An other mix up.

A little light reading first. During the day there are 25 buses running between Newton and Brixham on the 12/12A service. After 7 pm there are only 11 buses running on the 12/12A service. So between 6 and 7 pm 14 buses have to come off the road. Ten of them do this by arriving in Brixham or Newton and the driver changes the destination blind to read," Sorry you can't get on this bus",(1) and runs dead(2) back to the depot.

One of the other 4 buses leaves Brixham at 17 46 but only goes as far as the depot in Torquay. The depot is next to Focas DIY store on the Newton Road. Not much use if you want to go to Newton or even Torbay Hospital. Don't worry, there will be an other bus in 15 mins. Or will there?

A few days before Christmas I was one of the remaining buses due to come off the road. I was the 18:08 out of Newton which goes only as far as Paignton. The I run dead back to the depot. When I got there it was 18:05 and there was a couple and they had been there since 17:40 waiting for a bus to Brixham. The 17:45 came in but that only goes to the Harbour in Torquay, a long way short of Brixham. But not to worry, there is a bus to Brixham at 17:52. Unfortunatly it was running 6 mins late and the bus due out at 18:00 had arrived before it and pulled up on the stop. The 18:00 only goes to Torquay Harbour. No use if you are going to Brixham. The driver of the 17:52 saw the bus on the stop and dropped his passengers and set of for Brixham happy that any one waiting for a bus would be on the number 12 on the stop. He did not know that:-
a) the bus on the stop was only going to the Harbour and:-
b) there were two people waiting to go to Brixham.
All he saw was a number 12 on the back of the bus. There are no destination blinds on the back of our Deckers.
When I left at 18:08 for Paignton there were two not happy people. The next bus for Brixham does not run until 18:23. A total wait of 43 mins. For a bus that runs every 15 mins. Sorry about that.
I have suggested to management that a 12 not going to its normal destination of Brixham or Newton should be re numbered 12X. This would alert drivers behind (the 17:52 driver in this case) that the bus in front was not going all the way to Brixham and once passengers get used to the extra X, that the bus was going to stop short of the usual destination. I'll keep you posted if anything happens re the X.

Footnotes
(1) What it does say is, "Sorry, I'm not in Service." Much more polite.
(2) Dead, the opposite of Live. A Live bus is 'In Service' and picks up passengers, hopefully.