The broadband on the bus

If I had a bucket list it would have got a big tick today as I got to drive our new bus.  Well it wasn’t quite a bus, more of a second hand mobile library but I have been excited about getting behind the wheel ever since we’d managed to stop her from going to the auction.

We’ve been thinking about our Digital Durham programme and are starting to turn our attentions away from broadband infrastructure to the real prize, helping people to gain access and make use of the digital services that are available.  We need to raise awareness and have some mechanism of engaging with people as the roll out moves from village to town.  We’d thought about a trailer which we could have dragged to the country shows but when we stumbled across the surplus library buses it was like manna from heaven.

So this is how I found myself at our main transport garage early this morning with five or six other colleagues who had come along to pass the Council’s driving test.  Some were there to be allowed to drive the electric cars that we now have whilst others had come to drive Transits or Lutons but only I had come to drive a bus.

We started off in a classroom with an hour long presentation on driving policies, procedures and essential checks that we needed to carry out each day.  All vital stuff but what I really wanted was to get out onto the road to play with our new toy.  We all sat very patiently, listening attentively in the mild fear that if we let our concentration drop even for a fraction we would be expelled and not be allowed to move forward to the more exciting part of the day.

Eventually the big hand dragged itself round the dial until it was back where it started and I was escorted out into the fresh air and across the expansive yard to meet her.  When my eyes beheld her I was not disappointed, it was love at first sight.  She looked beautiful in the late spring sun with her blue paint work, six wheels and double side door.  She was kneeled over on one side as if to greet me, to welcome me on board.  She was five tonnes of pure fun!

My trainer took me through the full check.  We wrote the details in the log book and became acquainted with all of her features before I finally slipped into the driver’s seat.  I turned the ignition, she purred into life and we were off out of the yard, slowly at first and onto the open road.  I followed the trainer’s instructions.  We turned right and made our way into the city.  I checked my mirrors, signalled when required, gave a wide berth to cyclists and slowed down for old ladies crossing the road.  I eased my way early across the carriageways to make my manoeuvres, taking the correct position to glide around the corners and command the road ahead of me.

We came down the bank and crossed the Milburngate Bridge before turning right into New Elvet and up past the University.  I held back for students, I edged out to avoid parked cars and I thanked those fellow drivers who gave way to let me through the tightest of gaps.  It was like a dream.  She was a pleasure to drive, as big as a truck but light as a car and I drove with a pleasure that I hadn’t felt in years. 

After three quarters of an hour we were back at the yard.  I had been given the all clear and we had finally parted but I will be back.  Over the next few months we’ll be cleaning her up, setting up the right equipment, filling her with brochures and pimping up her outsides to get our message across.  She’ll soon be making an appearance along the highways and byways of the County, helping us to get across the important messages about digital services and, if I’m lucky, it might well be me behind the wheel.

Oh and by the way, the broadband on the bus goes …. Superfast!