Between Brixham and Windy Corner there is Churston School. Lots of children attend and we carry quiet a lot of them to and from school. What used to happen is one bus used to drive dead to the school and pick up about 80 children for Paignton and Torquay. The buses coming out of Brixham used to stop at the stop on the main road and carry off the rest to where ever they wanted to go. Now the council have asked the company if they wouldn't mine if a couple of these buses turned into the school and picked the children up in the school grounds. Some thing about safety. Any bus driver the world over will tell you that a mass of school children at a bus stop is an accident waiting to happen but some how never seems to actually happen.
So yesterday I turned in to the school and picked up 40 children, back out on to the main road and low and behold there were an other 30 children waiting at the bus stop. I could have picked them all up at the bus stop in the first place and saved the time it took to go into and out of the school. In the end, with the extra time added on to the journey I was 10 mins late at South Devon College, which probably didn't please them. It also meant that half the passengers I was picking up should have been on the bus behind me. It also meant I was 15 mins late into Paignton at the busiest time of day. An other problem dumped on our laps that no doubt we will deal with manfully in our usual calm professional way.
PS Did the council think of putting a railing up at the bus stop so the kids couldn't spill out onto the road as the bus pulled up? Or may be ask that a teacher be there to make sure the children stayed on the pavement?
9 comments:
How many people will fit on one bus? 80 sounds like a lot to me. i have never heard of a bus driving into school grounds how did you do that? Do they have a road through their school? most schools in Sydney don't even have enough playground for the kids to play in let alone room for A BUS!!!!!!!!
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hi dave just thought i would say on tuesday when i signed on i was told by the duty controller that i had to go into the school to pick up the kids and would now be the only one that did this.I was not pleased with this and asked why only one bus has to go in which i was told that i was a 12a and it was so the kids from the roselands area could get home.So off i went doing my duty running late got to brixham 5 minutes late and picked up some passengers which i told that i had to go into the school and pick up the lovley children at this some got off and said i will wait for the next 12a instead (good thinking i said).i got to the school to find a teacher and some certain council offical standing there with about 60+ kids who all got on in a very nice fasion no pushing or nothing.No problems i thought left the school and got round to the stop to see a 12 sitting there loading up nice i thought again BUT guess what another 20 or so kids were satnding at the back of this bus waving at me to stop wanting my bus to roselands so i stopped opened the door to which the council gentelman siad to them why did you not wait at the school the reply was the teacher was there and we could not have a smoke.Off i went again thinking to myself out loud god im going to get it when i get to the college its kicking out time there to when i got tho the college i could see that i had no hope in hell in getting not more that 20 on the bus and there must of been around 70-90 of them standing waiting i got around 15 on and said thats it im full i cant take any more to which i was called some nice names at this point the council officer got off and on the phone to find out where the next 12a to newton was so off i went now 25 mins late on my break trip thank god the first part was stand by thats was just my fisrt half of the duty and guess what it did not get any better after that.
Yet another case of changes being made by management and councils who have no experience of driving a bus today. They assume that if they write a fairy tale on paper then it will become reality on the road. Extending the route into the school is stupid, the most they should do is to extend the railings to keep the muppets off the kerb.
In answer to the number we can carry on the bus; it is 90, 75 seated and 15 standing. That is on a double decker. The single deckers can carry between 50 and 55. We can drive into the school grounds because someone spent lots of money during the summer holidays putting a roadway into the school for us to use.
If you now have to go into the school to pick them up, and then come out to find a load more at the bus stop just because they wanted to have a smoke, perhaps you should all drive straight on by them. They'll soon learn to get the bus in the school.
He used it before, on 2nd July this year. The Post was called School Run.
We have contracts to provide school service to a couple of schools. I can't say I like those trips very much, but that has a lot to do with poor scheduling. Kids have always done foolish things like running into the middle of the road ("I was afraid you didn't see me in the stop!"-- "Really? Are you sure you want to ride a bus driven by a man who can't see fifty kids in a bus stop?") I like to remind them, that while I care very much about their well being, the bus doesn't care what happens to them. If they insist on jumping in front of the bus as I'm pulling into their stop, the bus might decide to run them over, no matter how hard I stomp on the brakes.
Generally companies resist the (often fierce) pressure to enter school grounds, but sometimes (especially if there is either a history of accidents, or firm evidence of drivers running non-stop past the "outside school" stops, there is no alternative but to comply...at the end of the day it ISN'T about whether or not we know what the little f***ers are like - despite what you might think, we generally DO - However, (1)mostly we really do need the money and (2) if you upset the local council in one department, they can really make you suffer in another - so we have to cross our fingers, toes, and any other relevant part and swallow our professional pride (Don't forget the PTEs and local councils are the proud and knowledgeable bodies who want to reregulate us and take us forward into the new (19th?) century!
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