Canterbury Bus Station

From the Thanet Depot routes 8 and 9 (and their derivatives) head out to Canterbury and this can make a pleasant change from trailing round Thanet all day - a chance to 'stretch your legs'. And once you get past Birchington you can it get a little bit of speed up between the villages en route. Only up to around 50mph or so as the buses all have limiters, but you do have to be wary as even in dry conditions the road can be a bit slippery - ask the Volvo B10 driver who found himself in a field before he'd even realised what was going on, it all happened so quick!

Canterbury Bus Station (good canteen - almost as good as Thanet's) is a busy little place with a large number of Bays which you drive forwards into, let the passengers off, close the doors and have a break of between 5 -14 minutes before you return. A chance to grab a coffee, go to the loo (what is it about getting out of the cab after a long drive that makes you immediately want to go to the loo?), reset the ticket machine and change the destination blinds.

Open the doors and let the customers on, not leaving this to the last minute of course, so you stand a chance of getting away on time. 5 minutes or so pass and you're ready to go (beware the last minute rush of passengers that appear from nowhere). Now procedure is procedure here. Once you've closed the doors, you put on the hazard flashers and select reverse and wait for the banksman. Study your right hand mirror and he will appear soon and see you out of the bay. Now should any late passengers arrive, usually banging on the doors while you're studying your mirrors, you are not allowed to stop and let them on. In fact you will get reported for doing so. This is to discourage passengers from banging on doors, thinking they can still get on and also to get buses away on time otherwise you'd have a queue waiting to get in! So as frustrating as it must be for passengers, please be advised drivers are not allowed to let anyone else on after this point!

And then there's a nice bus lane (or is it Crunchy Nut lane?) from the bus station to get you a little bit of a start on the traffic outside. Just mind the raised kerb on the nearside with your back wheels if don't want a nasty bump!