Sexing Up The Bus

This picture accompanies today's Daily Telegraph travel supplement:

I have probably broken all sorts of laws by copying it and reproducing it here, but as I am using it to draw your attention to the fact that the article it accompanies is superb and required reading, hopefully the Telegraph and the photographer (Christopher Jones) will decide, on balance, not to sue me!

Normally when one reads about people using buses in mainstream media travel articles, it is a story of the writer's heroism in surviving a 24 hour ride upside down on the roof of a minibus hurtling along unmade roads across some dark and distant land, squashed between a pile of threadbare suitcases tied together with string, some locals (who always babble incomprehensibly but willingly share their food) and a few live chickens.

It is rare to find an article that is actually all about the delights of riding on buses, as a way of exploring majestic scenery and experiencing part of the local lifestyle. Today's Telegraph article does that superbly well, describing a route from Sandbanks to Plymouth using eight or nine of the country's most scenic bus routes.

Starting with two of my personal favourite routes, Wilts & Dorset's Purbeck Breezers from Sandbanks to Swanage and Swanage to Wareham, the trip continues with First's Jurassic CoastlinX53 to Exeter, thence along the South Devon coast to Teignmouth, Torquay, Paignton and Kingswear, and finally the one route that I have never explored but really must - First's route 93 from Dartmouth to Plymouth.

As a side note, while extolling the virtues of these routes it is only fair to make the point that the accessibility of some of these routes owes as much to the efforts of local authority officers (notably those of Devon County Council) as to the operators themselves.

The article describes the author's delight in discovering stunning scenery and imposing views in a way that is just impossible by any other form of transport. It also subtly makes the point that while the pace of bus travel may be a deterrent to some it forces one to slow down and appreciate the surroundings, and that is exactly the right way to approach this glorious region.

It is also pleasing to note an obvious appreciation of the skills of the drivers who ply these routes daily, and even manages a passing jibe at idiotic drivers' hours rules that deem that it it less safe to drive forty miles on one direction than to drive twenty miles one way then twenty miles back, and apparently more stressful to drive thirty two miles across rolling Dorset countryside than twenty miles across London!

The writer is one Andrew Gilligan, much better known for his political journalism, not least because it was he that reported the allegation that the Blair government had "sexed up" a dossier about Iraq's weapons capability.

He is probably thoroughly bored of "sexing up" jokes by now, and in my view he deserves nothing but praise for this article so it seems churlish to dredge up this old chestnut for the title of this blog post. However it does seem remarkably apt, and in exactly the same way that I smile and try to look slightly surprised when someone remarks that I look a bit like "you know, that one from Men Behaving Badly - that's it - Doc Martin!", hopefully he would have the good grace to look the other way while I regurgitate this particular expression one more time.

Anyway, enough of me waffling about it, read the article here!

A Beautiful Bedford

For numerous reasons, we choose to outsource our maintenance to a local commercial vehicle workshop, Brenhaul Commercial Services. The business is owned and managed by two friends, Robert and Shaun, and they sprang into life just a few months before us in mid-2007, when they bought the company out from Rob’s father.

Our relationship with them has become very close as we have grown up together and they are as much friends as they are suppliers.

Their own background is in trucks, and most of the rest of their business involves providing maintenance services to truck and van operators. As an aside they do also have a MOT testing station for light vehicles and would be delighted to MOT your car!

As a result of our relationship with them we get to mix with plenty of colleagues in the road haulage industry and it is fascinating to get to know some of these guys, to talk to them and to understand their passion for the lorries – much of which has rubbed off on me!

In a separate development, over the last three years my friend and co-founder of Velvet, Taz and I have obtained our LGV driving licences for both rigid and articulated lorries. We mostly did this as a pastime to fill some time and give us another string to our bow when we were starting Velvet, and also to help fulfil our fascination for driving big vehicles.

I have never used my LGV licence for genuine commercial purposes, but it does mean that occasionally I get to play with other people’s lorries, shunting them round the estate or taking them for road tests (usually for my benefit rather than that of the truck!)

Generally these are run of the mill tractor units that are commonplace on today’s motorways, such as the Volvo FH or the odd DAF, but I had the opportunity today to sample something really quite amazing.

Another of Brenhaul’s clients is Ringwood Brewery and their vehicles are a common sight at the Eastleigh workshop. They have recently acquired this 1951 Bedford OLB previously associated with Wychwood Brewery in Oxfordshire.

Their intention is to maintain this vehicle in roadworthy condition for promotional purpose and occasionally the odd delivery, and accordingly it was at Brenhaul today for inspection. They were kind enough to offer me a drive and I wasn’t going to refuse!

The first and most striking impression is the cramped nature of the cab. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of creature comforts, but I was expecting to be able to get in! However it was quite some time before I managed to perform enough human origami on myself to fold myself into the tiny space between the back window and the steering wheel.

I set off for a short drive round Eastleigh, turning plenty of heads among the Friday night crowds as I took an impromptu drive through the bus station, and I have to say the vehicle was a delight to drive. Delight that is, in the sense of being challenging, interesting and very rewarding. Not in the sense of being easy, comfortable or relaxing!

The brake pedal was positioned fiendishly high up so that I had to contort my knee up through the steering wheel to be able to get my foot on to it, and every time I steered right I bashed my elbow on the window sill. The crash gearbox was surprisingly easy, although I only have a 1939 Bristol K and a few 1956 Lodekkas to compare it with.

Huge fun though, and I can’t wait to drive it again. If they need a delivery driver to take it back to Ringwood, they know where to find me!

Triple Darts

Today was a very exciting day for us, even if the reality didn’t quite live up to the promise!

We have recently acquired three low-floor single deckers from Southdown PSV, these being two Dart SLFs - V392 SVV and W107 RNC – and a Super Pointer Dart, W554 JVV.

Although we did the deal early in April, and 392 and 107 entered service a couple of weeks ago, 554 was still running in Southdown’s own fleet when we agreed to buy it, so its arrival was delayed while they sourced a replacement.

554 emerged from repaint at Qualiti Conversions yesterday and today therefore marked the first day that we were able to allocate all three for service, with Velvet C having a 100% Dart allocation for the first time ever.

This photo shows all three lined up at Barton Park this morning waiting to take up service, accompanied by Solo 221 (YJ55 YGN) awaiting its duty on Velvet S2. The other Solo is having a few days’ holiday in the workshop and was therefore missing from the action.

The Darts have been acquired as a result of a commercial decision to double the frequency of Velvet A to half hourly from 6th June. Commercial service improvements are not entirely common in these doom-laden times, but there are sound reasons for making this move.

Our original intention had been to replace the Olympian/Spectra step-entrance double act currently seen on Velvet A with low-floor double deckers on a ‘one for one’ basis. We had looked at a number of examples of Dennis Tridents and Volvo B7TLs in various states of refurbishment, but it just didn’t feel right.

It is hard to find an engineer with too many good words to say about either product, and the poorer fuel consumption of both would have presented us with a hefty increase in running costs before we could even think about revenue growth, which would have been at best marginal in the absence of any actual service improvements.

Somewhere in the middle of our tour of low-floor ‘deckers I was toying with the thought that we must be able to do something more exciting. In particular I felt that if there was a way to achieve a 100% increase in headline frequency on the main Hedge End – Eastleigh section with only a 50% increase in resources overall, this would bring the revenue growth that we would need to achieve viability well within the bounds of possibility. The other significant attraction is that this enables the use of single deckers with much better fuel consumption, so the cost increase is nowhere near as great as people might imagine when one talks about doubling frequency.

Eventually I was able to come up with a draft timetable that provided for a half hourly service between Eastleigh and Hedge End, splitting into hourly loops serving Oaklands Estate and Botley respectively.

We have seen significant patronage growth across our network over the last year in particular, and soaring fuel prices have caused motorists to explore the alternatives. Our concern was that an hourly timetable would never offer enough flexibility to entice them from their vehicles, whereas with a half hourly timetable if you miss one, time passes fairly quickly until the next one.

All these factors converged to convince us that this was the right move to make and the right time to do it, and we are now up to our necks in publicity, scheduling and other tasks associated with the change, which has hurtled towards us at light speed and is now only two weeks away.

The three Darts – along with a second Optare Spectra that we recently acquired from North Somerset Coaches on a rather opportune basis – will allow us to cascade out three of the older double deckers, thus improving our age profile and image in the process. Obviously we still see the Darts as a stepping stone to a happy future time when we can buy state-of-the-art new vehicles, but realistically for a three year old start-up company we are going as fast as we dare, bearing in mind that we must live within our means and not risk the crazy expansion that has put paid to other ambitious young companies.

The next month will be especially busy for us however, with the increase in Velvet A coinciding with a number of special event commitments, so it is likely to be July before we can release the redundant double deckers.

From 6th June however, the normal plan will be for Velvet C to be a mixture of Darts and Solo, with the A being a mixture of DAFs and Darts, with one single decker spare. It is a relief to get the DAFs off the C. They are not ideal buses for that route, being quite sluggish and cumbersome, whereas the C really calls for nimbler, more manoeuvrable types to nip round the estate roads. The DAFs are far better suited to the A which was, after all, the route for which we originally bought them at the outset!

The remaining double deckers will normally be allocated for peak work only, but will obviously provide back-up for the main day services to cover maintenance requirements, as they do now.

This is therefore an incredibly exciting time for us and we really can’t wait to get stuck in to the improved A service. Today’s opportunity to allocate all three ‘new’ Darts for the first time was therefore an important milestone.

However, I did say at the start that the day did not quite live up to its promise, and just occasionally the facts spoil a good story! The last Dart out was 107 and this made it no further than Velmore on its first trip – less than ten minutes out of Eastleigh – before succumbing to an air leak.

So we will have to wait a little longer for the experience of all three Darts completing the day together, but it will take more than that little hiccup to curb our excitement!

Chris Day

I was very sad this week to learn of the death of my first ever bus industry boss, Chris Day. Back in 1991 when I was looking for a school summer holiday job before going to uni, Chris was Commercial Manager of a local bus and coach company called Buffalo Travel, and he gave me my first break.

Prior to that Chris had been Traffic Manager of an Aylesbury-based bus company, Red Rover, which operated routes within that town and into the surrounding areas and he was very proud of his time there. During his tenure at Buffalo Chris set up a new small business based in Aylesbury, in partnership with a friend. The chosen name, Red Rose Travel, and red and yellow livery clearly harked back to the days of Red Rover.

Buffalo had started life in the 1970s as a more traditional coach operation, providing school and works contracts, tours, excursions and private hire under the auspices of proprietors Tim and Ursula Cecil. Deregulation in 1986 had provided the springboard for the sudden and dramatic expansion into local services and this had prompted Chris’s arrival.

Chris threw himself wholeheartedly into developing an extensive network of bus routes at Buffalo and the company’s network spanned the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, all operated from the one depot in Flitwick. Although most were tendered routes, many were Monday to Saturday hourly or two hourly services, thus creating quite an intensive network providing work for around twenty vehicles. This dwarfed the half dozen or so coaches still operating the traditional business.

The fleet was a very eccentric mixture of types, the company seemingly priding itself on owing at least one of every type ever made. This did not however apply to Bristols – Tim would not entertain these in the fleet. Tim did however have a strong liking for Volvos and that has rubbed off on me, remaining my first choice chassis to this day.

At the more modern end, we had two conventional Plaxton Pointer-bodied Dennis Darts for newly acquired route 311 between Watford and London Colney – at its nearest point 25 miles from the depot. My particular favourite was L133 HVS, an Alexander Strider bodied Volvo B10B bought new for route 89 between Hitchin and Henlow Camp. I remember driving it when brand new and being utterly seduced by the smoothness, power and engine note! Last year I rescued it from impending death at the back of Arriva's Luton depot, where they had robbed it of most important parts but were extremely helpful in enabling me to take it off their hands, and the vehicle is now parked in our own yard in Eastleigh as a future preservation project – if I ever get round to it!

Other favourites of mine were four Plaxton Derwent bodied Volvo B10Ms and three East Lancs EL2000 rebodied B10Ms, that scored nothing for looks, but were very enjoyable to drive. Also within the fleet we had Merc 811 minibuses, a few Iveco 49.10s, some weird and frankly dreadful Lex Maxeta Bedford minibuses, some almost equally dreadful Leyland Swifts, an AEC something-or-other, a few old Bedford coaches, several Volvo B58 coaches – most of which were to what would be called ‘dual purpose’ spec, coach bodies but fitted with a ticket machine and used almost exclusively on local services.

We also had some newer B10M coaches for coach work with Caetano Alpha and Algarve bodies, latterly a few Scania coaches, a few Fleetlines of various pedigrees for schools including a raft of ex-London DMS’s, Leyland Olympians, Dennis Dominators, a Dennis Javelin midicoach, an open-top Fleetline that would occasionally be sent out on school contracts, with an umbrella wedged above the driver’s head in the cab if it was raining……

Not bad variety for a fleet of around thirty!

To be fair to Chris he would tear his hair out at Tim’s scattergun approach to vehicle acquisition, and in particular his habit of buying cheap old coaches and spending so much doing them up that it often seemed cheaper to have bought a newer model in the first place. And to be fair to both of them, the best of the bus fleet was easily as good as anything else around at the time, and the company had made far greater strides than most other independents in establishing itself as a ‘proper’ bus company.

Much of this was down to Chris’s passion for customer service. Although the company itself seemed like a bit of a roller coaster ride sometimes, Chris was determined that no mileage should be lost unless completely unavoidable and as a result we ran a far more reliable service than many outsiders might have imagined. I always detected a certain air of superiority from our neighbouring big operators Luton & District and United Counties, which rather ignored the fact that we ran a much more reliable service than they did!

Indeed one of Chris’s stipulations, which I have carried with me to this day, is that we would always answer phone enquiries about any operators’ services, on the basis that if people felt they had received a helpful service from us – even if they were not able to use us on that occasion – they might come back to us in the future. And besides, he would argue, it was important for the image of public transport that we weren’t seen to pass the buck, if it was something we could help with. We would frequently field calls from disgruntled customers of the big operators unable to get through on their enquiry lines.

Chris was also quite clear in his expectation that our drivers should provide a helpful and friendly service at all times, and would despair if he became aware of any individual failing to come up to standard. Most drivers were very good but there was the occasional exception, and Chris was withering in his contempt for anyone not doing the job properly.

Chris’s failings included a complete lack of attention to detail. As a keen young commercial trainee, I was completely absorbed in the detail of fares, timetables, duty compilation, publicity and data analysis. This was the stuff of my dreams and I thrived on it. Our schedules were always efficient and well presented and we always had up-to-date publicity – I even designed a network map on an early equivalent of Microsoft Paint. I would spend hours on WordPerfect 5.1 tweaking our timetable designs to make them easy to read. You always had the sense with Chris that if there wasn’t someone like me there looking after the detail, it would either receive cursory attention or not get done at all. Sometimes I had the sense that this was a bit of a problem with the Red Rose operation.

Chris was also incapable of getting up early. His working day rarely started before 11, and often closer to 12, when one of my first duties of his day would be to drive to Tesco and get his lunch.

I remember one Saturday morning I was doing control – often tricky in the days before I had a PSV licence – and after a few drivers called in sick, I was left with no choice but to ring Chris at about 7am, to ask him to come in to drive a duty. It’s fair to say it was a phone call I was dreading, and to say he was unhappy would be an understatement, but of course the show must go on, so in he came for a 0900 start.

It turned out to be a momentous day. That afternoon I ventured over to Milton Keynes, where Chris was driving on the 98 route out to the Kingston Centre. I rode with him on his last trip, after which he would be returning dead to Flitwick, and in Central Milton Keynes we were approached by a lady who needed to get to one of the villages south east of the city. It was well off our route, but there were no other buses going there, so Chris insisted that we take her, so we went well out of our way to drop her off after leaving the Kingston terminus as Chris would not see her left stranded anywhere. On the way back to Flitwick Chris asked if I fancied learning to drive a bus, and my life was complete!

Indeed, I had three driving lessons with Chris before doing my formal training. First time out, we took a B10M Derwent on a round trip to Luton, and I was filled with pride when Chris asked me if I was sure I hadn’t driven a bus before. I have no idea whether he was sincere or not, but it boosted my confidence through the roof. Second trip out, I drove Leyland Olympian A698 EAU to Aylesbury and we drove round the various housing estates stopping at frequent apparently random intervals, so that Chris could dive into a block of flats, or down an alleyway, to drop off the wage packets for his Red Rose drivers. Third time out, we took Bedford coach GTM 155T – my first outing with a manual gearbox – to Hemel Hempstead, had a McDonalds then drove back. No such thing as a boring trip round the block!

Chris subsequently worked at Seamarks in Luton, although this proved to be an unhappy experience, and then left to concentrate full time on Red Rose. I did some early Red Rose timetables for him, and indeed did Motts Travel’s Fuel Duty Rebate claim one year, but never really got involved with his other activities. After I left Buffalo and moved on to Southern Vectis we lost touch, and only met up a couple of times. Needless to say, I regret this now!

The same was true of his private life – this was never really up for discussion, and was closely guarded. I knew that he was a Samaritan, but that was about it. There was always the sense that there were subjects that were best not spoken about, and I never pried.

As a mentor early in my career, I couldn’t have wished for better than Chris. He imbued me with the principles of good customer service, and running the mileage no matter what, that have helped earn Velvet such a good reputation today. If a customer had a complaint, he would leave no stone unturned to find a resolution that was acceptable to them. He was always enjoyable company and as a boss, I would have done anything for him.

If ever there was an unsung hero in my opinion it was Chris, and he is deserving of the highest tribute. May he rest in peace!

Bustival and Botleyval

By kind of invitation of my alma mater Southern Vectis, we took Ophelia (L711 ALJ) to Bustival yesterday. Our driver Martin and his family collected the bus from Eastleigh and picked me up in Southampton (thus giving me an extra hour in bed, thanks Martin!) and we headed over on the 0800 ferry.

Bustival is an annual event organised by Vectis to showcase a range of buses, past and present, in the context of a family fun day, and in doing so cement their role as part of the island's community. The location at the headquarters of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway makes for an excellent setting, and around 25 vehicles were in evidence during the course of the day.

I had never been before, but I thoroughly enjoyed the day. Apart from the chance to catch up with former colleagues, which is always welcome, it was nice to see loads of families enjoying the buses.

For me, this is what bus gatherings should be all about. I'm afraid I can't get excited about more traditional bus rallies, with the buses lined up in sterile ranks and the indignant shout of "oi, you're in my shot" whenever one dares go near one of the exhibits.

What are buses about if not people, and the beauty of Bustival was that as well as the enthusiasts who are made to feel welcome, people who don't normally think too much about buses get the chance to get close to them and talk to the people at the sharp end. From my own experience of chatting to visitors aboard Ophelia (which, if I say so myself, looked stunning) and overhearing others, many were pleasantly surprised by the standard and presentation of the vehicles.

And more importantly, the next generation of bus users was able to enjoy themselves, exploring the vehicles and getting into the cab for a 'drive'. The fact that many of these kids were as enthusiastic about 'driving' the 25th vehicle as they were the first, was delightful to see.

So I take my hat off to Southern Vectis for organising a brilliant day, and I hope those involved in the organisation found it as rewarding and fulfilling as we did.

Here are a few shots...

Meanwhile, a mere 15 miles or so away as the seagull flies, Brijan Tours were doing a very similar thing at their depot in Botley. A line-up of ancient and modern buses, supplemented with family entertainment, provided what was reportedly another very enjoyable day out. Once again it's the kind of event where families are equally as at home as the enthusiasts.

We were represented by J841 TSC, taken along by Relief Controller Matt and his unofficial PA Big Kev along with various other special guests.

Their event raises funds for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, and as far as I'm aware they haven't yet announced how much they have raised, but let's hope it's a great total!

A rubbish repair

It is a well-known fact within the bus industry that ticket wallets are the most versatile tool in the engineer's armoury. Among many less reputable operators, and even the odd reputable one, it is amazing how many faults can apparently be repaired by the careful use of a ticket wallet. Loose panels, insecure flaps, rattling windows, protruding edges, broken handles..... the list is endless! Frankly I am amazed the humble ticket wallet has never won any awards, such is its adaptability to almost any problem.

However, now it seems that the wider world is waking up to the usefulness of this incredible device, as I discovered this morning when I spotted a rubbish bin in Eastleigh Bus Station that clearly did not want to stay shut of its own accord...

What will we see next? Ticket wallets on sale in B&Q and Homebase? TV programmes exploring how people's dream home improvement projects can be tackled with a few random screwdrivers, some blue roll, a ticket roll and a few bempak wallets? We could be on to something big here.....!

Mistaken Identity

The outside world seems to be having some trouble working out who I am and what I do! After the conference in London mentioned in my last post, where I was unexpectedly put in charge of East Yorkshire Motor Services, it has been the turn of Bus and Coach Professional magazine to take a wrong turning. In their most recent issue they ran a story on mobile phone ticketing, as part of which they reflected our own experiences in this area, having spoken to me on the telephone a few weeks ago.

They illustrated the story with a picture of me, shown here:

The more eagle-eyed among you will have noticed two things.

Firstly, it isn't me. It is of course my great friend Alex Hornby, Commercial Director of trent barton and erstwhile Operations Manager of bluestar, which of course lends added irony to the photo mix-up because we were at one stage on opposite sides of a so-called bus war!

Secondly - and this is the bit that caused great hilarity at Velvet HQ - Alex is actually wearing his name badge in the photo! So you might think that it would not require too much editorial diligence to spot that something was amiss!

Nevertheless, I'll let them off since it was a decent article about mobile ticketing, and there are far worse people to be confused with!