0400hrs Thursday. It’s still dark and very cold, but we need to get moving and try and get some buses running today. Our regulars need to get to work etc. so we need to make sure that we can start running as soon as it is safe and practical to do so. We’re losing track of which day is which by now – it’s Thursday! Schools are still closed so our coaches are staying tucked up – the problem with that is that they tend to run their batteries down when unused for days on end because of the electrical equipment that runs constantly on a trickle, and they will need some oomph to get them started in clod weather. Checking they all start will be a job for later if it looks like schools will be open on Friday.

For now though, we need to check the main routes as soon as possible. This can only really be done in a bus, and the decision on whether it is safe to run has to be a careful ‘risk assessment’. There are handful of Managers and senior supervisors who undertake this task and whose decisions will determine what we can run. Our drivers are all instructed to report to either Ryde or Newport at their normal times so that we can get things moving as soon as any roads are declared okay.

Our supervisor from the school coach fleet is up but has no school coaches to run, so the two of us will be commencing trials shortly. If anything the road conditions are worse due to overnight freezing, but the Council have made a valiant effort to get the main roads open. Mr SV has driven in from Ryde, the normal route across the Downs and through the back lanes still impassable to all traffic. Newport Bus Station is like a ploughed field, with tracks iced into the snow. As the sun comes up staff will be used to clear the pavements, but the roadways will remain like it for the rest of the week!

As Mr Coach heads off to Ryde, Mr SV heads up to Cowes. These are our busiest routes and cover the biggest employers, so are our priority. The word from Ryde is that route 9 can commence, but not via Staplers. In Cowes the challenge is to find a way of turning across the town. At this stage we decide that we can do so using Granville Road – the hill down into town is still impassable. The journey back to Newport is slow, and hopeful passengers are dotted at stops along the road. We’re only route testing, but can’t leave these people behind, so soon have a few grateful passengers on board. Then a Southern Vectis yellow jacket is spotted, a member of staff (like many) setting off on foot to walk to work to get our buses moving. In this case it’s a member of our marketing team who is on duty to update the website, twitter and the media, making the long trek, but luckily now on the bus. The record for walking actually goes to one of our Customer Services team who I forgot about in part 2. We made arrangements on Tuesday to open our call centre that covers Go Ahead’s south coast bus companies at 0600 on Wednesday in case of bad weather on the mainland. Little did we know what the Island would be like on that morning. Anyway, our ex forces call centre operator left to walk from Shanklin to Newport for 0600 – now that’s dedication!

Once we pass Northwood slowly there are plenty of people in sight – mainly hospital staff walking too to get to work. Again, we can’t drive by, so before long we have a bus full of grateful people hitching a lift to St Mary’s and the town. The verdict of the trial is that we can start running a limited service to the edge of Cowes.

From Newport we’re straight off again testing the East Cowes route. Again, we’re picking up those walking early, and again our own dedicated staff hiking to work. There are still cars abandoned along the roads.

By the time we are back in Newport again the first buses are running through from Ryde, but all fifteen need to go to our Newport Depot as they come in to fuel because we still can’t get to our depot in Ryde. It’s Thursday afternoon before we can physically get buses from Ryde Bus Station to our Garage in the town.

Our Inspectors are working hard now. Normally our drivers and buses are running in a regimented fashion, swapping buses and routes according to their set routes and timetables. Today though, and indeed for the next three days, the Inspectors are having to juggle all the buses and drivers manually.

Through the afternoon, we are able to start running more services, but only in parts. We’ve managed to get the test buses through most of our routes, but our judgment is that it isn’t either safe or practicable to do so in service. Some hills are barely passable, on some there are still abandoned cars, and meeting oncoming traffic will impede buses. There’s nothing worse that having to stop half way up a slippery hill and not being able to get going again!

Ventnor is still impassable, as are the residential roads we use. By the evening icing roads have limited what we have been running again. On the whole it’s been another busy day with plenty of challenges, but at least we are now getting people around again where we can.

By tea time we know that schools are closed again on Friday, so we can head off home again. The plan for Friday is to start off running what we’ve been running today, and then once we reach daylight, to retest all the routes we have still not been able to open up.

…to be continued

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