Paignton Bus Station and the Brixham Park & Ride.

Once again Paignton Bus Station was the scene of carnage and disaster as a reversing bus hit a fuel tanker. As you can see the damage to the bus was actually slight and there appeared to be no damage done to the tanker. This is the usual scale when these collisions occur as the bus is usually going at 2 mph, I speak from experience here. But they do seem to be happening more often. The number and size of buses using the station has increased in recent years and when several buses arrive at more or less the same time they are parked fairly close together with little room to swing the back of the bus round. Add some thing like the fuel tanker and the margin for error becomes small to the point of not if but when. There are plans I believe to pull the station down and rebuild it but I heard mention of such plans way back in the dim and distant past of the last century when I first stated working for the company.

Note: I should point out this is the first time anyone has actually hit a fuel tanker and I hear there are plans to have a controller directing buses when ever there is a fuel tanker in the bus station. Usually we just hit the garage wall.

The other excitement of the day was the opening of the Brixham Park & Ride. This usually only operates in July and August but the council decided to open it for this week which is School holiday week and Monday is a bank holiday as well. We have to turn right into the car park and again a right turn is need to get out of the car park. The first year we managed without the assistance of traffic lights but last year a full set of traffic lights were erected so we and the car drivers could get out of the car park without resorting to the closing of eyes and going method of crossing a busy main road. (Copied from cats the world over). Now we, car drivers and cats can get out in safety. All winter the lights have been covered up with plastic sheeting. This morning at 10:00, an hour and a half after the car park opened the council workers arrived with a crane big enough to use to build a set of pyramids, loads of cones, barriers and a set of Stop/Go boards to remove the sheeting. The must have been on an hourly rate because it took them for ever to get the sheeting down and the traffic queues were half a mile back in both directions. I just hope it was worth it because the most cars I saw using the car park as I went past were 3, and one of those belonged to the attendant.

An other thing that bothers me is on the notice in the sign-on room at work it has the fares and includes the following couple of items; Dog return 75p Dog single 50p. Are we expecting hoards of people to arrive at the Park & Ride with their dog and buy a single ticket for the much loved family pet and expect it to walk back to the car park on it's own? Good trick if you can pull it off. Or worse still, tie the stupid mute to a lamp post and get on the next bus and bugger off as fast as possible before anyone notices.