Another Brace Of Darts

And so, after thawing out the cheque book, I have been off again on a little spending spree to pander to my hobby of changing the fleet every five minutes!

Two more Dennis Darts enter the fold (N464 TPR and N468 TPR), this time with East Lancs bodies.

One of these will replace L101 HHV, destined soon to make its final journey, and the other because why buy one when you can have two at twice the price!

Myself and Glyn drove the pair back from Bournemouth (Transdev Yellow Buses) today at a sedate pace!

I may also have forgotten to mention that we have sold F705 BAT to Ebley Coaches who, in their own individual style, have not bothered to paint it or remove the vinyls!

Snow & Grit

Now that I have calmed down I feel able to write about the battle that we have been fighting against mother nature. For anybody who cannot guess the result, we lost!

Snow in Gloucestershire generally only appears in quantities that hinder rather than prevent bus operation but, for what seems like the most part this month, we became a late morning/early afternoon bus operator! This applies to what I shall now refer to as the week of unpleasantness at the beginning of the month. Even where routes did operate it was not always possible to access all of the villages - Frampton Mansell, Sapperton and Miserden being obvious examples.

The gritting of the roads all but ceased during this particular week as, aparently, grit could not be delivered to the distribution depots due to high demand! This lead to the interesting situation of gritting only taking place on 'A' roads when we needed it most. Only route 54 benifitted in part from this arrangement!

Gritting has been a 'hot topic' locally during January as freezing temperatures and the consequent appearance of ice caused us nearly as much difficulty as the snow. Particular problems with the road between Frampton Mansell and Sapperton, which during winter months remains sheltered from sunlight, was avoided on occasions and claimed a victory against us when it captured the 128 service at 0800 and refused to let it pass until around 1100! With the aid of the local constabulary and the 54A service, the passengers were able to complete their journey.

The upshot of the gritting debate was the publicising of the policy that no bus route in Gloucestershire is prioritised nor is likely to be in the near future!

My earlier reference to 'having calmed down' refers to the lack of takings for the week of unpleasantness. Not a good week for Cotswold Green! We may have saved on fuel but not on wages or standing costs (rent, insurance etc) so a little financial pain has been experienced! Not to worry though as we are now catching up and will be firmly back on track by the end of the month!