I am one of those people who much prefer going to bed at 3am rather than getting up at 3am. Always have been. I did permanent late shifts on the buses, have done night work, and to get up at 3am either requires illness, a call of nature, an emergency, or a lot of cash.
However, on Wednesday I was out of bed at 3am like a five year old on Christmas morning. There was a strike on the Central Line and lots of toys were coming out to play. Transport for London were puting on 100 extra buses to supplement existing services to cope with the demand, and my friends at Ensignbus were responsible for a lot of it. I had, by chance, met with Ross Newman, one of Ensign's Directors last week, and he had informed me that Seaford |& District, from Lewes were supplying 3 buses from their heritage fleet, one of which was former Maidstone & District Leyland Leopard 2816, OKO 816G. You may remember it featured as my header picture back in April. I have many personal memories associated with that bus, including one in August 1983 I'll never forget. So the chance to ride it again was a fair few of my increasing number of birthdays put together. Not only that, but Ross arranged for me to meet up with the Seaford crew at Ensign's yard, to be on the "light" run from there to Loughton, Essex, where the Leopard would operate the 167 to Ilford.
So on a wet and windy 5am I was at Purfleet, met Paul Green, the nice, cheery and not to mention lucky chap driving 816, and suddenly lost 35 years!
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| The Leopard, interior and cab at Purfleet |
The Leopard is in superb condition. Original seats, still got the splitter gearbox, and looks and sounds just as I remembered. A time machine if ever there was one. The journey to Loughton Station, which we found more by chance than design, took over half hour, and I cannot describe just how nostalgic it was. Just one problem no one knew the 167 route, including the extra bus behind us. So it was decided to follow the regular 167, a mid length E200, in convoy. A wise decision as it turned out, as by the time we reached Gants Hill all three buses had a full load.
It was then the tone for the day was set. Despite the inconvenience of a tube strike the majority of passengers looked rather happy, and many passed positive comment. I told Paul to note that he was being thanked by people who would normally not even consider thanking a bus driver. All to soon, although I'd been with the Leopard for around two and a half hours, we reached Ilford and I said my farewells as I was transferring to the 25's. I hope it's not another 35 years before I ride 2816 again as those steps that I didn't notice when I was 17, but did on Wednesday, might just be beyond me!
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| Arrival at a very wet Ilford |
The weather at Ilford wasn't pleasant, but I knew before long something interesting would turn up. A few minutes later and RM2179 did. Sadly, though it was already full up.
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| RM2179 |
I was just about to start walking to the next stop back when two regular 25's turned up, followed by Ensign's 1988 Metrobus, which I had yet to travel on. It was virtually empty so thank you very much, front seat upstairs and Aldgate here I come! It's been a long time since I was on a Metrobus, so long I can't remember the last time, and again a lovely rattle free ride.
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| MCW Metrobus F292 NHJ |
The bus terminated a bit before Aldgate Bus Station, but that was good, as I got to check out something a bit quirky. Last time I was up there I saw what looked to be a shell of a C Stock Underground train in the foyer of an office building next to Aldgate East Station, but couldn't tell if it was the genuine article or not. It is. Quite why it's there or how it got there is a mystery, but it is the real thing, minus everything underneath, but with genuine graffiti! Worth a look if you're ever passing Aldgate East.
At Aldgate Bus Station there was a sight to behold. Two Seaford & District ex Southdown Queen Marys, an Olympian coach from Panther, and a certain Metropolitan Scania I may have mentioned once or twice in the last year.
Not only that but the MD was the next bus back to Ilford. No, really? What were the chances! I genuinely hadn't planned to ride MD60 but when it basically lands in your lap it's rude to say no. My word did she sound good back on her old patch. Great to catch up with (another) Paul, her head keeper too. This day was starting to excel itself!
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| The MD at Ilford |
I took a break from the heritage scene, and checked out the EL1 to Barkingside operated by East London Transit (Go Ahead) using one of the last batches of Borismasters built. Sadly the traffic prohibited me seeing them at their full potential, but no ride on a Boris is a bad one, and I quite like the livery they are in too.
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| L907 at Barkingside |
The traffic was getting really heavy by now so I made the decision to get back to the 25's at Stratford, which meant switching modes and getting the train. This enabled me to get my first ride on a Class 345 Crossrail train. Amazing acceleration, pleasant interior, good info screens, a nice voice doing the auto announcement but seats with slightly less padding than a brick. I have to ask if the new District and Metropolitan Line trains can have comfortable seats, and they are, then why not the Elizabeth Line? Surely they are all covered by the same regulations? Answers on an email please! One little touch anoraks like me will like is the journey ID number displayed on the destination screens. Nice.
So back at Stratford, and a spot of guesswork required. I knew Ross Newman was out in RT8 somewhere, but had no idea which direction he was heading. I guessed wrong, so an interesting gallop along Stratford High Rd was witnessed as I legged it after him, jumped on board, and came face to face with Peter Newman, founder and Big Chief at Ensign, who was doing the conducting! That was totally unexpected, but a real pleasure, as Peter is one of those bus people who enjoys what he does so much it's infectious, and being a clippie again was clearly very enjoyable. Not only that but RT8 has a PA system, which Peter was using to inform passengers about the history of the bus, why it was out, that his son was driving, and that it was all free. Quality.
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| RT8 looking magnificent at Aldgate |
At Aldgate Driver Newman turned into Fitter Newman, and got under a Routemaster whose starter motor had failed. Using the Jeremy Clarkson "I've got a hammer" method, he only went and got it going! This is top management getting out, getting dirty and mixing with it at the sharp end. I can think of a few managers who would struggle to find a starter motor, let alone fix it. That, in a nutshell, is why Ensignbus are one of the leading operators in the country, and why their staff always seem to be happy. Every person is important there, and everyone mucks in.
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| The bottom half of an Ensignbus Director reaching parts other directors fail to reach |
It was a long journey back to Ilford, but thanks to Peter it didn't feel it. I mentioned earlier that passengers who would normally stay in their bubble came out of it. It's a fairly non English part of the world there, yet people of all races and creeds were getting on, smiling, laughing, asking questions, chatting amongst themselves and thoroughly enjoying being on a 79yo bus. I've never seen anything quite like it, and for me it made the day. Some of these folks were hours late getting home. Some, not used to step entry buses were having trouble with them but were still smiling. Some tried to scan Oyster cards on ticket machine holders! I had face ache as I just didn't stop smiling the 4 hours l was I was on it. I'll dedicate a separate post on RT8 in the near future as it warrants it, an amazing machine crewed by 2 amazing guys, and that was before Ross transported us to one of those speeded up 1940's news reels on the way back to the depot. Heck that bus can shift!
I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks. To David Mulpeter and Paul Green at Seaford & District for allowing me to travel on 2816 and rekindle memories very close to me. To all the Ensign staff and drivers, especially Paul, who always make me feel so welcome, but especially to Ross and Peter Newman. Thank you, you made a good day a special day for me, and put a silver lining on a grotty day for a lot of passengers. I struck it lucky, the passengers struck it lucky. Roll on the next Tube strike!!
Your posts are so repetitive.
ReplyDeleteEnsignbus
Complaining about service cuts
Class 37's
Borderbus
You forgot Reading Buses!
DeleteI'll give you both a refund on your subscription. Apply by email!
DeleteWhat? Are we reading the same blog?
DeleteDare I say the free services are better than the paid-for ones? It's a funny old world we've created for ourselves.
Not better, but different for the young, and nostalgic for the not so young. If they were out every day they would become as taken for granted as the paid for ones.
DeleteI know you make a lot of fuss - rightly! - about rattles.
ReplyDeleteDo you think newer buses rattle more because of poorer maintenance (or roads!), because they use more plastics in their trim etc., or because they are in fact too lightly built?
It's a combination of lighter materials ie plastic being used to make the vehicle lighter and a lack of pride and care by builders in my view. Roads aren't an issue. 5 years ago there were still hundreds of Olympians/Citibuses etc on the road that didn't rattle. I don't know the definitive answer, but I know a lot of operators are finally catching on and saying it's not good enough.
DeleteI know we don't have the information but I wonder if that is a problem internationally, or perhaps particularly in the UK, where so much of our "craft" tradition seems to have disappeared, or gone into the "one-man" businesses?
DeleteI find that buying almost anything, in a household context, abroad almost always gives me better-made. Of course there is rubbish available from everywhere, but price isn't the determining factor. It's the opposite of what we so-often "think".
Doesn't the M&D Leopard have a twin speed back axle? Not a splitter gearbox?
ReplyDeleteLook at the picture. You can see the red splitter switch by the gear selector console
DeleteOn every gear or just a Leopard twin speed axle .....?
ReplyDeleteWest Croydon bus station crash leaves 20 injured
ReplyDeleteA woman has been badly injured and 19 other people hurt as a double-decker bus collided with two vehicles and hit a bus shelter in south London.
The 198 Arriva bus collided with a car, a single-decker bus, and crashed into a shelter at West Croydon bus station at about 12:20 GMT.
London Ambulance Service (LAS) said paramedics treated 20 people, 18 of whom were taken to hospital.
I can update this. Sadly a bus driver has been arrested on suspicion of drink driving, and a 15yo girl is critical in hospital.
DeleteThankfully these incidents are all too rare, which is why it's extra shocking when they do happen. Thoughts to all concerned.
Given how many of us seem regularly out of our tiny minds with drugs and booze, I think it's amazing that we appear to manage to confine work so successfully to our lucid intervals! Not probably helped though by employers who forever want more from less. There is a breaking point.
ReplyDeleteThe Croydon tram crash report, hugely unreported, illustrated that perfectly. I do wonder about the X1 and busway incidents too. Are we, in some cases, just asking too much of drivers?
As far as I know bus and tram drivers are at least in theory subject to random drug and alcohol tests but usually at the start of a shift
ReplyDeleteThe Croydon Tram crash was down to driver error and a poor signalling system for a modern system which should have at least given the driver a warning he was going to fast and should have really automatically applied the brakes but it sounds as if it was done on the cheap
Yup. "Driver error" is what the Stagecoach inquiries always conclude, too. But may be, just sometimes, it's too convenient an exoneration when we should dig that bit deeper?
DeleteIt also perhaps seems, if the apparently "excellent" companies have one thing in common, it's the pastoral care for their staff?
Those at the top seem to be able to decide what's best from their ivory tower Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm . With toilets and facilities available on tap when they want . Totally the opposite to what the driving and depot staff have .
ReplyDelete... did you forget though that, after burying their heads in their spreadsheets for nearly the whole of that time, they've decided they can't afford it?
DeleteOver several cups of tea and an hour or more for lunch .
ReplyDeleteFirst Group appoint new boss
ReplyDeleteMathew Gregory has taken on the top job with immediate effect
First Groups interim figures show losses widening to £4.6M
Hasn't he been their Finance Director for some time? Mind you, what is the difference between the job of Finance Director and that of Chief Executive? (Though perhaps locally we could ask the same question between the jobs of Commercial Manager and Managing Director).
DeleteShuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic comes to mind. Where's the iceberg?
In fairness UK Bus are doing a bit better. Thanks, apparently, to their software contractor. That is, unless (or until?) the new found passengers give up in despair. And the good news is that they are investing in the north where their passenger base is declining. And, apparently, the closure of Clacton depot.
Who said No News is Good News?
They did though probably have to pull trumpeting the bit about Bristol at the last minute; when it emerged that the new services, as well as the old services, had all fallen apart.
DeleteMy apologies, though, to the Captain of the Titanic for the comparison. He was "full steam ahead", First are more like . . . becalmed.
DeleteHe was I think acting CEO. What will be of more interest locally is the accounts of the local First Group companies ie First Essex and First Eastern Counties both should publish their accounts in January
Delete9m in arrear, so most recent developments won't presumably be reflected! But I'd expect a local margin improvement in line with the current national trend, not least because of the move to prepaid tickets - so the risk of service quality impacting income is reduced. Certainly the Essex OpCo seems now to focus on acquiring developer and Council/school subsidised routes with a guaranteed income.
DeleteThe trouble may be that just pushes the problems into future years, once the subsidies run out and there isn't the customer growth to sustain a commercial service, unless the service reliability is actually attractive. Most bus use (excluding concessions) I see locally is out of necessity, rather than choice.
Driver recruitment looks in crisis (and possibly with First fleet condition too); affecting all the big operators, not just First. Alleviating it (new driver training and the use of agency staff) costs money, and to minimise the impact on the bottom line it seems that most operators choose to let the service cuts fall where they will. OK for current year figures perhaps, but it hardly encourages passenger growth the more the timetables become a work of fiction, and with a fleet that too often not just looks but feels decrepit.
SCC are now provisionally proposing further cut back to bus services
DeleteThey are going to cease to provide roadside timetables. Whilst these can b e expensive to provide they don't provide much of an alternative. Realtime bus information to mobile phones is very limited with multiple different systems being used and they are all unreliable
They are also going to reduce spend on bus services and relying instead on community transport schemes
Community transport schemes are a very poor alternative and don't really meet the need so will just further drive people away from bus services
Beestons bus services are probably on their last leg and will probably be gone by the end of next year. Ipswich bus are struggling and Chambers will face competition from Rail next year when the Sudbury line I extended to Colchester to town. Further cuts are likely as well to the School bus services from September of next year
It is not looking good for bus services in Suffolk many are barely viable and cur backs and poor reliability is driving more people away
Yep. I don't think either Government nor the Directors are interested in anything outside the Met honeypots. I don't do politics; but why bother when we'd elect a monkey if it wore a blue rosette? Back to the 1950s.
DeleteIt hardly matters how the local OpCos perform, any profits will go into First's begging bowl for the Metropolitan Mayors' cash. They've even told us so. (I know politicians aren't known for being the brightest sparks, but are the Met. Mayors THAT dumb?) How there is any incentive for a local bus manager, I really don't know. The staff know it, so it seems.
Of the Government transport budget about 75% goes to London and most of the rest to the Large Metropolitan areas leaving almost nothing for the rest of the country
DeleteFrom what I see around me the problem isn't the lack of buses, but of people willing to use them.
DeleteWhen virtually every incoming (and existing) household in Suffolk, Norfolk or Essex has two, three or even more cars, why would they choose to use the bus, even if they were spread around like confetti? And what can either the bus companies or the Councils (or even the Government) do about that?
Our lifestyles have changed over the last 50 years. We travel about a lot more, for both work and pleasure.
I disagree. Look at the taxi market that's thriving and a good part of the reason fort that is very infrequent and expensive and unreliable bus services and no services in the evening o Sunday. People will pay a fair price for a good service but will not pay a high price for poor , infrequent and unreliable bus services. Two people can no go door to door at a time hat suits them by taxi for little more than the bus fare
DeleteSteam Engine Hits a car at a level crossing near Sherringham station
ReplyDelete