Very Dark Grey Friday.

Last Friday was the worst day any one can remember for buses running late, mostly 12's. I was driving the 200, the Open Top service between Meatfoot and Totnes and I took over my bus at Paignton Bus Station half an hour late. Not the best of ideas when I have never driven the route before and I only had a map of Totnes with the route penciled in.

The radio was going non stop all day with drivers reporting in how late they were and asking to be turned short of their destination so they could get back on time. But you can only turn so many buses otherwise no buses would have got to Brixham or Newton. Part of the problem were the road works at Corbin Head. On one side of the road works traffic was back 200 yards while on the Paignton side it was over a mile. Two things bother me here. One is why can't Transco, who have plenty of experience digging up this section of road manage the temporary traffic lights better. The second is why don't the council tell Transco that next time they dig the road up at Corbin Head that they had better get the traffic lights right or they will be taken to court and fined. The council do have this power but seem unable to get round to using it, rather than do something they let every traveler in the Bay and beyond suffer.

Once drivers had lost time here they never had the chance to get back on time because we only just have enough running time to cover the route as it is. Once some thing like this happens queues of angry, frustrated, I'm going to go by car next time, passengers build up.

When I finally finished at 20:10 I went for a bus at 20:26. After a 20 min wait (buses are every 15 mins at this time of night) two turned up, still running late and unable to catch up with their time.

P.S.
I was going to call this Post Black Friday. But I thought that I would save that title for a later date when some thing even worse goes down. I fear that, like the meteor from space it it is not ' if ' but ' when '.