Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

[RSTurbo50]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
Lots of routes to learn then I would imagine?

[MX12EOC]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(23/06/2013 18:35)jimbo Wrote:  

(23/06/2013 08:59)RSTurbo50 Wrote:  Do Stagecoach Manchester drivers drive all the routes or do drivers tend to stay on certain rotas and only drive a couple of e routes?

They will drive all routes, this is why when people say do you know where ***** street iz they are very likely to say no.

Well, some of the lets say 'older' drivers from Stockport depot mainly do two routes for example, my neighbour only does 11/11a's and 192 services. Although this could differ throughout each depot, not too sure.

[MX12EOC]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(23/06/2013 21:18)RSTurbo50 Wrote:  Lots of routes to learn then I would imagine?

Some drivers are often called onto the odd schoolbus route if a bus doesn't turn up, so they have their handy little map! Except if for the odd time the Route Trainer personmabob for SM is either teaching the driver the route or driving it as demonstration!

[RSTurbo50]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
Ahh all very interesting. Do the drivers have a lot of time on the Sharston runs or as I presume are the running boards extremely tight?

[ace]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
I think with most drivers it's a case of, they learn all routes as part of their training so that if they get called upon to do a route, they can just get on and do it, but a lot of them do tend to do a certain few routes, for example, I get the 192 to work most mornings, and I've seen quite a few drivers on the same route several times, the same for other routes such as 11/11A, 369, etc.

I think part of it might be to do with the type of bus driven as well. Probably not all drivers are trained to drive hybrids, so the ones that are will do the 192's, others will do routes that use buses within each individual capability or requirement.

[ace]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(23/06/2013 21:33)RSTurbo50 Wrote:  Ahh all very interesting. Do the drivers have a lot of time on the Sharston runs or as I presume are the running boards extremely tight?

It varies, but they do seem to have quite a long layover in Reddish on the 84.

[jimbo]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
When I was at First we knew all routes, I was on everything Inc the occassional school... better that way, if everybidy knows everything then they can easiky cover the most important routes like tendered or school services

[ste]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
When I lived in Wigan I used to see drivers on all different routes including schools. Not since the days of Gold Service did I see drivers 'restricted' to certain routes.

[126th street]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
It is a false economy not to train all of your drivers on all the routes at a particular depot. There are very often dedicated rotas for route X which do little else, but if drivers don't know all services it becomes very difficult to accommodate when they work rest days or overtime before/after their rota'd shift.

Spare drivers, who in my experience are usually on their own dedicated rota, naturally need to know every route at their garage.

[RSTurbo50]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester
I would imagine for new drivers the routes are pretty straightforward to learn in and out if the city centre?