Stagecoach in Winchester have a very unhappy customer who complains that “Many a time have I come off of a Stagecoach bus bleeding or aching from bashing my knee as the driver pulls away before I have sat down”. His letters of complaint together with the replies from Richard Tyldsley, the Stagecoach Operations Manager at Winchester, are published on the unhappy customer’s web site.
Now in Times Square
Last year I tried to promote this blog with an advertisement on the side of a bus.
Now, courtesy of this site, I’ve got this enormous billboard in Times Square.
Half Term
We’ve just got back from a few days away without the kids – wonderful!
The oldest left home last month and moved to Canterbury to attend the University of Kent, the other two wanted to see her again and were invited to visit during half-term so Essy and I hatched up a plan. Since Canterbury is only 30 minutes or so from Dover we could deliver the kids to their older sister and then take a short trip on our own before returning to collect them. So Sunday lunchtime we took a Norfolkline line ferry to Dunkirk and then drove the 50 minutes or so up the coast to Jabekke in Belgium. We took the caravan and stayed here. The site was excellent and one we shall use again.
On Monday we drove to Sluis, a town I’d not visited before, which is just over the border in Holland. Here are a couple of pictures from there. The first was a typical Dutch lunch snack of chips with fritesaus, a sort of mayonaisse with a little more vinegar in it, and a frikandel speciaal. Frikandel is type of Dutch sausage unlike anything you can get in the UK, it is split down the middle and served with mayonaise and curry ketchup sprinkled with chopped raw onion. The second picture is of Essy outside a rather attractive shop front.
The next day went to Knokke which was a bit out of our league. As you pass through the outskirts of the town it becomes apparent that this is a town for the seriously wealthy – immediately after the Bentley dealership is the Mercedes Maybach dealership, then the Porsche dealership. The motor dealerships are then followed by the very upmarket kitchen design shops, bathroom showrooms etc. In town nothing became any more affordable for us as the designer shops lined the main street. An interesting place but not one I’ll venture into again for some time.
Any old pic will do
The media seem to pick any archive photo of a bus to illustrate a bus related story. Here’s one from BBC South today Portsmouth v Southampton derby fans face ‘coach bubble which says that “fans having to buy joint match and coach tickets, and being escorted by police to a secure area in Portsmouth” and illustrated with this photo.
Taylors Coaches, who were based in Sutton Scotney, ceased trading nearly 7 years ago in December 2004!
It was only a couple of weeks ago that a local press headline read Civic chiefs aiming to save bus services in Alresford which was accompanied by this photo.
More is a Go Ahead division and Bournemouth based, you can even see that this one is destined for Boscombe. Nothing to do with Alresford!
Superbus
This single decker only seats 23, no standees, and can do 155 mph!
It doesn’t seem fully equipped yet, for example I can’t see a Wayfarer ticket machine. I also wonder how it would look in the livery of the company I currently drive for. I don’t think they’d consider placing an order until the company who make it produced one in our livery for evaluation.
New First Bus website for smartphones
First UK Bus has launched a new mobile website designed to enable its customers access First bus information from smartphones. Full story here. Having just got a new smartphone I felt I had to take a look. My initial reaction? Very impressive! I’ve not had time to look further than the timetables section but that’s what led me to say ‘very impressive’. I always hated having to look up First Bus time tables on the old site using my PC, now with a screen a fraction of the size of my 22″ home screen it’s the easiest thing in the world to check times. If you’re using a smartphone, rather than presenting timetables as pdf files, the system is interactive requesting route number, when are you travelling, direction of travel, going to etc. That may sound as if it would take time entering it on a smartphone but everything is selected from drop downs so it’s a very quick and easy process. Times are then presented very simply showing the departure time from your selected stop and the arrival time at the selected destination.