My newest Rant, LLU for the Aberdeen North Exchange.

Hello All.

Having a wee rant here, and thought it deserves to get posted up in here.

As some of you lot know, I tend to use the internet a LOT, and I mean a LOTTTTT!

When I was going to move down the road, I had it planned for going with O2 Broadband up to 20 Meg service as that have that down there.

Now here in Aberdeen, out of the 12 exchanges in the area, only 5 that I know about are now LLU enabled and working.

Now the Aberdeen North is between George Street / Haudigan Roundabout area, quite a big and lucrative area I would think, but after 9 failed attempts to get this LLU enabled, it still isnt done ?? WHY !!!

I find it annoying that it is impossible to get a honest answer out of anyone as no-one knows the truth.

So here is a really silly Idea???

How hard would it be to put pressure on folks to get FibreOptics into the Aberdeen area for residential customers ?

After all, every house is connected to the sewers, some FiberOptic folks use the sewer network for convenience???  Aberdeen Cable!! mind of them from the 90's, I was in their studio learning some stuff and making a hash of it as well, well what happened to their network cables??? are they still there ??? could they be used to pull the FiberOptics thru ??

Now obviously, this would not be cheap at the outset, but am sure if folks pulled together, made a co-operative group to get it started, there would be the golden funding from the EU to help it along the way ??

So to BT and BT Wholesale, please stop lying to the people and tell us the truth, or the People might just say to themselves... "We can do better" and find another way!!!

First Aberdeen 19, Lack of service, Yet again.

At the weekend there, there was a HUGE Headline... in the local paper.

"BUS STRIKE IS CALLED OFF "

Now call me stupid, doesn't that mean that the buses will finally go back to a proper service again ???

OK, so picture this if you will, am gettin ready to go to an appointment, safe in the knowledge that the buses are finally working to their proper timetable..

so, Leave house afore 1pm to get the 1:06 bus leaving Tillydrone... Easy huh ??

YER RIGHT !!!!!!

No Bus, wait a while.. still no bus ... so at 1:15pm I call Busline, to be told they are back on the emergency service yet again, and one was due at 1:10pm ... so emergency service is a "work to rule" at 20 mins apart.. so am waiting .. 20 past, nowt .... 25 past .. still nowt .. 28 Past a wee single decker appears drops off the passengers and lets on some at the terminus, he then gets out to hae a lok at his damned bus ???

As he is doing this, a double decker appears, so of course they hae a damned chat don't they.
Eventually the double deckers comes around and starts to move, but it isn't saying what it should say " Culter " instead it says " Sorry, I am not in Service " ???
All the driver does is point to his watch as he drives past with me giving him the proper signage for this type of pathetic behaviour.. " Wanker " with the hand going up and down .. you know...

So whats the point of me posting this time, well see the last post, thats when this industrial action bull crap started, and its been on going since then, and to be totally blunt, I am so friggin fed up with it.

So I would like to announce I am going to set up a new blog Solely for First Aberdeen, and am going to open it up to all persons with their stories of the Hours of waiting for a bus late at night because they do a pathetic timetable that left an ill and disabled person with no way home in town centre on a cold and rainy night for approximately 1 hour and 20 mins.. This is a service that has sole use for Tillydrone, no other bus goes in there..
The 17 and 21 buses go past it at woodside fountains, but I can assure you, the wee hill is lovely to walk down easily enough, but for me its a sair trek to go up in the morn when you haven't really woke up yet.

Buses to go back on strike..

Why dont First just sack these asswipes and get folks in with a contracted pay deal...
Better still, why doesn't Stagecoach come in and set up a few routes for the Aberdonians and give First Aberdeen a slap in the face.. Bloody Rediculous

First in Aberdeen again ...

It seems our bus drivers have a problem, they are not happy at the wage they recieve, so what do they do, "Industrial Action" ???

What this entails is a work to rule, go slow and dont jump ahead to pick up slack...

What this means for us commuters, the only bus service allowed to operate freely in Aberdeen is in chaos!

We have the most expensive bus fares in Scotland, the worst service for time keeping and now we are being held to ransom by these lazy arsed drivers.

Many times I was told yesterday that busses were missing (late) by on average 40 - 45 mins...
Some folks, elderly and disabled folks were forced to either wait over an hour for a bus or as one bus driver was heard by me the other day to say " If you dont like it, Walk!!"

To be honest, am damned glad I have made up my mind to get out of Aberdeen to head back down the road, one the buses are more frequent, more choice atween the buses as well and lastly we get more distance for the time as well.

40 mins on the bus to get 4.5 miles ( Tillydrone to Holburn junction ) or 28 minutes to get from Glasgow buchannan to Wishaw... thats about 12 miles

First Aberdeen, Tillydrone 19 Service...

or should I say LACK of Service!!!

We finally get a little snow in Aberdeen, and ye would think a Bus Company would be able to handle it??

NO, that would be a dream....

Anyways, my story is the journey to town today, this morning.

Left the house, as am walking down a slushy and slidey path to the bus-stop, I see the bus there already(11:21am)... No Way am I running for it, path was to slippy, so I had to wait for the next bus to appear (11:36am) ... No Biggy!!

So there I am, at the bus stop, waiting, taking pics to kill time, chatting to some gent that I have spoken to afore, and the time drags on... 11:35 no sign of the bus... 11:40 .. not here ... 11:50 .. Still not here... 11:52 a minute after the NEXT bus was due, I phone the company, they said "No Idea where the buses are, traffic is chaos everywhere" THEY SHOULD FRIGGING ANTICIPATE THIS!!!!

So back to waiting, am now getting pissed off Big Time... finally at 12:10pm a bus appears around the corner, takes another 3 mins to get to us.. so in total I have had to wait 37 mins for a bus that was due at 11:36am...

Now the bus that appears, ( new driver, learning the route ) HE is only 7 mins late.. 2 Buses failed to even appear!!! This is Typical!! Always happens!!!

Now, Tillydrone is a wee scheme in Aberdeen, lots of elderly folks there, and for a bus service to not have a bus in the area for over 30 mins when it is meant to be a 15 min service is bloody shocking!!!

Unfortunatly, First Bus have the monopoly on the routes in Aberdeen, no other buses would take on the routes or provide a service that could cover us or give First a run for their money, so we are stuck with an expensive and unreliable service...

Makes me wonder about getting on my bike and slowing down the buses even more by hogging their frigging bus lanes!!!