Ride out

Had a nice rise out on my new bike on Tuesday. I have not had time until now to post a few pictures. I ended up on the Rochdale canal at Middleton Junction heading to Littleborough, Hebdon, onto Brighouse then at SalterHebble Locks changing direction towards Huddersfield and onto Marsden to catch the train to Ashton and home. Total miles. 63. Was a great day with some fantastic scenery. I was intrigued to see the Huddersfield Narrow canal looking very dry in a few parts near to Huddersfield for no apparent reason.Apart from that not much going on at work. I see First have won the 41 service full time. Stagecoach have the 342 service for the next 3 years? and Bluebird have won the 395/6 service. Nothing spectacular but there you go. The weather has been great this week and i'm a little sad to see it cool down as it has but i'm sure it will be back soon enough.

Warming up

Have been doing a survey today in Longsight checking that the 192 is running as well as it should and noticed this come past. It looked in great condition, very well preserved. I assume it had been on a rally somewhere in Manchester. It has been a really nice day today. The warm spell is very welcome especially with the arrival of my new bike. I have opted for a Hybrid this time and I can really tell the difference. We are planning a charity ride in September from Liverpool to Hull so need to use it as much as possible. I decided to get another Scott as I found my last one so reliable.

There seems lots of Hybrids in service on the 219 route now and a whisper has hinted at another 40 but will see if and when they arrive.

 

First Day Out

Working in Ashton today and noticed this turn up to do a 168 service in the afternoon. Very odd seeing it come into the bus station and got a lot of attention from the public.

I think they got there first outing today. Managed to get a few pictures as it passed through. Been an odd day today as the 216 and 219 stands were closed for maintenance so I seemed to be all over the place today trying to see that everything was running ok. Very nice afternoon with everything running as well as it should. Who needs a tram!

 

Also got my new bike last week and as yet have not been anywhere due to an injury I sustained in the gym last week which kept me off work for a few days. Getting back slowly although I have been hobbling about all day.

New and old

I took this at Hyde road on sunday. There were about 8 new hybrids and i think i saw 7 old tridents painted up too. They do look pretty good if i may say so. Great paint job. Shame they will end up on magics.

Testing day!

It's not often i go into to much detail of what i do now but today has been one of the best days of my working life. It all started sadly with the misery that is the Metrolink, breaking down at 5pm and all service to Chorlton and Altrincham being suspended.
I noticed before an announcement was made so decided to take this picture.

As soon as an announcement was made it was all hands to the pumps so to speak. All the people on the platform and from nearby stations flooded the bus station in Piccadilly. Now lets remember that Manchester United have an home game tonight so there is already a lot of people trying to get home from work and to the match.
The passengers were all told that there tickets were valid on the buses and they should go to use them.
This would have been fine but Metrolink had sadly not called us to arrange for this to happen and as a result we could not take there tickets and passes.
Arriva however had been asked so hundreds of people swamped the 263 stand and waited for that.
This was followed by question after question after question. When yo wear a hi vis jacket, No matter who you work for you are supposed to know the answer. "whens the tram back one" Why are the 263s Small buses" "Can we use our tickets on your buses" The list was endless.
Between 5 and 6 it was a case of finding extra buses to run on the 41,250 and 256 service from nowhere. There were thousands of people in Piccadilly and i must say we pulled it off.
I do think that Metrolink and Arriva however were left looking somewhat amateur. As soon as we knew the tram was in trouble we got extra buses from everywhere. It was a huge undertaking and whilst i write this now at 9pm i can still feel the adrenaline working overtime and felt the need to say what happened. At one point i had a group of 45 school children who were going back to school following a day out and they were just left stranded. They had no money to pay for the kids to get back and there was no way they were all going to get on a service bus together. So following a phone call i arranged for a bus to take them back to school safely and away from the organised chaos that was going on around.

This was one of the first Arriva buses to arrive. It left totally full with still hundreds on the stand.

I know i shouldn't knock other companies but i have got to say the Metrolink has really let a lot of people down recently and i just hope that it gets fixed very soon. For this sort of thing to happen on match day is not acceptable i think. And i would hate to think what would happen if it was a Manchester Derby game.

Anyway we made sure the majority of peple got home tonight and it has really made me realise what a great job we can all do, drivers and Inspectors when things go a little wrong. I left work about an hour late but it was worth it and by that time it was just the usual footbal fans and the hundreds still waiting for the 263.
Whilst i do like to big our company up because i can. I will add these to even things out....

This is a 135 blocking the crossing near to the 216 stand earlier today...

Old stuff

I'm in Piccadilly this morning and noticed this bus done up for santander. If my info is right it's ex stagecoach london 17120. I'm just suprised it was sold off so soon considering we are painting up similar buses for service in the summer?

Trip Out

Decided to take advantage of the nice weather today so headed down one of my
favourite trails. The fallowfield loop. I ended up in Chorton and Sale
waterpark as always but was disappointed to see the Metrolink works coming
straight the scenery. Didn't realise it was heading that way.

It was the first time I have seen St Werburghs station too as I have not
been down this way for a while.

Nice to see the extra bike storage although I would prefer to see closed
storage instead of these bars.

Back to work tomorrow in Piccadilly for the week so that should be a nice
change.