Driver Journal

This is an example of a Driver's Journal (in case the resolution means it can't be read clearly, here it is in 4 sections: top left ; top right ; bottom left ; bottom right ).

Normally, the 1st thing a driver does on arriving at the depot is to pick up their journal. The journal has the driver's name, employee number and "today's" date.

The Duty id, in this example, is "D519" (top right corner). This duty is only run on Saturday (because the Saturday bus schedule is different from the other days of the week). It is run on every Saturday but (usually) by a different driver. The D519 is the same very Saturday (well, perhaps once a year the duties are redesigned because, for example, route timings are changed or allocations of routes between depots are changed). I knew I would be driving this duty on this day because yesterday the roster said I would. There is a book in the depot containing all the Duties which I can look at if I wanted to see what the Duty I will be doing "tomorrow" looks like.

The box at the top of the journal is mainly a summary of what is below. However, it contains my sign-on time (in this case, 15.46), my sign off time (24.40, which is 12:40am), the duration of my "first half" (ie, how many hours I work before my meal break, in this case 5 hours) and the duration of my "second half" (3 hours and 4 minutes).

Now, the lower part of the journal:

The "sbus" means "staff bus". This means I take a bus from the depot and drive (without passengers) to (in this case) the corner of David St and Liverpool Rd (in Burwood) to meet a bus being driven in service by another driver. I take over his/her bus (which is in service and has passengers). He/she drives the staff bus back to the depot for his/her meal break or to sign off. This process is known as "relieving". The hand written "3864" is the number of the staff bus. The "3939" is the bus I took over. I am given 9 minutes (15.55 to 16.04) to get from the depot to the relief point (this is normally enough time but I prefer to leave the depot a bit early to I don't feel pressed by time).

The 483 is the route number I'm driving.

The "B324" is the run number. This is set up in the front window of the bus, like this. This allows the inspectors watching the buses to differentiate between the many 483s one the road at the same time. The "B" stands for "Burwood depot".

The items like "Ashfield (Liverpool Rd)..... 16:20" are timing points. I am meant to be at that place at the time (or later, never earlier). "The Domain" is where the route terminates and, in this case, I commence a return 483 from the same location 12 minutes later (assuming I arrive on schedule).

"SPL" stands for "Special". "Running special" is what we do to reposition the bus between the depot and the start of the route, from the end of the route back to the depot and from the end of one route to the start of the next. This is done without passengers. The buses with electronic destination signs say "Out of Service".

I write more about this journal in future postings.

MOT Cards

Every driver has a MOT Card. MOT stands for Ministry of Transport . The card has a photo of the driver and a serial number. It proves the driver has the authority to drive a public transport vehicle. Taxi drivers have them, too.

Drivers are required by law to put their MOT cards in a holder located at the front of the bus above the front windscreen. This is in view of the traveling public.

Sometimes drivers forget to put the card up (as I have) and sometime they forget to take it down when they leave the bus (as I have). The other day, I forgot to put mine up and, by coincidence, the previous driver had not taken his down. The previous driver has a large black beard and a turban. I have neither. No one noticed.

Eggs

On a number of occasions, eggs have been thrown at the bus I have been driving. This normally happens on a Friday or Saturday night by, I assume, somewhat drunk youths. When this happens, I call the Radio Room and report the incident and the location. The Radio Room warns the other drivers.

Once, the egg hit the front windscreen. I had to stop and clean it off. The windscreen wipers don’t have water in them, so I used my drinking water.

Sometimes rocks are thrown at buses. This hasn’t happened to me (yet) but I hear about the incidences over the bus radio. If a window is cracked, the bus has to be taken out of service, a disruption to the passengers.

I can understand rocks, a spur of the moment decision by the thrower. Eggs require planning.

I usually drive with the driver’s side window open so I am at some risk.

New Routes

Burwood depot has been assigned 3 new bus routes, specifically, 525, 458 and 459. These routes aren't new to the system. They had previously been done by the Ryde Depot. In fact, they still are, Burwood is sharing the routes with Ryde. I haven't driven any of them yet, but it is a matter of time.

I don't like this. It means I have to learn how to navigate them. With the existing Burwood routes, I have done them enough times I can do them on 'auto pilot'. I know where the bus stops are, which turns require special care, when to change lanes, etc.

So, as I did when I was first learning the Burwood routes, I use the map provided with the passenger timetable and a street directory which I used to I draw a map to provide me with navigation information. The street directory gives me the location of traffic lights and roundabouts (traffic circles) which I can use as landmarks while driving.

However, now there is an addition tool available, Google Street View. I can now 'drive' the route on the Internet. This gives me access to more landmarks, such as buildings, and I can see what the turns look like. Quite handy, actually.

A Close Encounter ...

... of the Third Kind. Contact.

The blue paint on this car came from a bus. Not, by the way, a bus I was driving.

Here is the situation. At the end of the 438 route, there is a place to turn around the buses.

It is possible to turn a bus around without doing a 3 point turn. The old Mercedes-Benz buses are easiest because they have a short wheelbase. The Volvo B12 buses have a longer wheelbase but a good turning radius. The Volvo B10s are the hardest because they have a long wheelbase and a poor turning radius.

The problem occurs because of tail swing. The end of the bus is about 2 metres behind the rear axle. The buses turn in a clockwise direction. To do the turn in one go requires the driver to start as far left as possible and to turn sharply. When the bus turns right, the tail goes left. The car on the left in this photo is the one at risk.

I have seen at least 2 cars with blue paint on them.

Druitt Street re-opened

The inbound bus lane on Druitt St has been re-opened (Druitt St is above the 'Cross City Tunnel')

Druitt St has 3 lanes. Two lanes are outbound (ie, out of the city), one of these is a bus lane, the other is for general traffic. The 3rd (inbound) lane is for buses only. During the evening peak hour, hundreds of people cross Druitt St on their way to the Town Hall train station. While there is lots of traffic leaving the city, there are not many buses entering the city on the bus lane. Some people forgot to look both ways.

Permanent fences have been installed on either side of the bus lane and there is a speed limit of 30kph.

Below, is an article from the Sydney Morning Herald from last year describing why it was closed.

Danger zone dispute on road to nowhere fast
Linton Besser Transport Reporter
November 13, 2007

IT TOOK 13 accidents involving pedestrians and buses for the city council and three government agencies to sit down and discuss ways to improve safety in one of the city's worst danger zones.

But after arguing for two years they still didn't reach a permanent truce, underlining the difficulties of getting road conditions changed in Sydney's CBD.

So instead, the State Government has decided to take unilateral action.

Eastbound buses, since August, have travelled up Bathurst Street into the CBD, after the Druitt Street bus lane was closed adding as much as 15 minutes to journeys for inner-west commuters.

But buses will return to the $1 million bus lane on the western distributor before the end of the year in a trial of an alternative route - instead of continuing up Druitt Street, the vehicles will turn right on Sussex, and then left again up Bathurst.

Until now, the City of Sydney Council, the Roads and Traffic Authority, the Ministry of Transport and State Transit have long argued over how to protect pedestrians from buses along the busy artery.

The first accident was only weeks after the Cross City Tunnel opened in 2005, when Druitt Street was reconfigured as a two-way artery for buses.

Plastic barricades were erected after the accident to stop pedestrians, unaware that the steep thoroughfare was no longer one way, from stepping out.

But hordes of city workers continued to overwhelm narrow footpaths and spill onto the road or - too frustrated to wait for traffic lights to change - took their chances with the Druitt Street traffic.

The accidents continued: a woman was killed on June 19 crossing at Clarence Street where it meets Druitt, and in July another woman was rushed to intensive care after she was hit by a bus crossing Druitt Street at the corner of Sussex Street.

Two days later, under pressure from the Rail Tram and Bus Union, State Transit said it was suspending eastbound Druitt Street bus services indefinitely. On August 23 the bus lane was closed, bringing to an end the horror run.

As a permanent solution, State Transit has argued for a high fence to be built along a median-strip down the centre of Druitt Street, preventing jaywalking.

But the chairman of the city council's traffic committee, Councillor John McInerney, said the transit authority's proposed fences would not work because "it transfers the problem to the end of the fence, and ... traffic speeds up where the fence is".

He also criticised the RTA for ignoring the needs of pedestrians, adding the council wished to take control of the city's traffic lights.

"We think they do a very bad job and give overly long times for cars going through the city," he said.

The RTA is loath to give pedestrians greater priority at the lights, arguing changes to the lights' rotation could have a ripple effect throughout the CBD.

"Traffic light phasing on Druitt Street during peak periods has been set, as in all areas of the CBD, to balance the need for adequate pedestrian walking times with the need to keep buses and other traffic flowing," said Adam Berry, a spokesman for the Roads and Transport Authority.

Russell Mahoney, a spokesman for Transport Minister, John Watkins, said the government agencies involved would "continue to consider engineering solutions to the problem".

Internet off line

The bus depots have computers for use by the drivers to access the internet in their spare time. Burwood has 4.

However, they have been off the air for the past few weeks. Apparently, they have been used to access 'inappropriate' material. They are to be updated with improved filters. A driver from the Leichhardt depot said their computers are down, too. So it seems to be a company wide change.

Burwood also has an unsecured Wi-fi signal which I have used to access the internet via my PDA. That, too, is off the air.

Regarding my PDA, I have used it to try to find unsecured Wi-fi signals in various parts of the city when between runs but without success.

10 Cents Revisited

In March last year I said that fare changes introduced in January of that year meant drivers gave out a lot of 10 cent coins as change. The most common 'new' fares were 1.70, 1.90 and 2.90. Managing the supply of 10 cent coins was a daily challenge. I would bring 10 cent coins from home to boost my supply.

Well, the fare changed again in January this year, the most common fares are now 1.80, 2.00 and 3.00. The tyranny of the 10 cent coin is over, well, until the fares change again, probably in January next year.

A few months ago a change machine was installed in the depot which gives 10 and 20 cent coins in return for paper notes. About 18 months late.

The Pope is in town

This week has been World Youth Day .

There have been a lot of road closures in the city. Which roads where closed depended on the day and, sometimes, the time of day.

From a bus driver's point of view, it is no different to any other occasion when roads are closed, New Years Eve, APEC , parades, etc. On the day, we are given instructions and maps showing the alternate routes, lay up areas and bus stops to be used. We have no need to know this information in advance of the day we use it.

The 'pilgrims' (as the attendees are called) have a pass which gives them free public transport.

Extra bus services were put on, drivers were asked to volunteer to do 12 hour days. I didn't volunteer but got one anyway. Some months ago, we were told that no leave would be granted for this week (though, those who had already been given leave, kept it).

The pilgrims I had on my bus runs were cheerful, friendly and polite.

"Are you married?"

Female passenger boarding bus: "Are you married?"
Me: "Er ... why?"
FPBB: "Well, you seem happy."

Hmmm .... I wonder which way she meant that.

Sunrise, New Year's Day

I worked New Year's Eve or, perhaps more accurately, New Year's Morning. I started work at about 9pm Monday night and finished at 5:25am (or as it Sydney Buses writes it in their '24 hour' clock, 29.25). The sun was rising on my way home.

I was being paid at double time. I understand this was a 'gift' from Sydney Buses as New Year's Eve is not a public holiday and they are not required by the union agreement to may extra.

I was also given a 'crib', meaning I was paid for the time I had as a meal break. Normally, meal breaks are not paid time.

Out of fuel

Last night Burwood depot ran out of fuel. Drivers were told to go to the Leichhardt depot to refuel. I didn't have to because my bus had been refuel before leaving the depot.

Buses use 30-40lt/100km.

One Year On

I have now been driving for just over 1 year. October 25 was the anniversary. The year has gone fast but the novelty is starting to wear off.

The main problem with the job is the hours, the number and the schedule. On average I work more than 5 days a week and more than 8 hours a day. I am still on the Holiday Relief Roster (a.k.a., "The Scrap"). This means I don't know what hours I'll be working tomorrow until about 3pm today.

Down Memory Lane

The other day I was rostered as a 'spare' driver. This means I am assigned a start time (in this case, 15.00) but no specific bus routes. The purpose of spare drivers is to be avalable in case another driver calls in sick.

On this day, I was given the bus routes of a driver operating from the Leichhardt depot. I did this from the Burwood depot using a Burwood bus (there are spare buses now because of the school holidays). I was phoned at home and asked to start a bit earlier, specifically 13.50.

I did 2 different bus routes, the 431 which I have done before and the 470 which I hadn't done before.

The 470 was the bus route I used when I visited the lady who is now my wife. That was more than a few years ago.

Frogging and Foxxing

"Frogging" refers to buses "leap frogging" each other at bus stops. When the 1st bus stops to pick up passengers, the 2nd bus overtakes the 1st bus (unless the 2nd bus has to stop to set down passengers) This is most common on routes going into the city as routes converge. There are some instances when this can be done on routes going out of the city. It is also done when the driver of the 2nd bus is certain that there are no passengers at the stop being skipped wanting the 2nd bus.

A variation of frogging is when the driver of the 1st bus does not stop to pick up passengers, leaving them for the 2nd bus. This makes sense in that there is no point of the 1st bus stopping to pick up passengers if the 2nd bus is stopping to set down passengers. The risk is the 2nd bus is full and cannot accept all the passengers who want to get on.

"Foxxing" refers to the driver of the 2nd bus deliberately staying behind the 1st bus to avoid picking up passengers. This is considered bad form. Sometimes foxxing cannot be helped as traffic prevents overtaking. A dilemma can occur for the driver of the 2nd bus if overtaking the 1st bus means the 2nd bus runs ahead of schedule.

Work As Directed

WAD (Work as Directed) sometimes shows up on my day's schedule. This means for the time specified, no route driving has been assigned. The amount of time assigned is typically a few hours but can vary from a whole day to as little as 4 minutes.

When the whole day is WAD it means I am a 'spare' driver, available to do routes normally belonging to drivers who are off sick. Once I had a start time of 11 AM but I was phoned at home and asked to start earlier in order to take over the entire day's work of another driver.

The 4 minutes WAD I had once was the result of the rule that drivers are paid for at least 7 hours of work per day. The 4 minutes was to fill the gap.

A driver doing WAD is required to write their name and WAD time on a scheduled in the DI's (Depot Inspector's) office and wait in the depot (typically the meal room) to be called over the public address system,

If the WAD time is less than about 2 hours it is not practical to do any route driving because of the time it takes to drive from the depot, do the route and return to the depot. In these cases, other tasks can be assigned. Some of the tasks I have done while doing WAD:
- nothing;
- took an administration staff member to a local shopping mall (I assume for business reasons). I drove her in a bus to the mall, waited for her and drove her back to the depot;
- closed the windows of the buses in the depot parking lot. The old buses are not air conditioned and have opening passenger windows and roof hatches. Drivers are supposed to close these when returning the depot but many don't. It was about to rain so the Depot Inspector as me to ensure they were closed;
- drove a bus to replace a bus which was defective in service (the passenger bell wasn't working). This meant driving to an agreed meeting point, exchanging buses with the driver and driving the defective bus back to the depot;
- driving a bus to replace a broken down bus. The other driver took the bus I came in to continue his run. I waited in the defective bus until a mechanic arrived to fix the bus. I returned to the depot the mechanic had driven.

On Friday and Saturday nights there are some 'Night Owl' rosters. These typically start from around 5 PM and finish after 2 AM. An hour or 2 of WAD time is build into the schedule so the driver can have a nap.

Allocating Buses

There are 3 factors which determine which bus is allocated to a driver.

First, some routes have tight turns so require a short wheel based bus. At the Burwood depot this means a Mercedes bus. Second, some routes are advertised in the published schedules as using buses which have wheel chair access. At the Burwood depot this means one either the Volvo B10
or Volvo B12. These 2 options are mutually exclusive as none of the short wheel based buses have wheel chair access. There are many routes where the type of bus is not important so any bus can be allocated.

The third factor is due to the fact that the buses are parked so tightly in the depot parking area over night that the ‘outside’ buses have to be allocated first. This factor takes lower priority to the first 2 so the buses must be parked in a manner that the first 2 factors can be satisfied.

There is a computer generated bus allocation schedule. This contains, amongst other things (*), the name of the driver, the type of bus and the time of departure. The listing is in time of departure sequence. A ‘shed driver’ (the people responsible for organising the buses in the depot) hand writes the bus number (and, usually, the location of the bus in the depot parking lot) next to the driver’s name. The driver (is supposed to) sign the schedule to acknowledge receiving the bus.

This process happens twice a day as drivers return to the depot for their meal break.

(*) The schedule also contains the number of kilometres the bus will run. Curiously, this number is expressed to 3 decimal places - a metre. Changing lanes will add more than this to the distance. A driver will typically drive 100-120km in a day.

Spending a Penny

I used to work in an office. In an office you can use the toilet almost any time you want. Not so driving a bus.

Drivers are provided a list of available toilets they can use. Typically, the toilets are at the end of bus routes. Some are public toilets in parks, shopping centres, train stations and pubs. Some are purpose built for drivers. There are some pubs not of the official list who don’t mind if drivers use their toilets. Drivers are given a master key for those toilets which are kept locked.

One driver told me how he was desperate to go in the middle of a bus route. He realised the route passed close to one of the toilets available for drivers. He diverted off the route (with passengers), used the facilities and resumed the route.

12 Days Straight

I have just finished working 12 days straight. This is the longest time allowed without a day off (I don’t know if the 12 day limit is governed by government road rules or union agreement).

In a 4 week roster period we are meant to have 2 days off each week and 1 ADO (accrued day off), a total to 9 days. However, management are allowed to cancel 2 of the days off and I am required to work them (of course, I get paid for them). This rule is part of the union agreement.

The 2 days are usually cancelled when the 4 week roster is published. However, more days off can be cancelled as the roster period progresses. If I want to preserve a day off (ie, not let it be cancelled) I must write my name against the appropriate date in the “Days Off Retention” diary. Even this does not guarantee it will not be cancelled. I had 1 ‘preserved’ day off cancelled, I think, because a lot of drivers had nominated the same day and I am near the bottom of the seniority list. I normally try to preserve all my days off.

There is also an “On Call” diary. A driver wishing to work on an allocated day off put their name against the appropriate date. I have never done this. Some drivers work 7 of their 9 days off, I assume, because they need the extra money.

Hand Signals

Buses have a ”Give Way” sign on the back. This requires drivers of other vehicles to give way when pulling out of a bus stop.

Here is the way the rule is expressed in the Australian Road Rules (page 103):

77 Giving way to buses
(1) A driver driving on a length of road in a built-up area, in the
left lane or left line of traffic, must give way to a bus in front of
the driver if:
(a) the bus has stopped, or is moving slowly, at the far left
side of the road, on a shoulder of the road, or in a bus-stop
bay; and
(b) the bus displays a give way to buses sign and the right
direction indicator lights of the bus are operating; and
(c) the bus is about to enter or proceed in the lane or line of
traffic in which the driver is driving.

I wish I had a dollar for every car which does not give way.

However, I have discovered in the past few weeks that by signaling my intention to pull out using my hand, the other drivers are more likely to give way. I guess the hand signal is more personal than the turn indicators lights. I keep my hand open to ensure it is not interpreted as a rude jester.

Bus Drivers Wanted Now

This is the ticket given for cash fares. It now includes an ad for bus driver positions at the bottom. I only noticed this a few days ago so I think it is new. Concession tickets (those sold to pensioners and students) don’t have this message. I wonder how many people actually read the ticket.

I first became interested in becoming a bus driver as a result of a poster ad inside a bus. That was more than 5 years ago.

A bus trainer told me he thought about 40% of bus drivers quit within 2 years.

Gridlock

On Monday evening about 6pm I was doing the route 437 into the city. The northern end of George St was gridlocked. It took me 40 minutes to get from the Sydney Town Hall to Circular Quay, a distance of less than 2 km. The rain probably had something to do with it.

As it was, it was my last run. I returned to the depot after I (finally) got to Circular Quay. I arrived at the depot about 30 minutes after I was scheduled to. For this I get half an hour extra pay. I claim this by writing it on my driver’s journal and getting the depot inspector to sign it. This is done with no questions asked.

Thank you, driver

About 10% of passengers say “thanks” as they leave the bus. The rest shout obscenities (just kidding).

Rookwood Cemetery

On Saturday I did 3 round trips of route 408 to the Rookwood Cemetery. I have done this route a few times before but this was the 1st time on a weekend.

My 1st run started at 9AM from Burwood. The bus became full, standing room only. Almost all the passengers were elderly women, many with flowers. With so many elderly people standing I had to be extra careful with the speed I used during acceleration, braking, on corners and over speed humps.

The cemetery is huge. The road taken by the bus covers only a small part of it. Some of the bus stop signs indicate the religion domination buried nearby, Anglican, Lutheran, etc.

Dementia

I had a passenger today who seemed to have the early stages of dementia.

When he got on the bus he was well dressed and friendly. He asked where I was going and I told him the final destination (Five Dock). He said “That’s where I live”. He spent about a minute looking though his wallet. He asked, “What do I need to give you”? I saw a pensioner card in his wallet so I said he could either pay $1.90 for a single fare or $2.50 for the pensioner day ticket if he was planning to travel more today. He continued to fumble with his wallet. By now I had another bus waiting behind me so I suggested he sit down so I could move away from the stop.

Shortly after that he handed me 2 $5 notes and a current pension day ticket. Obviously he had purchased the day ticket earlier and had forgotten about it. More to the point this suggested to me that he didn’t understand what the ticket or the 2 $5 dollar notes were for.

This matched my understanding of how dementia works. A few years ago a prominent person was diagnosed with dementia. In the reporting of this, the newspaper article said that forgetting where you put your keys is not a sign of dementia, it’s when you can’t remember what keys are for.

I became a bit concerned that the passenger decided to go to Five Dock simply because that was where I said I was going. However, when he got off the bus at Five Dock he seemed comfortable where he was.

10 Cents

At the beginning of January most bus fares went up. Now the most common cash fares are $1.70 (unchanged), $2.90 (up from $2.80) and $3.90 ($3.80).

These fares have resulted in drivers using more 10 cent coins for change. During the day this isn’t usually a problem as most regular passengers either use prepaid tickets or have exact change. It can become a problem on Friday and Saturday nights as many of the passengers are not regular bus users and don’t know what the fare will be so simply offer, say, a $5 bill.

Whenever a passenger gives me some 10 cent coins in payment I thank them for the change and encourage them to do so again next time. One lady paid a $1.70 fare entirely with 10 cent coins (well, I assumed it was $1.70, I didn’t count it).

Free Travel

At 9 pm last night an announcement came over the radio saying no fares were to be collected from then until midnight.

Both the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liners were in the harbour at the same time. Apparently, so many people went down to the harbour to see them, traffic became congested. Fares were not to be collected to save time boarding passengers.

I had been doing routes 462 and 464 all evening. These do not go into the city so I was unaware of the problems.

Exceeding the Award

There is a rule which says a bus driver must not work more than 5 hours in one stretch. I don’t know if this is a government regulation or part of the union agreement (which is sometimes called an ‘award’). To go beyond the 5 hours is referred to as ‘exceeding the award’.

If a driver is running late and is about to start a route which, due to its scheduled length, would cause the driver to work more than the 5 hours, the driver is meant to report it to the Radio Room and the route is cancelled. However, if the driver starts the route on time but runs late during the route (causing the driver to work more than 5 hours) the driver finished the route.

Yesterday I exceeded the award but it was, in my opinion, due to poor roster design.

The roster I worked had a ‘first half’ (before the meal break) of 4 hours and 55 minutes. Not much room for error. The last 2 routes I was scheduled to do were ‘school specials’ (picking up children from school). I had arrived about 5 minutes late for the 1st one (due to finishing the previous route late). Near the end of the 1st school special I encountered delays due to road work, delaying me a further 10 minutes. When I contacted the Radio Room it was already time from me to start the 2nd school special but it was going to take me at least 10 minutes to get to the school.

School specials are never cancelled (the kids cannot be left to make their own way home). But I could not do it due to the 5 hour limit. This meant I returned to the depot and another bus was sent from the depot to do the route I couldn’t

It seems poor roster design for me to be assigned the school specials in these circumstances.

Yech

Someone vomited in the bus the other day. I was doing route 438 from the city to Abbotsford. About 2 kilometres before Abbotsford a departing passenger (not the vomiter) told be about it. Someone who seemed drunk had gotten off a few stops earlier. There were only a few passengers still on the bus. I continued to the end of the run.

I contacted the Radio Room. The ‘standard’ procedure is I should be given a replacement bus (ie, someone from the depot drives another bus to Abbotsford and returns with the bus I have). However, this was about 9pm and there would not have been many spare people at the depot. Also, there were passengers waiting for the return trip to the city.

The Radio Room operator suggested I clean it up. I said “OK”. I carry paper towels with me in case I have to clean the windscreen. I used these and some newspapers left behind by passengers. Luckily, it was only on the floor (not the seats) and wasn’t too smelly.

Another driver told me later he carries disposable rubber gloves and plastic bags for such occasions. I think I will do the same.

New Years Eve

An estimated 1 million people went to the harbour foreshore to watch the New Years Eve fireworks.

But not me. I drove a bus. I worked from about 7pm to 3am.

Most of the roads in the northern part of the downtown area were closed which meant some route diversions.

Body Guards

On Friday night, I did several runs of route 462.

I arrived at Mortlake just after 10pm. There were 2 security guards waiting for me. One got on the bus and the other followed in a car while I did the return trip to Ashfield train station. They came with me as far as Burwood and said they would be at Ashfield station when I arrived. They were and they accompanied me on the return journey to Mortlake as far as Enfield where they left me to join another bus.

Apparently this is done Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. It is in response to some bus drivers being robbed in these areas.