Leap-frogging

One of the things that happens when you are waiting for a bus is that two (sometimes three) turn up at once. This happens a lot on the 12 route. The buses used to be every 10 mins apart and if one bus got held up for some reason the next bus could quite easily catch it up. What happens then is the bus that is running on time gets on the radio and tells the driver of the late running bus to keep going where he can. So late driver goes past people waiting at a stop and the on time driver stops and picks the passengers up. This helps everyone, the late drivers gets a bit of time back and it doesn't make any difference to the passengers which bus they get on. In fact it does make a little difference because the late bus will now clear the bus stops further up the road and all his passengers get some time back as well.

Leap-frogging also takes place at the terminus. If a bus is very late arriving at the terminus and there are a lot of people waiting it is better if the late bus goes without picking anyone up. This saves him 5 mins loading time, but the passengers he has left don't lose because which ever bus they get on it still takes time to load the passengers. If the late driver had loaded up he would be running on the bus behind's time and the bus behind would be with him but running empty. Because he has left 5 mins before the bus behind he can now clear all the bus stops along the route and everyone gains and the bus is usually back on time which is where we want to be.

Leap-frogging only works however if both buses are going to the same place. I can't leap-frog a 77 on Newton Abbot station, not all the passengers at the stop might want to go to Buckland, some may well want to goto Torquay. Now we have a problem and the new 12A route. It is timed to run every 15 mins, as is the 12. So a 12 comes along and 7 mins later along comes a 12A. Then 8 mins later an other 12 comes along. And so on. But they do not go to the same place, but for a lot of the time they do follow the same route. If you wish to travel any where between Newton and Paignton it doesn't matter which bus you get on. They both go to the same places. But if you are waiting to go to Roselands or the New South Devon College you need a 12A. If you get to your stop and you have just missed one you will have a 15 min wait for the next 12A. If it is running late and the bus behind, a 12, catches and passes it and pulls in at your stop and the 12A driver plays leap-frog and goes screaming past you now have an other 15 min wait for the next 12A. You can catch the 12 and change at Paignton bus station but you will have to pay to Paignton on the 12 and then pay from Paignton on the 12A. This will cost more then the direct fare. I you have a return ticket the driver of the bus you get on will punch it and now you can not use it on the 12A you catch in Paignton. Only if you have a pass will the cost remain the same.

Leap-frogging at the terminus is out as well. You are at Brixham going to college, you want a 12A and one has just gone. Now you have a 15 min wait. A 12 comes and goes, next bus should be a 12A but it is running late. Then a 12 turns up and pulls on to the stop followed by a seriously late 12A which pulls round to the Bakery, unloads and vanishes into the distance. Another 15 mins to wait.

So if you are a 12 driver and you catch a late running 12A up no leap-frogging. If you are a 12 and catch a seriously late 12 up then you can play leap-frog. The only time 12's and 12A's can play leap-frog is from Paignton to Newton, both buses are going to the same place so it doesn't matter which bus people get. This inability by drivers to help late running drivers will have an detrimental effect on the time keeping of the 12/12A service in the Bay.

The best solution to this problem would be to renumber the 12A, call it 14 and have it run only between Paignton and Brixham via Roselands and the college and allow the 12 service to sell through tickets. This would allow passengers to board a 12 any where between Newton and Paignton and change to a 14 in Paignton. Passengers could also catch the 14 from Roselands or the college and change to a 12 in Paignton. Leap-frogging could make a come back; Except at the terminus at Brixham. To solve that problem we could make use of, for the 14, the now defunct 66 stop out side the Undertakers in New Road.

If you have other solutions or comments then click on comments.

Park and Ride a Success

PARK AND RIDE A SUCCESS 11:00 - 05 September 2005

Torbay Council has hailed Brixham's park and ride a success as the service drew to a close last night.The scheme, promoted by the council and Torbay Development Agency was aimed at relieving car parking pressures and traffic congestion in the town. The slogan "Bus it to Beautiful Brixham" was used to encourage people to park their cars at a site at Churston and take Stagecoach's service 12 buses into the town.
Cllr Alan Faulkner, executive member for environmental services, said: "We have received considerable positive feedback from people who took advantage of the park and ride."During one week, more than 700 people left a total of nearly 250 cars at Churston and made the return bus ride into Brixham."
Not only was the service well used by visitors but we also had some local commuters who decided it was more convenient to park at Churston and catch the bus."There is no doubt we took the right decision to operate this service in partnership with Stagecoach."We are very pleased with the passenger figures that we think will total about 3,500 during the six weeks of its operation.


It was such a success that a rival firm tried to take over from Stagecoach but could not find any where to land in Brixham! Proves that "Bus is Best."

I wish it was a bus!

Well it does say Bus, so it must be a bus, can't carry 90 people on that so it must be just wishful thinking. Shame.

12 and 12a

Today Saturday 3rd Sept 2005, after 6 years and 4 months I stopped being a 12 driver.

Instead I became a 12/12A driver.

From to morrow half my duties will be on the old 12 route and half will be on the new 12A route. South Devon College, in a bold and imaginative move have abandoned their old site in Torre and moved to a new site in Paignton. The 12A will carry the students from all over the Bay to this new site. I have to admit that I am looking forward to this change in the same way that George W Bush must be looking forward to his next popularity ratings.

The 12A only runs every hour on a Sunday, and the students wont be back for a week or two. Time will tell and I will keep you posted

Baghdad and New Orleons

The two main stories of the day are Baghdad and New Orleans. Baghdad, where the sudden fear of being blown up started a panic. What do you do, start to run even though there is no where to run to except in to the people in front of you. Then the people behind you who are running have no where to go but into you. In a crowd suddenly out of control is a dangerous place to be.

My unease of large crowds goes back to Coronation Day in 1953 when we walked down the Strand in London in the evening to watch the fireworks on the Embankment. Hundreds of thousands of other people were also walking down the Strand and we were in that crowd for what seems like a long time. Now a days the only time I like being in Fleet Walk, which can get very crowded in summer, is in the bus.

In New Orleans where a similar number of people could be dead they did have warning. For 6 days they knew that Katrina was coming. Most left but those that did not, seemed so ill prepared for what was about to happen. A two hundred mile wide monster was about to hit and destroy the most vulnerable stretch of the USA coast line and those that stayed must have believed that every thing would be OK regardless. Did they have adequate clothing, spare food, bottled water, battery radios and all the other items that any experience hurricane watcher will tell you you need. Not those seen on TV.

Incidents like this that hit the head lines make you sit in your chair and stare at the TV screen and be glad that disasters like this don’t happen every day. Then later in the evening I watched a program on BBC Four called Holidays in the Danger Zone. Ben Anderson the presenter went down the Amazon, the Ganges and the Congo. On all three rivers he came across problems faced by the local populations day by day, year in year out, unrelenting struggles for food, water, shealter, safety and some sort of order in there lives. And you realize that for a large percentage of the world’s population, disasters like these two in Baghdad and New Orleons do happen every day.

And there is nothing you can do about it.