Taxi Rank or Bus Stop.

In an effort to improve the centre of Torquay the Town Hall recently carried out a lot of work in Union Street. Union Street is the main road through the centre of Torquay and is the main shopping area. If you come to Torquay on holiday and want to shop don't go up to the Willows, get a 12 to Castle Circus and walk down Union Street and Fleet Walk and on to the Strand. You will now be on the Harbour and you will have past almost all the shops in Torquay.

One of the problems was that the pavements were too narrow. So the pavements were widened. This meant that to road is now narrower than it was and there is not enough room for parking on both sides. Now there are parking and unloading restrictions at all times on the right hand side of the road ( could some one tell the driver of the black car parked on the right, NCP Parking Attendants carn't be every where). Parking bays for the disabled and for unloading were established on the left in part of what was once a taxi rank. So the taxi rank which once held 15 taxis now only holds 10. And this is the most lucrative rank in town, all those shoppers exhausted after all that shopping aren't going to catch a bus.

So you're a cab driver (been there, done that, got the T shirt), you drive in to Union Street and the rank is full. It wont be in a couple of minutes, you could drive round the block but it takes 10 minutes to drive round the block in this town and when you get back more cabs will have arrived and the rank will be full again. What would you do? I know; exactly what these 3 cabs in front of me have done. Park on the bus stop. How soon before it isn't three cabs but ten and the bus stop will be an extension of the cab rank and we will have to stop in the middle of the road temporarily bringing Torquay to a dead stop?

By the way the green bit in the road is a cycle lane, you would have to be both very brave and very, very insane to ride a bike down that cycle lane. Buses pulling out, cab drivers opening doors, pedestrians stepping out and buses swerving to avoid pedestrians who step off the right hand pavement without looking are the main hazards to watch out for.

Still it all looks very nice and I am sure it is very PC.

A Footnote and a Warning

Yesterday I told a little story about how a driver seeing a number 12 in front of him picking up at a stop end up causing two people to end up waiting almost 45 mins for a bus that runs every 15 mins. Here is a footnote to that story. Like most large depots we have 2 or 3 spare drivers on duty during the working day. They are there in case a driver goes sick while on duty or if a driver rings in sick before starting duty. They get a Running Board thrust in to their hands and told to hit the road. Even if no one goes sick they have their uses. If a bus breaks down, God forbid, they can take a spare bus out of the garage to replace the broken down bus so the service isn't held up too much. If they aren't needed then they sit around for eight and a half doing nothing except get paid. Nice if you like that sort of thing but I find sitting round doing nothing all day just a tiny bit boring. With this in mind some one at management level decided that the spare drives should do some thing useful, like running extra buses between Torquay and Paignton.

This afternoon as I left Paignton Bus Station I noticed that there was a 12 in front of me and had no idea that it was one of these extra buses. I just decided that he was running late. As we went through the lights at Manor Road the bus in front indicated that it was stopping at the next stop so I pulled out to past so I could get to the next stop and help the driver out. As I drew level doing 25 mph a woman appeared from in front of the other bus waving franticly. There was nothing I could do but stop in the middle of the road and pick her up. The other bus drove away as soon as she boarded my bus leaving me in the middle of the road with no visible reason for being there with a police car approaching from the opposite direction and 20 cars behind playing Beethoven's 5th symphony on their car horns. "What," I enquired in the most polite voice I have ever used, "Was wrong with that bus?" Dogs 200 yards away put their paws over their ears, milk in fridges in the whole of Preston went sour and dolphins that had been swimming happily in the Bay headed for the South of France. "It's only going to the Harbour, it's no use to me I want to go a bit further."

I looked around for the hole, you know the one that swallows people but is never there when you need it. Well it wasn't there so I only had one option, to sell ticket and GO. " And where would you to got to my lovely?"
"Fleet Walk Please. Return."

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.

Business as Usual at The Half Moon

After closing for a few days with a sign on the wall stating that the then Landlord was fed up having to pay Torbay Coucil business rates of £335.00 per week the Half Moon now has a sign on the wall stating Business As Usual. The Half Moon has been hosting live music since I first moved in to the Bay 8 years ago and I have been entertained there on many occasions. There has been an article in the local paper The Herald Express that the music will go on. Cover bands from REM to the Beach Boys, Diana Ross to the Rolling Stones and lots of others have played here and the next gig will be on New Years Eve. Good news for live music in the Bay. Full story from the Herald Express below.


HALF MOON BACK WITH CHARITY GIG

The Half Moon pub in Paignton which recently closed it doors to the public is back open again for business. The new owner, Graham Moore and Enterprise Inns plc, which will host their first major event will take place on New Year's Eve.The fundraising night will be in aid of the three-year-old cancer victim Bobby Wright.Performing on the night will be Soul Funktion, a 10-piece band who will perform party favourites such as Blues Brothers and the Commitments.There will also be a disco during the evening which runs from 8pm until late.Tickets will cost £5 with limited availability. There is a chance of being able to pay on the door. All proceeds from the ticket sales will go direct to the Bobby Wright Cancer Appeal.To reserve tickets call 01803 551385.

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