Mind those Kerbs.
Ive been live on route for five days now.
My first two nights i was on the 114. This isnt a bus route. Its a goddamn obstacle course. 90% of the route is comprised of roads with cars parked either side leaving less than enough room for a bus and another oncoming vehicle to pass. As such, timing is EVERYTHING. Twice myself and another oncoming bus got snared even in the wider sections where there was the slightest hint we could pass each other.
The route is scheduled to run in 1 hour and 10 minutes... i struggled to do it in 1 hour and 25 minutes usually, only being saved by the 15 minute stand time carried over at the end of each run.
Id been told, regarding the multitude of warning lights and buzzers that a Volvo/Plaxton dashboard can produce, that if any come on, to stop and have the issue resolved. I started getting a very irregular Low Water warning. It was sporadic.... so, not wanting to cause a fuss or make myself any later, i kept on... then suddenly the bus decided that it had buzzed and flashed at me enough for one night. The motor stalled at a bus stop and refused to start, so i transferred everyone over to the tailing service and called an engineer... had i had a watering can of my own, idve topped the radiator reservoirs myself... but i dont tend to carry such things with me... my jacket pockets arent that large.
The third day i was on the 183... a great relief. A slightly shorter route on a similarly tight schedule, but along a far faster route.... still, i had my foot to the floor the ENTIRE time and was rarely ON time lol. Around 11pm, twenty drunk 20-somethings got on.... then got off, then got on again, then got off a second time... meanwhile im closing the doors on them, blaring the horn, yelling at them to fuck off (not literally) and wishing i was within the law to just drive off dragging whoever got stuck in the doors along with me, till all that was left was a bloody tarmac-rashed stump in a fake Gucci dress, vainly clutching an equally fake Versace clutchbag. As it went, i waited nicely, then as i finally left, a barrage of beer cans bounced off the side of the bus.
Approaching an exceptionally tight bend, a found car illegally parked. Driving ten metres along the pavement was my only option...
Yesterday, it was the 13. The city centre route. I enjoyed myself. Dealing with the cosmopolitans rather than the suburbanites is always more rewarding... plus driving in central London is just like driving in Sydney, cept a lot slower and busier. A total contrast to the weaving, stop-starting, roundabout infected 114 route.
Typical of my luck, Regent Street was closed, meaning all of us had a very long diversion down Shaftsbury Ave and Tottenham Court Rd between Oxford and Piccadilly Circus's. The diversion was very slow, and before long i was an hour behind schedule.... as it went though, everyone was, so i did two curtailments, one at Baker Street, one at Oxford Circus and had fun talking to all the pretty young female tourists who'd gotten lost :D On my 3rd last run, the ticket machine packed in but i managed to avoid taking any cash payments so things worked out.
Today i had the 292... the easy route. I ran it bang on time the whole shift... indeed i ended up running early on a few occasions (which is a biiiig NO-NO). Saying that, i started out badly... a bad case of brainfail im afraid. The route runs from Colindale to Borehamwood, but as it passes by our Garage, each new shift starts midway through in the local bus station. So the buses pull in from different directions, then exit going in different directions depending on which way that particular bus is bound. I got into a Colindale bound bus, which turns RIGHT out of the bus station... but in a momentary brainfail, i turned RIGHT (the way to Borehamwood) as i exited. Being London, there was a roundabout half a block away... typically it was a small roundabout and i had to 3-point-turn the bastard to get a u-turn out of it, before heading away in the correct direction.
Its been fun.
The 292 is the only route i can as yet regularly drive to schedule... im told that as time goes by you pick up the little tricks and knacks for increasing your speed.
Meantime... Here's a tunnel under the River Thames.
My first two nights i was on the 114. This isnt a bus route. Its a goddamn obstacle course. 90% of the route is comprised of roads with cars parked either side leaving less than enough room for a bus and another oncoming vehicle to pass. As such, timing is EVERYTHING. Twice myself and another oncoming bus got snared even in the wider sections where there was the slightest hint we could pass each other.
The route is scheduled to run in 1 hour and 10 minutes... i struggled to do it in 1 hour and 25 minutes usually, only being saved by the 15 minute stand time carried over at the end of each run.
Id been told, regarding the multitude of warning lights and buzzers that a Volvo/Plaxton dashboard can produce, that if any come on, to stop and have the issue resolved. I started getting a very irregular Low Water warning. It was sporadic.... so, not wanting to cause a fuss or make myself any later, i kept on... then suddenly the bus decided that it had buzzed and flashed at me enough for one night. The motor stalled at a bus stop and refused to start, so i transferred everyone over to the tailing service and called an engineer... had i had a watering can of my own, idve topped the radiator reservoirs myself... but i dont tend to carry such things with me... my jacket pockets arent that large.
The third day i was on the 183... a great relief. A slightly shorter route on a similarly tight schedule, but along a far faster route.... still, i had my foot to the floor the ENTIRE time and was rarely ON time lol. Around 11pm, twenty drunk 20-somethings got on.... then got off, then got on again, then got off a second time... meanwhile im closing the doors on them, blaring the horn, yelling at them to fuck off (not literally) and wishing i was within the law to just drive off dragging whoever got stuck in the doors along with me, till all that was left was a bloody tarmac-rashed stump in a fake Gucci dress, vainly clutching an equally fake Versace clutchbag. As it went, i waited nicely, then as i finally left, a barrage of beer cans bounced off the side of the bus.
Approaching an exceptionally tight bend, a found car illegally parked. Driving ten metres along the pavement was my only option...
Yesterday, it was the 13. The city centre route. I enjoyed myself. Dealing with the cosmopolitans rather than the suburbanites is always more rewarding... plus driving in central London is just like driving in Sydney, cept a lot slower and busier. A total contrast to the weaving, stop-starting, roundabout infected 114 route.
Typical of my luck, Regent Street was closed, meaning all of us had a very long diversion down Shaftsbury Ave and Tottenham Court Rd between Oxford and Piccadilly Circus's. The diversion was very slow, and before long i was an hour behind schedule.... as it went though, everyone was, so i did two curtailments, one at Baker Street, one at Oxford Circus and had fun talking to all the pretty young female tourists who'd gotten lost :D On my 3rd last run, the ticket machine packed in but i managed to avoid taking any cash payments so things worked out.
Today i had the 292... the easy route. I ran it bang on time the whole shift... indeed i ended up running early on a few occasions (which is a biiiig NO-NO). Saying that, i started out badly... a bad case of brainfail im afraid. The route runs from Colindale to Borehamwood, but as it passes by our Garage, each new shift starts midway through in the local bus station. So the buses pull in from different directions, then exit going in different directions depending on which way that particular bus is bound. I got into a Colindale bound bus, which turns RIGHT out of the bus station... but in a momentary brainfail, i turned RIGHT (the way to Borehamwood) as i exited. Being London, there was a roundabout half a block away... typically it was a small roundabout and i had to 3-point-turn the bastard to get a u-turn out of it, before heading away in the correct direction.
Its been fun.
The 292 is the only route i can as yet regularly drive to schedule... im told that as time goes by you pick up the little tricks and knacks for increasing your speed.
Meantime... Here's a tunnel under the River Thames.
