High speed coach driver ?

[notadriver]

I drive coaches every now and then. One of my mates describes himself as a 'high speed coach driver' yet the vehicle he drives are limited to 62 mph like all other coaches. Is 62 mph 'high speed'?

 

[Lewisham2221]

I drive coaches every now and then. One of my mates describes himself as a 'high speed coach driver' yet the vehicle he drives are limited to 62 mph like all other coaches. Is 62 mph 'high speed'?

Does he mean he does a lot of motorway driving rather than lots of local work like schools etc?

 

[notadriver]

He does do a lot of trips on the motorway to London but the local train which stops everywhere on the way to London gets there quicker than his 'high speed' coach.

 

[Tubefan2013]

62mph is not all that fast however many older coaches I have been on i have seen it doing 80mph! Belive it or not.

 

[radamfi]

Until about 1994, coaches were allowed in the outside lane of motorways and didn't have speed limiters, so 80 mph would have been quite normal.

 

[gazthomas]

Until about 1994, coaches were allowed in the outside lane of motorways and didn't have speed limiters, so 80 mph would have been quite normal.

As a new driver at the time I was always amazed at all those "Wallace Arnold" coaches flying past me!

 

[notadriver]

Now that is high speed !

But how does a bumbling main line train calling at nearly all stations get to London quicker than the 'high speed express coach' ?

 

[Lewisham2221]

Now that is high speed !

But how does a bumbling main line train calling at nearly all stations get to London quicker than the 'high speed express coach' ?

Because the coach won't be going at "high speed" once it leaves the motorway and heads into London.

 

[455driver]

I used to drive Leyland Olympians fitted with TL11 engines (West Riding 613-617, C613ANW-C617ANW) and they could reach 75ish on a normal day, going down Dodworth (near Barnsley) slip road to join the M1 motorway southbound I had the needle against the stop of the zero, I reckon that is about 110mph officer, the speed fell away when we got on the level but it still stayed around 80mph all the way to Meadowhall.

Another nice memory was joining the M1 at junction 42 (Wakefield) going to Leeds and a National Expressliner moved over to let me join the motorway, I let him past, flashed him in and instantly pulled out and overtook him, the look on the coach drivers face as he was overtaken by a double decker bus is something that I will never forget!

This was back in the 90s when we were allowed to do 70mph and to use all lanes of the motorway.
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Until about 1994, coaches were allowed in the outside lane of motorways and didn't have speed limiters, so 80 mph would have been quite normal.

Normal, it was expected, some of the (private) coaches I have driven were fitted with a switch to turn off the speed limiter, not that I ever used it of course.

 

[Mojo]

lsn't it just a way of making an unattractive mode of transport sound more attractive?

l remember when a rail service was withdrawn a few years back. The DfT promised it would be replaced by a ''high quality express bus service.'' ln reality it was just a standard bus service with some realtime displays thrown in. Off-peak the bus was timetabled to take the same time as the train, during peak hours it was quite a bit longer.

lt might be high quality and express compared to normal buses, but offered nothing over the train, whilst using less comfortable vehicles. lf the same description could be applied to a bus service, then why not a train?

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Well one of the double-decker buses that sometimes takes me to school managed 70 down a big incline on the motorway to overtake a pair of cranes, I'm surprised if the buses at Helms of Eastham have speed limiters fitted!

About coaches though, whenever I go on school trips on one, I usually end up at the front on my own and I frequently see the speedo just trickle over 70 here and there, I didn't know that coaches were fitted with limiters though, you always see them about on the motorway doing over 62.

Then you get my dad who like to cruise along the motorway at around 45-50 MPH (Saves fuel apparently :roll: ) and has all sorts overtaking him such as coaches, trailers,caravans,fellow Landy Defenders, Deckers and 1 litre micras. That makes everything look extremely fast though so maybe it's an illusion that I'm seeing coaches go faster.

 

[Deerfold]

lsn't it just a way of making an unattractive mode of transport sound more attractive?

l remember when a rail service was withdrawn a few years back. The DfT promised it would be replaced by a ''high quality express bus service.'' ln reality it was just a standard bus service with some realtime displays thrown in. Off-peak the bus was timetabled to take the same time as the train, during peak hours it was quite a bit longer.

lt might be high quality and express compared to normal buses, but offered nothing over the train, whilst using less comfortable vehicles. lf the same description could be applied to a bus service, then why not a train?

Coaches aren't automatically unattractive.

Sure, they can't compete with the best trains around, but there's plenty that offer routes that the train can't do or are doing somthing right - there's two high frequency coach routes from Oxford to London - both get up to every 10 minutes at times and one is every hour in the middle of the night - they must be attractive to someone to be thriving so. Both have free wifi and power sockets which is more than many trains.

Indeed the worst thing to happen to the coach industry (imo) was the limit to 62.5 mph that was applied (I'd have no problems with a limiter at 70 mph), but that extra 10% on the quickest bit of the route hit a lot of journeys hard.

Perhaps they're not attractive to everyone or for every journey.

Even some buses can be quite pleasant - I had a week on a course in Cambridge last year , starting in London but staying in Huntingdon midweek. The bus journeys to Huntingdon were far more pleasant than the train between London and Cambridge, with the time on the bus being spent in comfortable seats on my netbook with fast Wifi and a power socket.

 

[34D]

Then you get my dad who like to cruise along the motorway at around 45-50 MPH (Saves fuel apparently :roll: ) and has all sorts overtaking him such as coaches, trailers,caravans,fellow Landy Defenders, Deckers and 1 litre micras. That makes everything look extremely fast though so maybe it's an illusion that I'm seeing coaches go faster.

As a bus/coach/truck driver, please can I say that cars driving slower than the trucks (who do 56mph calibrated, which is approx 60mph on a typical car speedo) cause a serious hazard.

Every so often I come across a coach with a broken limiter, and its always a pleasure.

Incidentally, limiters (for full-size coaches) are required to be set at 62Mph (or lower) on coaches from 1988 onwards, at 70mph (or lower) on ones 1974-1988, and no limiter required on pre-74.
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I drive coaches every now and then. One of my mates describes himself as a 'high speed coach driver' yet the vehicle he drives are limited to 62 mph like all other coaches. Is 62 mph 'high speed'?

Is he eccentric? There is a chap I know who describes himself as a "professional tour driver" and a "proper coach driver" who most certainly is eccentric.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

As a bus/coach/truck driver, please can I say that cars driving slower than the trucks (who do 56mph calibrated, which is approx 60mph on a typical car speedo) cause a serious hazard.

Every so often I come across a coach with a broken limiter, and its always a pleasure.

Incidentally, limiters (for full-size coaches) are required to be set at 62Mph (or lower) on coaches from 1988 onwards, at 70mph (or lower) on ones 1974-1988, and no limiter required on pre-74.

34D its fine I agree everyone tells my dad that he drives way to slow on the m-way including myself, maybe because he has been used to driving slow cars since 1968 when he got his licence. Still ridiculous really tbf and he still has his excuses (going to stop slagging my dad off now ). There should be a minimum of 60 for cars then it keeps everything running smoothly then.

On coaches, what defines a full size one? Are thw NatEx coaches full size? Becaus im pretty sure they go over 62 and pretty much every coach i go on school trips on do.

 

[richw]

Incidentally, limiters (for full-size coaches) are required to be set at 62Mph (or lower) on coaches from 1988 onwards, at 70mph (or lower) on ones 1974-1988, and no limiter required on pre-74.

This may explain why I was overtaken on the motorway a few weeks back by an A registered coach, I was doing a reading of 70mph on my speedo with cruise control activated, and I was rather swiftly overtaken by this coach, and my thoughts were WTF! (acronym used as not suitable to spell in full)

 

[455driver]

and my thoughts were WTF! (acronym used as not suitable to spell in full)

Why?
whats wrong with writing "Well Thats Flying"!

 

[richw]

Why?
whats wrong with writing "Well Thats Flying"!

that wasnt quite my thoughts although also appropriate

 

[34D]

On coaches, what defines a full size one? Are thw NatEx coaches full size? Becaus im pretty sure they go over 62 and pretty much every coach i go on school trips on do.

What I was meaning was a big coach (your typical 48/51/53/57 seater, 12metres long) and not (say) a 29 seater midicoach.

To give chapter and verse on sizes (which I think may be by both capacity and weight) I'll have to look up.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

What I was meaning was a big coach (your typical 48/51/53/57 seater, 12metres long) and not (say) a 29 seater midicoach.

To give chapter and verse on sizes (which I think may be by both capacity and weight) I'll have to look up.

Would a say one of these be a full-size:

I frequently see buses of this size or possibly bigger going over 62.

 

[KT530]

34D its fine I agree everyone tells my dad that he drives way to slow on the m-way including myself, maybe because he has been used to driving slow cars since 1968 when he got his licence. Still ridiculous really tbf and he still has his excuses (going to stop slagging my dad off now ). There should be a minimum of 60 for cars then it keeps everything running smoothly then.

On coaches, what defines a full size one? Are thw NatEx coaches full size? Becaus im pretty sure they go over 62 and pretty much every coach i go on school trips on do.

The vast majority of coaches are limited to 62mph. When a vehicle goes in for its 2-yearly tacho check and 6-yearly calibration, there is a certain amount of leeway, which generally means some end up being limited around 60 and some at 64, even though the speedo will be showing 62.

If 'pretty much every coach you go on' goes over 62, I suggest you use a more reputable operator who doesn't break the law.

Another interesting point, which hasn't been mentioned so far, is the fact that the maximum speed limit on british roads for coaches over 12m in length is 60mph - most manufacturers' standard sizes these days are 12.2m, going up to 12.9m, 13.8m and 15m etc, so 60 would be the legal limit anyway, regardless of what the vehicle is limited to.

 

[notadriver]

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Is he eccentric? There is a chap I know who describes himself as a "professional tour driver" and a "proper coach driver" who most certainly is eccentric.

No to be honest he's a bit arrogant and a show off. He knows I drive trains for a living which stop at most stations on the way to London so his 'high speed' coach is faster. He probably thinks I don't go faster than 40 mph!

 

[ATW Alex 101]

If 'pretty much every coach you go on' goes over 62, I suggest you use a more reputable operator who doesn't break the law.
.

So not only my school bus company are unsafe but now the coaches we use!

Maybe it could be the fact they were made before 88, they are a bit old after all. But they all pretty much go over 62 so it could be they are old