It's All Over Bar The Shouting!

Apologies for the sparseness of updates but I've not had a lot of time! After all the training, the theory, the driving test, the route learning et al, it all kicks off tomorrow. At 04.45 hours I report to the drivers' room at Lillyhall depot to begin life as a bus driver. The day will begin with the staff pickup journey and then I'll be operating some routes in Whitehaven. ON MY OWN!!! No mentor to use as a safety net, it's do or die. I'll let you know how I get on.

Busy Week

As the heading says, it's been a bit hectic. Did some "Type training" this morning. Seven o'clock start!! Spent a couple of hours with a driving instructor and went for some little drives in examples of the different vehicle types which the fleet contains. Single deck Volvo B10 bus, Volvo B10 coach, Volvo double-deck bus, Dennis Dart single-deck bus and Mercedes midi-bus (or "stretched limo" as it's known in the trade!) One of my more varied Sunday mornings. Spent last week route learning. There were a couple of 12 hour days in there, pretty tiring I can tell you. Some days were spent travelling around and making notes whilst others were spent with a mentor. On these days my colleague would drive the route once or twice with me taking over once I'd got the directions in my head. Driving several different vehicles in one day on different routes is quite an undertaking. Even more so when the majority are over ten years old and worn out. No 2 vehicles of the same type drive in a remotely similar manner. Add that to trying to get to grips with the "Wayfarer" ticket machine, attempting to not take any wrong turnings and trying to stay on time and you can see why I'm nigh on worn out! A second week of it begins tomorrow!

I Must Admit...

...that I thought my hair looked alright. Then I was told that I needed to do my roots. Turned out that I'd misunderstood. What was meant was that I needed to do my routes. Consequently I spent the day riding as a passenger on various bus services across West Cumbria in order to learn timings and fare stages. Next week I'll be out driving with a mentor on actual services taking actual fares. Scary, real scary!