This morning when I got up I thought, "Three and a half hours before I have to go to work. Lets write a thorough, well thought out appraisal of the changes about to happen on the 12/12A route."
The 12A bit is new, but it's appraisal will have to wait. Because after I had had a shower and when down stairs to get a cup of coffee I noticed the shower water, which should by now have been drifting down one of South West Water's sewerage pipes was in fact sitting in a great pile where the drain used to be.
So I have just spent the last hour and a half with my arm down said drain pulling lumps of grease mixed with hairs and rabbits and tea bags and leaves and one or two other unknown (fortunately) bits and pieces. Drain is now flowing and my shower water is now heading thank fully for the sea somewhere off Corbin Head. By the way the temperature round here yesterday was 25c so maybe the sea is where all you holiday makers should head for to day.
On of the problems of having my arm down the drain is that even though I have had a second shower I can still catch a slight wiff of drain pipe. Sorry in advance to all my passengers to day.
12/12A apprasal to morrow.
Monday, 22 August 2005
Saturday, 20 August 2005
Road Work Hell in Newton
About a week ago a notice appeared just before the Penn Inn on the way into Newton Abbot telling us that there will be road works with long delays in Newton from 5th Sept till 16 December.
God Help Us
.Click here for full story.
Wednesday, 17 August 2005
Union Street Torquay
For the past 6 months the council have been doing road works in Union Street (it did seem like longer). Now they are finished. The footpaths are wider and there are very clearly marked out bays for the bus stops, taxis, loading bays and bays for Blue Badge holders. (Blue Badge Holders are disabled drivers but I am not sure if you can say disabled any more). Ordinary drivers are not supposed to park in Union Street any more but that doesn't stop them.
In an attempt to stop drivers driving down the street too fast there are ramps like the one shown here every 20 metres. They are made up of little cobble stones and each time you drive over them the bus jumps up as the front wheels meet the ramp, then there are a series of small, rapid and unpleasent bumps, then a thud as the front wheel leaves the ramp. This is all repeated as the back wheel reaches the ramp. All these thuds and bumps are transmitted through the bus to the spine of everyone on the bus, including me. Especially me. I drive down Union Street on average 16 or 17 times a week, 47 weeks a year and I expect to continue driving a bus down Union Street for the next 5 years. There are 6 of these ramps which means I will go over 24 thousand ramps in Union Street during the rest of my working life. That is if my back will stand the strain.
I wonder if the person in the council's planning office did the above sum before deciding to inflict these monsters on us. If he did, will he too drive over them 24 000 times just to prove that doing so will have no long term ill effects on my back. If it does will the council compensate me for any pain and lost of earnings I might suffer? (Sorry, I do like a joke now and then.)
An other problems with these ramps is shown by the person crosing the road. They are designed to invide people to cross the road at the ramp and people do cross the road at these ramps just like the gentleman in the photo, without bothering to look first.
A third problem is that the most comfortable way to drive over cobble stones is, as most drivers will tell you is as fast as possible. Not much good at slowing the traffic down if you ask me.
I wonder how long they will last before they are removed.
I'm back!
An other incident on Paignton Bus Station. If you looked through all of the posts in this blog, Paignton Bus Station, or Pgn would come up fairly often. This one happened yesterday afternoon when I was on my way to Brixham.
A family group, eight of them, started to board the bus. Mother showed me a family explorer. Great value, Ât £15.00 for up to five people for a days travel. Other members of the group also showed me explorer tickets, every one had a valid ticket, not always the case when so many people get on at once. Some people try to sneak the old child on without a ticket.
Seven of them had boarded the bus when the last child, a boy about 10 years old turned away from the bus and was very sick over the barrier into the road way. I was very glad he had not been sick 10 seconds later. The mother was standing on the platform and I suggested that she take the child to some seats in the bus station and let him recover,perhaps wash and have a drink of water and catch the next bus which would be along in 8 mins.
She was having none of this and neither was father. He protested the his son was feeling much better and could get on the bus. Son meanwhile was being sick again. I told them son was not travelling on bus and should catch the next bus. They were only going to the beach at Goodrington, not catching a train. 10 mins wasn't going to make much difference. Finally the group got of and I continued on to Brixham.
Well have a look at the next post and have a think about what I did. Should I have let them travel and risk having the child throw up on the bus, which would have been unpleasant for all concerned and would have taken the bus out of service while it was being cleaned, disrupting the travel plans of all the passengers.
A family group, eight of them, started to board the bus. Mother showed me a family explorer. Great value, Ât £15.00 for up to five people for a days travel. Other members of the group also showed me explorer tickets, every one had a valid ticket, not always the case when so many people get on at once. Some people try to sneak the old child on without a ticket.
Seven of them had boarded the bus when the last child, a boy about 10 years old turned away from the bus and was very sick over the barrier into the road way. I was very glad he had not been sick 10 seconds later. The mother was standing on the platform and I suggested that she take the child to some seats in the bus station and let him recover,perhaps wash and have a drink of water and catch the next bus which would be along in 8 mins.
She was having none of this and neither was father. He protested the his son was feeling much better and could get on the bus. Son meanwhile was being sick again. I told them son was not travelling on bus and should catch the next bus. They were only going to the beach at Goodrington, not catching a train. 10 mins wasn't going to make much difference. Finally the group got of and I continued on to Brixham.
Well have a look at the next post and have a think about what I did. Should I have let them travel and risk having the child throw up on the bus, which would have been unpleasant for all concerned and would have taken the bus out of service while it was being cleaned, disrupting the travel plans of all the passengers.
Bad Parking
The Police car crew parked in the bus stop while the were dealing with a minor scrape between a truck and a car. Not a problem really except that across the road there is a large free and empty car park. Not a good example.
The blue car was parked out side Brixham library on double yellow lines. Double Yellow Lines mean NO PARKING, usually at any time. With good reason. Brixham takes about 7 1/4 seconds to grid lock in the summer and with me blocking the road with a double decker that time goes down to three and 17 twentythirds of a second. The young person driving this car came springing down the library steps with a stupid grin on her face and no sign of and disability the the Blue Badge in the windscreen suggested she should have. At least she was quick and gridlock was averted.
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