Buses World News

In brief: Worldwide montly news & informations about Buses, Busmakers, Passengers' and the Transport Industry

13.11.08

BUS DRIVER'S STORY * UK - Stagecoach founder back working on buses to cover for striking workers

The multi-millionaire founder of the Stagecoach Group was back on the buses when he worked as a driver to cover for striking workers

Scotland,UK -The Telegraph, by Auslan Cramb -11 Nov 2008: -- Brian Souter, one of Scotland's richest men and the co-founder of the company with his sister Ann Gloag, took the wheel of a No 59 bus in Aberdeen in a bid to combat the industrial action... He picked up customers - most of whom had no idea who he was - in the rundown Northfield area of the city while working a full shift from 7am to 4pm... A spokesman for Stagecoach said the chief executive, who is renowned for his dressed-down style, was in the habit of working a driver's shift every year, adding: "It can be anywhere on our UK bus operation"... Last year he put in a shift on a route in Dundee... According to the Sunday Times "rich list", Mr Souter, 54, and his sister are the sixth richest individuals in Scotland with a joint fortune estimated at £720 million. His shift yesterday would have earned a Stagecoach driver around £65... His father was a bus driver in Perth and, although he trained as a chartered accountant, funding his studies while working as a bus conductor, he has held a bus driver's licence since launching the company with two second buses in 1980... (Photo: Brian Sputer)

Labels: drivers stories

5.1.08

DRIVER STORY * UK - What I see on my No 18 bus tells me Britain is still a decent place

Heart-warming New Year message from driver awarded the MBE

Sunderland,UK -The Daily Mail, by The Reverend DAVID HANDS -29 December 2007: -- The 62-year-old Sunderland bus driver and Church of the Nazarene Minister awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List for services to transport – and for his impromptu guided tours that delight passengers... I never wanted to be a bus driver. I only did it because I'd moved to a new town and I needed to make ends meet. That was eight years ago... Since then I've met the young and old, poor and wealthy. I've driven through every street of Sunderland from the rundown council estates to the seaside cottages on the coast... You might think that in that time I have seen all sorts of trouble. After all, it is easy nowadays to think that our teenagers are all drug addicts, our citizens rude, unfriendly and selfish... Yet Britain is still a wonderful place to live, full of good and decent human beings. I know. I see them every day on my bus. It's not a job that is often appreciated, so when it was revealed yesterday that I'd been given an MBE, I was delighted... (David Hands behind the wheel of his bus in Sunderland)

Labels: drivers stories

20.4.07

DRIVERS STORIES

* UK - On The Buses

Bus driver Pat Jevons says a friendly smile and staying behind the safety screen are the keys to a safer bus

UK -News Shopper, by Jon Cheetham -18 April 2007: -- Pat Jevons has been a bus driver for six years. She wanted to be a bus driver ever since she was young... She said: "I always wanted to drive HGVs. I was a bit of a tomboy. It took me three weeks to train. It's fairly quick if you have got it. Driving a bus is all in the mirrors."... She used to run the Oakhill Tavern, Bromley Road, Beckenham with her 50-year-old partner Eamonn Cantwell... The 40-year-old from Orpington decided to make a career change as she thought life was too short... But Pat says she wouldn't change her job for the world... She said: "I enjoy the job and I am very happy to be where I am..."

* USA - Nady students start early; bus driver even more so - A look at DeWitt Schools’ transportation system

DeWitt,AR,USA -DeWitt Era-Enterprise, by Christina Verderosa -19 April 2007: -- Most of the citizens of Gillett are still snug in their beds when Charles Poll arrives at the school campus and starts up his bus... After performing his morning safety check and filling out his paperwork, Poll heads off into the darkened streets of Gillett to begin his route at 5:25 a.m... Transportation in the DeWitt School District is complex and expensive... Many of the bus routes travel long distances to Reydell, Ethel, and Humphrey, often over unpaved roads... The trip is not quite over for Poll. He checks the bus to make sure nothing is left behind — books, bags, or, as happened once, a sleeping student. He then pulls the bus over to the gas tank to get it filled up and ready to do it all over again in the afternoon...

Labels: drivers stories