Duty 3611 is a fairly easy duty. It starts on the Strand in Torquay goes to Brixham when not many people want to go to Brixham, leaves Brixham after anyone in Brixham who wants to go any where else have already gone and goes to Newton when everyone who wants to go to Newton has already got there. Then back to Paignton for an hour long break. Then a quiet run to Brixham. I leave Brixham at 14:36 usually with 2 or 3 people on who have been doing a little shopping and they get of just up the road. Real quiet duty.
Then I get to South Devon College and the work starts. In the next hour I certainly earn my money. About 30 students get on heading home after a hard days studying. Then down through Roselands and Tweenaway Cross as the late afternoon traffic is building up to Paignton Zoo where I pick up about 50 school children from Paignton Community College. They are all about 12 and 13 and mostly very nice and polite but that many children all together on a bus can make a lot of noise. School runs going to school in the morning are usually very quiet as the poor little darlings contemplate the next 6 hours of enforced learning and when all they would sooner be playing computer games or chicken on the motorway. Anyway the bus is full by this time so the rare pleasure occurs when I can ride past a stop with people waiting for the bus without having to stop.
About 300 yards after I have picked the children up there is a Junior school and the road is partly blocked by a line of 4 wheel drives as mother comes to rescue their little darling and save him/her the rigours of walking home or worse still getting the bus home. Still it gives mother something to do. It also is the biggest single cause of traffic congestion in the known universe.
Now I did this duty yesterday, Thursday and a nice surprise awaited me. Usually it is a tight fit getting past all the 4 wheel drives and the increasingly impatient oncoming drivers of company cars anxious to get to the last business meeting of the day and white van drivers desperate to make the last delivery so they can be home before rush hour starts and the late mother looking manically for the last parking spot so little Tracy wont feel abandoned as all her friends are whisked away in some gas guzzling 4wd off road vehicle about half the size of the bus. The only time these vehicles go off road is when mum parks two nearside wheels on the pavement because if she didn't she would completely block the road and even she isn't that daft. Err, I might modify that later.
Anyway, back to the surprise. There were lots of police there, moving mother on and the road was clear so I, in one vehicle could move 90 people instead of mum in 90 vehicles could move 90 people. Nice.
Went back today. The police must have been required else where or they don't know the meaning of persistence as there was the usually line, half on the pavement and half on the road and all the usual drivers coming the other way, all who have but one idea. Get through before the bus. Even if they kill some one. As I drive, sorry squeeze, past I harbour a secret hope that one of the mums will decide to test the strength of her door against a bus now weighing 16 tonnes with all the people I've got on and open the damn thing. No such luck so far but one can live in hope.
6 comments:
Just out of interest...do you talk to your passengers as they get on the bus?
I've travelled on a few buses recently (Arriva though!!) and you get on to be greeted by, a driver just sitting there - staring at you. I say where I want to go. I watch him push a few buttons (ticket machines look quite complicated actually), the ticket pops out (I love that brrgh sound), pass money over, get change slammed into the little thing, and that's it. He hasn't said a single word - rude - or normal?
Most of "ours" (Chichester area)say "morning" or "g'night" or the equivalent, but it DOES so much vary depot to depot...area to area...
I can think (so easily) of places where absolutely nobody will go so far as the above, yet nobody means any harm...and vice versa...
where drivers won't even grunt in case it sounds too soft...
I always try to greet the passengers with a cheery 'morning/afternoon' or whatever. Give them their ticket with a 'there you go then sir/madam/m'dear' and try to say thanks/cheerio as they get off.
If they say 'nice day' when it's sunny I tell them it's not nice for everybody i.e. bus drivers sitting all day in a greenhouse/low sun always in your eyes or mirrors. If they say it's a terrible day I gently remind them that some people are glad to see a new day no matter what the weather is.(But I always say these things cheerfully so that it doesn't sound as if I'm moaning).
As the 'old dear' climbs aboard the bus I give a welcoming "hello" (at this point, she has one leg on the platform) - she'll look up "and where would you like to go?" I ask "oh, to town please driver" (second leg now on the platform)"that's handy - I'm going there" I reply, by this time I've glimpsed her free pass and issued a ticket, a quick 'thank you' and I'm looking over her shoulder at the next customer.
When this works it's wonderful, thieir on, welcomed, some quick lite banter and on to the next.
On a rare off day, I might not say anything but I'll look at them and smile at the very least and say thank you. it makes the day go easier.
Years ago I had a little bet with myself that I could do a round trip without saying anything to the passengers except to tell them the fare, but only if they didn't know it. So far after 8 years of trying I still haven't managed it. I always end up saying something even if it's only morning,afternoon, please, thank you, bye, hope you enjoyed traveling with Stagecoach Devon, please try and be nice to the driver next time. However there are drivers I know who can hold an interesting conversation with everyone who gets on and other drivers who only grunt, and then only 3 or 4 times a day if you are lucky. It takes all sorts.
Most of our local drivers talk to the customers, in fact I often chat to the driver in the afternoon as I'm usually sitting up the front. A lot of the drivers are known by their first names.
I don't know if the Brisbane Transport drivers are the same, but Veolia drivers are certainly very friendly.
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