Running early and engine running.

A couple of incidents last week that get up my nose. The first was going into Brixham as a 12A. I was due to leave at 12:21 and I arrived at 12:09, two or three minutes early. That is normal, I left the last timing point on time but because the roads were quiet it meant I had a nice long wait, or it should have been nice but it wasn't. The 12 in front of me on the stop was due out at 12:16, 7 minutes to wait. And guess what, the driver hadn't switched the engine of despite a company rule that says if a wait is more than two minutes the engine MUST be switched of. Part of the problem is bus engines sound quiet when you are siting in the cab. Go outside and it is a different matter. For people within 100 metres the bus sits there thumping away and they have no idea how long it is going to continue disrupting their lives for. Some drivers have no manners. Me, I switch the engine off even if the wait is one minute.

The second incident concerned running early. Again I was driving a 12A to Brixham. The traffic on the Newton Rd had been heavy and I was 7 or 8 minutes late into Torquay. As I got into Hyde Rd in Paignton the 12A behind me overtook me and went into the bus station and on to the stand and picked up the waiting passengers. Fine you might think, nothing for me to do. But by now I was only 4 minutes late. As the other 12A should be 15 minutes behind me it wasn't due to leave for 11 minutes and I would be half way to Roselands by then it meant all those passengers who had been waiting for me now were sat on an unmoving bus for an extra 11 minutes. Well, don't worry, they weren't. When I got to the Zoo, 5 minutes up the road the 12A behind me over took me running 10 minutes early.

Which now means there is a 25 minutes gap before the next bus instead of 15. And who gets moaned at? The poor driver of that bus, "I've been waiting 25 minutes driver. What kind of a bus service are you running here?" A good question.