Routemaster

goes to

Wessex

Connect

Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for an entirely different result. Falling in 2007 on 21^st February, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, when we are told that we should begin a period of sober reflection, self-examination and spiritual redirection, is a good day for serendipitous events.

With the luxury of a mid-day start to my National Express 200 Service to Heathrow and Gatwick Airports from Bristol I had time to buy an Evening Post, complete with Jobs Section to read in the Coach Park at Gatwick while taking my lay over. Not quite front page news but very early in the paper was the story that (f)First had lost two of the three Park & Ride services run on behalf of Bristol City Council. In the Jobs Section was an ad' for bus drivers for a new operator to the Bristol area. How many clues do you need ? Out came the mobile phone and the number was dialled.

The real business plan may be sub judice, but it was explained to me as -

Wessex Connect are renting space from Durbin of Patchway in order to gain a foothold in the Bristol area. To succeed the business plan calls for 200 buses on the road within two years. Taking all of Durbin's bus services would achieve barely half this figure, the rest must be won from (f)First or minor operators.

Although the interviewers told me that no jobs were being given on the spot I was not at all surprised to get a phone call on the following Friday offering me the job as a driver on the new Park & Ride contract. Plus some other work had come in early and could I start on 13^th March ? The offer letter was already in the post and arrived on Saturday morning in plenty of time for me to resign from (f)First Coaches with effect from Monday 12^th March.

The first 3 days were spent with 10 new recruits plus two newly appointed supervisors running round Bristol in a Mercedes Benz 609 with bus conversion by Crystal trying to fix in our minds the landmarks to enable us to run not only Park & Ride services 902 & 903, but the early starting work which was Durbin's University of the West of England (UWE) contract for student shuttles linking campus facilities to central Bristol and the Orange staff bus linking the phone company's North Bristol and Temple Point sites. On Friday for a little light relief we trundled up to Flights Hallmark's Birmingham home to collect some buses to be prepared by Durbin's in Bristol for the new Park & Ride services as the new vehicles can not be delivered until August¡

Our "Magic Carpet" for the first week of "training" was Mercedes Benz 609 with body conversion by Crystal KBZ 3908 (N930CJA) acquired by Flights Hallmark (Rotala) with assets of Zaks Bus And Coach Services Ltd. Ten new recruits of assorted shapes and sizes plus two supervisors trundling round Bristol and finally grinding up the M5 at 45mph to Flights Hallmark Ltd.'s grandly named Flights Coach Station at Long Acre in Birmingham to collect the second-hand buses waiting there for us.