Chapter 38 712 St Albans



Earlier I had mentioned how the coach rota came under EU regulations. This meant that our driving hours were limited and therefore so were our earnings. Very few bus drivers wanted to take a pay cut just to drive coaches into London especially with its heavier traffic. It’s strange how over the years coach drivers pay compared to that of bus drivers has gone down. I remember when I first went onto the Greenline rota it was a double pay rise, one because it was one man operated and two because coach drivers were on a higher rate of pay. We also as mentioned earlier had our own table in the canteen. Over the years to obtain a better rate of pay for bus drivers the union has had to sacrifice the coach drivers pay differential. Before the coming of the EU regulations I as a coach driver could earn the same as my bus driver
colleagues and could work six days a week and work for thirteen days before having to take a day off. This was the way I worked for many years as it was the only way to earn enough when bringing up a young family.
By time the EU regulations came into force both Heather and Mark were on their own feet although without Annettes wages coming in things would have still been a struggle.
If the EU regulations were a restriction on the coach drivers as regards to their earnings they were even more of a burden to the company. We had to have a break of forty five minutes after four and a half hours driving whereas bus drivers could drive for five and a half hours and then only have a thirty minute break. Just think how much more work the company could get out of coach drivers if the EU regulations could be done away with. As all drivers were on a guaranteed 36 hour week often our weekly hours fell short of this and had to be made up by an additional payment. As I said I was lucky to be able to work within the EU regulations, the company however was not and soon they found that loophole in the law that would allow them to make me work longer hours for the same pay.
I am sure the original law regarding drivers hours was put in place to protect the driver from fatigue through working excessive hours. The law stated that if a route was over 50km then the driver would come under EU drivers hours. The loop hole was in the wording of the law, ‘if the route’ not if the driver drives over 50km. The solution was obvious split the route into two different route numbers. So with one foul swoop the 758 from the Hemel Hempstead estates to London Victoria became the 759from the estates to Hemel Hempstead bus station we then changed the destination blind to 758 and carried on. This meant no more tachographs, also we could now work up to thirteen days. But as our managers were quick to point out it did allow them to schedule longer duties and this allowed them to introduce a new Greenline service, the 712 from St Albans to Victoria, and the peak hour 713 from Harpenden to Victoria via St Albans.
The 712 and 713 go back a long way and were once operated by St Albans garage in the north and Dorking in the south. Both routes were cut back between 1970 and 1976 to operate between St Albans, Dunstable and Victoria. With final withdrawal of the services on 29th January 1977. Speaking to the passengers to day it is only some of the older ones who remember St Albans being served by Greenline. Many passengers do not realise how Greenline was such an extensive service or that it was part of London Transport. One can see how our past can so easily get lost.
When ever I mention the old days the younger drivers always make comments about me and the horse drawn buses but I know that things where done more thoroughly back then. take route learning for instance. when I was at Uxbridge garage we had an extension to the 98 route in Hayes. This meant all the drivers at Uxbridge being paid to come in and travel over the extension in a bus driven by an inspector. This method of route learning, i.e being paid to route learn continued for many years, in fact route learning on the 747 Jetlink was a grand day out for many, only those drivers, including myself, who were on the Jetlink rota were in fact paid. But now sadly if a new route appears route learning is often done whilst a driver is on standby, that is, you are at work and being paid but you are there to cover a driver who may be coming off late and is unable to take his bus over on time. This system is haphazard and often when the route appears on a rota many of the drivers don’t know the route as they’ve not had the opportunity to learn it. And so it was with the 712 and 713. Fortunately most of the coach drivers were familiar with the St Albans and Harpenden area. The timetables were published, and Dave Gill our branch secretary drove over the route. but no mention of route learning for the drivers. When I asked our manager about route learning his reply was “it’s quite straight forward just follow the map.” Being a bit older I am naturally concerned about toilet facilities on route. I asked one of my old friends Inspector Dennis Mulligan about toilets he said “you’ve always got the one at Brickett Wood”
“What one’s that then?”
“You know the one behind the bus shelter!”
So that was route learning 2009 style. So one day before the service started Annette and I took a ride around Harpenden and St Albans, down through Chiswell Green and Brickett Wood just to make sure I knew where I was supposed to go.
The company spent quite a bit of money and effort on advertising the new route spending the Saturday prior to the launch of the new route in St Albans town centre with a publicity bus and handing out lots of time tables.
The route itself is very enjoyable to drive and there is plenty of time to get to Victoria and back although we as drivers have pointed out that the timings are all wrong, with too much time from Brent Cross to St Albans and visa versa.
Although if traffic is heavy in St Albans or in London the extra time does help. The majority of passengers are the pensioners who travel free to London on their passes. I believe we have already received money in advance from the local councils for pensioners and therefore they are not generating new revenue for this route and fare paying passengers on a regular basis are few and far between. A special return fare to London of five pound was introduced at the launch of the service on the 29th June 2009. This introductory offer was supposed to end on the 30th September but was extended until the 31st December. Well by February the offer was still in place, whether this was deliberate or someone has forgotten to re-programme the ticket machine modules I don’t know.
The evening 713 service to Harpenden is some what convoluted and involves passengers getting the 758 from London to Hemel Hempstead where they transfer to a coach which runs out of service to St Albans and then starts as a 713 to Harpenden. How long the 712 will last I don’t know, but in the meantime it’s a very pleasant route and coupled with the 758 workings makes for an enjoyable days work. Of course what some passengers fail to realise is that both 712 and 758 are operated by the same drivers with the same coaches. At Marble Arch there are separate stops for both services yet passengers waiting for the 758 to Hemel Hempstead upon seeing a familiar driver or a coach with Hemel Hempstead transfers on the side will board it and unless we check their tickets will find themselves in St Albans. One
passenger upon going through Chiswell Green the other night said “driver you’re not going to Hemel Hempstead are you”
“No, that’s why I’ve got 712 on the destination”
“Well it’s not lit up”
So when I pulled up at the next stop, just in case she was right I check both inside and outside the coach and the route 712 and destination Harpenden was very clearly lit up. the poor lady had read Harpenden for Hemel Hempstead and not even noticed that I’d pulled up at a different stop.
Still as we say it’s all good fun.

Chapter 37 Greenline Once More



It was with great relief that I turned up for work as a driver on Monday June 16th 2008. There was a slight hiccough as Eric Beir our schedules manager checked with DVLA Swansea to make sure that the letter confirming the return of my PSV licence was valid. My actual PSV plastic licence arrived in the post a couple of weeks later, and that was a really wonderful day, just to hold that licence once again. Eric had arranged for me to spend a couple of days driving to London with a driving instructor to check out my driving. As luck would have it the instructor was an old friend Barry Neave. I had known Barry since starting at Hemel in 1972 when Barry was a fellow bus driver. Barry was due to retire in a couple of weeks and so on Monday I was looking forward to driving to London. Unfortunately nobody had informed the driving school, so no Barry. After a while checking out what had gone wrong Eric
suggested I go out and do some route learning. There were however very few alterations to the routes over the last year so I just made myself scarce for the rest of the day. I went around the town a couple of times then caught the Greenline to London and back.
Tuesday I reported for duty at 8 o'clock and this time Barry was there waiting for me. "Don't worry I'm not looking for faults, just enjoy your driving, this is just to make sure you are confident"
None the less it was still somewhat nerve racking driving out on the roads and the motorway after a year, and of course most odd when pulling up at Park Road where I had my stroke a year earlier. Having turned right into Baker Street Barry said " well that’s got that bit out of the way" Barry obviously realised what was going through my mind. One round trip to London was enough for the day. The next day we went to London but on the 748 route which goes via Camden Town , Kings Cross, Farringdon Road, Fleet Street, Parliament Square and the Embankment before reaching Victoria. I was now feeling a lot more confident and when we arrived back at Hemel Barry wished me good luck. I went in and saw Eric so that I could find out what I'd be doing for the next few days until I was back on a permanent rota position.
I soon settled back in and driving became a pleasure once more. I was certainly more relaxed, I no longer got upset if people used their phones but like all the drivers if somebody was talking extra loud you would gently remind them to be a bit quieter.
During my stay in hospital I had been visited by Dave Gill our branch secretary. At that time I did not believe I would be returning to work again and therefore I told Dave it would not be fair for the branch if I retained my
position as Health and Safety representative and so I tendered my resignation, much to my regret. No longer being Health and Safety representative meant that to continue my BA course at University I would have to attend in my own time and not get paid leave from the company. I wrote to the Managing Director who replied that they were now paying the new Health and Safety Representative paid time off to attend courses and that if I could show a business plan whereby my degree could help the company then he would pay for my attendance. As I would be retiring when I obtained my degree this was impracticable. I therefore had to attend university in either my holidays or just have a week off unpaid and this is what I did.
One small problem that had to be overcome was what to say to the regular passengers to whom I’d been so horrible to when I was so stressed out. Well an out and out apology was the only way and to my relief they were all so kind to me saying that they could tell I was going to have a heart attack or a stroke. I was able to thank those that helped when I had the stroke.
Soon things returned to normal, early turns where you are half asleep, late turns when you’ve spent the morning in the garden and don’t feel like going to work. I looked forward to going to university twice a year and to weekend courses at the T&G centre at Eastbourne. It would appear that things would now continue without much change for the next couple of years. Well nothing ever does that.

Chapter 36 Back To Work



While I was recovering at home, many of my friends said "well now is a good time to retire." Yet a number of things motivated me to a full recovery. The first was a text message from my eldest granddaughter Amy which I received the next day following my stroke it said simply 'get up old man' this was a message from a very scared 10 year old who loved her Grandpa. I just couldn't give up.
My love of music showed me that I could get movement back into my limbs. Within a few days of being in hospital Mark e mailed all my friends to inform them of what had happened and soon messages of support came flooding in all giving me hope. The support from Annette and my children, Mark and Heather, was so wonderful. Mark would bring in video messages from Annette, Heather and my three lovely granddaughters, Amy, Rebekka and Ella. One morning laying in bed in the hospital my mobile phone rang and when I answered it there was this Australian asking how I was. Even our friends Bruno and Kathy had taken the trouble to ring me from Melbourne. Annettes cousin David Tovey had come in to see me when ever he had business in London and of course Annette and Heather made the long train journey from Aylesbury to come and visit. Finally there was my strong desire to get back driving Greenline coaches. I wanted to retire when I felt like it.
Once Annette felt I was safe enough to be out on my own I travelled down to Hemel Hempstead garage on the 500 bus and had had an interview with our Garage Manager. I told him that I wanted to come back on Greenline coaches but I had to wait 12 months before Swansea DVLA (Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority) would consider giving me back my PCV licence.
Now Ken being the wonderful manager that he is knew he had problems getting drivers to work on the coaches because coaches came under European Driving Regulations. This meant drivers could not work the long hours that the could under Domestic rules, hence they could not earn as much money on coaches as they could on buses. Ken needed me back, but another 9 months on sick pay was a lot for him to bare. He said that there soon could be a vacancy on the engineering side for a supervisor fueller shunter. I just wanted to get back to work and so I said I'd be willing to put in for this position as long as I could come back driving if I got my licence back.
I typed out my CV and sent of an application for the job of cleaning supervisor to the Engineering Manager. I was now walking ok although there was still a residual weakness in my right arm and exercise was what was needed and I was soon to get that. I rang Ken the next week and was told I had the job and could start on October the 8th, nearly four months after having the stroke. Like all well run organisations when I turned up on Monday at 9 o'clock nobody knew what I was supposed to be doing. I spent the morning helping out Tony Duggett, one of the general hands, do odds and ends around the garage. I got myself kitted out with a heavy duty High Visibility coat and prepared to start work properly the next evening. Although I now came under engineering and not traffic Ken had managed to keep my pay at my drivers rate which was quite a bit higher than that of the previous supervisor, this I kept to myself.
The fueller, shunter and cleaner start work at 4:30 in the evening and work through until 1:00am. At maximum strength there were five of us. We rotated the jobs each day. One person would fuel the buses and another would put the buses through the wash and park them up ready for the next mornings run out. Of the three remaining one would sweep out the buses whilst the other two would mop out the buses and wipe down all the internal surfaces. At 4:30 there would only be a couple of vehicles in the yard so the cleaner would walk around the yard and make sure the yard was clear of any rubbish.
Well that was the theory. My position as supervisor was farcical. Robert who should have been supervisor along with Marrine, Julianno and Faz knew exactly what they were doing and could fuel park and clean the buses without any help from me. For a start no engineer ever trusted a driver to drive a bus properly so if I was allowed to park up the buses, Robert and the others knew I would take a month of Sundays to park them properly. I don’t think any driver could park up the buses so quickly and accurately as Robert and the team did night after night in all weathers. So only very late at night when all was quiet was I allowed to park up a bus. I was however taught how to fuel the buses by Marrine and Faz. At first I had a struggle with the heavy fuel bowser but as time went by my muscles became stronger and my clothes smellier. Sweeping out and mopping also required a lot of strength. Wiping down all the internal surfaces including cleaning all the coffee stains of the drivers ticket machines wasn’t quite so arduous especially when we were all there as there would be two of us to do the cleaning. I worked Monday to Friday and really looked forward to my weekends off as by the end of the week I was exhausted, although as I got fitter it wasn’t so bad. Not long after I started Annette had to go into hospital and when she came home I took time off to look after her. When I returned to work it was mid winter. Between 6 o’clock and 8 o’clock the buses and coaches were queuing up to get into the garage and we were literally running around to park the buses out of the way whilst fuelling them and parking them up. This system worked well when we were all there but of course sometimes some of us were on holidays sometimes some were sick and Marrine, Faz and Jullianno also had their rest days during the week as they worked on the weekends. On a lot of days there might only be two or three of us. This meant a lot of fuelling for me and later in the evening who ever was parking would help me sweep out and mop the buses. At first I found sweeping and mopping very depressing as I was amazed at how filthy the general public were especially the school children who would regularly trash the school buses. But Faz told me not to let it get to me, but to just do the job as it would be the same the next night.
Most of the work was done by 10 o’clock and we would retire to the rest room for our lunch break. After lunch there were a few buses left to sweep and the water levels on the coached to be checked. Each evening before clocking on I would go into the garage block and read all the bus notices and chat with all my colleagues, I felt I was still a driver and couldn’t let go. After a few weeks Faz suggested I drive a coach around the yard. It had been quite a few months since I had driven a bus or coach, it was a really great feeling to drive again and of course I could drive buses and coaches around the yard as it was on private property.
All engineers believe that driver can't drive, well I saw a few knocks on both sides. I've seen drivers reverse into walls and I've seen engineers demolish parts of the wash. One incident (they are called that now, incidents not accidents) sticks in my mind. A double deck bus was parked over the pits inside the garage awaiting a new windscreen. The Auto Glass van arrived and opened up the large shutter door half way so that he could get his van inside. Having finished his work he reversed out leaving the doors half way up. Later that evening a young engineer got into the double deck to reverse it off the pit and back into the yard for us to park up. We at the time were in our
little rest room on a break when we heard an almighty bang. We rushed out into the pit area to find one double deck bus smashed into a half open garage door. The engineer had got into the bus and looking in his mirror could see back out into the yard and was not able to tell that the door was not fully open and then had proceeded to reverse out. The engineers spent the rest of the night repairing the shutter door. Luckily the bus suffered very little noticeable damage so when the engineering supervisor came on duty in the morning all appeared ok.
After the long cold winter, when some nights your hands would begin to go numb whilst fuelling the buses, spring arrived. It was also time to make a start on regaining my PCV licence. Of course in the back of my mind was the thought that I might be turned down or I might only get a restricted licence (min buses only) which would mean another two and a half years fuelling and cleaning, somehow I don’t think I could have faced that. I rang Swansea and enquired as to when I could apply for my licence, they said two months before the twelve month suspension was up and so in May I downloaded the medical forms from our computer ticked all the relevant boxes and took them to my Doctor to sign. Dr Walters is a very good GP and she told me not to worry everything should be ok. As June approached I began to get very nervous waiting for the post each day. Finally a brown envelope from Swansea appeared, was this my licence? The letter was from DVLA but informing me that I had to have a treadmill test. There was nothing wrong with my heart it had been checked out whilst I was in hospital in London but it would appear that his is standard practice for DVLA. An appointment had been made with my local hospital, Stoke Mandeville. Luckily with all the cycling and the physical hard work of the job I had no problem passing the tread mill test which consists of nine minutes of walking on an exercise machine which progressed in three stages each one faster than before whilst wired up to heart monitor. I was told no matter how good your heart is you must complete the nine minutes to pass the test. I’m glad my leg muscles were ok.
The results of the test were duly forwarded to Swansea and again I waited. When finally the brown envelope from Swansea arrived I was almost to scared to open it. At last my full PCV licence, well not quite, a notification that I could drive all types of PCV vehicles pending the issues of my actual licence. I rang Ken my Garage Manager and told him I could resume driving duties on Sunday 15th June, a year and two days after I thought I would never drive again.
So it was with regret that I left the friends I had made on the engineering side, although of course I would see them whenever I bought a coach or bus into the garage in the evening. Trevor, the fueller supervisor whose job I took over, still came in and did odd jobs around the garage before becoming to ill to work. I remember one evening sitting down with him and talking about his up and coming death, a surreal conversation if ever there was one. Trevor was well aware of why he had lung cancer and knew it was the smoking and so continued to smoke as he said "what's the point of stopping now, I've only got a few more weeks to go." Sadly Trevor died a few weeks after I resumed driving.

Chapter 35 Never Give Up




Well it's now just over a year since I had my stroke and I have been back driving Greenline coaches into London for three weeks now, so lets go back a year and follow my progress.
I was extremely lucky to have had the stroke in London and to have been taken into the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. I was in a special Acute Brain Injury unit where there was a team of specialists doctors and consultants finding out why I'd had the stroke. A special team of physiotherapists and occupational therapists helping me make a full recovery and a wonderful team of nurses who would see to my every need. After I had learnt how to walk again I then learnt how to type once more. Next my occupational therapist took me out to Tescos to learn how to do shopping and pay for things and then back to the hospital to learn how to cook and make a sandwich and a cup of coffee. All of these things I had either forgotten how to do or the brain could no longer get my muscles to perform the tasks, so it was a case of learning from scratch just like a baby. I was lucky that Mark would come in everyday. One of the things I'd ask Mark to bring in for me was my MP3 player. It was whilst listening to my MP3 that I noticed that my right foot was moving to the rhythm of the music. I then realised that the brain must already have alternative pathways for movement and this gave me the hope that I would eventually walk again. As I said with the help of my physiotherapists I began to walk quite soon. It wasn’t too long before Mark and I would be going to the hospital canteen for little breaks. This then led to longer outings to the pub across the road from the hospital. As I was still having regular blood test I’m afraid I could only have soft drinks. It would look strange for the doctors to find a high alcohol content in the blood of someone who was supposed to be confined to hospital.
I had arranged for my nephew Neil, yes the one who used to turn up anywhere on the bus routes whilst I was at Uxbridge in 1969, to meet me at the entrance of the hospital and drive me home to Aylesbury. Neil was by now a London taxi driver of many years. I said a fond farewell to all the staff who had been so dedicated in my recovery. I still had a long way to go but I could walk unaided and although my right hand was still weak I could take care of myself. One thought that kept me going was to be able to sit on the swing in our back garden with Annette and just look at our garden. Neil soon drove me home to a wonderful reunion with Annette and Ben and Pippa the cats.
My recovery was a slow one with a few hiccoughs. I required a lot more physiotherapy and to this end I had been referred to Rainers Hedge physiotherapy centre in Aylesbury. Not long after I had had my stroke Annette had told her friend Miriam Cheney whose daughter, a friend of our children, had become a nursing sister in charge of Rainers Hedge (small world as they say) so within a few days of my stroke Clare Cheney new she would eventually be paying me a visit to assess my situation.
Having checked out the DVLA website I found out that if I returned both my driving licence and vocational licence voluntarily I would stand a better chance of getting them back later on. The normal procedure when a PCV (Passenger Carrying Vehicle) or HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) licence holder had a stroke was to have an automatic 6 months ban, it then moved up to 10 months and I suspect because strokes among PCV and HGV drivers were becoming more common a 12 month ban was introduced. It may have been just a coincidence but two other drivers at our garage had strokes within a few week of me having mine. I believe neither were lucky enough to have had the attention I had and they have never returned to work .
It was therefore a sad day when I sent my licences back but it had to be done. So how was I to get about? Well it was back to cycling. During my stay in hospital Annette had to use taxis a lot. Annette herself was suffering from a bad prolapse and was in a lot of discomfort. During the next few weeks I did all the shopping at Tescos by bike using a large rucksack and at times having carrier bags hanging off the handle bars. I became very fit. I had been given a sheet of exercises to carry out at home by Cheryl and Natasha my physiotherapists from the National Hospital. Of course I was impatient to progress and in spite of warnings from Annette I overdid it, walking a couple of miles to the vets and back carrying a cat caused my leg and back muscles to go into a spasm over the weekend. I’ve never known such pain, at times I could not move and with the surgery closed I had to rely on the out of hours advise line, some help that was. Late that night I collapsed on the stairs in agony and Annette called the ambulance. I had the option of going to hospital and waiting all night on a hospital trolley or being given a good dose of ‘entinox’ and being taken up to bed. After the initial pain had subsided I opted for bed. The next day a visiting doctor injected me with a pain killer and Annette went to Tescos pharmacy to get some anti inflammatory tablets and vallium type pills to help.
Now during my stay at the NHNN I had signed up for a drug trial. The normal preventative drug for a stroke is a small amount of aspirin to be taken daily. I was now on a blind trial using a drug similar to aspirin. If I was on any other medication I had to inform Olivia Brown the nurse in charge of my drug trial. Having told her of this new turn of events she told me not to take the anti inflammatory tablets only the valium but don’t take them for too long.
Soon the muscles returned to normal, but no more long walks yet just a few minutes each day. Clare was a bit exasperated when I would turn up for my physio sessions on the bike. Gradually I learnt to walk properly. When I left the NHNN I was told by my consultant Dr Martin Browne that after about six months any disabilities that I had would probably remain with me for the rest of my life.
However Natasha and Cheryl had shown me that the more I used my limbs the better the brain would fined new pathways to control the limbs. One trick Cheryl used was to continually scratch my hand and fingers to make the brain aware of the fingers presence. To this end Annette would spend many hours rubbing and scratching my fingers and arm with the end result that all feeling and movement have now been fully restored.
Eventually I downloaded the forms from DVLA at Swansea in the hope of getting my ordinary driving licence back. Swansea have always been very helpful throughout this time. I duly filled in the forms and sent them off. A few weeks later I was relieved to receive my car licence back. No more cycling to the shops although I still did on occasions as a means of keeping fit. Our car by the way had been at Hemel Hempstead garage during my stay in hospital. A few days after coming home my brother John and his wife Joyce took Annette and me back to the bus garage to collect our car. John drove it home and Annette followed with Joyce. Each day before I got my licence back I would drive our car up and down the private road alongside our garages it was a great feeling just to be driving again although my right arm was still not up to full strength but a new job was on the horizon which would soon get me fully fit.

Chapter 34 Hospital Here I Come




This chapter was typed on a lap top brought into the hospital by my son Mark so that I could regain movement in my right hand. I shall leave it in its original form including any spelling mistakes and omissions. It descriptive wording is brief as it took a lot of effort just to type a few lines.
The author 19th July 2007 Aylesbury

It is now almost a week since I was admitted to the National Neurological and Neurosurgery Hospital.
Well little did I know when signing on that morning, Wednesday 13th June 2007 that it was to be the last day of my coach-driving career. I spent an hour on standby then set of for Woodhall Farm. Leaving there at 6:50 I ran on down to the town then up to the Motorway. Normal busy traffic to Brent Cross and then down the Finchely Road to Lords. Sitting in the bus lane in Park Road I suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of panic and my right hand and foot became very heavy and I new straight that I was having a stroke. I some how managed to get the coach around into Baker Street and onto the stop in spite of my foot feeling like a lead brick. None of the passengers even noticed and those getting off thanked me and wished me a good day. However when the lights changed to green and the other buses moved off I new then that I could not move and I was facing early retirement. I turned around to the passengers and said “I am terribly sorry but we seem to have a problem, I cannot move my right side” They immediately realized what was up and called for an ambulance and came and supported me because at that point I just wanted to go to sleep. I remember seeing Debbie and telling her I was up for early retirement also it was lucky that Geoff the Victoria controller was on the 757 behind me and took over from the passengers in trying to keep me awake.
The ambulance arrived within ten minutes and I was placed on a chair stretcher and take off the coach. Fortunately I had the presence of mind, (it being undamaged) to remove my module and keep the waybill. I was kept in the ambulance for about fifteen minutes whilst they stabilized me and then it was off to University College Hospital and straight into A&E. Here I was quickly assessed as having a stroke. At this point Mark turned up and has been remarkable in my recovery. Geoff had rang Mo at Hemel who had rang Annette. Mo told her I had collapsed so she in turn rang Mark. Soon after I had been admitted to UCL I was told a bed had been found for me at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, it backs onto Great Ormond Street children’s hospital. Well after being told transport was on its way, after four hours I was told that if we don’t get you out of here ‘the shit will hit the fan’ The prime minister Tony Blair had decreed that all A&E departments will clear within four hours and so I was quickly wheeled up to a ward. Whilst here with Mark, Pat Donnelly an Inspector turned up .He stayed for awhile, asked after my well being and then left the ward only to return a few seconds later saying Ken Hargreaves my garage manager had reminded Pat to collect my module and cash, our ever thoughtful manager! At one point a lot of movement retuned to my hands and legs and while Mark had gone to the toilet I got up and also went to the toilet, a bad move, I became all weak again and got back into bed completely immobile on my right side. After some time there was some discussion as to who was taking me to the NHNN. It was about 3:00 that I was finally moved down to a waiting ambulance and with Mark on board we began our very bumpy journey along to Russell Square. Whether it was the Bob Marley music or the bumpy ride I don’t know but I began to lose consciousness. I remember both Mark and the para medics calling my name. I soon arrived at NHNN and was quickly assessed by Professor Martin Brown the head of the Acute Brain Injury Unit along with Dr Adam Cassidy and Dr Brian Strange. Professor Brown was most annoyed that it had taken them nearly six hours to get me to the NHNN. It is most important that stroke victims are seen and assessed as soon as possible after a stroke. I was soon put on a ward. Next I was wheeled off to have a CCT scan of my brain and a chest X ray of my heart. Then a nights rest although under 72 hours continuously monitoring. Next day I was to have two MRI scans. This is where one is rolled into a tube a few inches wider than your own body, not to every ones liking, in fact 10% of people can’t take it. It is not just the enclosed place but also the intense noise, it’s like having a pneumatic drill going along side ones head. After that it was back to the ward and a rest. Following a stroke one gets very tired very easily. By Saturday I was beginning to walk and Mark was coming in every day to help me recover. Dr Cassidy was making a daily assessment of my progress. I was now getting intense therapy from Sasha my occupational therapist and Sherryl my physiotherapist. Along with these two beautiful torturers I was also having to play mind games with Rennie the neuropsychologist who was trying to assess if my thought and cognitive processes had suffered any damage.
Well it’s now just over two weeks since my stroke and I shall be going home on Friday. My stay here has been very interesting an insight into brain injuries. I think I have been so lucky to have been hospitalized here. Also the fact that I have not felt any anger over what has happened has of course I believed helped aid my recovery. Well whether this is the final chapter in my forty year career of bus driving remains to be seen. The End

Chapter 33 Trouble Brewing



Although I still enjoyed driving into London every day I found myself becoming more irritable with the commuters especially those who continued to use their mobile phones on the coaches. There is nothing more annoying than someone talking in a loud voice right behind you. I brought this problem to management on many occasions at our Health and Safety meetings and eventually I persuaded management to post notices on the coaches asking passengers not to use their mobile phone once the coach had left the terminal. This was not very effective and passengers became quite abusive when you pointed this notice out to them. Often if you told them their call was distracting you they would tell you it wasn’t. I would always ask them how the hell did they knew what distracted me, saying that if they took all their clothes off and walked down the coach that would not distract me but sitting right behind me talking drivel very loudly into their mobile phone would. Unbeknown to me I was becoming very stressed.
One day always makes people very wary was Friday 13th. April had such a Friday. Traffic on the M1 was very heavy approaching Hemel Hempstead and so I decided to come off the motorway at Watford and go through Leavsden and Abbotts Langley. Something we all do quite often. I had come down College Road and was turning right on the roundabout into Tibbs Hill when a car driven by a young girl shot across from Langley Way onto the roundabout and across the front of my coach. I pulled across to the offside and braked as hard as I could but struck her car on the offside rear door turning the car across the front of the coach. I expected the coach to turn her car over but fortunately it pushed it out of the way leaving the car badly damaged but the young driver unscathed.
The reaction from the passengers was very interesting. The young lads at the
front yelled out “where the f**k did that come from” my exact feelings. Further back came the call “It’s Friday the 13th driver” again something that was also on my mind. One passenger and one passenger only got annoyed with me for calling the police and delaying his journey home, the rest were very sympathetic and helped in filling all the forms we have to use now in the event of an accident. I had to take photos of the scene and give a statement to the police. The young lady admitted to me and the police that she had not seen me. The police also pointed out to her father who turned up at the scene that if she was going to have an accident don’t pick on something this size. Her car was a virtual right off whereas the coach suffered a broken front indicator light and some minor scratched to the front bumper.
Although I thought at the time this had not affected me as accidents are unfortunately part and parcel of our job. I had been lucky not to have been involved in any major accident like this in my forty years driving career.
I now found myself becoming more and more irritated with the passengers to the extent of shouting at passengers when they were using their phones and refusing to acknowledge them when they said hello to me, and so the inevitable happened.

Chapter 32 Off the Road




I’ve had a few motor bikes since we returned to England, never being able to afford a car. I also have never taken a motor cycle driving test as my full driving licence allowed me to drive motorcycles up to 125cc. with 'L' plates attached. So I’d had a couple of Honda 125cc bikes and then two Susuki 125s. When the Susukis became too expensive I down graded to a JAWA 125 not so fast but it got me to Hemel Hempstead and back each day.
Then in the late 1990s the law was changed so that to drive anything bigger than
50cc you would have to pass a proficiency test before the end of the year. I hurriedly arranged this and duly passed the test which was conducted in a school playground. I had arranged some tuition from a local motorcycle driving instructor who, when I had passed the test and been given a piece of paper saying I could now drive my JAWA 125cc with L plates, my instructor said I might as well take a full on road test which would allow me to drive a bigger motorcycle up to 500cc. Once more another driving test which I passed successfully. I remember being told on that very first bus test I was going a bit slow and this time I was also told I was going a bit slow through some of the country lanes around Aylesbury but this time it wasn’t because of a different bus but because my poor old JAWA couldn’t go any faster.
Well no sooner had I passed my test then I was off to Mick Surman’s my motorcycle dealer in Aylesbury to purchase a brand new JAWA 350cc. I bought it on Friday the
22nd of August 1997 and spent Saturday driving around Aylesbury, getting use to a bigger machine. Sunday the 24th I was on a late turn and enjoyed my ride to work on my brand new motorbike. I finished about 10 o’clock that evening and set off for Aylesbury on my new bike. I was approaching the petrol garage just before the entrance to Hemel Hempstead railway station when I noticed a car facing me waiting to turn right into the garage. Just as I was almost about to pass the car it suddenly pulled across in front of me. Goodbye brand new bike and me I thought as I crashed broadside into the car, the bike stopped, I didn’t and lost consciousness as I went sailing over the car to land on my back in the road. I came to after a while and proceeded to wiggle my arms and legs, well no broken back although my stomach and groin sure felt sore.
Within a few minutes an ambulance had arrived. Well they told me they happened to be just passing on their way back from a call. I had by that time got to my feet and felt relatively ok although I was unaware of my injuries due to shock. I told the medics I was ok and just wanted to get back home and signed a disclaimer form for the ambulance crew. By this time a police officer had turned up and was talking to the young male driver. Meanwhile his female passenger was running around saying “it was all my [her] fault.”
I later thought what on earth was she doing to him to distract him. Anyway I left my brand new written off bike in the garage forecourt and got a taxi from the station home to Aylesbury and presented myself to a very surprised and upset family. I had rang Annette from the railway station to tell her I'd had an accident but that I was ok.
The next morning, Monday, my daughter Heather told me I had broken my wrist or arm because of the bruising but I was not convinced however Annette persuaded me to go to the hospital anyway. When I turned up at casualty and told them I’d been in a motorcycle accident I was immediately given a full examination. I told them my groin hurt and they did lots of tests and told me I was ok. When you fly though the air tearing your stomach on the windscreen supports I am sure your stomach is not alright which was to prove correct later on.
In the meantime following x rays I was sent to the plastering room to have my wrist and arm set in plaster. I noticed there were lots of photos and thank you notes posted on the wall from previous motorcycle accident victims. When I arrived home with a brand new plaster cast everyone seemed pleased to have been proven right and that I had taken their advise and gone to hospital. My new plaster cast soon became adorned with names and drawings. My new granddaughter Amy had such a pained look on her face when she saw me, she was nearly one year old.
later that day I rang the garage to tell them I’d be off for a while. They told me one of the drivers had seen me lying in the road as he went past and assumed I was dead so they were pleased to hear I would be coming back to work some time soon. I contacted the union solicitors who began working on the case straight away, eventually winning for me, at no cost, a decent amount of compensation. After a couple of hiccoughs in the legal system the young man received a fine but was allowed to keep his licence as according to his solicitor he had a low IQ and needed his car to get to work and also he would need to earn money to pay off his fine not only for this accident but for his previous convictions for speeding. He should have lost his licence and the police commiserated with us for the fact that he was still driving.
I also rang up Mick Surman on the Tuesday to tell him about the accident and to sort out the insurance claim. Mick said not to worry about the insurance. The insurers had already contacted him so he knew of my accident and the insurers informed him that the bike had been written off and Mick had already got me a brand new bike ready for collection. I told him my arm was in plaster but he said never mind that you can pop over and look at the bike from time to time until you are ready to go again. After a few visits to the hospital my arm was finally released from its cast. Then followed some physiotherapy on my hand to get it mobile again. After a while I was soon back to full working order and off to work again. One odd thing did happen a few years later. I received a phone call from the police in Manchester to say that my motorbike was being held in their vehicle compound and if I wanted it released I would have to pay a sum of money. I told them the bike had been written of by the insurers some years previously. They asked if I knew who recovered the bike and said it looked like some sort of scam and they would look into it and I heard no more.
Over the years I've been very fortunate to have had very little time off sick.
Although a couple of times do spring to mind. One was the eating of a cream bun at Chelsham garage. At the end of the day any leftovers from the canteen were put out by the canteen staff for the late turn drivers to enjoy, unfortunately fresh cream buns do not stay fresh for ever and having enjoyed a free cream bun for my evening tea I set off with the 706 to Tring and then home to Aylesbury. During the night the cream bun had its revenge and I was off sick the next day so losing a days pay. A very expensive free bun Annette pointed out. Another self inflicted sickness occurred when I had overdone the spice in a meal I'd cooked. I was feeling a bit unwell the next morning but went to work and signed on. I managed to get to London although I did stop for a few minutes when I reached the end of the M1 at Brent Cross and put my head down on the wheel while a bout of nausea passed, and do you know not one passenger asked what was wrong. By the time I got back to the garage I was feeling very ill. I must have looked ill as well because Pat Auger came over to me and asked if I was ok when I moaned that I wasn't she said "don't worry Dave you rest, I'm on standby, I'll do your second London" that's what I call a real friend. By the time Pat had got back from London I was feeling well enough to pay in and go home.
I also managed to get two hernias, some years apart though. The first was my own fault. I had gone into town to by a new television, they were big and heavy years ago, but being too mean to have it delivered I carried it from the shop to the bus station and then from the bus stop to our house, only across the road but that was enough to start a small tear in my groin. The second was the result of the above mentioned motorbike accident although I couldn’t claim for that as I’d already settled the claim for the accident. Fortunately in between the two hernia operations they had speeded thing up so instead of a three day stay in hospital it was operation in the morning, a sandwich in the afternoon and goodbye in the evening. Mind you I did enjoy the rest at home recovering. Looking back I remember how I couldn't wait to get back to driving those big red buses after even a few days on holiday. But now somehow the stress was beginning to build up and I looked forward to my days off.

Chapter 31 A Little Bit More on the Road




Well so much for my union activities, what about driving those buses and
coaches. The major change that took place on the buses and coaches was the implementation of the European Working Time Regulations (as applied to Road Transport). The EU directive lays down a maximum working week of 48 hours. Unfortunately our government has obtained an opt out. Businesses state that if they are to compete they must keep wages low, this forces the ordinary low paid worker to work excessive hours to obtain a living wage. We know that working long hours is not only detrimental to your health but also has an adverse effect upon family life. As this book is not about economics all I can say is that most drivers opted out of the 48 hour week. However the 48 hour limit did apply to coaches. The EU directive stated that any route whose length was over 50Km was subject to EU regulations and not Domestic rules. Basically this meant that drivers on the bus rotas could work for thirteen days before have a day off and came under UK Domestic rules whereas the coach route from the Hemel Hempstead estates to Victoria was over 50Km and therefore the drivers on the coach rota had to have a 36 hour break after six days work. Also any driver who did even one days work on the coaches was required to stay within the EU regulations for the next three weeks. These rules meant that the earnings on the coaches were somewhat lower than that on bus work as bus drivers could work longer hours. In consequence of this there have been a shortage of drivers applying for the coach rota.
The introduction of the EU regulations also meant the use of the tachcograph, or the spy in the cab as it was referred to. The tachograph is a round plasticated disc which sits inside the speedometer and records not only the speed the vehicle is doing but also the hours driving and breaks that a driver has. Each driver has his own supply of discs which he must keep with him and he hands them into the depot once a week keeping three weeks recorded discs with him at any one time.
I could afford to remain on the coach rota and did so. Some drivers could not afford the lower wage and went back on the buses.
So I continued to drive the 758 Greenline coaches into London on a daily basis, usually two trips a day, although two trips a day would not quite add up to our guaranteed 36 hour week and so most duties had pieces of bus work added to them either before or after having gone to London. The Union have argued for ages, but to no avail, that putting bus work in front of coach work could seriously disrupt the coach departure times. For example if you drive for an hour or more through the town especially in the rush hour then you will be late taking over your coach as there is very little leeway between coming off a bus and taking over a coach. Increasing the time between taking over the coach from the bus would encroach on the maximum driving time of four and a half hours permitted under the EU regulations. Some of this bus work included school journeys and we have all heard how horrific these can be.
Very few children these days have travelled on buses other than to go to school and therefore have no concept of how to behave on public transport. As we have to concentrate on driving chaos usually reigns on the school buses. Sometimes the schools will intervene and sometimes the drivers themselves will try to regain order but no one really seems to care, this can therefore add a lot of stress to the drivers working life.
Many years ago when Mark was about a year old I told of the time I went through a red light at West Hendon, well twenty six years later it happened again. At the top of Hendon Way were it joins the Finchely Road there is a set of traffic lights whose aspects change at the same time, if it goes from green to amber as you approach the opposite set of lights are changing from amber to green and as it’s a wide junction it could appear that by going across on amber from Hendon Way it may look as though from the Finchely Road that the vehicle has jumped the lights. This has happened to numerous coaches and as was my luck when I did it there was a police patrol car sitting on the Finchely Road. Just after I turned right I could see the blue flashing lights. I pulled up and got out of the coach. I pointed out the poor phasing of the lights and the police officers reply was “if you want to argue that in court it’s up to you”
He then checked my driving licence and with a grin said “ at least you’re consistent” referring to my previous conviction for going through a red light twenty six years earlier. Well its seemed pointless arguing my case in court so I sent my licence off to the local court and accepted the fine which the union paid. These days however the union will not pay fines imposed by the courts as it would appear to be condoning breaking the rules of the road. What the union will do which is very important is to supply you with a good solicitor if you require one. Although I did not use the union legal aid when I went through red lights, allegedly, I did need them when some idiot knocked me off my motorbike and nearly killed me.

Chapter 30 A new Broom at Hemel Hempstead



Well they say a new broom sweeps clean and once Luton and District had become embedded then it was goodbye to all things London Transport including Bill Bailey. It was sad day when Bill was told to clear his desk as drivers knew by then that although in Bills eyes you were guilty until proven innocent he was above all fair.
A few days after Bill Bailey had gone I had reasons to go in and see the new Depot Manager, imagine my surprise when I came face to face with Dave Love. The last time I had met Dave was as TGWU area rep, talk about poacher becoming game keeper. Well Dave did not last too long, neither union nor management felt at ease with Dave. There was one time when we were operating the 747 Jetlinks to Luton and the old Luton & District Inspector Dennis Mulligan (Dennis is now retired and became a good friend over the years, often jumping on my coach for a chat rather than checking the tickets) started booking us old London Country drivers for early running at Luton bus station, remember we had now been taken over by Luton & District. Dennis would put in his report to Dave and we in turn had to see Dave. Dave would duly undermine Dennis's efforts by telling us "he [Dennis] can't book you under TUPE"
TUPE or Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations was an European directive introduced in 1977 to protect employees when there is a change of employer so that conditions of employment are not worsened and any change in conditions must be in consultation with the trade unions. Needless to say our government reluctantly introduced this legislation in 1981.
What Dave Love was pointing out to the drivers was that under London Country terms and conditions the only official who could book us was another London Country official. Unfortunately TUPE only applies for twelve months after the acquisition. Dennis couldn’t wait for the twelve months to pass, but did we have some fun with him in the mean time.
After Dave left our next Depot Manager was the very likeable John Bass. Neil Instrall was still in place as Garage Manager and I believe kept a firm control on what John could or could not do unlike the maverick Dave Love.
Soon John left for another garage. In the mean time Luton & District had acquired a small provincial bus company, ‘Stewart Palmer’ of Luton and their MD Alan Hobbs became our next Depot Manager. Note while these managerial changes where going on Colin Bacon was still Union Rep, Dave Gill Branch Secretary and I was still Health and Safety Rep.
After a while Alan was moved sideways into supervising the introduction of NVQs. It would appear that someone somewhere thought it a good idea to give people in every day jobs a qualification to say that they could do that job. If they couldn’t do the job surely they would have left anyway.
Obtaining a level 1 NVQ did not require any learning only getting passengers to tick boxes on a form to say how good you were. You of course got your favourite and most friendly passengers to fill in your forms. Any writing was minimal. Having left school with seven ‘O’ levels, NVQs were a backward step but as it was in the company's interest to be able to say “all our drivers have NVQs in Customer Service” the company offered all drivers £100 to take the NVQ. Oh that’s £100 before tax.
Having passed Level 1 we were then encouraged to take Level 2. When I asked Alan if this was now a £200 job he said no still £100 so I said no to that.
So what next in the Depot Manager stakes? A managerial shake up yet again.
We have Garage Manager, Neil Instrall and we have Depot Inspectors who report to the Depot Manager. Lets get rid of the Depot Manager; Neil Instrall now takes on both rolls of Garage and Depot Manager. Let's make one poor Inspector take the can for all the Inspectors cock ups and call him Senior Duty Manager. That job fell to Barry Madams, who was very good at sorting out cock ups, usually the drivers.
Soon Neil could take no more and left for a senior position with Aldershot & District Transport. These days Neil according to my union colleagues is now running buses for Stagecoach in Brighton & Hove. On the scene now comes Nick Knox. Nick is a very able senior manager and set about putting Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury and Watford on a firm financial and operating footing. The problem with running three garages was that as drivers we would see routes and jobs move from one garage to another and this made it a lot harder for the Union to protect work in any one garage. A little while later we did get our own Garage Manager, Ken Hargreaves, who has managed to put up with us and visa versa for a number of years now.
Now I’ll give Nick his due he was committed to health and safety issues, on the proviso that they were cost effective. Or as is laid down in the Health and Safety legislation, 'where reasonable practical' which does mean bringing costs into the equation. A small company cannot be expected to lay out a very large sum of money on health and safety prevention whereas it is expected that a large company could and should. was not how it should be.
The classic example was the introduction of Hi-Viz vests for all drivers. I had argued for years for these to be issued to all staff quoting no end of safety legislation at Nick. One day at our monthly Health and Safety Committee meetings (these have now regressed to two monthly with very little observance of committee procedure) Nick announced the company was to issue all driver with Hi-Viz vests. I told Nick in no uncertain terms the company was now introducing them as it made the company look good and not to protect the drivers. Nick on the other hand denied this.
Well they say a new broom sweeps clean but what happens with old brooms. I believe that generally things are kept clean enough for people not to get too upset about the odd bits of dirt in the corners. As a trade unionist it always worries me when after a while I see the beginning of a cosy relationship between management and the union reps. This is of course how management want it to be and how they try to manipulate the trade unions. Although Colin Dave and I have held the same official positions for some years now we still have our ups and downs with management but it is inevitable that with time we do become friendlier with the managers on a personnel basis. Just recently this relationship had all the drivers in the canteen in fits of laughter.
We were holding a union ballot to decide who should become the Defects rep, a job that entails keeping the engineers on their toes. The GM was in the canteen and had just bought Colin a cup of tea. A driver had come in to see Colin about more route learning, Colin was trying to tell the GM that he (Colin) would take the driver out in his own time however as usual the GM jumps in before Colin had finished and starts saying that he'd already paid the driver once to do the route learning and was not going to pay him twice. Colin was furious and with a retort of "f...k you" stormed out of the canteen saying I'm trying to help you. After a few seconds the GM looks at me and with a puzzled expression says "I've just bought him a cup of tea." Later as usual the differences were resolved and things were back on an even keel.
That’s how it’s been for some time now. The monthly union meetings we use to have which raised many points have now all but gone. The only times branch meetings are called is over pay deals and now that management like to have three year deals meeting no longer take place. Colin and Dave prefer to listen to drivers complaints on the weekly stand down. Once a week a union rep is stood down to deal with disciplines. I am concerned that we no longer have branch meetings. It was a good place for drivers to have a moan and get things off their chests even if it was the union reps who bore the brunt of the moans. Also it was the same drivers who always turned up to meetings and could pass resolutions that could affect the majority of staff who did not attend. I was forever cajoling drivers to come to the meetings but it was only if the words 'pay' or 'industrial action' was on the agenda would more than a dozen staff turn up. I believe this poor attendance led to Colin and Dave becoming disheartened and this has led to the decline in the branch being an active branch.

Chapter 29 New Managers same Drivers




My work as union Garage Representative and Health and Safety Representative allowed me to meet with all our different garage managers all of whom have their own ways of running things.
In my early days with LT I rarely came into contact with garage managers except on disciplines of which were very rare. I was unfortunate to have had an accident whilst at Edgware garage where a woman driver pulled across into Cricklewood Broadway and collided with the side of my RT bus on route 142 to Kilburn Park Station. I pulled up at the side of the road and went back to see my conductor who was about to disappear into the betting shop calling back to me "you handle it mate it was her fault". I then took the driving particulars of the lady driver and put in my report to the depot inspector expecting to hear no more about it as I was clearly not to blame. Ok I was young and naive. According to all other road users if there is an accident involving a bus then the bus driver must be at fault. In this case I was called in to see the Garage Manager who said he’d received a letter from the lady’s insurance company and she was claiming I was doing over 30mph. I explained to the manager that had she witnessed me travelling at over 30mph why on earth did she pull across into the path of the bus and as it was she didn’t hit the front of the bus but hit it in the middle off side. I was told to put it in writing and hand it in. Fortunately my standard of English was good (no spell checker in those days) and I heard no more about the incident.
No accidents occurred during my spell at Uxbridge garage so no visits to the garage manager.
I’ve mentioned how upon my return to the UK how Reg Goodchild the GM or Chief Inspector as he was known then was more like a father figure always keeping his drivers out of harms way. One afternoon I was coming back from Chelsham on the 706 when I saw they were resurfacing the road on the approach to Tring. I thought I could just squeeze between the stone laying machine and the kerb, unfortunately I couldn’t. Looking in my mirror I saw I had spun the machine around, but continued driving to the garage. Whilst paying in I heard a commotion going on outside the next minute Reg appeared and called me into his office. “Did you hit that road laying machine?”
The truth seemed the best answer, “yes I think I may have”
“Well next time you do that make sure you’ve got the bloody room to get by” and I heard no more about it, Reg must have placated the irate road crew.
Upon my move to Amersham I was to encounter yet another fatherly figure in ‘Gerry’ Coe. Gerry was very good to all his staff and although I had no reason to meet him in a disciplinary manner he was always willing to enquire after my well being.
After Amersham it was back to Hemel Hempstead and a new breed of Garage Manager. While I was working at Amersham Reg Goodchild had retired and his position as Chief Depot Inspector was taken over by George Holby. George as I have mentioned earlier was a wonderful man, very kind, jovial and helpful. Sadly George died before I came back to Hemel Hempstead.
I received no welcome from the new Chief Inspector Arthur Harris and it was not until my first discipline that I met Arthur. I pointed out to him it would have been nice to have been welcomed back to Hemel Hempstead, but it fell upon deaf ears. Arthur spent a lot of time shouting at people. When Luton & District took over, a new set up was put in place. Keen to replace all semblance of London Transport they set about systematically replacing all things LT and that included Arthur and the system of Inspectors. In London and the provinces in the 60s one could tell who you worked for by the colour of the stripe on your uniform trousers and your rank within the company by ones cap badge.
Postmen, a red stripe, LT Underground staff, a yellow stripe, LT Central Bus staff, a blue stripe and LT Country Area, a green stripe. Rank within LT buses was as follows:
Drivers and Conductors a white cap badge
Uniformed Inspectors, a Red badge, then Silver and finally Gold
Driving Instructors had a Blue cap badge
Depot Inspectors did not have a uniform or a badge.
Senior Officials of the London Transport Board had neither uniform nor cap badge but they did have a key fob which if it was shown to you it usually meant you were in trouble (see chapter 4).
All things LT were soon to be swept away including those LT Inspectors who had seen many years service. Inspectors became Depot Managers and were requires to not only work within the depot (Depot Inspectors) but were required to go out checking buses and drivers (Road Inspectors).
The Chief Depot Inspector became the Operations Manager and a further tier of management was added by introducing a Garage Manager responsible for both drivers and engineers. After Arthur Harris moved on we were to have one of the best, in my opinion, Operations Managers I've ever worked with. Luton and District hadn't taken over when 'Bill' Bailey took up his post.
I've already mentioned Bill in chapter 22 as having an uncanny knowledge of when drivers were trying to pull the wool over his eyes. If you had to see Bill on a discipline and you were guilty of the offence Bill knew the moment you entered his office. As the union rep it was my job to accompany drivers on disciplines to put their cases forward and to make sure the correct disciplinary procedures were followed. Now Bill was fair even to the extent of trying to get drivers to find any mitigating circumstances for their actions or omissions.
There was one driver who had allegedly stolen another driver's module (this is a personalised plastic module which slots into a ticket machine and records all the tickets sold). It appeared that this driver would change their own module for the stolen one during their shift and pocket the money taken. Now before I took the driver in to see Bill I asked the driver had they had in fact used the others driver's module and the driver assured me they hadn't. I said to Bill that there must be some explanation and Bill told me how an Inspector had checked the driver's bus and withdrawn tickets from two different machines; one set from the stolen module, Bill even showed me photo copies of the withdrawn tickets. Bill was good enough not to spring this on me during the hearing. There was nothing I could do for the driver except to plead that they keeps their job. The driver was dismissed and the stolen module returned to its rightful owner.
When drivers had claimed that they had hit road signs that over hung the road Bill would always send out an Inspector to check if the road sign was in fact protruding onto the road and if it was the case then the driver was held not to blame and the local council contacted to rectify the road sign.
Above Bill was the Garage Manager and during Bills reign the person in overall charge of the garage was Neil Instrall. Now Bill had this wonderful feeling for being right, never mind what anyone else felt. If Neil decreed something should be done and Bill felt it wrong he would always challenge Neil. If a driver is seen by an official to commit an offence then that same official cannot be part of the disciplinary hearing. On one occasion Neil had spotted a driver driving out of service without permission and duly tried to discipline the driver. Upon hearing this Bill immediately sprung to the driver defence saying although the driver was in the wrong so was Neil in over riding procedure. Another time Bill sprung to the defence of his staff was when a member of the public called into the office to complain and became very offensive to our two female enquiry staff, Bill came rushing out of his office and chased the complainant down the steps and off the premises.
One day sitting in Neil’s office at a union meeting we were discussing which way buses should travel around the depot, the majority, Neil included said the buses should travel in a clockwise direction. No said Bill they will travel anti clockwise. What about democracy one of the union reps said. “I’m in charge of this garage and if I say they go anti clockwise then that’s the way they’ll go.” Although Neil Instrall was in charge Bill got his way.

Chapter 28 From London Country to Arriva




On the 1st January 1970 the Country Area of London Transport was transferred to a subsidiary of the National Bus Company and renamed London Country Bus Services and operated as such for almost seventeen years until September 1986 when it was split into four groups ready to be sold off during 1987/88. The political thinking behind the splitting up of the National Bus company was for small groups to compete to give passengers a better deal. Any manager worth his salt will not be content with a small company when he can either expand his empire, or sell his company and take the money and run.
So began over ten years of turmoil within the bus industry seeing both passengers and employees suffer. We at Hemel Hempstead along with our fellow garages within the old London Country Area were embroiled in this upheaval.
During the period 1986 to 1990 our managers tried in vain to keep LCBS North West, as we were now called, going as a profitable concern but in October 1990 were taken over by Luton & District Transport.
For many years Aylesbury depot had been part of United Counties. Hemel drivers who operated the 301 service from Watford to Aylesbury considered themselves to be a cut above the Aylesbury drivers who after all were part of the provincial buses whereas Hemel Hempstead had been part of London Transport. So it was it was a bitter pill to swallow to find our provincial colleagues rescuing us.
All the drivers and staff were invited to an open meeting held in a hotel where Dennis Upton the MD of Luton & District with his wife Shirley the secretary told us of their plans for the expanded company. I'm afraid to say that we gave them a very rough ride. We believed we could still operate under the old London Transport system which of course was impossible. Dennis told us we were on the point of collapse and we should be grateful to Luton & District for rescuing us. This was a severe blow to our pride. But over the next couple of years things settled down and the London Country North West Logo was removed from the garage and was replaced by Luton & District. Our operating system became that of the provincial bus services, for example vehicle numbers became car numbers, car and vehicle being the name for the bus or coach, mind you after ten years we are back to some of our old London Transport terminology .
After two years, in July 1994, Luton and District sold out to British Bus, previously known as Drawlane and the third largest bus operator in the UK. Many of the Aylesbury drivers made a handsome profit on this deal, being share holders in Luton and District. However in the cut throat market of the deregulated bus market British Bus soon foundered and we at Hemel Hempstead were informed that unless a buyer could be found very soon for British Bus we could all be out of work. We heard that a bid had been put in by Hong Kong Bus and also a rival bid by the Cowie Group. Cowie had been busy buying up a number of South London Bus companies. In the end Cowie won and our jobs saved.
During this upheaval we had a five year pay freeze which is something you do not need with one small child and another on the way and a mortgage whose interest rate had risen to 10 percent. At this time I believed what was required was a period of calm but our branch officials were more militant which is fine when you are in a position of strength. We had been taken over by Luton and District who were at that time owned by a management buy out.
I decided therefore to stand against Dave Carson, the Garage Representative at the next TGWU elections. The mood of the garage must have been similar to mine as I was voted in. Our branch secretary at that time was a young girl, Leslie Wingfield, who helped me settle in to my new role.
In the days of London Transport, wages had been determined by negotiations between the TGWU and London Transport. The rate of pay was the same for every Central LT garage with a lower rate for the Country Area buses and Greenline Coaches.
However with the break up of the Country Area pay rates varied between the four ex London Country Bus Services groups. Drivers at Hemel were on a different rate of pay from our colleagues at Stevenage or Reigate. Things got even worse following the take over by Luton & District and by the time I took over as union representative each garage had to negotiate its own pay scales with its garage manager.
Now our garage manager at that time was Neil Instrall. Neil was keen to keep wages down and also was quite aware that I was new rep with very little wage bargaining experience. Fortunately my good friend Dennis Boarder came to my rescue. Dennis had been in the bus industry nearly as long as I had and had a wealth of experience as a TGWU schedules representative and had attended many wage negotiations with the old London Country management.
Between us we formulated a wage package and put it to Neil Instrall. The first offer Neil put to me was a substantial pay increase for Greenline drivers. Neil knew full well my feeling that Coach driver should be on a higher rate as they had been under London Transport. This pay differential had been sold as part of a general increase in pay for all drivers.
As much as I would have loved to accept a pay rise for myself and my fellow coach drivers as a union representative for all the garage I would have been lynched had I taken that proposition to the members. So negotiations continued. We knew Neil did not have the final say as every time he asked us to leave his office he was on the phone to his manager. After some very noisy meetings during which Dennis came to my aid we managed to persuade the members to accept the managements final offer.
Finally in 1996 we were taken over by Cowie. ( For those interested in the history of the Cowie group and why it changed its name to Arriva check out
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/78/Arriva-Plc.html )
Things soon settled down and I found myself resolving garage disputes including disciplines, route timings and numerous things that go towards a smooth running garage. However one thing still remained outstanding and that was pay and conditions. With perseverance and a willing MD in Peter Harvey we finally achieved our goal of central negotiations. With so much disparity between individual garages it took a few years to get all the drivers in all the garages onto the same pay rates.
By now not only did we have mini buses in the garage but also some routes were operated as contract routes to the local council. To gain these contract routes Neil Instrall had tendered for them agreeing to pay the drivers a rate between that of the mini buses and the big bus pay. Things pay wise were beginning to get complicated. I remember back in the 70s our union representative Bob Stevens warning us not to let mini buses into the garage. Mini bus drivers had a lower rate of pay and if as soon became apparent there became more mini bus drivers than big bus drivers management would play of one group against the other, which of course it did.
Again it would take many years of negotiations to get all drivers onto the same rate of pay. We are still not quite there. When I started at Edgware I was paid the same rate as a driver who had been there forty years. At present a new driver will have to wait three years to reach the full rate of pay, yet he will have the same responsibilities as the driver who has been there for years.
and now coach drivers are paid no more than the bus driver.
Perhaps it was being a coach driver that the accusation of favouring the coach drivers over the bus drivers finally led to my position of Union Representative being challenged. At the next branch elections I was ousted as union rep to be replaced by Colin Bacon. Thankfully Colin has made a very good rep winning us some good pay awards.
I took over the position as Health & Safety Representative which led to gaining a position on a BA course at the London Metropolitan University sponsored by the TGWU.
Part of the course required me to study the history of the bus industry and as a young person I remembered thumbing lifts in cars during the 1958 bus strike. I wanted to find out the facts behind the 1958 bus strike. I have attached that piece of work as an appendix to this narrative. Part of the research would require going through all the minutes taken at the branch meetings, which I was sure I had seen in the old garage. I searched everywhere for them but to no avail. One day I was carrying out a health and safety check in the electrical switch room when I saw an old locked filing cabinet. I got one of the engineers to remove the lock with a pair of bolt cutters and there to my relief were all the old minutes going back to 1956. It was then that I remembered moving the cabinet myself many years ago when we moved from the old garage and putting it in the switch room for safety. One of the points that I made in that project was the dramatic effect the defeat of the Country area busmen had on future industrial action. There were no strikes or threatened industrial action over pay for many years even, as I have mentioned before, during the five year pay freeze. So it was with great pride in my fellow workers that in 2004 we finally balloted for strike action over a pay award. I was at the Luton head office when the results of the pay ballot came through. Management could hardly believe the results, the work force had overwhelmingly rejected the pay offer and were prepared to take industrial action. Within days the union reps were called back around the table and a new and much improved offer was put before them which following a ballot at all of the garages we accepted.

Chapter 27 The Transport and General Workers Union
Photo: T&G Eastbourne Centre






It was during the 1980s and the 90s that the bus industry was subject to takeovers and amalgamations. It was the intention of the Thatcher Government to split up the National Bus Company into many small operating groups in the belief that competition between bus companies would lead to a more efficient transport system. In fact what it led to was chaos for the public and a worsening of working conditions for bus crews. Yet it is strange that it was the capitalist philosophy of the market finding its own level that finally rebuilt the bus industry with all the small fragmented companies being brought out by four major players, Stagecoach, National Express, First Bus and our own company Arriva.
During this time of upheaval I saw my part as a TGWU representative to help smooth the transition from London Country to Luton & District to British Bus and finally to Arriva. One problem was one of Union politics. Hemel Hempstead garage came under TGWU region 1 whereas some other garages within the group came under TGWU region 5 and some mighty rows took place during this time within the union. At one point one of our national officers accused the Amersham representative and myself of trying to form a break away group. We believed we were doing the best for our membership and that the national officer had his own agenda. In the end after lots of inter regional meetings it was decided that pay negotiations would be settled jointly between region 1 and 5 and that region 1 would control all other aspects within its area and likewise with region 5.
At one point I remember my boss Neil Instrall asking myself and our branch Chairman, Bob Cawdren to attend a meeting with the new management of Luton & District. Peter Harvey, the new MD, had come from Midland Fox whose area was covered by Region 5 of the TGWU and Peter was use to dealing with Region 5 officers and he wanted the garages in Region 1 that is the old London Country garages to come under Region 5. We in Region 1 were having non of that. We knew for a start that Region 1 had a better education system for its members and we were prepared to boycott any meetings with the new management. Neil Instrall my garage manager said he’d been told that if the union reps from Region 1 attended a meeting between the management and the work force chances were we would receive some new vehicles. We did attend and Hemel did get some new vehicles. In fact I got on quite well with our new MD Peter Harvey and the move to the new premises went quite smoothly, and Hemel Hempstead was still part
of Region 1.
As a young driver with London Transport I use to attend union meetings at Uxbridge garage, well not in the garage but over the road at the 'Whip and Collar' pub. Being quite a shy young person I actually took no part in the proceedings but was an observer of union procedure.
Having been involved in the closure of Tring garage in 1977 I now really appreciated the hard work the trade unions put in on behalf of their members and once back at Hemel in 1979 I became more involved in union affairs. I gained confidence in speaking in public, something a lot of people find hard to do. Hemel Hempstead garage had always had a reputation for militancy which served the garage well and we had maintained our differential in pay between the central buses and the country area for many years. However with the coming of the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher our pay began to fall and our working conditions became worse. By taking away many of the legal protections the unions had, the ordinary members found it harder and harder to protect their pay and conditions. No longer servants of the public, remember our license was a Public Service Vehicle license, we became part of a profit making company and our license reflected that by becoming a PCV or Passenger Carrying Vehicle license. Part of the revenue we collected now went to share holders who of course wanted a bigger return on their investments which meant efficiency, which in turn meant goodbye to less profitable routes, unless local councils would subsidize those routes. It also meant pay cuts or pay freezes.

Chapter 26 End of the Road for Jetlink



Driving through London during the 70s there were often diversions and hold ups due to IRA bomb threats. Perhaps because I was young this did not worry me very much although Annette has since told me she would often worry about me especially when I was late, remember no mobile phone in those far off days. But one day the tables were turned when Annette along with other mums and teachers took some school children including our son Mark to the Royal Tournament at Earls Court and there was a terrorist attack in which some soldiers and horses were blown up in Park Lane. I was at home and had to sit worrying until they all turned up safely.
One morning a group of terrorist decided to plant a bomb under the M25 at Kings Langley. You can imagine the chaos this caused. All the roads around Hemel Hempstead were grid locked. At first nobody knew why. I took over my coach at Hemel Hempstead loaded with passengers from Luton who were going onto Heathrow and Gatwick, I tried for several hours trying to get to Watford, often passing other buses in very narrow back roads. Eventually the word filtered through that no vehicles were allowed to pass under the M25 and therefore we were trapped between Hemel Hempstead and Kings Langley. I explained this to the passengers and said all I could do was to take them back to our garage at Hemel Hempstead. When I arrived back, three hours after leaving, I explained the situation to our Garage Manager Neil Instrall who, to give him credit, gave all the passengers a free breakfast before arranging for them to be taken on to Hemel Hempstead railway station or in some cases back to Luton bus station.
Well after nearly thirteen years on the Jetlink and the last of the original four drivers things were, unknown to me, beginning to take their toll. I found that every time I went onto the M25 motorway at Heathrow I would begin to feel apprehensive. Sometimes I would even feel a bit dizzy. It reached the point where I thought I might have some sort of brain tumour and eventually voiced my fears to Annette. Bless her, she sat me down and explained to me that after all this time of motorway work I was almost certainly suffering from stress. Stress is of course something that most men would not admit to suffering from. Fortunately I believed Annette and once accepting I was suffering from stress the symptoms began to recede and driving on the Jetlink became more enjoyable again.
With the Jetlink services becoming more extensive now running to Brighton in the south and Cambridge and Norwich in the north and with the greater involvement of the parent company National Express there seemed no need for the involvement of two other separate companies. Hemel Hempstead was operated by Arriva and Stevenage was operated by Sovereign Bus. It was therefore decided that as from 1st January 1998 all Jetlink services would be operated from the new dedicated Jetlink depot at Ashford in Middlesex. The old Staines garage would operate buses only.
All of the drivers I've ever spoken to have agreed that the 747 Jetlink service was the best route that we ever had, and it was. Pride in the job, I was always telling my bosses, was something that had been gradually eroded over the years. I believe that the Jetlink, had for thirteen years, restored some of that pride.
During my spell on the Jetlink the 708 Greenline had been finally withdrawn. Many years earlier back in the early 70's Annette and I would visit my Mother in Edgware by travelling on the 706 from the bottom of our road direct to Edgware. Our baby son Mark in his bassinette would just fit neatly into the luggage compartment of the RF. After the 706 was withdrawn in 1975 the 708 was extended to Aylesbury, but during the early 1980's even that service was withdrawn and we found it harder to get to Edgware. By the 90's we had to travel by rail from Aylesbury to Harrow on the Hill then travel by bus from Harrow on the Hill to Edgware. More and more the travel market concentrated on commuters. In 1988 with the success of the 758 commuter route from Hemel Hempstead to London it was decided to operate a commuter service from Aylesbury to London via Amersham the 788. To operate this service the old British Road Services depot at Aston Clinton was converted to an out station of Amersham garage. Now I had to decide whether to transfer to this new out station a few minutes down the road from where we lived or continue riding to Hemel Hempstead on my motor bike and remain on the Jetlink rota and stay with my friends. That April Annette and I took Mark and Heather to visit their grandparents in Australia. I spent a lot of that time pondering over whether to transfer to the new out station. It was finally my daughter who persuaded me not to transfer, I think she realised how much I enjoyed being on the Jetlink. This in the end was a good decision as Aston Clinton depot only lasted a couple of years and all the staff had to transfer back to Amersham. Whereas I remained at Hemel Hempstead and continued on the Jetlink until its withdrawal from our garage on 31st December 1997.
Once more the question of seniority arose, was I entitled to a position on the 758 rota. Luckily by now I was near the top of the seniority list and as there were vacancies to be filled on the ever expanding 758 rota I was soon back driving on the Greenline.
After thirteen years on the Jetlink it was very strange to drive up to junction eight of the M1 and to turn right towards London rather than left to Luton. In fact one or two of the regular commuters had remembered me from my earlier days on the original 758s and reminded me to turn right, for a while I had to make a concerted effort to go the correct way.
Well since starting with London Country at Tring garage in 1972 I had completed thirteen years on Greenline, I had just finished a thirteen year spell on the Jetlink, only thirteen years to go until I retire.

Chapter 25 A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To



As we were now going to Stanstead and Gatwick some duties comprised of journeys from Hemel Hempstead to Stanstead and back to Hemel Hempstead while other duties were from Hemel Hempstead to Gatwick and back and we even had duties at the weekend which took in all four airports.
One afternoon the inevitable happened. I took over my coach and set off for Stanstead. Having left the bus station at Hemel Hempstead I set off up the MI to Luton. Approaching Luton town centre an Asian gentleman started telling me he had a return ticket to Heathrow, I explained to him that yes he’d been to Heathrow and I was now returning him to Luton, he was becoming quite agitated, and I was trying to point out to him that yes he’d been to Heathrow and I was now heading to Luton. It wasn’t until I pulled into Luton bus station along side another Jetlink coach and the driver, my friend ‘Taffy’ from Stevenage, called across to me “where the hell are you heading to”
“Stanstead” I replied
“Well shouldn't you be going to Gatwick”
The unfortunate Asian gentleman had boarded the coach an hour earlier at Luton and was heading for Heathrow and I had taken him and the other passengers back to Luton. It is really amazing how passengers will not tell you when you’ve gone wrong. Usually ten minutes after you’ve gone wrong they call out “is this a new route.”
So here I was at Luton when I should be nearly at Heathrow. Nobody but the Asian gentleman had said a word. After leaving the change over point at Hemel Hempstead garage I should have gone along the A41 to Watford Junction and then back along the A41 onto the M25. Fortunately non of the passengers required Watford Junction, whether any body at Watford Junction wanted Heathrow or Gatwick I’ll never know as I quickly departed Luton bus station and went straight back to the M1 and down to Kings Langley and onto the M25 arriving at Heathrow only twenty minutes late.
You know when you get that feeling that something has gone wrong but you pretend it hasn’t well that happened to me one morning after leaving Gatwick North Terminal. As I was going around the roundabout outside the North Terminal I glanced across to my nearside mirror and thought I saw a bird flying away from the side of the coach, another quick look told me that one of the side locker doors had swung open. I pulled up just off the roundabout, got out, looked into the luggage compartment and all the cases seemed to be there. I walked back to the roundabout but could see nothing. I made sure the locker was firmly closed and proceeded on to Heathrow. At Heathrow Central bus station I unloaded all the luggage for Heathrow. It was then that I noticed a Japanese gentleman looking puzzled. “where is my luggage?”
Oh dear that wasn’t a bird I saw at Gatwick that was a piece of luggage.
“it may still be at Gatwick” I lied. I went over to the Control Inspectors office to report the incident. Funny he was expecting me. “You’re bloody lucky driver, a passenger on the shuttle train between North and South Terminal at Gatwick saw the case fly out of the locker and reported it to the Gatwick Controller whose told the next coach to pick it up off the roundabout, he should be arriving over at Terminal 2 about now”
I ran over to the worried passenger and told him that his case had been located at Gatwick and was ready for collection at Terminal 2 where I drove him straight away and collected his case off the driver of the following coach. The gentleman was so pleased with me for locating his case. I was lucky that day.
Some days not so lucky. Heathrow bus station was being rebuilt at one point and it was very awkward manoeuvring in and out of the arrival and departure bays. Right behind the Jetlink bay was a wall and a large brick air vent from the Piccadilly line tube station. One morning I was reversing out from the bay when the coach seemed to get stuck, I revved the engine and let the clutch out but still I couldn’t get the coach to reverse. “it’s no good driver” a passenger at the back called out “you’re stuck up against the wall.”
The thing is unless you can get full lock on as soon as you start to reverse you’ll hit the wall which is in your blind spot. Well no problem, pull forwards and try again. I pulled back into the bay, got out to see if there were any scratches on the rear bumper, oops no bumper, it had fallen off. After an apology to the passengers I off loaded the luggage and transferred them onto the next service. I put the bumper in the boot and rang up our engineers at Hemel Hempstead who said to bring the coach back to Hemel. Before leaving I had a close look at the wall and the air vent, both were covered in a multitude of different colours from various coaches, City of Oxford blue, Jetlink green, National Express white. Upon arrival back at the garage the engineers and myself had a close look at the brackets that had held the bumper on, they were completely rusted through, the slightest knock would have seen the bumper falling off, so no fault there. I still had to see the Garage Manager. When ever you went into see Bill Bailey you knew you were guilty until proven innocent. It was rumoured that Bill had been a former Redcap in the military police. Bill certainly had an instinct for knowing who was guilty, but if an incident was not your fault he would go out his way to help you. In this instance he sent Inspector Barry Madams down to Heathrow to look over the bus station. The day before Barry was there an Oxford coach had collided with a reversing National Express by the Jetlink bay. Fortunately for me Barry was able to tell Bill the unsuitability of the temporary bus bays and the danger it imposed upon all the drivers.
All modern coaches and buses have powered assisted steering unlike the old RT type buses I drove in the early days. When you are driving along you do not consciously think about the powered steering, however late at night driving at 100kph (62mph) along the M25 when it fails you are certainly aware of it and it’s pretty scary. Approaching Heathrow the drain nut on the hydraulic fluid reservoir had become loose and finally fell out along with all the fluid. As another coach passed me I went to move the steering wheel to correct the movement caused by the passing coach, nothing. My coach started to move into the next lane and only by quick thinking was I able, with great effort, to pull the wheel over to the nearside. Gradually slowing right down I steered the coach along to the motorway exit for Terminal 4. Having at times to almost stand up to pull the steering wheel around I got the coach to Terminal 4. Having already having suffered from a hernia I didn’t want a second one. I transferred the passengers were transferred onto the following Jetlink service and then waited for young Ian Scott our engineer to come out and rescue me.
For reasons only known to those who run the bus industry we were either short of drivers or short of buses but rarely at the same time. For more years than I care to remember we were always fully staffed about Xmas time when you really needed the overtime and a bit of extra cash, and during the summer especially nice hot ones when you could do with having a rest Inspectors were always pleading with you to do a bit more. Mind you, you got use to the times when there were vehicle shortages, you could sit in the canteen for at least half a shift some days and then not feel like going out when the engineers managed to get a vehicle patched up.
So on occasions we actually ran out of coaches on the Jetlink and so every now and again we would get a mini bus on the 7474s. When we did the bus enthusiasts would soon find out and be waiting at strategic points. One Saturday due to a mechanical failure I was given an MCW mini bus to go from Hemel Hempstead to Stanstead Airport. Although only having a top speed of just over 50mph which meant loosing time on the motorways you could gain time by cutting across country. I had arrived and departed on time from Stanstead and was making good time down the M1 towards Hemel Hempstead when just a few hundred yards from Junction 8, the Hemel Hempstead turn off, the mini bus sputtered to a halt, it had ran out of diesel. The engineers had overlooked the fact that the minis have smaller fuel tanks and this one had already been out on the road most of the morning. Fortunately I only had one elderly gentleman on board who was on his way home and he took it quite well as we had to wait some time as the engineers had to go north along the M1 to the A5 turn off so as to return on the south bound carriageway.