Parking Attendant at Work.

I used to like Parking Attendants. They put £60.00 tickets on all those idiots that parked on double yellow lines. It is a little easier to drive round town now but most of the time not much faster. Here and there it is but it is easier because we don't have to spend anxious moments watching both mirrows to make sure we don't take the wing mirrow of some stupid, illegally parked, prat's car. But now I don't like them.

Not because I have had a parking ticket, I haven't. But because head office feel that because the Parking Attendants are a thousand time more active than the old traffic wardens we now need less time to complete our journeys. So we have lost 8 mins off our running time. If you have been waiting for a bus over the last 3 weeks you may have noticed one of the effects of cutting our running times, if you haven't, then I will tell you that lots of the buses have been running late; some times over half an hour and more late. Bring back the traffic wardens is what I say.

Cars in the Bus Station

This sign is at the enterance to the bus station in Newton.
Question; does it mean,
a) I'm lost so I can ignore it.
b) how the hell do I know.
c) I'm a copper. I don't need to know.
d) It means no vehicles but the police don't care so why should I.

Answer d) is correct. There were two police cars parked up the road, you can see one in the photo. I pointed out to one of the police officers that cars should not be in the bus station and the fact that since the road works started in Newton there have been a large increase in the number of cars driving through the bus station. He said "Right mate we'll sort it out." His method of sorting it out was to go and have a chat with his mates in the second police car parked just up the road and wave to the drivers as they drove through the bus station. Well done the 47th best police force in the country.

Foot note:-
There are only 47 police forces in the country to save you asking.

Very Dark Grey Friday.

Last Friday was the worst day any one can remember for buses running late, mostly 12's. I was driving the 200, the Open Top service between Meatfoot and Totnes and I took over my bus at Paignton Bus Station half an hour late. Not the best of ideas when I have never driven the route before and I only had a map of Totnes with the route penciled in.

The radio was going non stop all day with drivers reporting in how late they were and asking to be turned short of their destination so they could get back on time. But you can only turn so many buses otherwise no buses would have got to Brixham or Newton. Part of the problem were the road works at Corbin Head. On one side of the road works traffic was back 200 yards while on the Paignton side it was over a mile. Two things bother me here. One is why can't Transco, who have plenty of experience digging up this section of road manage the temporary traffic lights better. The second is why don't the council tell Transco that next time they dig the road up at Corbin Head that they had better get the traffic lights right or they will be taken to court and fined. The council do have this power but seem unable to get round to using it, rather than do something they let every traveler in the Bay and beyond suffer.

Once drivers had lost time here they never had the chance to get back on time because we only just have enough running time to cover the route as it is. Once some thing like this happens queues of angry, frustrated, I'm going to go by car next time, passengers build up.

When I finally finished at 20:10 I went for a bus at 20:26. After a 20 min wait (buses are every 15 mins at this time of night) two turned up, still running late and unable to catch up with their time.

P.S.
I was going to call this Post Black Friday. But I thought that I would save that title for a later date when some thing even worse goes down. I fear that, like the meteor from space it it is not ' if ' but ' when '.

12's and 12A's

It's been going for over a week now and it is a fairly safe to say that most of the drivers and lots of passengers are not completely happy with the new bus route. If a passenger is traveling between Newton and Paignton then it should be fine. They should have a bus every 7 or 8 mins. But many of the buses are still running very late, some times 3 or 4 buses running together, then a big gap and more buses then turn up running together. Part of the problem is the road works in Newton and part of the problem is the fact that we are now running on winter times. In summer we get longer times to make up for the fact that there are more people about, both getting on the buses and more traffic on the roads. But in September the holiday season is still going. Lots of OAP's turn up in the Bay for their holidays.

Brixham is a popular day out but if you are traveling to and from Brixham the shorter route on the number 12 is now only every 15 mins, it used to be every 10 mins. So the number of people getting on each bus to go to and from Brixham has gone up by 50%. All this extra loading adds to the journey time, as does explaining to bemused passenger the difference between the 12 and the 12A.

It goes like this; holiday maker, who has been here before and knows it's the 12 to Brixham and doesn't understand the differance the A makes, gets on the 12A in Torquay or Paignton and asks for a ticket to Brixham, driver has to explain to the passenger that the 12 is the better bus to go to Brixham, 1) it takes 15 mins less and 2) the journey round Roselands involves 27 sharp bends, 5 speed ramps, 4 right turns from minor roads into main roads (1), quiet a few turns from main roads into minor roads that involve going onto the wrong side of the road and the possibility that the bus will be held up in several narrow roads the were not built with double deckers in mind. No one who has traveled to Brixham from Paignton on a 12A is likely to do it twice. In Brixham those people who have been waiting for a long time for a 12 and risk getting on a 12A usually comment, "That was ******* awful, next time I will wait for the 12".

An other problem I have with this over kill of a bus route is the question,'How many students are we going to take to New South Devon College?' The students can buy a weekly ticket for £10.00 and will attend college 30 weeks in a year. 1 student = £300 per year, 10 students = £3000, 100 students = £30 000 , 1000 students = £300 000. So if we carry a thousand students every day the college is open we will increase our income by £300 000. Well that seems well worth the effort. But hang on a moment, to carry one thousand students to college in the morning and home again in the afternoon will take 11 buses that are full to the brim. At 4 buses per hour that will take 2 and three quater hours just to get the buses to the college plus the time it takes to load 90 people on to each bus. And if the buses are now all full, what about the good people of Roselands Drive who used to have a number 3 bus but now have the 12A (full of Students). Are they going the have to travel before the students or wait until they have gone.


Foot note.

(1) I have been driving buses now for over 8 years ( 275 000 miles ) and in the past 10 days have discovered some thing I had not noticed before. Buses are not designed to turn right from minor roads on to main roads. We have a great view to the front, big windows, a great view to the right, but to the left there are door pillers in the way, the nearside mirrow is in the way, the cab door frame is in the way and we have 7 such right turns to make. On the old 12 route there was one right turn from minor road to main road and the main road is one way with nothing coming fron the left. Most bus route I have driven on both here and in London do not have such right turns. In fact, thinking back to all the bus trips I have been on over the last 55 years I and finding it difficult to remember any bus routes with right turns like these. And the 12A has 7. I have not had any near misses yet, just a couple of nasty moments.

No money, no ticket, no pass, no travel

That is the company rule. There are exceptions such as when the person with no money etc is vunerable. But the person who got on the bus on Sunday wasn't in that class. He was in his early twenties and said that his girl friend was waiting for him at Newton Abbot railway station. She had the money which he needed to pay for his bus journey.

Incidents like this do happen but not very often, Once or twice a year seems to be about average.

Now the last time I heard a story like this was from a man in his forties with his arm in a sling who got on at Torbay Hospital (the man that is, not just the arm in the sling). He had been taken to hospital by ambulance and had no money but his wife would be waiting at Paignton Bus Station and she would have the bus fare. Seemed reasonable. When I got to Paignton Bus Station he got of the bus, removed sling, made a rude gesture with one finger and walked away. No sign of wife.

So, "Sorry mate," says I. But I did come up with a solution. I would continue to Newton and if girl friend was at the station waiting for him I would radio the next bus and tell him to pick the young man up as his fare had been paid.

As I got to Penn Inn a couple of stops before the Station the tension was mounting, would she be there, sitting forlornly waiting for a bus that her boy friend may or may not be on?

Or would the stop be bare. Round the last corner, heading for the stop.

And guess what.