"I'm sorry but due to operational difficulties......."

If you are on a plane flying over the Atlantic Ocean expecting to land at Heathrow in two hours then these words usually mean you're going to land hundreds of miles away in Scotland or Northern England and will have to spend hours on a coach, if the can find any and get to London about 24 hours late. Either that or the tail section has just dropped in to the sea and the plane will shortly follow.

On a bus it means slightly less. But it is still a pain in the neck having to get of one bus and on to an other. Usually it's because one has broken down or on is running very late. Now and then it happens because engineering want the bus for servicing. It doesn't happen very often, in the last 6 months I have had to change buses 3 times including this change.

This change was slightly different than the usual run of the mill change from on bus to an other. An X46, the Exeter Express had a problem and required a change of bus. The only bus spare in the depot was the Marks bus. This bus is used to provide a free service from places around South Devon to the Willows were Marks & Spencers foolishly moved to some years ago. The bus is quiet old and does not have wheelchair access. Unfortunately one of the passengers on the X46 had his wheelchair with him. I was the next bus along that did have wheelchair access so my bus changed to an X46 and the Marks bus became a 12 and the broken down bus went to a rest home.

To driver of the X46 had explained all this to his passengers who just piled on my bus while the problem was being rushed so fast past my ears it had to be rushed past once again but slightly slower. By this time I had two lots of passengers, half of whom I had to get on to the Marks bus, and I wasn't feel exactly 100% (more about that in next post). Fortunately the Marks bus is Green in colour and the broken down bus was blue so I said , "All passengers who want the 12 service to Newton should get on the green bus in front of this blue bus. Those passenger for Exeter should remain on this bus. "

Seemed clear to me.
I want the hospital,
I want Kingskerwell,
I want Aller,
I want Penn Inn
I want the duel carriageway,
I want Countess Wear,
What's green about it, does it run on LPG?
Do we have to pay again?

I almost said yes to the last question, but I did arrive in Newton without any one saying "When do we get to Exeter" I am not sure if there was anyone wandering around Exeter thinking, "Newton Abbott is bigger that I thought."