Friday, 16 March 2007

Road Works at the Penn Inn.

If you live in the area and listen to the road reports on the local radio the location Penn Inn Roundabout will be familiar to you. If you don't live in the area then think of some where that turns up most days in your local radio road reports and you have an idea how important smooth flowing traffic is at Penn Inn. Today some one decided that smooth flowing traffic round Penn Inn just wasn't going to happen. To this end a big hole was dug, not in the road as you might expect but in the pavement( sidewalk in the US of A). But one lane needed to be closed off. No more smooth flowing traffic at Penn Inn.

And it would happen today, because today I was doing my easiest duty 3613. It starts late enough so that everyone has got to where they are going by the time I get anywhere near a bus, I have my break just as the schools are letting out so no school run, the first half is fairly long but that means the second half is dead short. The other way round is a killer. The only time I do much work is the trip after the break going up to Newton. By the time I get back rush hour is over and I have a nice gentle run to Brixham and then dead to the depot and home for supper. I love it.

But not today. The combination of the lane closed at Penn Inn and the road works at Long Road, mentioned a day ago, meant we were all running late, some of us half an hour late or more. The only way to cope with this is for the controllers to turn buses short of their destinations. This is not popular with anyone, except the drivers who get turned. For the controllers it means extra paper work and trying to make sure all the drivers get their legal 30 min break and that there are buses actually making it to Newton and to Brixham. Turn too many buses and passengers numbers could overwelm the bus that finally makes it to the terminus. For the passengers it means longer waits and for the drivers not being turned it means lots of people saying things like, "Where have all the buses been. I been here hours." All this makes for a very frustrating and tiring day.

Now and then, in the canteen a bus driver will be heard to say, "This would be a great job if it wasn't for the passengers." We don't mean it really; it just slips out after several awkward passengers get on the bus at the same time. That usually doesn't happen they are usually more spread out. What is true is, "This would be a great job if it wasn't for road works."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If your scheduler spreads breaks over the afternoon school peak that begs a question or two...