Wednesday 5 December 2012

On the buses

Yum, a Christmas tree!
No, I will not talk about that show from the dark ages, but about the buses I saw on the inside today. Four in total, but only three really 'en route'. The first route I had to learn was in the dark, which definitely doesn't ease the job, rather makes it a lot harder. I was sat on the first seat with a piece of paper in my hand, scribbling away so I would have the route on paper. Marking turn-offs and landmarks and hopefully not forgetting anything. People got on and off and I just kept scribbling. Learning about the dash-computer had to wait today, although I did do a tiny bit.

The first route as I said was in the dark and it ended in the dark too. After that it started to get lighter, but we did the first part of the second route in the dark/dawn. Fortunately we did that route again though, so I could see how it was during daylight as well. Last night there had been fresh snow, but that didn't seem to slow anybody down. Of course, they have a lot better tires than we do in the Netherlands and even though it is quite unusual to have snow at this time of the year apparently, I never noticed in the way they drove. Mind you, they don't seem too keen on clearing the roads of snow, especially the more minor ones.

Anyway, after our break (partly unpaid), we did the third route and I had actually done part of that route as a passenger a couple of times, so I knew a little about how and what. Plus we did that route twice as well, which made it easier. The final route of the day was a school route from some tiny village to Haugesund busterminal. Basically the way there was almost the same as the way back!

So, that was my day. Tomorrow another early day: 6am and I will be going along with another driver to probably learn some other routes. I just need some paper!

2 comments:

  1. It seems that this is a different kind of bus company than the previous one: more of a municipal company with regular routes?

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  2. It all sounds pretty exciting to me. I do worry a little about their clearing of snow, that does seem different. You will be a pro in no time at all.

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