On Friday most of Birmingham was brought to a standstill due to a sudden snow fall. All roads into and out of the city center were at a standstill and the motorways were solid. This resulted in major delays for a lot of public transport including the buses!

I was supposed to take over at 6pm GMT. This i did but going in the wrong direction, instead of going into the center I was going out, this put the bus at 1 hour late already. Driving this 11 tonne machine was very interesting. A lot of the roads that we use had not been gritted yet as the council was caught out. This resuited in a lot of ice.....this meant a bus sliding all over the place under breaking. I couldnt go much more than 15mph a lot of the time. Approaching one of the junctions that i use there is a slight downhill gradient and i mean SLIGHT. I stopped (just) put the parking brake on and then noticed that the bus was sliding very slowly!!!! I had to jam the foot brake on as well!

Along another road i was behind another bus (this one only a single decker) and watching it slide from side to side. There was no grip at all. The only thing that was stopping us spinning 360 degrees was the kirbs.

I finally made it to the outer end of the run and depending on how you looked at it i was either 2 hours 15 mins late OR on time! It took me nearly 2 hours to do a part of the route that usually takes 30 mins at the most.

Great fun!

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