a Conductor, I think, at the time) knelt upon the seat, facing east & proceeded to pray to his God, I was well impressed, would / could it happen today?

[Flyingscot]

I'd like to see a decent bus service through the Clyde tunnel from NW Glasgow to the Southside.
Bring back the 19

And refurb the Subway, where possible open up the stations to natural light again. Most are claustrophobic & dingy (& niffy ).

The 19 IIRC Drumchapel to Victoria Infirmary via Govan was last run by Arrivaand was withdrawn in (1999) when SPT didn't re-tender it on the grounds of lack of use. The southern section between Govan Cross and Victoria Infirmary which was still used was retained as SPT service 121. The service from Braehead to Clydebank was every 30 minutes at first when funed by the centre and was popular, but when funding finshed Arriva took it over as service 500(?) but they too made no money on the hourly frequency. It returned for a brief spell with Avondale's 2 hourly 500 service but it failed and was cancelled. The only successful Tunnel Route is the long standing Arriva 17 service, Firsts inner circle service also runs but it beng cut back all the time, now 30 minutes whereas it was 20 minutes last year...

I'm involved in transport in the city and from what I see it is a mismash of the left not knowing what the right is doing. I've seen some excellent systems in my time (Lothian Buses, Norwich P+R, Washington Metro) but Glasgow is nowhere. No innovation, no driving force and combined thinking. Too many cooks, Westrans, SPT, Councils, Scottish Executive, First, Arriva, Stagecoach, all with differing ideas and plans. There is membership of SPT and Westrans transport group where you give your opinion on it and I am seriously thinking of going for it and trying to change some things.

Strathclyde has the highest number of households without a car in the in the U.K, yet we wish to spend hundreds of millions on a white elephant motorway that some in traffic engineering believe will simiply create some bigger queues at different points on the network! A 3 lane motorway down to 1 lane to merge with a motorway without any queues-seriously who are they trying to kid. We have no useful bus priorities, the city centre is an unnecessary traffic mess, and transport is being run at profit level where service is down the tubes and attractivity suffers. Even Edinburgh has a better idea on what to do on transport despite the mistakes they make and the bad traffic in Edinburgh.

Subway at night? Bot sure IMHO whether demand is there, and whether it could be worked round. London has major problems with this too, it had to decide whether to keep it's trains running later than 23.30 or so and starting 1 hour later on weekends. It wasn't followed through, TfL spent the money on night buses. As for our subway trains stopping inside tunnels- that is worrying. IIRC Glasgows Subway is automatically controlled, it won't stop until it gets to the station.