the USA
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On holiday in the USA, we several rides on the Greyhound Coaches and on Grey Line Coaches, who operate charter hire only,rather than long distance like the Greyhound Co. It was most interesting to talk to the coach drivers.
The coaches we rode on were mostly built on GMC chassis, and dated from 1965-7. The driver I last spoke to Iold me that two years ago, his company Grey Line Coaches in Los Angeles employed 35 drivers, and now had 200, and needed more. There is a 12 months wait for delivery of new vehicles.
Although these vehicles were quite old, their air suspension ride was excellent. They had plenty of horsepower in the rear-mounted engines, and although the air conditioning Was not what I would call perfect, this might have been because the driver was not con versant with it. These vehicles are still in excellent condition and most comfortable to ride in.
It appears to me that there is a vast market for new buses and coaches in the States.
The driver told me that you don't lose your licence under the totting-up procedure as in this country. The court does not take away a driver's livelihood, but fines him heavily.
By contrast, on the return trip to this country we were met at London Airport by a National Travel coach operated by Hants & Dorset Bus Co. which took us back to Bournemouth.
This vehicle was on a Leyland chassis and I think the body was by Duple or Plaxton, and Sregistered. It was quite fairly. new, quite a nice coach but that's about all I could say about this vehicle.
The seats were upholstered in moquette, which was not very nice to sit on. The fabric pierced your trousers and made me feel I was sitting on pins and needles. There was no arm rest for the outside passenger and no reclining seats, which I think are a must these days.
We mOved off and on the slightest bend you nearly fell out of your seat, the sway was so bad. It was not any fault of the driver — it appeared that this coach was top-heavy.
We never had this experience on the coaches in the States because of the air suspension I guess.
It was not what I would call comfortable at all and even with only 34 passengers aboard it had very poor power. All in all I was not at all pleased with this modern coach, compared with the American one.
I used to be a psv and Class 1 heavy haulage driver and still hold a current licence.
J. SULLIVAN Bournemouth