Ten Years Driving a Bus

Ten years ago to day (24 June 1997) I started driving a bus in London for CentreWest which is part of FirstBus.Yea, yea; I worked for FirstBus. I admit it now. A year later I moved down here to Torquay and have now been with Stagecoach for 9 years. In those ten years I have probably covered about a third of a million miles, not counting several trips to Australia. I will have carried about 2 thirds of a million passengers and I have had one serious accident when a Peugeot 205 did a U turn fight in front of me. Two passengers on the bus were taken to hospital for a check up but neither remained in hospital over night. There have been the odd scrape where wing mirrors have gone and little scratches have appeared on cars and the bus but apart from the bus shelter nothing too expensive. The occasional passenger has reported me for being rude but the was when I first started, now I am only rude to passengers when they have gone and only under my breath.

So what am I driving today to celebrate this mile stone. Which wonderful bus on which of the 20 or so routes I have driven on so far? None. I’m on holiday. Isn’t that nice. And I am off to sunny Spain, Barcelona to be exact, tomorrow and I will be back at the end of next week. Click here to see what the weather is doing in Barcelona and it you live in the UK, weep. If you don‘t live in the UK, we have had wall to wall rain here in the UK for the past several weeks, so much I feel like I'm leaving a sinking ship. My original plan for this holiday had been to go up to Sheigra in Scotland, looking at the forecast I am glad that plan was changed.

I will get on the internet a couple of times while I am away and down load some photos of Spanish buses, wont that be nice?

Then back to work Sunday 8 July, a day I am really looking forward to.