Fastrack Bus Service

Reading article "Fastrack Bus Service" - Reply to this / 10 comment(s)
A new bus service, with dedicated roads and lanes, that goes from Dartford to BlueWater and on to Gravesend.

I use it sometimes to collect my son from nursery - the buses are new and clean. OK, it's not 100% reliable (the displays that tell you how long it is to the next bus aren't always spot on..... last week it was 3 mins to the next bus for nearly 10 mins.... turns out there was a big hold up locally and the bus couldn't get around the roundabout!)

Unfortunately it's not being used that much so far - certainly not enough to justify the disruption that took place building it and the impact of some of the bus lanes and extra traffic lights. Having said that, if the impact on car users means that more people use the bus, then GREAT! I'm all for it..... it's certainly encouraged me to walk to nursery and get the bus back more than I used to (at the end of the day nearly 2 miles carrying my son home on my back is a bit much, so I'll walk there and get the bus back, reducing the walk to less than 5 mins at each end - much more bearable, and much better for the environment)

http://www.go-fastrack.co.uk 

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1. Re: Fastrack Bus Service by shinningstar, 640 days ago

   
   It's a good news about transportation. Fast service is very important nowadays especially for students. Not all of us can afford to buy our own car. Our next choice is to ride a bus. So if there's a good quality service of transportation, everything is fine and inorder.

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2. Re: Fastrack Bus Service by ecosrights, 527 days ago

   I've only just come across a report that was released last Nov, stating that more than a quarter of passengers questioned said that they would have previously used a car to make the journey they had just taken on the bus.
   
   So, it's working! Excellent news. I have to say that I'm using it more (weather permitting) for the nursery run and I'm managing to encourage some of the other parents to do so as well as young children love getting the bus as opposed to the car.

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3. Re: Fastrack Bus Service by ecosrights, 453 days ago

   I've noticed the Route A buses (going from Dartford to The Bridge (the new estate being built where Joyce Green Hospital was) to Greenhithe and BlueWater via Crossways) running today. I'm not sure if they are officially running or just as trial (the website hasn't been updated). Does anyone know the official situation?

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4. Re: Fastrack Bus Service by Anonymous, 451 days ago

   Is it a bus? Is it a tram? Er, no, defiantly a bus. I get annoyed when they refer to it as a tram. They spent all that money on special bus roads, they may as well have built tram tracks and given us a proper public transport system. It does not have all the benefits of a tram system. Its still diesel buses on tyres. Why can't the government just do things properly..

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   1. Re: Re: Fastrack Bus Service by ecosrights, 451 days ago

      I'm inclined to agree with you there - the money that has been spent could have been better invested in a tram system that has the potential to be a lot greener. When publicity material for Fastrack first became available about 6 years ago (I worked on Crossways at the time) they said that it would start as a bus service and if succesful they would replace these with trams - MORE upheaval!
      
      Having said that, I think that it does work well, although the stigma of being a bus service means it's not as well used as a tram service would be.

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5. Re: Fastrack Bus Service by ecosrights, 402 days ago

   Here's the link for the map for the new route - Route A - that launched earlier this year.

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   1. Re: Re: Fastrack Bus Service by Anonymous, 233 days ago

      go sit and count the passengers on each fast track bus, biggest white elephant our esteemed government has come up with to date. i imagine it to be subsidised as i can't see how it could possibly be self financing. then you go to the arriva site and lo and behold they proudly display their share price..
      

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6. Mobile ticketing and the new sections.... by ecosrights, 121 days ago

   Fastrack have now introduced mobile ticketing as well as all of the more conventional ways of buying tickets. I've used it and although at the moment it's rather clunky, it certainly has potential and saves messing around with paper tickets (it really annoys me when they litter the bus and around bus stops).
   
   Having said that, some of the work that they are doing on the extension to Ingress Park can't be particularly green! I can only hope that it's used enough to counteract the impact of the engineering work that's taking place during the construction process. I'm all for public transport, but in this instance, at what cost...

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   1. Re: Mobile ticketing and the new sections.... by Anonymous, 40 days ago

      As an old person, who travels on Fastrack (and other routes of course) with my free bus pass, I cannot understand why they issue me with a paper ticket for each journey. So if an inspector gets on and wants proof that I am entitled to be on the bus? I just show him my pass as I did to the driver when I boarded. There is absolutely no need for a ticket; if they issue it to prove passenger numbers or to claim money back from the council, surely they could just press a button without involving a ticket. I am hoping that now that they have the mobile readers on board, they could let us use these to read our passes but I am not holding my breath.

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      1. Re: Re: Mobile ticketing and the new sections.... by ecosrights, 40 days ago

         You're right there, that is crazy. They don't issue tickets to under 5s so why issue them to you... you have your pass, which is more than an under 5 has!

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