Thursday 19 March 2009

Glad its Not One of Mine.

My day job and my boating life don't often co-incide, but as a Public Transport Manager I'm glad this bus parked next to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal is not one of mine! Here's the full story from Narrowboatworld:
A single- decker bus has been found abandoned and stuck in a ditch on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in Wigan, with police blaming yobs who stole it from the First's Melverley Street depot.
It had been driven down on to the canal towpath, but not being wide enough the bus finished jammed between the canal and a bank, with two wheels in a ditch.
It was after 3am in the morning that it was discovered, and it needed specialist winching equipment to pull it free as a crane could not get near. It was badly damaged.
This is not the first time a bus has been found on the towpath, as there was a similar incident on the Rochdale Canal a while ago, when a bus was discovered abandoned, but this time with part of it in the water. 18/03

Buses are actually very easy to steal. They don't have ignition keys (think of the practicalities in a depot with a hundred buses and two hundred drivers) and, with power steering and automatic gears, are surprisingly easy to drive - as long as you keep away from the canal towpath! Its surprising it doesn't happen more often.

1 comment:

Adam said...

It's also lucky it ended up that side of the tow path, and not in the canal!