40512 was in Brixham on 17th November.
We were waiting at Bank Lane on the bus for its departure at 17:30. So now, it's about 25 past 5 and the ticket machine keeps turning itself on and off - driving hitting it - doing no good, driver unplugs it - no good.
Driver turns round - "we ain't going anywhere."
Full bus of passengers - "what? flat battery?"
Driver - "yep"
Now, these buses are so old that they don't even have a radio that's capable of phoning control, so the driver gets on his phone and ensures us a new bus is on its way.
Now, these buses are so old that they don't even have a radio that's capable of phoning control, so the driver gets on his phone and ensures us a new bus is on its way.
Another bus comes down and is now on its way to Kingswear at 17:36, it leaves and we're left here.
So now, as you can imagine, everyone's saying something along the lines of "This is a joke!" "Bayline's making 5 million a year, and we're sat here!" "How long's this bus gonna be?" "Where's it coming from?" - You get the idea.
This obviously annoyed the driver, so much so as that somehow it now turns into a row between driver and over 65 free pass holder about something to do with free bus fares, 200 passengers carried so far and £38 pounds made in total. Well, everyone has to chip in - "I don't care!" "Londoners have free passes all their life!" So on, and so forth.
So, the next bus to Kingswear turns up and is due in at 17:58 so we've been on here for more than half an hour.
Driver gets off to ask permission for the bus on its way to Kingswear to be used on the 17:30 Furzeham bus and then when the replacement comes, the Kingswear bus can have that. No chance, Stagecoach won't let that happen.
After a lot more shouting and complaining, several people getting off and start walking, requesting better buses and explaining the "rubbish" Brixham gets, another 1/2 later - engineering van turns up!
They wheel some cables, jump start the battery - we're off!
"Thank you" a now not so full bus of people say.
Well, now we take off like some sort of moon rocket. I've never gone so fast!
The replacement was then luckily able to do the 18:30 service down to the Quay, so the delays weren't too bad!
I haven't seen 40512 since, has it met its maker?
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