I know I go on about road works but at the moment they seem to be joint top (with free bus passes in Torbay) in the pain league. There are only three sets, the one at Long Road and the two in Newton Abbot. I had a slightly amusing incident in The Avenue in Newton today. The first involved an Ambulance which was siting quietly at the lights which were on red. They changed to green but it was obvious to a blind man in a pitch black coal mine that there was no use in us going anywhere. The road workers, yes there are one or two despite the fact that they only seem to be there working for a couple of hours a week had decided to move some machinery for one part of the site to an other part. This piece of plant was moving at 1.3 miles per hour and was followed by a car, a single decker and a double decker bus, which were also being followed by several cars. We would have to wait. Suddenly off set the ambulance, blue lights and two tones going as if by magic that would remove machinery, two buses, and lots of cars. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry so I just put the bus in neutral and got out for a stretch.
4 minutes later the road finally cleared, it would have been much quicker if the ambulance had waited but I suppose you get into the mind set of your job, flashing lights and two tone noise always make traffic get out of your way so why take any notice of the blind man down a coal mine?
Later in the afternoon I arrived at the Strand heading for Brixham via Roselands and Long road. At the best of times (no road works) this trip takes 60 minutes compered with 40 on the 12 which should have been not far behind me. With the road works 75 minutes if we got lucky. Four people got on and asked for Brixham. I strongly advised then to take the 12 and tried to explain the reason. They didn't want to know and on they got. "We're not in a hurry." one lady remarked. OK. OK neither am I. But I am getting paid and when I get to Brixham all I do is turn round and come back. I ain't going no where really. But they are and why add 35 minutes, a lot of it spent in a traffic jam, to a journey for no reason.
This nagged me a little so when I got to Paignton Bus Station I stuck my head round the bulkhead and said in a loud urgent voice "Passengers going to Brixham are very, very strongly urged to leave this bus here and get the 12 which will be along an a few moments." At the time I didn't know;
a) where the 12 was
b) if anyone took my advice.
Just as I pulled out of the bus station the station controller, getting concerned about the length of the queue for the 12 asked over the radio where the next 12 was. Livermead, still 10 minutes away. Oops. Never mind, he will still get to Brixham before me. And he did, 20 minutes on a 12 to Brixham, 40minutes on the 12A to Brixham, I took an hour and 5 minutes. I am glad to say that when I got to Brixham there was no one on the bus, advice taken. Also the 12 that had been behind me was back in paignton before I got to Brixham.
Please God, make them finish the road works at Long Road.
2 comments:
Several comments at once:
1.) Day light savings time is the stupidest idea (aside from invading Iraq) in the world. Why not have weekend savings time? One Wednesday, you wake up and it's Friday. Oh Yay! The weekend comes early! A few months later, the day after Friday is Monday. Bummer! It makes as much sense.
2.) I don't trust a paper that has the headline, "The Trainers You'll Need For Spring" on the front page.
3.) We used to have an elaborate graded system of fare discounts that required us to carry cards with a complicated chart: "The regular fare is $8.00, but with your age, military service and medical history, you only have to pay 11/16ths of the regular fare, That will be $5.50". Now, you either qualify for a half price fare or you don't. It seems as though everyone on the bus has taken to putting in the half price fare and glaring at us. "I dare ya. I double dare ya." I'm so relieved at not having to hear a hard luck story that I punch in the half price code and thank them. It seems as though you spend an inordinate amount of time collecting and accounting for fares. My employer doesn't seem to worry too much about the fares, but I spend about half my time doing things that will protect the company in the event of a lawsuit.
Ive got this all to come. I will comment further once I reach a stage of annoyance. Mind you, I dont think roadworks will be an issue. Sheer traffic is a major killer where I live.
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