Buses World News

PUBLIC SERVICES * Venezuela - Issues its first suspension to bus driver

Caracas,Venezuela -Land Line Magazine -19 May 2011: -- In Venezuela, a commercial bus driver’s license was recently suspended for 12 months. It was the first suspension since a law was enacted three years ago to punish unsafe drivers... According to Reuters, police stopped the bus driver, Ramon Parra, 41, for speeding. Police cited him for carrying more passengers than legally permitted and for missing a rear wheel, which was found on the floor inside... The maximum suspension for a driver’s license in Venezuela is five years for killing someone. Fuel costs about 12 cents a U.S. gallon, and prices have not been raised in years... (Image from travelpod: The boom box junk bus to choroni)

Labels: public services

PUBLIC SERVICES * India - MSRTC starts buses to Chanda from Mor Bhavan

Nagpur,Maharashtra,India -TNN/The Times of India -Feb 7, 2011: -- Even as chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has failed to resolve the dispute over use of Mor Bhavan bus stand for city bus operations run by Nagpur Municipal Corporation, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) on Sunday started services to Chandrapur from there... MSRTC divisional controller Suryakant Ambadekar, however, ruled out any ulterior motive behind the new service. According to Ambadekar these additional bus services would help commuters... These buses will include both semi-luxury and luxury buses. The route fare is Rs 152 for semi-luxury and Rs 113 for 2x2 ordinary buses... Ambadekar said that the 32 new trips have started from Sunday and all these buses will ply from Mor Bhavan. He, however, clarified that these buses for Chandrapur would be apart from the regular transport service from Ganeshpeth bus stand... Manohar Khorgade and other office bearers of city-based NGO Janmanch welcomed the move by MSRTC. According to him, the move would not only help passengers but also save their time and money... (Photo from farm4.static.flickr: Nagpur Municipal Corp.'s, Star Bus)

Labels: public services

"Love Seats" * Denmark - Copenhagen Buses Get

Copenhagen,Denmark -Good Blog, by Andrew Price -May 11, 2010: -- In Copenhagen, 100 city buses just got special "Love Seats"—complete with special red upholstery—for people to sit in if they're open to flirting, or maybe just chatting, with other passengers. As Martin Wex, a spokesman for the Danish bus company Arriva, explains "We cannot guarantee that you will find the person of your dreams. We are just offering the possibility for people to communicate, to smile a bit more and possibly, to win someone’s heart"...

Labels: public services

PUBLIC SERVICE * CHINA - Shanghai: Passengers Transport Buses

Shanghai boasts one of the best transportation systems in China

Shanghai,SH,China -ilearn -12 April 2010: ... As a major port city and the largest city in Eastern China, this is the major hub for the eastern region. Shanghai is a busy regional transport hub, and is thus very easily reached by air, land and water... There are more than 1,100 bus lines in Shanghai. Buses are often fully-packed and at times, impossible to board. Once on board, keep your valuables tucked away since pick pocketing is easy under such conditions... The ticket prices are divided into several kinds which are according to the length of the routes and the condition of the bus, RMB1 for the routes less than 13 km long, RMB1.5 for the over-13 km long routes, RMB2 for air-con buses... For tourists and travelers, we do not recommend you to use bus since it is crowded and often gets caught in jams. Taxi and metro are your first choices... (Photo: Shanghai Bus)

Labels: public services

PUBLIC SERVICE * USA - Bus line leads all to Chinatown

Richmond,VA,USA -News Observer, by SARAH OVASKA -10 April 2010: -- It was 4:30 a.m. at a bleak truck stop when the driver stopped the New York City-bound bus, waking the passengers and reeling off what sounded like very important instructions in Chinese... The passengers, who boarded in Raleigh, needed to grab their luggage and get on another bus that had come down from New York. The travelers on the second bus would take their places and head south to Raleigh... Confused? Imagine it in Mandarin... Such is life on the Sky Express bus, where $30 secures a one-way ticket from the Triangle to New York's Chinatown... Long a mainstay in Northeast cities with sizable Asian populations, the bus lines offer a no-frills way to get to New York for $50 to $100 less than other buses or trains... (Photo by TRAVIS LONG/News Observer - Bus driver Chen Guang checks tickets before departing for New York City on a recent Sky Express bus trip. The bus bound for Chinatown leaves every night at 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. from a parking lot in Cary)

Labels: public services

AT PUBLIC SERVICE * USA - School buses plow through water in Barrington

(Photo from news blog.projo)

Barrington,NH,USA -Projo by Mary Murphy -March 30, 2010: -- A car and school buses plow through the water that overflowed Volpe Pond at the intersection of Maple Avenue and Middle Highway around 7 a.m. Tuesday. Many schools in Rhode Island have been closed because of the heavy rain and flooding...

* Comments:

- from Liberal no longer a Democrat said: What kind of morons would send kids out in those conditions?

- SheriTinTX said: Here in Texas we experience flash flooding frequently. We abide by the saying..."turn around, don't drown". Driving thru flood waters is extremely dangerous. School should be closed.

Labels: public services

Upgrading bus routees * China - Beijing to upgrade 230 bus routes for new subway lines

See bigger map

Beijing,China -CCTV.com News -17 March 2010: -- Bus routes will be greatly altered and the service time will be further prolonged. A relevant official at the Beijing Municipal Committee of Transport stated March 11 that 5 subway lines will open to passengers and 230 bus routes will be altered in Beijing this year... Public transportation companies will deploy fewer buses on the routes which have fewer passengers but cannot be altered because they involve downtown areas. At the same time, the service time of the public transportation sector will be prolonged so it can match the service time of the subway sector... Five subway lines in Yizhuang, Daxing, Fangshan, Changping and Shunyi will open to passengers at the end of this year and Beijing will analyze changes in the passenger loads of relevant bus routes along the subway lines and then alter these bus routes according to the changes. Top priority will be given to streamlining these bus routes so as to increase the efficiency of relevant highways and buses. At the same time, Beijing will deploy fewer buses on the routes which face a decline in passenger load but cannot be altered because they involve downtown areas, and deploy more buses on the buses routes intersecting subway stations in the suburbs...

Labels: public services

Court * India - Blueline buses to continue in south Delhi

The Delhi High Court Friday gave another two-month breather to Blueline bus operators plying in south Delhi

New Delhi,India -ProKerala -Feb 19, 2010: ... Justice, S. Muralidhar, asked the government to explain why no-show cause notice was issued for the buses which have valid permits, and directed the government to file reply by April 13. Meanwhile, the interim order of the court allowing the buses to ply will continue... The government planned to phase out Blueline buses from the city by March 2010. About 264 buses which fall under this category are marked to be removed from Delhi roads... According to the government, when the phase-out from south Delhi begins, operators plying buses which are less than 10 years old will be given charge of some routes on which the older buses were operating... The allocation of routes will be done on a first come first served basis... The shortfall, if any, will be met with the new low-floor DTC buses which are augmenting the fleet every month now...

Labels: public services

Public Services * UK - New business for local bus firms

Bridgwater,Somerset,UK -BBC News -7 Sept 2009: -- New bus operators have begun their five year contracts with Somerset County Council running public services routes... This round of contracts has also shown a move towards smaller, more locally-based companies by Somerset County Council which oversees the process... The Bridgwater-based WebberBus has taken over the 670 service which was previously run by First, running through Wookey Hole, Wells, Wedmore, Highbridge and Burnham-on-Sea... It has invested in two new buses which are planned to be used solely for this route and has invested £1.5m into its bus fleet over the past four years... (Picture: WebberBus is based in Bridgwater)

Labels: public services