As a teenager I was a bus enthusiast in the way other people are train enthusiasts.

It was natural therefore that on leaving school I would seek a career in the road passenger transport industry. I had a reasonably succesful life in various roles including junior/middle management, until changes in politics, environment and commercial pressures led to a rapid contraction of the industry - many companies going out of business, being unable in some cases, but unwilling in the majority, to adapt to the pressures being put on them.My employer was one of them, and I considered whether I might not continue. However I was able to put off the inevitable by going "on the road" as a driver which I had secretly hankered after anyway.

Eventually some 10 years prior to retirement I finally left the steering wheel behind,being weary of the permanent unsocial hours aspect inherent in the job.

For the first time in my life I was faced with employment that was "only a job", and there was a huge gap in my life, which increased stamp collecting activity only partly filled.

However through stamp collecting I began to realise the amount of information available on the internet - so I began to search out information on the UK bus industry. I found a huge amount of sites including message boards like this but containing nostalgic anecdotes photographs and historical trivia.

So that is my new "collection" - a selection of websites which allow me to reconnect with my chosen career in the times when individuality was not a dirty word, legislation was limited to that which impacted on safety and ethical conduct and life was much simpler and interesting all round. I also get to "talk" to people whose experiences are similar to mine ( although our viewpoints often differ - sometimes the nostalgic views fly in the face of the changes which we all faced at the time).

 
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re: A virtual/mental collection Transport History

Ah! The Routemaster. The typical British Bus ! Except that it isn't ( typical that is).Only purchased by one operator outside London Transport - it has to be said that normal sized,and funded operators couldn't afford the support systems required.

The Routemaster was built purely for London, horrendously complex,over-engineered and diabolically expensive to maintain, with starship fuel-consumption, plus the ultimate economic killer- it needed a 2-man crew, when every other operator was converting it's services into OMO ( one-man-operation: with the driver also collecting the fares ). Not only is it cheaper to only pay one person - even with the omo premium, but you have a fighting chance to man up to 90%+ of your commitments - no operators were ever able to find 2 men to simultaneously crew all it's vehicles for years. You have to be special person to want to work the anti-social hours necessary to provide the public with transport 24/7 -or nearly so. Regrettably transport is so much like the postal service. Mediocre pay, poor working conditions and low morale,managerial and public appreciation mean that the job no longer attracts the best job applicants - particularly when most other jobs offer regular( even when unsocial)hours, a more congenial atmosphere, and much less chance of being assaulted in the workplace !

However if you can stand the downside it provides interest in buckets, the finest work colleagues in the world,and depending on which sector you work in a chance to see interesting places and be paid for it.

Malcolm

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