u/_Bluestar_Bus_Soton_

Have been on the job for a frew months now so have driven nearly every vehicle variation in our fleet par the V4 E200MMC, Optare Versa (same engine as E400) and the Turbo Diesel Volvo Tri-axle. Still yet to drive the HW reg Scanias which have different engines compared to the HF reg Scanias.

I'd say the best bus for me in terms of smoothness and responsiveness is the V6 E200MMC and the E400 City. The 2009-65 plate E400s (pre facelift) are slow as hell, and the brakes I find are unnecessarily strong. The newer digital dashboard E400s we have from 24 plate onwards I feel the acceleration is more dampened so it feels slightly slower to me and in a way the drive train just feels more disconnected from me. Sadly the mechanical reliability is questionable, with many busses going into limp mode and displaying random warning lights whenever it sees fit

The Scania Omnicitys are way more reliable mechanically, but the seating position is very awkward. You can only adjust the steering wheel and not the whole dash and many drivers don't tend to take a liking to these busses. Personally I think they drive great but it's just the seating position that lets the rest of the bus down imo.

I haven't driven the tri-axle yet apart from a 2 min familiarisation drive around the depo months ago. They are really quiet and have good acceleration from what I've seen so looking forward to driving one in service eventually

Any man know if Empress road is pay and display or permit only?

No.2 was delayed so drove my car to Empress Road and parked it there to catch the Unilink 1C to town to watch the game with my mate.

Didn't fancy parking in the depo and pissing ppl off but also don't fancy a booking tomorrow morning whilst I'm fast asleep 🤣🤣

During most heatwaves my bedroom is unbearable, let alone what we're experiencing now.

Searched all the big brands: Argos, B&Q, Curry's, the popular trade shops. Inevitably all sold out. Then managed to find a 2nd hand unit on Gumtree for £250 posted 8 minutes before I saw the listing.

Phoned the seller, jumped in the car (where even its air conditioning is struggling to cope) and picked it up.

Given I start work at all silly times in the morning a decent night sleep is something I take for granted and I would say this is money well spent!

I've seen some posts saying this has happened to Android users, but no mention of anywhere else. Today it happened to my Android phone and on both my laptops.

Has anyone else been logged out of desktop?

Try moving your earth lead to another part of the frame. In my case it was on the same sheet of metal as my speaker amp and was cancelling out the subwoofer. Moved it to a bolt to the drivers right-hand side of the gearbox and all working.

Trying to find the fault took me hours. I pulled out the CD player and checked the RCA adapters and speaker wires from factory loom to amp - all fine. Connected a speaker to sub amp - nothing. Checked over power connections and also fine. Had I known about the fault then it would of taken me a matter of minutes to put right.

On a quick side note most of the time you don't need big power leads to the amp. The earth lead for my sub amp is a piece of automotive wire rated at 27a around the size of 240v cable used in the home, and my speaker amp is on remote cable since the whole thing draws max 1.5a (yes I've measured it and it hasn't given me any problems. I'm on a 250w subwoofer so around 20a continuous

Saw a car with a 360 degree camera earlier in Above Bar. Wasn't a Google vehicle but think it said "Gaiter Mapping" until it quickly went out of view. Looked like a black estate with red and amber stripes on the boot if anyone knows a thing.

Saw it this morning around half 9 I think

What is it with these crackheads all gathered at the table on Above Bar (end next to the courts/opposite the strip club)

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Being a bus driver and passing through the area 10x a day I them there all the time and they all look an absolute state. I'm assuming they are homeless unless they actually have somewhere to live but loiter there all day.

Picture this: You're driving towards a green traffic light, and as soon as you go anywhere even remotely near it, it randomly turns to red, and then it lets out the traffic from the other junction that has probably been sat there for 2 minutes waiting for this 100m long ghost train to pass on your side. Same for vica-versa where you're at a red light where absolutely nothing what so ever is passing through and if there is, then some of the time it doesn't physically get in the way of you trying to do a simply left turn for example. Oh yeah a good few around here need left filter arrows!

I'm also yet to come across a single traffic light that allows priority to busses. Don't matter if you're in a single decker or one of the tallest double deckers in the fleet you will be there for as long as if you're on a moped, guaranteed!

To end I do best hope Above Bar delivers are promised because the bus route diversions are absolutely pissing me off to the point of insanity and we're only a week in!

A group called 'Southampton Patriot's are organising a march starting within the hour at the Cenotaph.

Good chance this could be a repeat of what we saw the other night so try to stay out the area/immediate vicinity of the protest.

Portswood/Belmont Road is basically hell on Earth rn

People throwing objects at Police, people breaching the barrier, fights, riot shields etc....

Can see this turning into things being set on fire at this rate...

Had this happen last night. Move to the third lane at 70mph (GPS) exactly to overtake a vehicle on the middle lane. Within seconds a car comes from behind (no I didn't cut it up) and proceeds to be right up my arse (like around a meter away from me at least).

Yes I get you want to go between 85-90mph, but I want to go the speed limit. What do people actually achieve by doing this just because they're personally inconvenienced that they can't do at least 80mph?

Do some people think that the third lane has it's own special speed limit or are they just expressing their ego? I'll go with the latter.

I don't have a problem personally with people doing 80-90 on the motorway when conditions allow but you ain't going to make your self look all big man when you meet a car doing exactly the speed limit!

This ain't the first time as well. A little earlier I had a car right on me when overtaking, and back in the autumn a car was flashing me telling me to move over, whilst overtaking! In fact both times I was doing around 80 so surely they should be happy enough? Well apparently not!

Makes you wonder why every day there's at least one accident somewhere along the M27...

Going to put an SD card in my rear camera so the next person is probably going to get reported to the Police!