In our depot we work a four week rota around 4 duties. Mixed in with detailed duties are a few AD days (As Detailed – usually covers sickness, holiday etc.) and the one I got to today – Spare, or to be pedantic Late Spare.

It sounds like a dream duty, you’ve nothing to do at all except sit around and wait for something to go wrong! 8 hours pay for sitting on your arse and twidling your thumbs … sounds great? Maybe, until you’ve got to do it. I arrived at the depot for a 12:00 start and did absolutely nothing until 20:00, nothing that is except make lots of tea, do the Telegraph cryptic crossword, answer the ‘phone a couple of times and listen to lots of gossip as people passed through the controllers office. Nice, for about 30 minutes and then the novelty wears off!

I only did one useful thing for Megabus today and that was even before I booked on. As I got into my car to drive to Winchester a traffic announcement came on the radio that there had been a serious accident on the M3, southbound at Junction 6 Basingstoke, and already the tailback was 5 miles. That is the worst possible spot for an M3 problem, if the problem is north of Basingstoke you exit before and rejoin at Basingstoke and if it’s south of Basingstoke you leave there and rejoin later. It’s difficult to explain briefly why this spot is so important but please accept that it is so. Realising that we had a bus leaving Victoria, for the M3 southbound, at the moment I heard this I called my depot and informed them of the traffic report with the advice that if they were able to contact the bus my advice would be to leave London via the A3 to Guildford and then the A31 to Winchester. This routing adds about 15 minutes journey time (London – Winchester) over that of using the M3. An obvious winner in the current circumstances. They were able to contact the bus and the day was saved.

None of this would have neccessary if Megabus hadn’t been so ‘cost conscious’ (bloody mean) and barred drivers from dialling Vodafone 222222’s service. This is an interactive service where you key in the ‘A’ or ‘M’ road number and get live trafiic updates. We all did this as we drove away from Victoria in order to determine which route would best keep the service running on time. The cost of the call was equal to what the driver is paid for 5 minutes work. Not being able to make these calls causes us to be late more often, resulting in overtime payments and, in the most extreme circumstances, duplicate buses being put on the road. I guess those bigger payments must come from a different budget so it doesn’t matter as much as saving a few pence on the ‘phone call!

The full Press Release is here.

I’m not sure about the “the first of the vehicles was delivered to Stagecoach’s headquarters in Perth today (12 February 2007)”. Here’s a picture I took of one in Victoria last week. Maybe it’s only now found its way to Perth!

Sorry about the poor quality of the picture but I only had my mobile to take it with.

Having had the chance to see how long a 15 metres coach is in the ‘flesh’ I’m quite pleased that they’re not going to be used on the services I drive. Look at the rear end overhang, it looks as long as a small car! The only bus I’ve ever damaged was a B10 which also has a large rear overhang. I entered the yard at the back of Winchester bus station, turned into a space to park the bus and BANG. I’d forgotten I was not driving the usual low floor, or Dart, and as I turned the rear had swung across the yard and clouted another bus. There was worse to come – it was right outside the canteen window which was suddnely filled with a myriad peering faces.

Although we wont normally be driving them we still have to be type trained on them. I’m scheduled for type training next Sunday and will report back on how well it goes, or what damage I did![email][/email]

One of my hobbies is cooking so when I can get to the fortnightly Farmers’ Market in Winchester I’m in my element. My depot is in Winchester and today I did an early duty that booked off around 11:00, I then went to the market. My purchases were:

A bag of Selsey whelks
Dozen eggs
2 packs of plain pork sausages made by the butcher in Botley
1 wood pigeon
A pack of faggots made the ‘proper’ way by being wrapped in caul fat
2pts unpateurised full cream Jersey milk
2 packs dry cured steaky Gloucester Old Spot bacon
Bread from the wood fired oven at Long Crichel Bakery
Organic veg

Can’t decide which of these things to have for dinner tonight. I know, it will probably be a few whelks with mayonaise as a starter with wood pigeon main. I’ll take the breasts off the pigeon and make a stock for the gravy using the rest of the bird. The breasts will be seared on an iron griddle and be served with some blood still in them, like a medium-rare steak. served with some shredded greens and potatoes anna. My wife isn’t keen on pigeon which is why i’m going to have it …… she’s visiting her family at the moment.

It’s a rest day tomorrow! Which means the pigeon can be washed down with a decent bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape.

Drove the London – Brighton route yesterday and made a bit of an an arse of myself. From the start of Megabus we’d always used tri-axle double deckers like the one pictured at the top of the page. This week we’ve got 5 new coaches at our depot for Megabus. The doubles would not go under a bridge in Battersea which I’d always thought would be the quickest way out to the A3 so now was my chance to try it out. Over Chelsea bridge, left at the roundabout, and then there should be a right to take me to Battersea Park Road. It was then I discovered only left turns were allowed! Ended up going east on the south side of the Thames north over Vauxahall Bridge, west along the Embankment and then south again over Chelsea Bridge to take the route I knew. None of the passengers realised they had been on a 20 minute circular tour, or maybe they were too polite to mention the fact.

We get a little over an hours break in Brighton, parked up near the pier, before the return to London. I walked to Kemptown and went to a delicatessen I’d seen before but never been into and bought a homemade pork pie to take back to the bus. What a pork pie it was! Superb, hand raised, water crust pastry encasing very lean coarsly chopped pork and a jelly to die for. This was the perfect pork pie.

I was so engrossed in enjoying the pie that any sense, other than that of taste, had deserted me so I didn’t hear the bang. The first I knew was the very loud wailing of a Police car, a couple of Police motorcycles and an ambulance stopping within 50 yards of my bus. Then I saw what the problem was – a Brighton and Hove double-decker had run into the rear of another Brighton and Hove double-decker! Looking at the damage it was clear that it wasn’t just a tap but a full attack from the rear. I was due to leave shortly and disliking rubber neckers returned promptly to my bus.

I’m in London now and writing this on a public PC in Victoria Library. To gain computer access you have to be a library member but don’t have to live within the City of Westminster to join. Not sure I’d be happy about that if I paid my Council Tax to the City of Westminster then couldn’t get use of a PC because all the ‘out of towners’ were using them! Still it suits me very well to able to check e-mail etc. while I’m having my break before the return trip to Bournemouth.

The drive up was pleasant this morning. There was no snow at all in Bournemouth, a sprinkling around Southampton and increasing amounts as I headed north up the M3. The prettiest part of the trip was between Basingstoke and the Surrey border. No sign of the travel disruption which gained headline news on the weather forecast last night.

Unfortunately, my passengers were none too pleased this morning. I was told that the coach I was driving was needed in the workshop so to transfer all passengers to a replacement coach which would meet me in Winchester. The replacement was there waiting for me and everyone swapped over and the coach I’d been driving was whisked away. Then I sat in the replacement coach and tried to adjust the seat – there was a 6″ gap between the squab and back where it was slid so far forward, the back was at what felt like 45 degrees and the front of the seat was rearing up to several inches higher than the back. Not one single adjustment button would work! The seat was totally locked up in this ludicrous set up (it’s air operated and I suspect that it had lost its air supply). It would be impossible for me to drive safely whilst contorted to fit this seat. I called control and explained the problem, the original coach was returned to me, and then I had to tell the passengers that not only had we lost 15 minutes while all this went on but we were now to get back on the original coach. The only redeeming factor in all of this is that I still managed an on time arrival in London.