Driving a Bus Can Be Interesting.

I don't seem to blog as much as I used to. Maybe it's because driving for Devonian Motor Services isn't quite as interesting as driving a number 12. To give you a couple of examples of interesting things that have happen today will illustrate this completely. First incident, if I can give it the tag of incident, came as I drove along the Esplanade. A white van had stopped some distance ahead of me and the driver jumped out, ran round the back of the van and opened the doors. He extracted a package, closed the door and ran across the road to one of the hotels. There was a car towing a caravan coming the other way and years of driving experience lead me to believe that a) the van, the bus and the caravan would all be lined up across the road and b) there was enough room for the bus and the caravan to pass safely provided nobody sneezed at the wrong moment. Just as I drew level with the van and concentrating on missing the caravan the driver of the white van's dog decided I was getting a bit too close to his master's wing mirror and threw himself at the driver's window and barked fit to wake, if not the dead then anyone still asleep within a radius of several hundred metres. A slight tightening of my grip on the steering wheel, a few extra unexpected heart beats and a couple of muttered nasty words about dogs and the 'incident' was over without a mark on either the bus, van or caravan. So much excitement. Then later in the day I arrived in Cockington Village and having a minute or two to wait I glanced at the village notice board which contained the announcement I reproduce below. It is about the Cockington Village Residents Association AGM. And we get a mention in the agenda, item number 6. The meeting was last Tuesday, had I know before hand I might have popped in and found out what the villagers had to say about us. I expect it was something nice.

Torbay Public Transport Guide

The Torbay Public Transport Guide came out today and will shortly be available at Information Centres, Stagecoach Travel Shops and other outlets. It contains a complete set of timetables for all bus and train services that serve Torbay. It also has detailed maps of the service and where to catch the bus you want. Plus other bits of information any determined bus traveller might need. One photo shows the front cover so you know what to look for and the second photo shows who has pride of place on the inside of the front cover. Eat your heart out Stagecoach, Dial a bus, Riverlink and Country bus. Oh yes and Firstbus.

Parking is a Pain and Visitors from Wales, bless them.

More people than ever seem to think that parking on a bus stop or in a loading bay is a good idea. Well it isn't. It either means we have to stop away from the bus stop or park in the middle of the road and block the second most busy road in the town.

On a lighter note. A special group of old age pensioners got on the bus today. Now I haven't anything against OAPs, I am one myself and many of our passengers fall into this age bracket. A lot of them, especially the visitors approach and ask can they use their bus pass. The answer I always give them is, "Yes provided it is an English one." Nothing against visitors from other parts of the UK of course but from personal experience I know I can not use my bus pass in Wales or Scotland. I've never been to Northern Ireland but I have a feeling their bus drivers don't accept English passes, so we don't accept theirs. The group of OAPs that boarded the bus today were special because they came from Wales and had to pay with real money and we make a bigger profit when that happens. I love the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irelanders, especially the OAP kind. Please come and visit beautiful Torbay and come for a ride, or two or even three on Devonian Motor Services. We run from Torbay Rd Paignton to Cockington Village, (mentioned in Doomsday) service 50 and a circular trip round some of the Bays best views on service 500.

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Incidentally, yesterday I took a bus full (almost) of visitors to Cockington and as I pulled up announced we had arrived by saying "Cockington Village as mentioned in Doomsday." One of the departing passengers then asked if the bus had also been mentioned in Doomsday. Cheek.

And finally, check this out for scary. It's about a hero bus driver who saved his 40 passengers from a fiery end.

Problems with Trucks

Couple of parking problems today. First time I drove up Torbay Rd at about 10 to ten the service 50 bus was on the stop but could not get to the front of the stop because some white van had encroached in to the bus stop by a couple feet. To make matters worse there was a big truck double parked on the right hand side of the road across from the bus stop. If I tried to get on the stop I would block Torbay Rd, not the busiest road in Paignton but probably number two. So I stopped short and didn't hold up all those rushing motorists. When the 50 moved away I Pulled forward and picked up a few passengers that were waiting patiently for the trip round Beautiful Paignton. 45 Minutes later when I got back there was a truck parked on the bus stop, more parking in the roadway, getting to be a habit. next time round I made it onto the bus stop no problem and then 5 seconds later an other truck parked in the roadway right next to me. As there were two vans in the loading bay in front of me I was effectively blocked in. Before I could draw breath and think of something nasty to say the truck driver stuck his head in the door and said he would be gone in two minutes, and he was.

The rest of the day went quite well despite the continuing problems at Tweenaway Cross. The road works there are due to end sometime in June and we are all hoping this estimate by the council is accurate.

The photo is of the new bus service run by Country Bus Services, the 149. It started running between Torquay and Totnes via Maldon and Berry Pomeroy when Stagecoach withdrew the 111 service. It's not as frequent as the 111 and doesn't run all the way to Dartmouth, FirstBus seem to have cornered that market. This bus set off empty.

Sofa Gone

The sofa has gone. Went this morning on a TOR2 truck and no, I never got through on the phone. I have had a look at my phone bill and it cost me about 2 quid listening to god awful music and an answering machine telling me how important my call was to the people I was trying to contact. Not so important that they could go out and get a few more people to answer the bloody telephone. In the bad old days when you rang someone like the council or the bank, if the phone was busy you got the engaged tone and you hung up and tried later. This didn't cost anything no matter how many time you tried. Now you get put through and have to listen to the music and are actually paying for the privilege of sitting there gradually losing the will to live. In the end I sent an email and got a reply in about ten minutes which told me that Monday and Thursday were collection days in my area of Torquay so I emailed right back and said Monday would be fine. Fifteen minutes later and email informed me that the sofa would be gone on Monday. The whole email transaction took less time than hanging on to the phone being told I was important. What would have happen if I wasn't a computer user. Would I have spent thousands trying to get through on the phone or probably have just wait till the street lights go out (they are some time this month) and drag the bloody thing round the corner under cover of pitch darkness.