I have finally decided to bring this blog to an end! But all is not lost - join me in my new home for a full explanation, and even a new post!
Thanks for reading this blog over the last couple of years, and here's to the success of the new one!
Sunday 28 November 2010
Monday 12 April 2010
Rubbish!
My job involves me in some unusual tasks, so here is the story of how I ended up rooting around in the bins in Eastleigh Bus Station.
Sharon came in on the C1 arriving at 0955 and handed over to Taz for the 1000 C3. Shortly afterwards she texted me. I speed-read the text and gathered that she had left a bag containing £20 in the cab of the bus she handed over. Please could I contact Taz and see if it was there, and let her know.
So I went down to meet Taz while he was loading for the 1100 C3 and explained what had happened. He insisted that there was nothing in the cab, we both had a good look and sure enough, nothing apart from Taz's own possessions. He did however draw my attention to an empty coffee cup on the dashboard and said - with a small amount of sarcasm and a large amount of humour he said, "she didn't leave me her money but she did leave me her rubbish - charming!!!"
So I left the bus and casually tossed the cup into one of the several bins in the bus station.
Anyway, I replied to Sharon that there was no bag on the bus, very sorry but I had no idea where her bag had gone. And then I set off on my next mission to carry out a shopping errand in the Swan Centre, a 5 minute walk away at the other end of Eastleigh Town Centre.
No sooner had I set foot in the Swan Centre than I received a further text from Sharon. I had misread the original - the £20 was not in a bag, it was in a cup!!!!!
I made it back to the bus station in slightly less time than I had taken going the other way! The only slight problem being that I had no idea into which bin I had discarded the cup, so I had no choice but to ferret through all of them - attracting the inevitable strange looks until - rejoice! I finally found the correct cup. The £20 was saved and has now been returned to Sharon, much to her relief but even more so to mine!
Sharon came in on the C1 arriving at 0955 and handed over to Taz for the 1000 C3. Shortly afterwards she texted me. I speed-read the text and gathered that she had left a bag containing £20 in the cab of the bus she handed over. Please could I contact Taz and see if it was there, and let her know.
So I went down to meet Taz while he was loading for the 1100 C3 and explained what had happened. He insisted that there was nothing in the cab, we both had a good look and sure enough, nothing apart from Taz's own possessions. He did however draw my attention to an empty coffee cup on the dashboard and said - with a small amount of sarcasm and a large amount of humour he said, "she didn't leave me her money but she did leave me her rubbish - charming!!!"
So I left the bus and casually tossed the cup into one of the several bins in the bus station.
Anyway, I replied to Sharon that there was no bag on the bus, very sorry but I had no idea where her bag had gone. And then I set off on my next mission to carry out a shopping errand in the Swan Centre, a 5 minute walk away at the other end of Eastleigh Town Centre.
No sooner had I set foot in the Swan Centre than I received a further text from Sharon. I had misread the original - the £20 was not in a bag, it was in a cup!!!!!
I made it back to the bus station in slightly less time than I had taken going the other way! The only slight problem being that I had no idea into which bin I had discarded the cup, so I had no choice but to ferret through all of them - attracting the inevitable strange looks until - rejoice! I finally found the correct cup. The £20 was saved and has now been returned to Sharon, much to her relief but even more so to mine!
Monday 15 February 2010
It must be love!
Evidence of the much-improved relations between Velvet and Bluestar came today in the form of a photoshoot ahead of a new joint initiative that will hit the streets next week.
From 21st February, in a deal brokered by Eastleigh Borough Council, we have brought our route A times into line with their revised Bluestar 3, to give a combined half-hourly service between Botley, Hedge End Village and Hedge End Superstores. To enhance the usefulness of this link as much as possible, we will accept each other's tickets over the common section.
The actual photoshoot featured Daisy (our new Solo 221, YJ55 YGN) with a Bluestar Scania (the obvious irony being that neither bus used for the shoot normally appears on the routes in question), along with me, Alex Hornby from Bluestar and Councillor David Airey, Eastleigh Borough Council's Cabinet Member for Transport.
Afterwards, while we were up in Bluestar's offices afterwards going through the pleasantries, I couldn't help noticing Daisy having a little cuddle with the Scania....
Obviously she goes for the younger man, and as far as I know she never even bothered finding out his name!
Meanwhile, the sight of a Velvet Solo parked outside Bluestar HQ for over an hour is said to have set tongues wagging...
From 21st February, in a deal brokered by Eastleigh Borough Council, we have brought our route A times into line with their revised Bluestar 3, to give a combined half-hourly service between Botley, Hedge End Village and Hedge End Superstores. To enhance the usefulness of this link as much as possible, we will accept each other's tickets over the common section.
The actual photoshoot featured Daisy (our new Solo 221, YJ55 YGN) with a Bluestar Scania (the obvious irony being that neither bus used for the shoot normally appears on the routes in question), along with me, Alex Hornby from Bluestar and Councillor David Airey, Eastleigh Borough Council's Cabinet Member for Transport.
Afterwards, while we were up in Bluestar's offices afterwards going through the pleasantries, I couldn't help noticing Daisy having a little cuddle with the Scania....
Obviously she goes for the younger man, and as far as I know she never even bothered finding out his name!
Meanwhile, the sight of a Velvet Solo parked outside Bluestar HQ for over an hour is said to have set tongues wagging...
Thursday 4 February 2010
I wish to complain...
Luckily for us, complaints don't happen very often.
However, Mikey took one this afternoon that has put us firmly in our place!
Leigh Road is a long road connecting Eastleigh with Chandler's Ford - the main artery of Velvet C. For the next two weeks, a long section of Leigh Road will be completely closed for resurfacing.
In the middle of the closed section there is a bus stop called Ford Avenue.
The gentleman is extremely aggrieved about the fact that - for the next two weeks - we will not be providing any kind of bus service from the Ford Avenue stop. Even after Mikey made the obvious point about not being able to serve a stop in a section of road that is closed, he just does not think it is good enough!
Anyone got a helicopter we can borrow?
However, Mikey took one this afternoon that has put us firmly in our place!
Leigh Road is a long road connecting Eastleigh with Chandler's Ford - the main artery of Velvet C. For the next two weeks, a long section of Leigh Road will be completely closed for resurfacing.
In the middle of the closed section there is a bus stop called Ford Avenue.
The gentleman is extremely aggrieved about the fact that - for the next two weeks - we will not be providing any kind of bus service from the Ford Avenue stop. Even after Mikey made the obvious point about not being able to serve a stop in a section of road that is closed, he just does not think it is good enough!
Anyone got a helicopter we can borrow?
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Another Little Duck
We were expecting Donald some time this week, but didn't really know when. In the event it came today!
The first we knew about it was when I got a call from Rob at Brenhaul, asking if I'd ordered a hire car! Now they are pretty used to us using and abusing their address as a dropping-off point for anything too bulky to come to the office, so when some strange person turned up trying to deliver a car their suspicions immediately turned to us!
Initially mystified, the penny dropped when the guy delivering the car said that it was for a particular person, and I recognised the name as the Mistral delivery driver!
After a few phone calls it turned out that 222 was coming at 2, so at about 1.30 Ant and I headed over to Brenhaul to await its arrival. This left just enough time for a furious row involving the entire Brenhaul team about whether it was going to have a 4- or 6-cylinder engine. I didn't join in because I already knew it was 6, at least I hoped so since that was what we had been promised!
Luckily when it turned up, there were indeed six cylinders present, thus saving me the embarrassment of having to ring up Mistral and ask them to forward the two missing ones in the post!
However, whereas Daisy slipped in under the radar on Sunday and was gone before any self-respecting engineer had time to get their tools out, Donald arrived in the middle of an industrial estate right in the middle of a working day.
Now the best way to evacuate a workshop in a hurry is to park an interesting vehicle outside and open the engine flap, and sure enough within seconds Donald was surrounded by a swarm of boiler suits representing Brenhaul, Bluestar and Hants & Dorset Trim. All seemed fascinated by the fact that behind the engine flap was hidden an engine!
It was several minutes before calm (and productivity!) was restored and we were formally able to take delivery of Donald.
One inspection later and with ticket machine fitted, Donald is ready for the road. He is nominally spare for the next few days - I prefer not to use an unmarked white vehicle if we can avoid it - but I suspect it will get pressed into service at some point.
Those who have driven it so far have fallen in love, so the emotional pressure to get it out is severe! And to be honest I'm happy for others to use it. Although it is a very nice, smooth, comfortable, powerful motor, it is almost so smooth as to be boring. It is a 'point and shoot' bus - point it where you want to go, press the accelerator to go and the brake to stop.
Right up there alongside it in the roll call of today's events was the return to roadworthiness of V14 GMT, which has been off since Saturday 23rd January with a faulty fuel pump. Reconditioned pump now fitted and the smoothest, most comfortable DAF now goes like stink! (Relative to other big metal boxes that is!) So I shall look forward to taking 514 out on the prowl while others fight over the Solos.
Donald will continue in plain white until Daisy has returned from paint and is vinylled ready for use, likely to be in the middle of next week.
The first we knew about it was when I got a call from Rob at Brenhaul, asking if I'd ordered a hire car! Now they are pretty used to us using and abusing their address as a dropping-off point for anything too bulky to come to the office, so when some strange person turned up trying to deliver a car their suspicions immediately turned to us!
Initially mystified, the penny dropped when the guy delivering the car said that it was for a particular person, and I recognised the name as the Mistral delivery driver!
After a few phone calls it turned out that 222 was coming at 2, so at about 1.30 Ant and I headed over to Brenhaul to await its arrival. This left just enough time for a furious row involving the entire Brenhaul team about whether it was going to have a 4- or 6-cylinder engine. I didn't join in because I already knew it was 6, at least I hoped so since that was what we had been promised!
Luckily when it turned up, there were indeed six cylinders present, thus saving me the embarrassment of having to ring up Mistral and ask them to forward the two missing ones in the post!
However, whereas Daisy slipped in under the radar on Sunday and was gone before any self-respecting engineer had time to get their tools out, Donald arrived in the middle of an industrial estate right in the middle of a working day.
Now the best way to evacuate a workshop in a hurry is to park an interesting vehicle outside and open the engine flap, and sure enough within seconds Donald was surrounded by a swarm of boiler suits representing Brenhaul, Bluestar and Hants & Dorset Trim. All seemed fascinated by the fact that behind the engine flap was hidden an engine!
It was several minutes before calm (and productivity!) was restored and we were formally able to take delivery of Donald.
One inspection later and with ticket machine fitted, Donald is ready for the road. He is nominally spare for the next few days - I prefer not to use an unmarked white vehicle if we can avoid it - but I suspect it will get pressed into service at some point.
Those who have driven it so far have fallen in love, so the emotional pressure to get it out is severe! And to be honest I'm happy for others to use it. Although it is a very nice, smooth, comfortable, powerful motor, it is almost so smooth as to be boring. It is a 'point and shoot' bus - point it where you want to go, press the accelerator to go and the brake to stop.
Right up there alongside it in the roll call of today's events was the return to roadworthiness of V14 GMT, which has been off since Saturday 23rd January with a faulty fuel pump. Reconditioned pump now fitted and the smoothest, most comfortable DAF now goes like stink! (Relative to other big metal boxes that is!) So I shall look forward to taking 514 out on the prowl while others fight over the Solos.
Donald will continue in plain white until Daisy has returned from paint and is vinylled ready for use, likely to be in the middle of next week.
Saturday 30 January 2010
Introducing Daisy and Donald...
Following on from our success in winning a four-year contract for route 22 in Southampton, we needed to find a suitable vehicle with which to operate this route which starts on 8th February.
The Optare Solo was always going to be a favoured choice given its excellent layout for passengers. One of my grievances with the interior design of low-floor buses is that the first available seats are a long way back from the door (the DAFs are a spectacular example of this). This is bad news for dwell times at stops, as our drivers have to wait quite a long time for passengers to get to their seat, and for those with mobility difficulties makes the process of using a bus more traumatic than it need be.
The Solo avoids this problem, with seats available immediately inside the door.
However, different versions of Solo have differing reputations for reliability, so it took us a while to home in on suitable examples.
The upshot is that we have now acquired two Cummins-powered 8.8 metre examples from Mistral. They are Daisy (YJ55 YGN) and Donald (NX55 FFO), our fleet numbers 221 and 222 respectively, both with 28 seats.
Daisy arrives tomorrow as I write this and will go straight to Qualiti Conversions at Botley for paint, and Donald will turn up some time in the next few days. Since new they have been employed by Scarlet Band of County Durham, mostly on Durham Park and Ride, and we have high hopes for these vehicles!
One will always be allocated to route 22, and when the second one is available (which we hope will be most of the time) this will appear on the C.
Here are a couple of pictures of Daisy, taken before she knew she was going to be called Daisy, when we first went to look at her. No doubt the local Gricerazzi will come up with a few hundred more shots within a few minutes of her arrival!
The Optare Solo was always going to be a favoured choice given its excellent layout for passengers. One of my grievances with the interior design of low-floor buses is that the first available seats are a long way back from the door (the DAFs are a spectacular example of this). This is bad news for dwell times at stops, as our drivers have to wait quite a long time for passengers to get to their seat, and for those with mobility difficulties makes the process of using a bus more traumatic than it need be.
The Solo avoids this problem, with seats available immediately inside the door.
However, different versions of Solo have differing reputations for reliability, so it took us a while to home in on suitable examples.
The upshot is that we have now acquired two Cummins-powered 8.8 metre examples from Mistral. They are Daisy (YJ55 YGN) and Donald (NX55 FFO), our fleet numbers 221 and 222 respectively, both with 28 seats.
Daisy arrives tomorrow as I write this and will go straight to Qualiti Conversions at Botley for paint, and Donald will turn up some time in the next few days. Since new they have been employed by Scarlet Band of County Durham, mostly on Durham Park and Ride, and we have high hopes for these vehicles!
One will always be allocated to route 22, and when the second one is available (which we hope will be most of the time) this will appear on the C.
Here are a couple of pictures of Daisy, taken before she knew she was going to be called Daisy, when we first went to look at her. No doubt the local Gricerazzi will come up with a few hundred more shots within a few minutes of her arrival!
On the Wagon
An interesting day today, the highlight of which lasted no more than a couple of minutes!
It was a typical Saturday, spent the morning and early afternoon washing buses and putting the world to rights in Brenhaul's rest room. Drove the second half of duty 56 - four hours on C3-C1 starting at 1500.
The world of Brenhaul can be quite surreal at the best of times but on Saturdays many of their clients and friends are not doing normal work, and when they are not doing their normal work, there is nothing that truck people like more than to hang around a workshop! So on a Saturday Brenhaul's Worldwide HQ at Barton Park takes on the role of a drop-in centre and like all the best soap operas, each week's episode has its own storyline.
Star of today's story was Steve, one of the owner-operators who parks (like us) in Brenhaul's yard. He set up in business on his own a year or so ago, using an X-reg DAF unit with which he hauls containers the length and breadth of the land.
Faced with the prospect of mounting repair bills and looking to build on a successful start to self-employment, Steve has decided to buy a new truck. Today was the day when much deliberation about his options finally came to a head, and he parted company with his faithful DAF and acquired a Volvo.
The happy twist in the plot is that after Shaun (part-owner of Brenhaul) had collected the truck for him and brought it back to Eastleigh, I got to take it for a spin round the industrial estate!
It is a little known fact that both Taz and I have obtained our LGV driving licences in the last couple of years. I have not used mine in anger at all, but occasionally get to have a play. Today was such a day.
Don't ask me any of the technical details, but all I can say is that this truck is gorgeous. Super-smooth to drive, equipped with every conceivable luxury (microwave, fridge.... as Ant jealously pointed out, more facilities than our office!) and in immaculate condition, spotlessly clean and well looked after. Thanks to the cherished registration you could easily believe it's a new truck, not the 52-plate that it really is. Needless to say, I am now hugely envious and I might just have to sell my car and buy one!
Anyway, recorded for posterity, here it is.... (I wonder if Steve needs any trips covering!!!)
It was a typical Saturday, spent the morning and early afternoon washing buses and putting the world to rights in Brenhaul's rest room. Drove the second half of duty 56 - four hours on C3-C1 starting at 1500.
The world of Brenhaul can be quite surreal at the best of times but on Saturdays many of their clients and friends are not doing normal work, and when they are not doing their normal work, there is nothing that truck people like more than to hang around a workshop! So on a Saturday Brenhaul's Worldwide HQ at Barton Park takes on the role of a drop-in centre and like all the best soap operas, each week's episode has its own storyline.
Star of today's story was Steve, one of the owner-operators who parks (like us) in Brenhaul's yard. He set up in business on his own a year or so ago, using an X-reg DAF unit with which he hauls containers the length and breadth of the land.
Faced with the prospect of mounting repair bills and looking to build on a successful start to self-employment, Steve has decided to buy a new truck. Today was the day when much deliberation about his options finally came to a head, and he parted company with his faithful DAF and acquired a Volvo.
The happy twist in the plot is that after Shaun (part-owner of Brenhaul) had collected the truck for him and brought it back to Eastleigh, I got to take it for a spin round the industrial estate!
It is a little known fact that both Taz and I have obtained our LGV driving licences in the last couple of years. I have not used mine in anger at all, but occasionally get to have a play. Today was such a day.
Don't ask me any of the technical details, but all I can say is that this truck is gorgeous. Super-smooth to drive, equipped with every conceivable luxury (microwave, fridge.... as Ant jealously pointed out, more facilities than our office!) and in immaculate condition, spotlessly clean and well looked after. Thanks to the cherished registration you could easily believe it's a new truck, not the 52-plate that it really is. Needless to say, I am now hugely envious and I might just have to sell my car and buy one!
Anyway, recorded for posterity, here it is.... (I wonder if Steve needs any trips covering!!!)
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