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Bus running cards

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GuyBarry

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I learned a new piece of terminology today. I was on a bus and the driver pulled up at a stop and started searching through his bag. He was clearly worried and, after saying something to a passing driver, phoned up the depot.

He had apparently lost his "running card". This is the document that tells drivers what time to be at what stop. The other passenger (there were only two of us) wondered why such information wasn't computerized.

Does anyone here know much about running cards? I can't find a great deal of information on the Web.
 
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Deerfold

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I learned a new piece of terminology today. I was on a bus and the driver pulled up at a stop and started searching through his bag. He was clearly worried and, after saying something to a passing driver, phoned up the depot.

He had apparently lost his "running card". This is the document that tells drivers what time to be at what stop. The other passenger (there were only two of us) wondered why such information wasn't computerized.

Does anyone here know much about running cards? I can't find a great deal of information on the Web.

Usually a garage will have a number of "duties" or shifts that need to be covered so they run everything for the day. These will be split by driver into "duty cards" or "running cards" which cover one driver's shift.

They will have 1 card for each required duty for each day type that the garage runs (for some places Mon-Fri wil be one day type for others it won't if they have schools that finish on different times on different days or run later buses on a Friday...then there will be Saturday, Sunday, Bank Holiday (if that's different to Sunday).

To ensure there's enough drivers for the day they then allocate one card to each driver. So long as there's no cards left they're good for the day.

Some companies have two sets of duty and running cards - in this case one will cover what a driver is doing for a shift and the other what a particular bus is doing for the day.

The amount of detail on a card will vary.

Some will simply have the route and trip numbers and departure time from the first stop - the other information will be available elsewhere (often once they've told a system which trip they're running it will tell them when they should leave each stop). Others have all the timetable detail forr each trip on.
 

anthony263

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We used to have an A4 sheet of paper which had the drivers duty number wayfare number etc as well as a telpehone number for the depot.

Also contained on these sheets of paper were the service number and route along with timings points at the major stops on the route for each particular service the driver was doing.

I do know someone who has lost the duty sheet out of the drivers window however was able to get another one as the bus stop was 50 yards from the depot.
 

Ivo

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In areas where drivers run the same duty day-in, day-out they don't tend to be necessary, but operators will still produce them (they are usually laminated). Elsewhere such items can be invaluable; even passengers can learn a thing or two if they try hard enough (I learned the identity of Bath 1034 yesterday... on its last-ever journey before being subject to a revision :roll:).
 

cainebj

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I believe the drivers duty card is a legal requirement if the bus is running without a tachograph. They usually show the journey length and distance of each run to show the driver is running on domestic regulations (service under 50km each direction). The fare stage time points are often shown electronically on Wayfarer TGX ticket machines (not sure on others), but they still have to be on a paper duty card.
 

Ivo

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The fare stage time points are often shown electronically on Wayfarer TGX ticket machines (not sure on others), but they still have to be on a paper duty card.

Almex machines show them in relation to the vehicle's location (i.e. RTI) - but I'm yet to see one that works properly :|
 

GuyBarry

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19 Jul 2011
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Thanks for all the responses. In this case the depot was able to send another card out to the driver. Fortunately I wasn't in a hurry or I might have got rather annoyed!
 

shedman

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14 Feb 2011
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Arriva Yorkshire call them 'running boards'. Its like the diagram for the bus and satys with it all day until it returns to the depot. They show route, blind code, in/out (direction of service), then timing points. Although im not sure how this will have changed with the arrival of the new ticket machines
 

Ivo

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If something like this happened with First in Bath I would fear for the next journey the driver would be expected to run. Not only is the depot not on any route at all (it was on the SPA2 route, but obviously that's history now), the company are pretty hopeless themselves! Admittedly however it is fairly close to the 5 route.
 

jammie300

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23 Sep 2011
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Metrolink in manchester have running cards, which is why I get chucked off a late running tram at Timperley in order for the driver to catch up on his running card. For some reason 4 Altrincham trams ended up going down from manchester at the same time. Made some fun when we got to Navigation Road single track.
 

bb21

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Running cards for Nottingham Tram can be seen in the driver's cab quite clearly.
 
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