Mate… Harsh? I’m amazed at your patience and forebearance - I’d have gone Postal on some cunt/s long-since!
Me: you can’t fire me, I’m a whistleblower
HR: first of all, that’s a kazoo
(stolen from B’Sky)
Stirling work Stu. Fight the good fight.
The problem with this one (and we have the same problem at ours) is the lack of legislation related to how hot is too hot. There is no upper limit. There is, however, a minimum.
An argument I use thanks to a FOI request is that although there’s not a Maximum Working Temperature, it is their Duty of Care to ensure a Comfortable temperature.
The maximum Temperature Livestock can be transported is 30°C, so anything in excess of this is what I use as a tool to get shit done.
I’ll dig out a blog I wrote as it has the relevant FOI and links to other useful things; I will edit this post once I’ve found it!
Oof!!!
Quote:
“Frankly speaking, I know that London’s Bus Drivers believe that your refusal to replace TfL’s “Time is Money” Bus Contract incentives with those that protect Bus Driver Working Conditions is a betrayal of the principles upon which the Labour Party and the union movement that created it are founded.”

True though.
On a similar theme. To me, they look old fashioned and the controls for the Parking Brake look fucking weird.
An ergonomic mess. Extra width of US Citybus would be a challenge on my route.
Actually in places impossible:
Also vehicles with a long wheelbase are a right cunt to get around tight bends. I’ve driven this vehicle’s sister, GKE442Y
For balance, East Lancs Coachbuilders built some aesthetically challenging machines:
Predictable:
I feel like the article misses some vital information, namely, was there an existing bus route there before? Makes a huge difference to what conclusions you can draw from the story.
I’d also be interested to know how much the required 2 staff members was a temporary measure for a piece of new technology being trialled, or something that would have been a permanent fixture. Going autonomous but having to double your crew number as a permanent thing seems suboptimal to me.
Lovely story, this. I get the impression that this is a true family business- despite being owned by Volvo- as the Grandson of the founders speaks so passionately about Prevost.
Now which modern bus has the best acceleration to achieve this in 2024/25.
Given the existence of this, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to imagine a mini-bus version:

That’s the Ford Transit that Tom Walkinshaw Racing fitted with the prototype XJ220 engine to give it some road testing in a discrete package.
I’ve long been aware of this story. Didn’t know there were passenger injuries though. I can’t imagine the bus accelerating suddenly like a car.
Having said that, by the time I got to drive an AEC RT\ Leyland RTW, they were buses in their seventieth decade!
It is possible to ‘make progress’ with them as despite having only about 115 bhp, there’s quite a bit of torque and they’re relatively light.
TL:Dr bloody good bit of driving!
As for anything modern, no way. It would ground out. Low floor; long wheelbase as well as overhangs, particularly the rear… ![]()
Hadn’t considered low floors on modern buses. I do wonder how high the bascule had actually risen, I suspect it gained a degree every time the story was recounted.
Good point; I am sure that one or two degrees have been added to the Bascule angle over the years!
Do wonder if there are any photos of this incident- or it’s aftermath? ![]()
It would have taken about 5 seconds for the bus to get halfway across the bridge (30m) at 12 mph. The bridge apparently takes 75 seconds to fully open so the bridge might have raised 6 degrees after 5 seconds which would have meant a gap of about 1 foot. (back of a fag packet calculation)