Have You Spotted These New-Style Bus Stops Around Town?

Harry Rosehill
By Harry Rosehill Last edited 67 months ago
Have You Spotted These New-Style Bus Stops Around Town?

Join us to chat about all things related to London transport on our Facebook group, Londonist Roundel Ramblings— everyone welcome.

Notice anything unusual about this bus stop? See that weird extra screen at the bottom? Let's take a closer look.

It's a new display attached to a bus stop — we found this one on the busy Clerkenwell Road and Goswell Road junction. Yes, we know this bus stop's name is BS, but we promise that this article isn't.

This is radically different to the bus countdown screens, hanging beneath the bus shelter. It's an interesting switch for the bus network, perhaps brought in as these are visible from both sides and even from aboard the top deck of a bus if you're considering changing.

These boards can only display two buses at a time, compared to the traditional boards' four. It also popped up with a friendly message, imploring us not to bother queueing for taxis at night, and instead get the 243 as it runs 24 hours. A helpful message no doubt, but 11am isn't the most useful time to run it. While it was up there, it took up a precious information space, meaning there was only information for the next arriving bus.

The very helpful message

We waited and the times the board promised, proved accurate — although that isn't a surprise, it's almost certainly hooked up to the same GPS tracking system as the regular boards.

It's worth noting how quietly this appeared, and we suspect there might be a few more around town. Clearly it's some sort of experiment, we'll have to wait and see how many more of these will be rolled out — do let us know if you've spotted any others in the comments below.

Thank to Kyle for pointing this out in our all-things-transport Facebook group Roundel Ramblings.

Last Updated 17 August 2018