Hello and welcome to my Blog, my name is Chris, a bus driver for First Mendip based in Wells, Somerset. I am Chair and H&S rep for the depot branch of Unite the Union. Married to Fiona, we live in Midsomer Norton near Bath, with Boots the cat. My main hobby is Amateur Radio and I hold the call sign G4KVI. I am the repeater keeper for GB3UB and MB7UB. I have a fascination for the weather and all things to do with nature and science. As a Christian I worship, when shifts allow at St. Nicholas Church in Radstock. These are my observations on my life, both at work and at home.

28 Feb 2008

Don't panic

Back at work yesterday and a very nice day is was. 'All Dayer' so had some time in London, so glad I live were I do. People as you know make me laugh. Yesterday morning we had just joined the M4 at J15, on time, when we came to a stop. I could just see it was an accident being cleared. We can't have been stopped for a minute when a passenger came rushing down the aisle. 'Are we going to be in Victoria on time?' Well too problems with that. a. I have do idea how long we are going to be stopped and b. it is still over 2 hours to Victoria. I was very polite and told her I could see no problem. The accident seemed have been a car hitting the central reservation and rolling over. The damage was so severe it must have been well over the 50mph limited for the roadworks. We arrived in London 15mins early due to light traffic from Heathrow to Victoria.
Left Victoria at 1800 only 13 seats left and 10 to pick up at Heathrow.Arrived at 1850 and loaded up. There were loads of 'standbys' (those booked on a later bus) as normal I said I would wait until 1900 (my departure time) and check then. 1900 arrived and I had 3 seats left. Took 3 people on their own. Shut the lockers and, 'WAIT, we are on this bus!!' I don't think so it is now 1900 and the ticket says to be a the departure point 10 mins before departure. I left them in the hands of the Heathrow staff. In theory we can 'resell' or take a standby from 10 mins before departure. In practise myself like most of the other drivers will wait up until time of departure to give booked passengers a chance.

1 comment:

Stephen said...

I give it 5 minutes before departure time to take stand-bys. That way you can leave on time. I feel that this half way point is fair to everyone.

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