First Bus Fail in Freezing Weather

Here is what the First Bus website says about services for today.



Fair enough it is a Saturday timetable. So my normal bus the X1 is not running, my alternative service to work on the Calder Road is the 27/28 service. Here is what the timetable says for Saturday service.



The circled is my bus stop in Bathgate. I stood there from 6:40 this morning in readiness for the 6:52. It didn't show. Then the 7:23 didn't show. So I am now typing on the 7:53. I mean it is not like it is warm or anything.



I could have hopped on an alternative service to get me into Edinburgh, though along the Glasgow Road, but I shouldn't have had to. Both an 10 and a 16 came past me as I waiting in the vain hope that mine was just behind. There was meant to have been two buses before the one I am currently on. I would have been slightly late for work at 8am with the Saturday service as it was. Now I will be an hour late no matter what.

If and when I do get feeling back in my toes I'll let you know via twitter.

The Bus Passenger's Prayer*

As regular readers of my Twitter feed will know I'm quite often Tweeting about how the bus driver may think he's Jenson Button but forget he has two decks of metal to navigate around the bends. It does make me wonder if on the bus of a newbie driver (who doesn't even know where Windyknowe is) is really the time to blog this.

I wasn't on a bus home yesterday evening, not that I would have been at Edinburgh Road in Bathgate by that sort of time either. However, I would have been wondering what was going on, why the diversion etc coming into town. Though I would admit that there are some drivers that I'm somewhat wary of.

However, as there are too many times for me to even contemplate that I or someone else has been viciously hurled around the bus or down the stairs (yeah I sit on the top deck whenever possible) I think we need to know. If you have had a particular dangerous bus trip. If the bus driver has used excessive braking or acceleration and left you feeling unsafe or caused actual harm, let the depot know. Get off and check the registration number of the bus, remember the time you got off it and the scheduled time (this may be harder with delays etc) of the bus that you think you're on. The write, email or call the depot.

On the reverse side if the driver has done a good job and got you home safely and comfortably let them know. Give a proper thank you rather a timid muffled one as you step off..

For the record this bus driver has just had a case of late braking which he then had to swerve out of to avoid a second crash for First Bus Scotland in 24 hours, as we came off the M8 and were heading towards Dechmont. Drivers especially of buses should really learn to drive to the conditions and within the envelope of driver and machine.

*The title is a take on the Ian Drury and the Blockheads song The Bus Driver's Prayer

Our Father,
Who art in Hendon
Harrow Road be Thy name
Thy Kingston come
Thy Wimbledon
In Erith as it is in Hendon.
Give us this day our Berkhampstead
And forgive us our Westminsters
As we forgive those who Westminster against us.
Lead us not into Temple Station
And deliver us from Ealing,
For thine is the Kingston
The Purley and the Crawley,
For Iver and Iver
Crouch End.

Alex Tram'U-turn'old

Just when the Nats and cybernats thought it was save to venture into Edinburgh without the threat of any more tram works because they're not cost effective, or there's no need for them as buses are better, or an electric train to Glasgow is a better way to spend the money etc. Or simply because Alex Salmond is always right even if every other party was against doing away with the investment. Cue the Jaws theme as today it appears that there is a change of heart and policy.

Maybe Alex Salmond is starting to take heed of Nicol Stephen's words this Spring that the Scottish National Party were weak on the environment, that coal or the road isn't king. However, even the Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson seems a little confused. He says today:

"We are not against trams as such, but the project that was before
us.

"The advice which Edinburgh City Council and Transport Initiatives
Edinburgh (TIE) have made to me, which I can see the logic of, is that when you
have invested in the infrastructure it is cheaper to make extensions."

While his spokeswomen is adamant that:

"The Scottish Government was against the trams project, but we respected the
will of the parliament to allow the scheme to continue."

Just what is going on? Even former SNP Member not Independent Margo MacDonald last year felt the SNP were well suited for Hogwarts house of Slytherin when she said:

"I think somewhere along the line the SNP have mastered the black arts. The
signs were there at the tail-end of the last parliament when, for cheap
political advantage, the trams project was dropped [by the SNP] and the
Edinburgh airport rail link was disparaged.

"At the same time, comment was made about how much needed to be spent
modernising infrastructure north of Perth. It is no coincidence."

Implying that the Nat's transport policy drifts where the votes are. As I pointed out just yesterday it is a art still practised by the First Minister of smarm, trying to please all of the people all of the time is not going to wash forever.

Update:

Thanks to this comment from Scottish Unionist I thought I'd better make it clear, rather than assume that every reader knows, that I have been a firm supporter of the tram networks in Edinburgh since the off as a clean, efficient and reliable alternative to road transportation whether car or bus. Looking forward to the current schemes merely being the first stepping stone to a network stretching to other parts of Edinburgh and beyond (there was initial talk of extending it out to West Lothian for example).