Another bad winter on the cards

[chesterfieldchris]

POST DELETED AT USER'S REQUEST

[simondjuk]

Ill be on the bus and train if we get snow.

Last time we had all that snow the only vehicles moving, apart from 4x4's, were buses.  Went down the hill from Arkwright to the Arkwright Arms with no problems, (well apart from a woman on the bus on her phone telling her friend everyone was screaming and the bus was skidding sideways even though it did skid slightly but only a small bit).  Got to Arkwright Arms at bottom of hill up to Duckmanton, bus driver put his foot down and up we went in one go.  Overtook all the cars and laughing at all the bemused stuck drivers!

Buses can be a pain in the arse (seeming lack of mirror use and indicators are my main gripe) but in snow, id definitely recommend one 

[handy]

Going throught water the thing you need to do is not let water go up the exhaust pipe and the engine should still keep going easier with a diesel,than petrol because  a petrol engine ,needs electrics to keep the engine running, bus due to its weight plus having a skilled driver would stand a better chance than most drivers ,but after 4 wheel drives i would say a front wheel vehicle is better than rear wheel drive in snow.

[Old Cruser]

There you are Scimitar looks like you will be working overtime if we get lots of snow cos we want to travel on your bus!
Last big snow dumped - we lost our weeks holiday and our village was cut off for a week, including no bus service, couldn't blame them though as they would never have got through the village because of abandoned vehicles and and the high piles of snow.

[emmz]

I adnit travel by bus is far the best and safest option in the snow.
I had to work through the really bad snow and the bus managed to get from staveley to town in one piece and dropped me and a friend at the council car park he didnt have to but he did,

[Scimitar]

"Buses can be a pain in the arse (seeming lack of mirror use and indicators are my main gripe) but in snow, id definitely recommend one

"

You should spend a day on one and watch the appalling standards of the everyday car driver, and their attitude to buses. It's so bad sometimes that I sometimes wonder how people can put their cars -however big they are - in to an apparent "lets play chicken and see who loses first" with several tons of bus.
I'm sure they used to have stickers on the back at one time saying "Please let buses pull out" - I don't know if that ever worked. They certainly don't let you pull out nowadays. Half the time we have to force our way back in to traffic - if we waited for the kindly soul to let you out, we might as well tear up the timetable we are trying to keep to.
As for "seeming lack of mirror use and indicators" - if you cant see my mirrors, I can't see you. Buses have blind spots as do many large vehicles. Sometimes we can't see whats going off behind us - fact. This gives us a bad reputation.
Indicators - lack of use thereof - nope, sorry, don't get that one - in fact most of the time they are more likely to be left on because the self cancelling mechanism has worn out! Not an M.O.T. failure I understand - just something we have to put up with.

Luckily for me, I enjoy my job - I like driving, I like the interaction & banter with my regular customers, and in the snowy situations I've encountered, we tend to do what we can to get folks as near as possible to home as far at is safe for us to do so.
I'm now going for a lie down in a darkened room to listen to some Whale cries...........with my tin helmet on

[simondjuk]

"

You should spend a day on one and watch the appalling standards of the everyday car driver, and their attitude to buses. It's so bad sometimes that I sometimes wonder how people can put their cars -however big they are - in to an apparent "lets play chicken and see who loses first" with several tons of bus.
I'm sure they used to have stickers on the back at one time saying "Please let buses pull out" - I don't know if that ever worked. They certainly don't let you pull out nowadays. Half the time we have to force our way back in to traffic - if we waited for the kindly soul to let you out, we might as well tear up the timetable we are trying to keep to.
As for "seeming lack of mirror use and indicators" - if you cant see my mirrors, I can't see you. Buses have blind spots as do many large vehicles. Sometimes we can't see whats going off behind us - fact. This gives us a bad reputation.
Indicators - lack of use thereof - nope, sorry, don't get that one - in fact most of the time they are more likely to be left on because the self cancelling mechanism has worn out! Not an M.O.T. failure I understand - just something we have to put up with.

Luckily for me, I enjoy my job - I like driving, I like the interaction & banter with my regular customers, and in the snowy situations I've encountered, we tend to do what we can to get folks as near as possible to home as far at is safe for us to do so.
I'm now going for a lie down in a darkened room to listen to some Whale cries...........with my tin helmet on

some still have that sticker on.  If only it worked the other way too.  In Sheffield when there are turnings where you have to go across a bus lane, you can indicate and just sit there because no buses let you in.  This is a regular occurance.

I know not all drivers are the same, there are some bad bus drivers and equally bad car drivers.

[Fly]

Bus driver, Taxi driver 
I'm a little more 'nice' to bus drivers nowadays.
Scimitar knows the make, model, reg number etc of my taxi.
I haven't got a clue what bus he's driving 

[Scimitar]

Ah - sheffield -must admit its not my favorite place. Generally - bus drivers are specially helpful to other bus drivers - you can understand that I suppose. But Firstbus drivers seem to have a mentality of their own, in which case I understand your comments a little more clearly.
I do have to venture in to Sheffield now and again,unfortunately,as part of my job (Stagecoach-Chesterfield). We do various runs - express and otherwise there, but my pet hate is Firstbus (the off white and purple often dropping to bits ones).
You now have my full and undivided support on that one!

Not so long back, a lot of their staff were seen in Chesterfield, making notes, checking what Stagecoach were doing,even loitering near the depot at all hours of the day, even very early morning.It wasn't just for a couple of days either - more like 3-4 weeks. Not secretly, all with their high viz jackets on. Planning a major competition war we all thought against Stagecoach services in Chesterfield.
it seems however that Stagecoach in Chesterfield & Sheffield are being more innovative and they are losing customers as a result. Sabre rattling in other words.
And First group want to take over the West coast mainline from Virgin Group (49% owned by Stagecoach).
I think its a last desperate attempt by a poor company that can't deliver on the roads, so has diverted its attention to rail, and will fail there too. IMHO

[Old Cruser]

Bus drivers - taxi drivers - on some journey's with both I have felt as if I was on the Wild Mouse ride at Blackpool 

[Scimitar]

Bus driver, Taxi driver 
I'm a little more 'nice' to bus drivers nowadays.
Scimitar knows the make, model, reg number etc of my taxi.
I haven't got a clue what bus he's driving 

I'm a little more nicer to taxi drivers nowadays.
Fly knows when I come past - I blast my hooter at him & wave.
I know what car he drives. He doesn't know what bus I'm driving. He does not know the stunt I saw him pull at the bottom of Hady Hill today as he was waiting to turn right towards spital, waiting for the traffic lights to change, and I was all ready to flash my headlights at him to let him go.I was opposite him at said lights going in to town.
Instead he did a Lewis Hamilton (with screeching front tyres) and went anyway!!
I had to chuckle

[Fly]

Always    He who hesitates, waits.
Did you see the queue behind you ?

No harm done. You'd not even moved, so I never put your passengers at risk.
Yes the tyre squeal wasn't called for, just my size 11 on the gas     

Small world 

[Scimitar]

Always    He who hesitates, waits.
Did you see the queue behind you ?

No harm done. You'd not even moved, so I never put your passengers at risk.
Yes the tyre squeal wasn't called for, just my size 11 on the gas     

Small world 

I'd have done exactly the same (in a car of course)
Couldn't do it in a bus - having said that we've got two Optare mid size buses that have got engines in them from much larger buses, and boy do they shift - If Carlsberg made buses territory etc.
Not that you can drive buses enthusticaly nowadays because of these being installed.

http://greenroad.com/

[chesterfieldchris]

POST DELETED AT USER'S REQUEST

[Scimitar]

were not too convinced about this technology as drivers to say the least. Today I'm 46th in the table out of 198 drivers.Does not sound to bad I suppose. Its GPS and all that stuff and shows you where you were on Google Maps.
The other week I started at Deerlands Rd, wingerworth. It came up as something like 354 via spaggata, provence of vicenza, Italy.
How trustworthy is that?