Discussion of the running day on service 376 Bristol-Wells 2019
I was going to call this 'Confessions of an amateur bus driver' so I'd better give some context to that remark. I’ve never worked as a bus driver and wouldn’t be able to cope with the requirements of dealing with what they have to deal with every day. However I agreed with my wife that I’d take the PCV test before buying my ‘plaything’ (AFM103G Bristol RE) so I’ve held the licence for many years however my ‘experience’ level isn’t wonderful!
The old Winchester running days were always a pleasant diversion after the excesses of Christmas however planning something like that in winter is a nightmare (I’ve failed to turn up twice because of last minute problems) so the Wells running days have been a useful substitute. Obviously the slight downside is the inability to ‘celebrate’ the new year the night before. I’ve actually been randomly stopped for a breath test by the police when I was driving the coach which, the guy admitted, was just because he liked the idea of stopping an old coach; however still a vital check.
I managed to arrive early for my turn from Bristol so parked up and managed to capture the previous departure. This was slightly compromised by somebody deciding to wander around the manoeuvring area in an attempt to catch it! The driver, correctly, ignored them (other than to avoid running them over of course) and the bus station supervisor dealt with them however this kind of thing isn’t helpful when it comes to negotiating access for running days like this.
The first part of the route had been closed by the police owing to some people’s idea of new year festivities which meant passengers missed out on the sound of Bristol REs running through the ‘tunnel’ in Fairfax Street which also meant one of the possible pickup stops was inaccessible.
The runs I did were fairly busy, one I did last year was almost full however that was an earlier one out of Wells. The majority of the public interest was at the Wells end and there appeared to have been quite a bit of local publicity for it, however quite a few of the passengers I picked up (from the villages) weren’t aware of it which suggests there may have been a few annoyed punters without the event (which, I assume, must happen in lots of other places as well). The mix appeared to be slightly lower on the general public side and up on the enthusiast side however that was just perception on my runs
Running into Bristol I was hoping for few takers as First were running service 2 and (with things like contactless and concession cards) it takes even longer to pick somebody up and explain that they don’t have to pay than it does to charge them! However several old dears managed to negotiate the multiple high steps only to be confused by the lack of a black box they could swipe their card against. I did manage to miss one stop as, clearly, people have forgotten about the idea of indicating to the driver that they want to use the bus and I wasn’t going to do an emergency stop for somebody who could just catch the next First bus!
Wells was fairly quiet however they did have one public toilet open (Hidden away in Union Street if anybody needs it in future) plus a pasty shop which covered my, minimal, requirements.
The downside with the 376 is the number of hills, and my toy doesn’t like hills! However it does like the flat bits between the hills. It’s also a reminder of how dangerous parts of the road used to be; Green Ore crossroads used to be frequently mentioned on the news when I was young because of the numerous crashes (as it’s got long, straight roads heading to it from all directions), a problem that nearly disappeared once somebody had the bright idea of putting some traffic lights on it.
I was going to call this 'Confessions of an amateur bus driver' so I'd better give some context to that remark. I’ve never worked as a bus driver and wouldn’t be able to cope with the requirements of dealing with what they have to deal with every day. However I agreed with my wife that I’d take the PCV test before buying my ‘plaything’ (AFM103G Bristol RE) so I’ve held the licence for many years however my ‘experience’ level isn’t wonderful!
The old Winchester running days were always a pleasant diversion after the excesses of Christmas however planning something like that in winter is a nightmare (I’ve failed to turn up twice because of last minute problems) so the Wells running days have been a useful substitute. Obviously the slight downside is the inability to ‘celebrate’ the new year the night before. I’ve actually been randomly stopped for a breath test by the police when I was driving the coach which, the guy admitted, was just because he liked the idea of stopping an old coach; however still a vital check.
I managed to arrive early for my turn from Bristol so parked up and managed to capture the previous departure. This was slightly compromised by somebody deciding to wander around the manoeuvring area in an attempt to catch it! The driver, correctly, ignored them (other than to avoid running them over of course) and the bus station supervisor dealt with them however this kind of thing isn’t helpful when it comes to negotiating access for running days like this.
The first part of the route had been closed by the police owing to some people’s idea of new year festivities which meant passengers missed out on the sound of Bristol REs running through the ‘tunnel’ in Fairfax Street which also meant one of the possible pickup stops was inaccessible.
The runs I did were fairly busy, one I did last year was almost full however that was an earlier one out of Wells. The majority of the public interest was at the Wells end and there appeared to have been quite a bit of local publicity for it, however quite a few of the passengers I picked up (from the villages) weren’t aware of it which suggests there may have been a few annoyed punters without the event (which, I assume, must happen in lots of other places as well). The mix appeared to be slightly lower on the general public side and up on the enthusiast side however that was just perception on my runs
Running into Bristol I was hoping for few takers as First were running service 2 and (with things like contactless and concession cards) it takes even longer to pick somebody up and explain that they don’t have to pay than it does to charge them! However several old dears managed to negotiate the multiple high steps only to be confused by the lack of a black box they could swipe their card against. I did manage to miss one stop as, clearly, people have forgotten about the idea of indicating to the driver that they want to use the bus and I wasn’t going to do an emergency stop for somebody who could just catch the next First bus!
Wells was fairly quiet however they did have one public toilet open (Hidden away in Union Street if anybody needs it in future) plus a pasty shop which covered my, minimal, requirements.
The downside with the 376 is the number of hills, and my toy doesn’t like hills! However it does like the flat bits between the hills. It’s also a reminder of how dangerous parts of the road used to be; Green Ore crossroads used to be frequently mentioned on the news when I was young because of the numerous crashes (as it’s got long, straight roads heading to it from all directions), a problem that nearly disappeared once somebody had the bright idea of putting some traffic lights on it.
