Two^Sixteen

Yeah, I’m struggling today. As I write this my clock ticks ever closer to Saturday. So, today is the 406 Bus from Epsom to Kingston.

Picture taken from a blog about london buses [londonbuspageinexile.wordpress.com]

Okay, the 406 Bus route runs from Epsom Hospital and onto Kingston where it finishes at one of the many bus stations there. I’ve traveled on it every day since starting university. It’s normally clean, the drivers are courteous and it’s fairly punctual. It only costs 90p on an oyster card or £2 in cash. This is great value, and with the rising cost of fuel it’s probably cheaper than a car, although maybe not cheaper than a scooter. A horse or something would be cool, but impractical to leave tied up for long periods of time.

I daresay other bus routes offer a similar service, but I cannot say as I haven’t used sufficiently many.

The only problem is that the bus is occasionally very crowded. This normally occurs between the hours of 4 and 6 in the evening. That and if you miss one or it is running late (because say… the bus driver knocked his wing mirror off >_<) then it can easily mess up your whole day. Although if you were involved in a car accident it would have a similar effect, except that you would be out of pocket as well.

Of the 70 or so bus journeys I have made in the past few weeks only 2 or 3 have been late or delayed (better than an airplane!).

Pros

• Cheap
• Normally on time

Cons

• Can easy screw up my plans
• Can be crowded

So, for those people who can’t afford (or don’t see the need for) a car, public transport such as the 406 bus is a wonderful alternative. The main problem for the bus right now is traffic, it sails through areas with bus lanes. If everyone took public transport, then the buses would become faster and easier.

Keep on trucking (or bussing),

Jason

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.