Buses abroad v Buses in the UK.

[girlfriend44]

Having been to the Canaries lately I observed this about the buses.
They are clean and tidy and also fares are so cheap.
You can go along way for a reasonable cost.
Is it like this in other countries?
How come it's not like this where I live?
Fares are dear and the buses aren't exactly clean and tidy, or is that because people are cleaner and tidier on their buses?
Hmmmm?

Well I live in London so plenty of busses and fares are capped.

We have a static on the south coast and the busses are one an hour and cost ££.

Always clean though.

Do you use th busses where you are?

I think in a lot of areas the demand is so low as most people have cars. Maybe that's different in the Canaries.

Around they're pretty good. You can get a day pass for £3.60. not always clean on the outside at this time of the year, but that's down to the weather really. But most of the time they're pretty empty.

I love buses in the UK especially since the £2 fares have been introduced. I know all the bus drivers and they are all friendly and vey helpful to the elderly and people with disabilities or young DC.
One of my regular trips is great, there are only a few stops as it goes through countryside, it take 5 minutes more than a taxi which costs £22.
I have been on plenty of overcrowded scary bus rides abroad.

Very much depends where you are. I have got a lot of buses in different countries.

We recently got buses in New York. They were fairly modern - announcements at each stop, clean ish and quick. Oddly you had to manually push the doors to open them.

In terms of price they 2 dollars 30 a journey - so about the same price as London. Also smaller - little single decker jobs.

Our buses in south east England are fine - £2 fare, and usually clean and tidy, and regular service. You can travel quite a distance on one bus if you wanted to! In London you can change buses without paying again.

Presumably you were in a relatively affluent, populated, tourist-centric part of the Canaries? Therefore there will be good investment in public transport infrastructure to cater to that. If you’d visited some of the poorer or more rural parts of Spain you’d have found the bus situation quite different I imagine. Just as in the U.K.

I live in London and the buses are cheap, very frequent and mostly clean.

Yep, I find public transport is generally more civilised in continental Europe. I took busses in Canaries, Malta, Mainland Spain, France, Baltics, Denmark and Germany in the last few years and they all seem cheap, efficient and clean. London busses are OK cost-wise and pretty reliable if a bit grotty. But outside of London they cost an arm and a leg, never show up on time and don't seem to connect peripheral areas. 20 min drive between two adjacent areas would take me over an hour on two busses going through city center.

Actually the buses where I live are great in terms of clean and tidy and prices. Unfortunately, in terms of turning up, not great. There is a lack of drivers, so they are often cancelled. I do have car so I don't have to rely on them to get to work, unlike many people on my estate.

I got a bus in Switzerland recently (Visp) and wasn't terribly impressed by the bus itself, which was cramped and felt a bit ancient (unlike the trains, which were wonderful) And it was expensive. But then, Switzerland is expensive. It did turn up on time though!

Buses are very cheap in the UK at the moment. £2 to go any distance if pretty good.

It's chicken and egg in the UK especially in smaller cities, towns and rural areas.

The service is often crap, i.e. once an hour or every two hours, and there's no integrated system, so you often have to change once or twice for even relatively short/simple journeys, with often 30-90 minutes wait at the changeover point(s).

They justify the crap service on the grounds of low passenger numbers.

But of course, there are low passenger numbers because the service is so crap!

I think it's all a complete lack of planning. Our main line railway station isn't even on a good bus route - it's slightly out of the town centre and a mile or so away from the bus station. There's a circular housing estate bus route that only runs hourly which is the only bus route stopping at the station so basically the only place it goes to/from is the city centre bus station, meaning a change of bus is inevitable for most passengers. It would be easy to route more buses past it - there is plenty of room for dropping off/picking up and waiting buses in the huge station forecourt and only just outside the city centre one way system so not too far of a diversion. But apparently no motivation from the train firms, the bus firms nor the council to actually knock heads together to improve integration!

Only £2 if you can stay on the same bus. Most of the time, (around here anyway), you need to change once or twice, so a pretty local/simple journey can soon cost £4 or £6 each way!

The weekly how terrible the UK is at everything compared to the rest of the world thread 🙄
Fwiw the new Bee buses in greater Manchester have always been very clean when I have used them plus the fare is capped so its £2 for any journey

OK but that is still an awful lot cheaper than any other form of transport. £6 wonn't get you far in a train or a taxi.

I assume you were in a tourist area?
The canaries are know as a holiday destination ,its in their interests to run a cheap reliable service

The Bee buses cost £2 for any journey and you can travel a considerable distance for that.

Far cheaper in your own car, especially if there are 2, 3 or 4 of you travelling together!!

You can get a fair distance on £6/£12/£18/£24 of petrol!!

I'd be very surprised if you can't get a group day rider pass for less than £24 @taxguru

Which area are you in?

The cost of petrol is only a fraction of the cost of using a car.

There are not two pound fares here - Wales - and they've just cut a load of services and at same time increased bus fares again but I've no complaints that the buses are unclean.

We don't drive - public transport last 5 years had gone down hill is ever more expensive and ever less reliable.

We got a bus in Perpignan last summer from a historic site back in to the city.

It was cheap - one euro each but the timetable was insane and information at the stop was very poor. It was fine as a bus - cleanish and fairly modern - but the route was an odd meandering route all through out of town shopping centres and small villages with no stop announcements. It was also very crowded (perhaps driven by the one euro fare).

Depending on a bus company. I pay £3.60 to go 15 minutes down the road with stagecoach. £2.70 to go two stops.
First bus used to be 2.50, now, I think it is £2 but only if you stay on the same bus for the entire journey which (see my previous post) is not what most people have to do to get places around here.

Buses on holiday always feel different to holidays at home, where we are the buses are fine nice and clean price capped etc etc, but most people are trying to get about their day not taking in the sites In the sun.

I can't say I agree that they are expensive or unclean. £2 cap for a single is pretty good, especially as I can use that to get really far. I can also by a day ticket for £5 and get anywhere I want all say long. I have noticed them being dirty either.

I just wish they were reliable and turned up on time!!

Urgh I meant buses obviously!