MidlandRed.net

I travelled on the 36 service from Crowngate to Worcestershire Royal Hospital on Saturday worked by one of the ex-Welsh E200 single deckers which loudly advised those on board the names of every stop, so from Crowngate "The next Stop is Foregate Street Station, then The Tything, then Little London, then St Georges Square, then Gheluvelt Park followed by Wentworth Court and St Stephens Church" and so on to destination. Not a bad idea especially as many drivers won't know all the road names that the routes traverse especially short-term agency drivers. I used to drive 'track' around Warndon many years ago and learned some new bus stop facts on this journey. Would be even more helpful on the longer routes such as 144 and Malverns.

This is soon going to be a legal requirement of course.

I ams sure others will have exact dates, but there will need to be a roll out across the fleet of next stop announcements with the newest vehicles needing to have it first.

From 1st October 2024, Next Stop Announcements (NSA) are a legal requirement on any service bus built from 2019. These buses will already have had the equipment fitted when they were built, but they are now required to be used.

Over the next few years, operators will be required to retro fit them to the to remainder of their fleet, which is quite a task.

It’s unnerving when you have an empty bus, and a voice comes out of the blue and scares the s**t out of you!

I had one of these systems on a E300 on Saturday, when I got to Bracken Grove, theoretically the end of the route, it announced loudly “this service terminates here, all passengers to alight”. Luckily no one took any notice!

I likened the system to being in the car with wifey chimping away - thank god I’ve only got 29 days left!!!!!