| Bus-sized asteroid shaves by Earth |
| An asteroid about the size of a bus shaved by Earth on Friday in what spacewatchers described as a "near-miss," though experts were not concerned about the possibility of an impact. Posted: January 27th, 2012 11:38 PM |
| VIDEO: Fears over future of bus services |
| Bus services could be cut and fares increased following the Welsh government's decision to reduce the subsidy it provides for local transport. Posted: January 27th, 2012 09:08 PM |
| Concern at £3m cut in bus funding |
| Bus companies and councils across Wales voice concern after the Welsh Government says it is to cut £3m from its local transport subsidy. Posted: January 27th, 2012 05:07 PM |
| Bus crash driver gets suspended sentence |
| A BUS driver who tore the roof off his vehicle after he crashed into a low bridge while carrying dozens of students has been given a suspended jail sentence. Posted: January 27th, 2012 09:03 AM |
| We want new bus station at former Keddies site |
| A CHARITY has stepped into the controversy over a new bus station for Colchester, with its own blueprint. Posted: January 27th, 2012 08:18 AM |
| Lawyers boycott India bus driver |
| Layers in Pune refuse to defend bus driver who went berserk on Wednesday morning, killing nine people and injuring 30 others. Posted: January 27th, 2012 07:38 AM |
U.S. Department of Transportation
January 21st, 2012 · Miscellaneous
The Department’s website is one of the worst sites I’ve ever come across. Worst in the sense of having no uniformity, some pages appear almost amateurish in their design! However there is some interesting stuff buried within it. For example under Passenger Carrier Information For Consumers a two step process first guides you in selecting a vehicle type for your journey, then helps you to ‘Find a Safe Company Near You’.
“Companies with a graphic (! mark within a yellow diamond) status or an unsatisfactory safety rating are considered to be a higher safety risk”. It’s surprising therefore to see Megabus being rated a higher safety risk in Illinois where they are 72.5% worse than other companies in the Fatigued Driving category. In New Jersey they’re rated 76% worse than other companies for Unsafe Driving!
I think the equivalent to this in the UK would be VOSA making public its statistics on company inspections. Would that be a good or bad thing?
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Limbus – my soul cries for mercy at the bus stop
January 14th, 2012 · Miscellaneous
I received the following e-mail a few days ago and am happy give the singer/song writer a plug. The only thing I’ve changed is the URL for the song which is on YouTube. I couldn’t watch the video and listen because it gave me motion sickness – maybe that’s why he’s Carsick Phil? Watch at your peril! I changed the link to an audio only site.
Dear Sir
I stumbled across your blog and enjoyed it. Just wondered if you might be interested in a song I put together over a weekend when mightily disgruntled with the local bus service. It comes across, on reflection, as being a bit harsh on the bus drivers, but it was meant to more of a moan about the bus firms, the local authority and general powerlessness felt when standing waiting for a bus. My thoughts are captured in the notes under the video, including the notion that, in cities across the land, we are ducking the real issue of getting cars off the road, which is the necessary prerequisite for buses running superbly well, which would take more cars off the road, etc. Any way hope you enjoy it my amateur effort. It can be found at http://soundcloud.com/carsick-phil/limbus-my-soul-cries-for-mercy
All the best
Carsick Phil
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Not how I would have said it
January 4th, 2012 · Miscellaneous
This is a letter, written by a National Express bus driver, published in the Evening Telegraph, Dundee.
‘Bus drivers are still fair game to public’
Another year has drawn to a close but from a bus driver’s point-of-view nothing has changed.
From what I have read in the Tele letters page over the past year, drivers continue to be fair game for anyone who has a gripe about National Express Dundee.
We are employees, not the owners and we do as our bosses command.
I would like to outline the following:
1 — our licences are ours and we needed to pass a specialised test to gain it. We also need to qualify for other certificates to keep our licences.
2 — National Express are a privately-owned company who are responsible to their shareholders.
3 — drivers are, by law, responsible for every passenger who boards their bus, and are therefore in charge of said vehicle and have the ultimate say as to what happens on-board.
4 — the days of stopping between recognised bus stops are well and truly gone.
5 — do not expect a bus to stop for you if you are not prepared to make it known to the driver that you wish him to stop. Put down your phones and concentrate on looking for the bus!
6 — be a parent and watch your kids on-board. Do not allow them to treat the bus as if it were a playground.
7 — passengers have a duty of care too. No eating, drinking, swearing etc.
8 — from a personal point-of-view, swear at me and you do not travel on my bus.
I hope this letter makes a small difference to the way bus drivers are treated by the public. —
Fed-Up Driver.
Ahem …… I’m not sure that’s how I would have said it! The author comes across as very belligerent which sadly I assume must be their normal manner when driving their bus. Shame. In my experience passengers, with the exception of a tiny number, adopt the same attitude and manner as the driver. Be polite and friendly and even if you have to say no to a request it’s normally accepted well. For example the author of the letter wrote “the days of stopping between recognised bus stops are well and truly gone”. Stopping at dangerous places such as on bends, brow of a hill, just before pedestrian crossing etc. aren’t going to happen. Tell the passenger why and they usually apologise for asking. In other places where it’s perfectly safe to stop why not? Act in this way and the passenger is likely to choose to travel on your company’s buses again, maybe use the bus more often or, put another way, keep the service profitable and keep you away from redundancy!
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Happy New Year….
January 1st, 2012 · Miscellaneous
…. and a belated Happy Christmas. Late on the Friday before Christmas my PC died. Why do these things happen just a few hours before a 4 day shutdown? Investigation showed that PSU had blown so I fitted a new PSU. After that the PC would start but shutdown before Windows had been loaded. On closer examination I spotted several capacitors on the motherboard which had swollen! So it also needs a new motherboard as well. This is being written on my wife’s laptop which suddenly doesn’t seem to like talking to our wireless router – I can’t check the router settings without my my (still not working) PC’s ethernet connection to it. So our internet connection is currently my mobile acting as WiFi hotspot which, surprisingly, is working very well. The same day my PC died my car had been in the garage because there had been a loud bang after which it began to bounce and roll like a barrel at sea :-( Both front shock absorbers had snapped. Christmas is always expensive but this one seems to be beating all previous records!
Now the statistics for ‘another day on the buses’ 2011
Top Referers:
Omnibuses
Bus Driving
Phil Stockley
Driving a bus?
Bumpy Highway
Top Search Terms (which seem to confirm that this blog is an eclectic mix):
bus blog
black pheasant
another day on the buses
abaco palma
erg ticket machines
Most Read Posts:
Magabus promotion codes
New ticket machines
Megabus luggage policy
The new kebab shop style BBC homepage
Be careful what you wish for ….
Top clicks to other bus blogs:
Omnibuses
Bumpy Highway
Bus Driving
Phil Stockley
Island buses
Greatest number of visitors online at one time:
45 on 12 July at 21:36
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New Routemaster Breaks Down
December 19th, 2011 · Buses
At first TfL insisted that the bus was taking a scheduled stop on the hard shoulder of the M1!! Why do PR people, I’m assuming that the spokesperson was from the PR department, have to turn a mildly embarrassing situation into one which makes them appear totally stupid? I assume they did concede that this wasn’t true when the breakdown truck arrived to tow it away. Then again, it may have been a scheduled recovery to test how the bus performed on the back of a tow truck :-) (I think I may a new career in PR ahead of me). I read this story on LBC.
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