Bus users criticise too high timetables installed in bid to improve passenger information

Leicester City Council bosses have said they fitted bus timetables too high for anyone to read as part of a Government-funded drive to improve information for passengers. A city council spokesman blamed the shape of the lamppost and admitted several had been fitted "far too high up" around the city in recent weeks.



Contractors working for the authority have installed new signs at more than 100 bus stops around Leicester in the past two weeks. "The cases – funded by the Department for Transport to improve bus information for passengers – are designed to fit neatly on to bespoke bus stop poles," a council spokeswoman said. "In a handful of locations, however, lampposts double as bus stops.

"Because of the shape of the lamppost, these information cases had to be fixed far too high up to be of use." The council spokesman said workers would now be going out to lower the offending timetables. "We'll be asking our contractor to find a solution, so that the cases can be displayed in the proper way – and at the proper height," she said. Local resident Howard Parker said: "I can't believe how ironic this is.



"It is a laudable intention to try to improve the information to passengers but they have achieved the opposite. Anyone can see that the timetables are too high up," he said. "Who knows what the people thought as they fitted the things. They must have realised what they were doing." Keith Myatt, spokesman for Arriva Bus, said the firm had fitted its own timetable at the stop but it had been replaced by the council. He said: "The council is fitting these timetables in these cases as part of a strategy to provide better information for passengers. Our cases were half the size so I think they were trying to make things better with bigger cases."