Some Bus Driver Blogs

I started this blog after reading bus-driver blogs, but those seem to be in something of a decline. Some bloggers have lost interest (happens to everyone for time to time, but sometimes it's permanent). Others have moved on from their jobs, or lost them, or been promoted, or (apparently) been "spoken to" by management. I have now added two "management" blogs to my list, from very different companies, but at least they're on the same general topic. I'm not changing the heading of the list though - it's still attempting to be "front line" stuff.

I Caught a Bus Today...

Even when something happens on a bus, I mostly don't get around to writing it down. (Semantic digression: What and why is the difference between writing something down and writing it up?) Maybe I should try harder.

Nothing happened today. We caught the bus to the supermarket which is next to a coffee shop. Coffee first, shopping second. All we actually needed to buy was a couple of bottles of milk, but of course we bought more. Then we caught the bus back.

Nine stops there, four stops back, same bus route both ways. It occurred to me that this could be something of a puzzle, so I'll leave it as one, in case there is anyone out there who actually reads this.

Obviously identifying the specific London route is most impressive, but a generic explanation is good too.

Clarification: Stops counted whether or not the bus actually stopped at them.

What bus is this?

I was on a number 7 bus. It stopped at a stop, a couple of people got on, then someone asked, from the footpath, "Is this a 6?". "No," said the driver, "it's a 7." The questioner went away, obviously dissatisfied. Why? The bus definitely had a 7 on the front in the proper place, a fact that the driver had politely refrained from pointing out. The bus stop sign definitely listed a number of routes (including 6 and 7). But you still got the impression that the questioner thought the driver had somehow done something wrong.

Sometimes, You Win

Just because you know enough about how transport systems work to understand how a problem arose doesn't mean that you fail to grouch about the problems. Not if you're me, anyway. Especially maddening are all those times when your bus manages to leave the bus stop without you on it.

Yesterday I was in an obscure and unfamiliar corner of London, served by two bus routes. The stops are 30 yards apart, on different roads, but within sight of one another, though there is no safe spot to stand where you can run for whichever is appropriate. Just to make it worse, the frequency of one route is every 20 minutes. The other is every half-hour. To get to either stop I had to walk around a roundabout traversed by both routes on their way to their stops.

As you would expect, a bus on the 20-minute frequency route flew past, too soon for me to have any chance of reaching the stop. Time to head for the other stop and see when that route was due. Also as you would expect, I was still just out of sprinting distance to the stop when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the other bus sailing up behind me and, indeed, sailing past. I gave a small shrug of despair, ready to consider my hitherto lovely day out as ruined. With no more than that to go on - I certainly had not had time to hail the bus in any sense of the word - the driver stopped and waited for me.

I thanked him, and settled in for the first part of my journey home. The train for the second part was late, but somehow it didn't matter!

People are Funny

Woman at bus stop, apparently in "confused tourist" mode, asks a bystander how to get to Kensington Olympia. Bystander produces the right answer. Two minutes later, same woman asks different bystander how to get to Marble Arch. The right answer is provided. (I know both right answers, but I wasn't asked.)

Two more minutes pass, and the woman gets on a bus which goes nowhere near either place, without speaking to any more bystanders, or the driver.

Pigsty

On my way home today, I got on a bus at the start of its journey. The amount of rubbish on the floor (and a few seats) had to be seen to be believed. There were newspaper pages scattered around, used tissues, food wrappers (some with food), dismembered paper cups, and I don't know what else. I suppose it was left by the home-from-school crowd, and I suppose it isn't the driver's responsibility to clean the bus at termini, but there ought to be some answer to this sort of thing.

Well, that didn't work!

If you travel on a London bus in the later part of the afternoon, your peace will be invaded by large numbers of school students. On a double-decker, their favourite place is the back of the top deck. So there they all were, not particularly noisy or anything, when the bus stopped at a stop - and changed drivers. This takes a few minutes, depending on how chatty the drivers are and how meticulous the incoming driver is about getting the seat and mirrors in position. Foreseeing delay, and also seeing another bus on the same route approaching from the rear, a leader-type among the students ordered a mad rush to get off the bus. I'm amazed no-one was trampled, but off they got. Just too late to get on the following bus, which sailed away nearly empty - and also too late to get back on the original bus which also sailed away from them, the new driver having got himself sorted in record time.