Rush on shuttle bus travel ahead of Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Carlisle
The coach hire company running the official shuttle bus route to Radio 1’s One Big Weekend’s venue at Carlilse Airport has revealed that bookings for their service hit the 1,000 over the Easter break.
Some 40,000 music lovers are expected to descend upon Carlisle Airport come May 14th and 15th at what is the UK’s biggest free ticket event. Acts headlining this year’s Radio 1 music festival include the world renowned pop sensation, Lady Gaga, and indie rockers, The Foo Fighters.
Transport officials are advising those planning to visit this year’s One Big Weekend to arrange for transportation to the event ahead of time. The recommended form of transport to the music festival is via the official shuttle bus as this mode of travel will ensure ticketholders arrive in plenty of time to enjoy the performances, plus the shuttle bus is extremely affordable and likely to be the cheapest way to travel to the music event.
Traffic controls will be in place over the weekend of May 14th and 15th and officials have warned that any cars parked on verges and unofficial lay-bys around Carlisle airport over the Big Weekend will be removed.
The shuttle bus service will run continuously from 9am until 10:30pm on both days of the Big Weekend event. A fleet of double-decker buses and large capacity coaches will be used to chauffeur ticketholders between the event and destinations in Carlisle, Penrith and West Cumbria.
Coach driver jailed after road rage outburst
A coach driver for transport giant National Express has been served with a 1 year jail sentence after his erratic behaviour behind the wheel of a coach service, travelling between Manchester and Aberdeen last June, left his passengers fearing for their lives.
53-year-old coach driver Brian Larred pleaded guilty to dangerous driving. He was jailed earlier this month following a hearing at Carlisle Crown Court. Legal action was taken against the driver from Oldham in Manchester after an incident of road rage which occurred whilst Larred was driving a coach between Carlisle and Gretna.
The court was told how the coach driver attempted to bully other road-users during the trip. Larred tried to intimidate an elderly driver towing a caravan by repeatedly overtaking and slowing down in front of the vehicle. At one point Larred even undertook the towing vehicle on the hard shoulder of the motorway, much to the terror of the 25 passengers onboard the coach.
Larred ignored the pleas from his passengers to drive sensibly after performing a number of dangerous driving manoeuvres. Some were so scared that they even called the police from onboard the coach. The whole nightmare was captured by a camera onboard the coach, the footage was shown to the court.
After the coach was pulled over, one irate passenger punched the driver in the face repeatedly as he was so angry that the lives of his children had been put in danger by the reckless behaviour of Larred. The passenger was later cautioned for common assault.
A spokesperson for National Express confirmed that driver Larred ceased working for the organisation back in August and branded his behaviour as “unacceptable.”
Brian Larred will serve a year in prison for the incident and been banned from driving for 3 years.
Teenage bus joy-rider from Cumbria imprisoned
An 18-year-old male from Cumbria has been served with a jail sentence after being caught by police joy-riding using buses on three separate occasions. The teenager has been sentenced to three years in prison as a result.
Jamie Hoare held a previous conviction for taking a double-decker bus and driving it from Barrow to Carlisle. In August he was caught taking another two buses by police which he then went joy-riding in; he had just been released from a young offenders institute at the time.
Only a month later, on September 6th, Hoare was caught again by police. This time he had taken a single-decker bus from the Stagecoach depot in Lancaster for a considerable length of time. The police pursued the stolen bus as it jumped red lights and endangered other road users as it forced them out of the way.
The case was taken to Carlisle Crown Court where a judge told the Hoare that his offences were “absolutely terrifying” and his actions could have resulted in “carnage.”
Hoare pleaded guilty to aggravated taking of a double-decker bus and to taking a single-decker bus without consent. The 18-year-old also admitted to counts of driving whilst disqualified, and also admitted to charges of driving without insurance and another for drink driving.
Stacey’s Coaches hit by Cumbrian floods
Carlisle based Coach Company, Stacey’s Coaches and Autovolks Garage are facing an estimated £1 million worth of damage after last week’s floods. At its worst the premises of both businesses, which are situated next door to each other, were under 4ft of water.
Barrie Barnes, who is the Managing Director of both companies, said he and his staff began moving the coaches out of the premises on Thursday evening after noticing water coming up through the drains. Stacey’s Coaches managed to move almost all of the 40 coaches within its fleet, with only one 16 seater coach getting caught in the floods. It is expected that this vehicle will be an insurance write-off.
As a temporary measure rival coach company Stagecoach have allowed Stacey’s to store some of their vehicles at their depot, whilst the remaining coaches have been kept at the car park at the Cumbrian Newspapers. The coach firm, which currently employs 106 workers, has also set up a temporary office base whilst work is carried out on the company’s water damaged building.
Mr Barnes revealed that this wasn’t the first time his businesses had been hit by floods as he said, “We had this in 2005 and I never thought it would happen again. Never.” The company is expected to honour all contracts and previous bookings.
Carlisle company signs deal to provide training for bus and coach drivers
A Carlisle based training company, Systems Training, has signed an agreement with Germany’s MAN organisation to provide skills training to bus, coach and lorry drivers. Systems Training will provide a specific package of training which will work in conjunction with the newly introduced Driver Certificate Of Professional Competence (CPC) regulations.
As part of the new legislation, all coach, lorry and bus drivers must carry the CPC certificate as well as their regular driving licence. The partnership with MAN and Systems Training aims to promote safe practice and improve skills amongst industry professionals.
The company director at Systems Training, Paul Spink, is excited at the prospect of working alongside a large and well established company such as MAN. Mr Spink said, “It’s fantastic to have such a strong relationship with a leading transport industry supplier such as MAN.” He also explained how their expert training will work well with MAN saying, “The development of our Driver CPC training package will not only ensure that drivers of MAN vehicles are suitably trained, but will also help MAN to deliver real added benefits to their customers.”
The System Group, which picked up an award for Business Of The Year (medium) at the CN Group Business Awards earlier this year, will also benefit from the extra exposure their association with MAN will generate.