Road Works Newton Abbot.

Yes, I know this is Paignton Bus Station and I know that Newton Abbot is 8 miles away but the road works there are begining to seriously affect bus running in the Bay.

If you come into Newton from the North there are two ways through town, either down East Street or along The Avenue. The buses come along The Avenue, usually without too much difficulty. However the first thing that has happened as part of the road works is that East Street is now one way heading north. This means that all the through traffic is coming along The Avenue and the buses are being delayed on every trip. This, coupled with that fact that the 12 has gone from being a 7 or 8 min service into Brixham to a 15 min service is the reason for this long queue for the Brixham bound number 12 at 5 o clock yesterday afternoon.

These road works in Newton are long term road works, lasting until mid December. Some thing positive needs to be done to ensure that passengers are not left standing around waiting long periods for a bus that never seems to turn up. At the moment the policy seems to be "Wait and see what happens." A more aggressive strategy is needed.

A follow on from the above situation was that half an hour later I managed to seriously upset an other driver. I was waiting to take over from the driver of the bus that all these people were waiting for. When it arrived an other bus also arrived, always happens, wait ages for a bus and two turn up. We both loaded up and I set off first. When I got to Brixham I loaded up and the second bus arrived, unloaded and set off for Newton without loading. No problem with that, I had all the waiting passengers on board and followed him up New Road out of Brixham. As I left a third bus arrived and the driver, as we passed each other pointed at his watch, asking how late I was. But I was gone before I could answer. The bus in front of me stopped at the first stop to pick up and I stopped behind him to drop off. I left enough to go round him but the eaderly lady wanted me to take her right to the stop so I had to wait until the bus at the stop had gone instead of pulling round it, as would be expected of me, and picking up passenger future up the road.

Then the radio went, a driver asking me how late I was, "15 mins". He said he was 30 mins late. At that point I though it was the driver behind me and I made a flippant remark about going for a world record. Drivers dislike running late even more than passengers and running seriously late makes me either flippant or sarcastic. On this occasion I was a mixture of both. It was only after I had made the comment that I reallised that it had been the driver of the bus in front who could not understand why I had not passed him at the bus stop. Sorry Mike, I would have passed you if I could and I absolutly would not have said what I said if I had know it was you on the radio.