My husband missed the 7:15 ferry a couple mornings ago (Monday, I think) because the #4 bus was late...

I missed a ferry because the driver let a Golf car in front.

Its the golf cart drivers! They are slow and inconsiderate; they should pull over and give priority to the buses.

I use bus #4 as well. I have patience when school kids get off the bus and when the bus driver is waiting for other passengers running to make it. All this is fine.

What I can't stand is on that long stretch from top of the hill to the school/tennis courts area.

Golf cart drivers should let busses pass.  

Golf carts aside, if the bus is regularly or frequently late the bottom line is that the bus is not leaving early enough. The route is clearly too long for a single bus to make the round-trip between ferries during rush hours. The only way around this is for the bus company to lay on another bus to cover the route during the times when the ferries run more frequently (presumably there is enough time when the ferry runs at 30-minute intervals?).

Raise the matter with your VOC and have him lobby the bus company, and also let HKR management know that it is not acceptable.

paulsmith wrote on Mar 4^th, 2010, 10:19am:

True, but the ferry is already almost routinely running 5 minutes late, so this sort of allowance would quickly add up. There really is no excuse for not being able to coordinate such a simple monopolised transport system (I'm not even going to start on the poor coordination between the 01/02/03 routes and the internal buses!).

Quatchi wrote on Mar 4^th, 2010, 10:44am:


I don't agree with this assessment. The ferries should leave PROMPTLYand SO SHOULD THE BUSES from the teminus.

The real problem is that the buses are commencing their journeys late from the plaza because they are waiting for late ferries and also for some straggling passengers who walk very lesiurely when they come off from the ferries.

If the buses leave the plaza late and stuffed to capacity with standing passengers this causes the buses to be late completing their circuit and returning to the terminus. This is the reason that outgoing passengers on many of the internal routes routinely miss their ferries.

The solution is to delink with late arriving ferries. The buses should always leave the terminus promptly at the sceduled time. This will enable the  buses to run to schedule and passengers exiting DB will not miss their ferries.

If passengers from the ferries arrive late they will  not have to wait for more than a few minutes for an empty bus to return to the Plaza.

SayNoTPC - your suggestions make the most sense overall I think....

if everybody would be prepared to enter the bus, there would be no delay. But people waiting already 5 minutes in line and then after they walk in the bus start looking for cash or their octopus card or else makes it difficult for any bus driver to catch up. i can't blame the drivers at all or the management. It is us who causes the delays. Think about it ..

Thank you all for your responses, it seems that something needs to be done about the bus schedule. Does anybody have a suggestion who should I talk to? Is the Annual Meeting of Owners tonight a good place to start?

Btw, we did make it to the marathon (got there 2 minutes before the starting line closed at 6:10am), but missing the ferry experience left me very frustrated.

Reminds me of that Yes, Minister episode:  

""First of all, you have to sort out the smooth running of the hospital. Having patients around would be no help at all."
"They'd just be in the way."

I agree with Quatchi, every ferry I have caught since the " supposed " adhering to deparure times has been 3-7 minutes late.
No thought goes into the bus schedules around here, particularly not with relation to the airport or TC buses. Plus as someone else mentioned the buses are quite often late leaving the villages because they were waiting for another late ferry. I did'nt think it was rocket science but maybe I was wrong.

uhm so i didnt read all the stuff you guys wrote, just cuz i dont have time right now. but i take the nr 4 bus all the time, and i think there should def. be some changes.
for one, its always waaay too full! i mean, ok they started running a second nr. 4 now, but still, its always too full. i think they should have a new busline JUST for all the stops at the greens... that way, the nr. 4 wouldnt have to stop like every 2 meters which would make it much faster and less full.

also for the ppl complaining about missing the ferry... i take the bus 30 mins before the ferry is supposed to leave in the morning... that way i dont have to stress around and i still have time for some coffee at the pier =) so maybe just walk to the pier, or leave early enough. because the bus is always a little late. there are ALOT of ppl who are late and come running towards the bus stop every morning, so if the driver doesnt wait, hes an ass because he saw the person and left anyway. and if he does wait, ppl on the bus get annoyed because the bus will arrive late at the pier...

so i think the best thing to do, is to plan enough time if you wanna take the bus, or just walk...

Quote:


Yes, it is a toss up for " world's stupidest bus stop " between the No 4 stops 50 metres apart and the Airport bus stop that pulls up at the front door of one of the Greens ( poor sods still have to walk 20 metres tho )

Why should they get rid of the middle stops?  What is wrong with a bus stopping at apartments along the way?  If you want to get the quick bus, just pay the extra $$$ and get on the 01 or 03! that will serve only the main stops and you can get to wherever you want quicker.

getting rid of them might be a little drastic... and i guess if i lived in the greens i wouldnt like that idea either. but i have to say, it is pretty absurd having THAT many bus stops...

maybe instead of getting rid of them, a bus just for ppl living in the greens would make more sense. that way the buses would be more likely to be on time and also less stuffed.
but then again, thats not what i would call an environmentally friendly solution. ah well, its a tough one!  

yeah well during the week im lucky enough to be able to take the 9A bus =D
but something tells me that sooner or later theres gna be alot of chianti ppl complaining on here because of everyone who takes that bus and doesnt actually live in chianti  

Haha reminds me of some woman shouting at a shelf stacker in olivers central because they had run out of tartar sauce or something like that.
It finished with "oh great, now I have to get my helper to make it fresh".

Tw@t!!

Life in the UK (for example), is misery to the highest extent, and next time I go to london I am going to say to the bus driver "very late, very late, no good, bad" in Cantonese.

Ger wrote on Mar 11^th, 2010, 9:04pm:


Eh?  

I'd lay off those sherbet lemons if I were you...