From Hartcliffe to Henbury
Kevin Parsons
After a childhood being called “Charlie” (his curly hair made him look like comedian Charlie Drake) and a career in the army, Kevin decided to become a bus driver. Over the last 17 years he has driven a wide range of buses on nearly all the routes in Bristol.
Transcript
My name is Kevin parsons. I joined the bus company in 1990 at Winterstoke DepotIt was then called “CityLine”.
The first bus I drove was the Ford Transit bus which we call “the bread van” which carried between 16 and 18 people and also the Mercedes 800: these carried 24-26 people.
In 1991 I took a further test to become a Dennis Dart Driver which was round about 18-24 feet long and carried 34-36 people.
In 1994 I had to take a further test to go on to what we call the “big buses” – the double-deckers and also to drive the Leyland Lynx.
The Leyland Lynx was 31 feet long and carried 40 people. The double-deckers were Olympian VRs which carried a total of 80 people: 45 upstairs and 35 downstairs.
I was then transferred to Muller Road depot and was put onto the 77 roster.
When I first started on the buses, they were all manual buses and we didn’t have to check them as it was all done by maintenance staff. The only things we had to do was on an evening we had to put them through the bus wash and park them up.
Now we have to do a ten-point check on buses every morning. On a ten-point check we have to check tyres, make sure the radio’s working, all fuel caps and water caps are on, to make sure there’s no damage to the buses, all seats are intact, bells working, making sure the CCTV works, windscreen wipers, horns, indicators, lights, emergency doors, make sure that the wheel ramps are working, and to make sure that the bus is fully roadworthy.
Nowadays all we have to do is put them on the forecourt of an evening and maintenance staff will do the rest.
All buses are now automatic and power steering which makes them a lot easier to drive.
I have always done the 77 route and I love doing that route as you meet different people every day and I like talking to people and helping them, and I love driving and I love my job.
I like the route because you start one side of the city, and drive through the centre, and end up on the other side of the city.
Over the years as a driver I have noticed a vast change in the traffic congestion. When the buses used to drive through Queen’s Square and the centre was as it was then, there wasn’t half the traffic jams and there was not as much congestion as there is today.
In 2003 we had some new buses which were the Volvo B7s, designed especially for wheelchairs and prams. They have ramps on them to make life more easier to get on and off the buses. Out of all the buses, this is the one I enjoy driving most because it makes life easy.
