[acsinuk (OP)]

With another lockdown imminent it is time to reduce the train and bus schedules to a Sunday reduced service only.  Running buses and trains less than a quarter full should be discouraged or even banned as it is wasteful of energy and causes unnecessary pollution.
Now, we are all masked up even rushhour trains should be reduced in length by 50% and others by 75%. 
Double decker buses can be mothballed and mini buses used to feed single coach buses on more crowded routes.
Covid19 has revolutionised our needs, but can produce a real environmental bonus rather than a hazard.

[Bored chemist]

,,,should be discouraged or even banned as it is wasteful of energy

Everything we do is a waste of energy.
You can't repeal the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

Now, we are all masked up...

... we realise that masks aren't perfect.

For those who were wondering a few months ago when I talked about the "superman effect"; this is what I meant.
People think " I have a mask: I am invincible!".
It's a bit of cloth, not a space suit.


It's not that rebuilding public transport is a bad idea, it's just that, right at the moment, we are busy.

[alancalverd]

A surgical mask is about 30 - 50% efficient at reducing inhaled aerosol if worn properly. So you might take a chance sitting on a half-empty train if you are wearing a good mask for the entire journey. Reducing the number of seats would simply bring the risk factor back to where it was if you didn't wear a mask.

Don't rely on everyone else wearing masks. Most of them aren't effective and most of the rest aren't worn properly.   

[acsinuk (OP)]

But what advantage is it to run an empty train or bus when recent travel numbers are predictable and the security camera can confirm how many people are needing to travel.  Save the fuel and do not pollute the environment.

[Bored chemist]

the security camera can confirm how many people are needing to travel.

If you thought through your posts you would avoid the embarrassment of having the mistakes pointed out.
So, for example, most busses run on a fixed route- typically, it takes an hour to run round the route.
A man with a security camera at two in the afternoon can not tell the driver not to set out at six in the morning.

But what advantage is it to run an empty train or bus

There isn't one- obviously.
But the bus is run "just in case" there is someone who is depending on it to get to the dentist or whatever.
So asking why they run empty busses is asking the wrong question.
The right question is "why do they run busses to a timetable"
And the answer is "because they are much less useful if you don't.

The timetable means that, from time to time, you get empty busses.
Yes, it's a waste of fuel etc.
But, as you seem not to have understood, so is everything else we do.

[alancalverd]

Nobody, other than firefighters and fishermen, "needs" to travel. Many of us choose not to live over the shop, but even the importance of shops is becoming questionable.

It is quite likely that public transport, whether commuter trains or longhaul flights, will never recover to its previous manic activity levels, and scheduled trains and flights will become economically unviable, being replaced by chartered taxi services. But whilst there is as hope of economic normality returning, scheduled trains must run in order to meet their franchise conditions.

[Bored chemist]

Nobody, other than firefighters and fishermen, "needs" to travel.

to get to the dentist or whatever

[alancalverd]

It's arguable that the need to visit a dentist (and I speak with authority,  having just today completed a course of treatment that began with a tooth that broke on the first day of lockdown) is so rare that a free taxi service might cost the taxpayer less than a subsidised bus when society readjusts.

As acsin has pointed out, an imprecation (one could hardly call it a law, since it can't be enforced without upsetting the Dominic Cummings School of Ophthalmology) to make only essential  journeys, has reduced public transport usage to a token, so a considerable rethink may be on the cards.

[Bored chemist]

I presume that  you get your haircut by post and never need to visit a doctor or a friend.

Seriously, you might as well accept that

Nobody, other than firefighters and fishermen, "needs" to travel.

is a bit daft.

[acsinuk (OP)]

Not daft at all.  We need mini buses not double-deckers. Small 2 carriage lightweight tube trains.  Minimise, Economise and protect our environment please.

[Bored chemist]

Not daft at all. 

Yes it is.

We need mini buses not double-deckers.

maybe, but that wasn't the matter under discussion, was it?
The idea that "Nobody, other than firefighters and fishermen, "needs" to travel." is still daft.

[alancalverd]

Apart from said professions, I can't think of anyone else who necessarily lives more than walking or cycling distance from his place of work. Even astronauts get married quarters at the training base until they are sent to live in the laboratory.

Haven't had a haircut since March. On The Boss's instructions I've given up the military fuzz and have now reached Einstein en route to Willie Nelson. She is quite happy with Godiva.

Most of my friends are musicians. We can't rehearse together so the pianist sends round a recording of the piano score and we add our own lines, which all end up in a studio mix without having to breathe over each other  in a real studio. Miss the gigs, though.

The local doctor doesn't want anyone in his surgery except for minor ops and injections - consultation is by Zoom, no waiting.

[Bored chemist]

so the pianist sends round a recording of the piano score

Does he take the piano round to the tuner's place for tuning?

[evan_au]

Here in Australia, we are gradually opening up borders after the virus escaped from quarantine hotels.
- Like my colleagues, I've worked at home since March; some small social gatherings are planned for December for my work team
- My home office now sports a large 4k curved monitor, a gift for Father's Day. We don't have anything like that in the office!
- I have had some work done by my local dentist over the past month, with no delays due to pandemics
- I took my first trip on public transport last weekend, to see a couple of exhibitions in the city. Signs on the doors recommended wearing masks, but only about 20% of passengers were wearing them. The train was mostly empty on the weekend, but I understand a similar ratio of masks occurs during peak hour.
- I have rebooked a vacation in an adjacent state (1,000km away). This was originally booked for April 2020, deferred to September 2020, now January 2021. In between, the airline went bankrupt, and the new owners are pulling various stunts to stop you using the credit you received when the earlier flight was cancelled. Whether the vacation finally happens in January is like the flip of a coin.
- I guess it helps that we are now entering the warmer months; I expect social distancing on beaches will be enforced, with requests to make it a short visit, and beach closures when they get full.
 
Meanwhile, the Pakistani cricket team is in quarantine in New Zealand. They have been threatened with expulsion after ignoring quarantine restrictions, and now half of the team have tested positive...

[alancalverd]

so the pianist sends round a recording of the piano score

Does he take the piano round to the tuner's place for tuning?

He uses an electronic keyboard so there's no argument about tuning. When he says A = 440, you'd better believe it. The guy who tunes my mechanical piano also works for the Albert Hall, so the band are (or were) pretty happy to play in my shed a couple of times a year when he has just visited, but you don't have to be on the scene for very long to realise that even the best Steinway in a church or community center is not to be trusted.

When I saw one of the first adverts in a shop window for a "digital piano" some years back I asked the obvious question. My wife said "presumably, one you play with your fingers."

[Bored chemist]

The guy who tunes my mechanical piano also works for the Albert Hall,

And... does he live there or are  you getting to grips with the idea that

Nobody, other than firefighters and fishermen, "needs" to travel.

is daft?

[Bored chemist]

there's no argument about tuning

I'm willing to bet that there is.
It's a law of physics that n musicians implies at least n+1 opinions.
You may well near enough agree about 440 Hz
But is a third above it a rational number or something involving the twelfth root of two?

[alancalverd]

The guy who tunes my mechanical piano also works for the Albert Hall,

And... does he live there

Other piano tuners live in the area, if only because the Royal College of Music is just round the corner. And there's no great shortage of pianos in Cambridge. What's needed is a bit of collaboration rather than competition.

[alancalverd]

But is a third above it a rational number or something involving the twelfth root of two?

The joy of a fretless bass is I really don't need to know! The guitar is always accurate but always wrong (like the Hammond organ, but differently wrong) whilst fretless strings can be right-ish all the time.

[Bored chemist]

So, you are happy to deliver a piano across Cambridge for tuning, in spite of the fact that the return journey will detune it, rather than accept that, maybe, piano tuners need to go to their place of work.
Well... it's a view point.

I look forward to further discussion regarding professional mountaineers.