Two Trips to South Devon College.

South Devon College (SDC) is in the process of moving. It used to be about half a mile to the north of Torquay on the main road to Newton. Across the road is the Police Station, handy in case the students got out of hand. It was a 10 min walk into town for the shops, cafes, bars and bright lights of Torquay and it was close to a train station and on the 12 bus route. Not a perfect place as the site was a little too small and some of the buildings were in need of some care and attention. But nothing too serious. Them some one said," I know, lets move to the Industrial Estate in Paignton. There's loads of room there."

Well loads of room is a big advantage and the idea took hold. However the Industrial Estate in Paignton is miles from any where , not even on a bus route. So Stagecoach had to create one, the imaginatively named 12A. 12A because for most of its route it follows the same route as the 12 but from Paignton it goes through Roselands, to the new SDC and on to Brixham. (If you want you can go to duplicate bus and read articles and letters from the local paper about the trouble this new route has generated) .

Any way, on Friday morning I was driving a 12A and was on the Strand on my way to the new SDC. A young lady walked up to the bus, looked at the destination blinds and boarded the bus and showed me a Torbay Megarider(1). A couple of hundred yards down the road she came up to me and asked if I would tell her when we got to the college.

When we got to Paignton she asked if we had reached the college yet, I told her it would be an other 25 mins and that I had not forgotten her. We have road works going on in Paignton at the moment which are causing big, big problems on the way to the college but we got there eventually and as I pulled up at the stop I called out, "South Devon College."

She came up and thanked me and then asked where the Police Station was, "Some one told me it was near the college." she said.

This was definitely those OMG(2) moments that happen now and then.

The Police Station, as you will remember is across the road from the old college. About a 6 min bus ride on a 12 or 12A from where I had picked her up, but in the other direction. She had spent 45 mins going the wrong way and now faced a 50 min ride to where she wanted to go and to make matters worse the 12A that she needed to catch had just gone so she had an other 15 mins to wait for the next one. Very definitely OMG(2) moment.

I can only assume that she didn't ask for the police station as she knew that us bus drivers are so law abiding that we wouldn't even know where it was.

In the afternoon on the Strand heading for the new SDC again slightly older lady boarded the bus after looking at the destination blinds and showed me a Torbay Megarider(1). "Will you tell me when we get to the College?" she asked.

Blind panic set in. "The new one or the old one, the one in Torquay near the police station or the one in Paignton, the one just up the road or the one 45 mins away."I probably frothed at the mouth but I had no intention of taking some one to the wrong place twice in one day.

She explained that she was going to the new college to sign up for a course and patted me gently on the arm. As she walked down the bus I heard her mutter, "And keep taking the Medication."

When we got there she asked if it usually took so long. I explained that the traffic had added about 5 mins to the journey time and headed of the Brixham. When I got back she was waiting at the stop and I asked her did she like the college. She said it was very nice but had decided that the traveling time from St Marychurch would be just too much and she was going to take an OU(3) course instead.

Thinking about these two ladies later I found the second event more worrying, how many other people would be put of attending the new college because traveling time. And there is not much we can do about shortening it.

Notes
(1) Megarider, a day ticket, £3.80 use any where in Torbay and up to, but not in Newton Abbot.
(2) OMG, short for "Oh My God."
(3) OU, the Open University(4), Harold Wilson's best idea.
(4) My old University