Tuesday 21 April 2020

The Number 87 Onwards


Clearly Linda & Jo will not be back on the buses for some time to come, and while we do have higher route numbers ridden, written and ready to go it seems wrong to abandon the Project at this stage.
While Jo is happily cycling round a traffic-reduced and much less polluted London, Linda is very much locked in with a vulnerable,  needs to be shielded  partner, so has not left the house for four weeks. Jo assures her that Regent Street is still there.

However the real point of this is to say how sorry we have been to hear about the death of several London bus drivers and their garage colleagues. It has always struck us that they are very much unsung heroes doing (even under normal circumstances) daily battle with traffic jams, irate commuters, diversions, troublesome passengers, lost tourists, buggy vs wheelchair clashes – and that’s only during the day.

If lucky they have a 2 minute break at the turn-around point. It never seems to be a very healthy job – much concentration and patience required and little opportunity to exercise or eat healthily – but on they go keeping to their heavily monitored time-tables.  Then of course there are all those germs that the passengers pass around, again even under normal circumstances.

So it is not entirely surprising that so many drivers have been killed by this terrible virus, as yet without cure or prevention, so we feel we should say not only thanks for all the safe journeys we have made but thanks to those drivers keeping going, and our heartfelt condolences for the families and colleagues of those who have not made it.

(This longish article takes you behind the scenes and the headlines)


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