Yelloway TDK 687J in Bristol - 31 Oct 1971

Sunday 31 October 1971 - Marlborough Street Coach Station, Bristol. Having had lunch the coach was moved across to the departure stand to take on 8 passengers travelling with us - although 9 were ‘charted’ from Bristol. The drivers always had a dig that the charts were ‘never right’ but in reality the system was second to few for its accuracy with full details of ticket numbers, to and from points, agent name etc all being fully recorded. Many companies simply recorded the passenger totals between respective points without any other details. If a Yelloway service ‘burst’ there was usually a post mortem as to whose fault it may have been. Today we had 44 passengers boarding south of Cheltenham and when we passed through Cheltenham we managed to get topped up with a further 6 making 50 on board the 49 seat coach! I suspect a child may have shared a seat.