My observations regarding Southdown PSV new route 357. First day, Monday 1st September 2014. I caught the route 357 bus, the 09:30 ex Warlingham Sainsburys and got on at the Caterham-on-the- Hill, Court Road stop by the Cedar Tree. I took a couple of scenic photos of 465 passing under the tree, when I got on and showed my concessionary pass, the driver said he took exception to having his photo taken and said something about privacy etc. When I alighted at Reigate Red Cross, I did say to the driver that I had checked the photos that I took and with the reflections on the front windscreen, the driver cannot be clearly seen. Hopefully all is now Ok about this. I then caught the next bus back to Caterham which was the 357 branded bus, very impressive it looked, I did notice that there were some route 357 flyers in the rack on this bus, I picked up a couple as I didnt realise that any seperate sheets had been printed for route 357, these would be useful to place in the local library etc. A very serious complaint about early running of new route 357. I have witnessed two occasions where the bus was running very early as detailed below On Monday 1st September I went out in plenty of time to catch the 14:00 departure to Warlingham Sainsburys from Court Road/Chaldon Road aka Clifton Arms, I had to quickly cross the road and hail the bus to stop, which then departed from The Douglas Brunton Day Centre stop at 1351, 10 minutes early!, and then the bus waited at Caterham Railway Station for the correct departure time of 1405. I do have my bus ticket for this journey which shows the location, time and date! On Tuesday 2nd September the 12:00 departure from Caterham-on-the-Hill, Court Road aka Clifton Arms was observed waiting at this stop at 11:52, 8 minutes early. I am certain that the drivers on these two occasions have not waited for the correct departure times at stops between Reigate and Catherham-on-the-Hill, Court Road/Chaldon Road aka The Clifton Arms. The buses in both directions are timed to depart from Chaldon Cross Roads at xx:55 past each hour and on both these instances I have seen (and photographed) both buses at Court Road/Chaldon Road aka The Clifton Arms, Caterham-on-the-Hill. Early running is far worse than late running which can be caused by road works, badly parked cars etc I think that the early running issue needs to be seriously addressed. I have studied the new Southdown PSV timetables and have found the following errors, In the timetable booklet for all routes, the route 357 timetable shows a CDO 16:30 from Reigate College, Rushworth Road to Caterham-on-the-Hill, Court Road 17:00, Caterham Station 17:05 with a code L (continues to Lingfield via Godstone via route 509, but this same journey on the route 509 timetable page shows a CDO with a code R (starts from St Bedes School and Reigate College as route 357 with timings shown as Caterham-on-the-Hill 17:06, Caterham Station 17:10. In the route 357 flyer timetable, the connections shown in a blue box against Caterham-on-the-Hill include Kenley, Croydon, Beddington, Carshalton & Sutton via Route 407 is shown. Route 407 does not serve Caterham-on-the-Hill, this blue box should be pointing to Caterham (Station). If the blue box is supposed to be pointing to Caterham-on-the-Hill, then there is no mention of Route 400 to Crawley etc, Route 404 to Coulsdon and Route 466 to Old Coulsdon, Purley, Croydon, Addington Village. Then, not an error, but in my opinion, the route network map on the back page of the timetable booklet would be much better if reproduced across the two centre pages making if larger and easier to read. I have sent two messages on the Contact us page of the Southdown PSV website and had no response at all from them.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 07:47:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015