The wheels on the bus go round and round and keep going round and round.

[Jetfire]

Last June, they changed my bus route. Instead of going donw the street beside my office, the bus now goes down the street in front of my office.

When they first made the changes, they for some reason didn't put any stops at my office, even though there are a fair number of people who use the bus. They finally corrected that a few weeks ago.

Anyways, one night last week, I was waiting for the bus and saw him coming down the road. And to my surprise, he turned down the side street instead of going down the main road. (I thought he turned his turn signal on a bit early for my stop. :P ). I tried waving him down, but it's dark at 1730 here, and there was enough snow/ice on the ground that I wasn't going to risk sprinting.

I started walking, trying to decide if I wanted to walk downtown or not, and noticed he was turning around; someone must have clued him in that the route had changed. :P So I backtracked to the stop.
He came around the corner, and back on his actual route... and nearly blew right past me! At the last moment he saw me waving him down (again!), plus I suspect someone shouted on board too.

At least he was apologetic as I got on board. He was a regular driver but I suspect he hasn't driven that route often and/or he wasn't aware of the new stop especially.

[SongsOfDragons]

This has happened at the Park&Ride in Winchester during Christmas over the last few years. It's always very busy and you'd expect them to look at the numbers and the capacity for their brand new spanking car park and lay on enough buses...

Nope! The first year they ran a normal service, and there were hundreds of people trying to get to and from the market and their cars, waiting at the stops in huge queues, and the bus company refused to put on any buses because they were sure they'd calculated for enough...

Next few years they slowly got better, but they're building another new car park...

[the lawsmeister]

Friend of mine was waiting at the stop to collect his daughter from the school bus.
As the bus came round the corner and was slowing down to stop he could see her waiting to get off.
Then the driver caught sight of my friend and put her foot down and breezed straight past.
Goes WTF before realising how he looks; shaved head, beard that Ned Kelly would be proud of, dirty singlet, ripped shorts, flipflops and legs covered in grass clippings from mowing the lawn before he walked up to the bus stop.
Later commented to me afterward "fair enough, I wouldn't have stopped for me either"

[wolfie]

I've found that tweeting the company helps. They always promise to deal with complaints submitted via email or their website and never do.

Of course - complaints submitted via email or the web are only ever seen by someone without the authority to fix things. Posts on Twitter, and the company's reaction (or lack thereof) are visible to EVERYONE.

[CloserToSane]

I'm so used to rubbish bus service. I forgo one stop completely and opt for the one before or after it. I don't think they actually know it's a bus stop on their route, it's so rarely used.

I've had doors slammed in my face, bus drivers deciding they're a completely different bus halfway through a route, massive differences in timetables - digital and paper. I actually counted how many buses went by on twitter one night because they were backed up beyond belief. I've found that tweeting the company helps. They always promise to deal with complaints submitted via email or their website and never do.

[pixalottle]

I'm a bit late to this thread but I've got a few stories about awful drivers.
1. When I was at secondary school, the school chartered coaches for lots of different routes. You paid for the coach at the beginning of term. We paid, and I was the only kidat that stop. On my first day of secondary school (age 11) waiting with a large group of kids from a different school, the bus drove straight past me. He eventually remembered, phoned the other school's driver and told him to pick me up. My school was private, the other was state, so you can imagine how awful that was. I had my brand new (expensive) uniform trashed, and even though I was a scholarship kid my mum couldn't afford new uniform.
The bus driver repeated this every day for two weeks, so we eventually gave up.
2. When I was a bit older, there was now a larger group that got the public bus. If it was just teenagers waiting, one particular driver always drove straight past. He only stopped when an adult was also waiting. The next bus wasn't for 3 hours (small village), by which time it was dark. Our only option was to wait until somebody's parent finished work.
3. One particular driver used to dash through all of the stops early, without waiting as he was supposed to, so that he could have a longer cigarette break at the bus station.

[mathnerd]

I've had a number of buses pass me while I was waiting at a stop with my wheelchair-bound child. Only once did it appear that the bus was actually full. All the other times it seemed like the driver just didn't want to deal with the hassle of boarding a wheelchair. And yes, I grabbed the bus numbers and put in formal complaints every single time.

[Dave1982]

I once missed the school bus because the driver slammed the door in my face and took off. Granted, I was late getting out the door and the bus was already at the stop as I was sprinting towards it, but I managed to get all the way TO the bus and was literally about to step onboard when he slammed the door. I even smacked the door with my instrument case to get his attention and he just sped off.

[EricKei]

Eireann -- Perhaps he had received complaints about "driving too fast" on that particular street? (read: anything faster than half of the actual speed limit)

[Eireann]

I remember a bus driver in my hometown who racked up complaints so often, I couldn't understand why he was still there. He would arrive at my stop on schedule. Everything would go smoothly. But then, when he reached a certain street, he would go so slowly, I felt that I could get off the bus and run faster than it was going.

If I remember correctly, it was only that one street. Did he live on it? Want to live on it? Was he looking for signs in front of the houses reading "For Sale"? Did he live on it as a child, and miss it? Was he having an affair with someone who lived on that street?

I do not know. But often, when we reached the transit station, I had missed my connecting bus, as had nearly everyone else on the bus. The guy was a legend in bad service.

[Evannah]

I might take this thread more seriously if I can stop laughing at the title. I don't know why it's so funny, but it is.

On a serious note, that's shit. A few drivers are like that round here too. Most stop. Others just drive on by. It always worries me when I'm waiting to go home after work, because the bus stop is right on a main road and also on a bend and a lot of cars just whiz right round the bend super fast, and the thought of a bus going past and leaving me stranded there for another half an hour is quite scary. That was a long sentence. Whew. Anyway, luckily they've stopped. I've probably jinxed it now...

[Jetfire]

Freddy Transit just reorganized their routes a bit. My normal work route used to go down one street next to work; but now it goes down the other street at work (Work is on a corner lot). No big deal.... Except when they added the new bus stops, they didn't put one right at the corner, so there is a rather large gap between the stops that my work falls into.

I emailed them about that gap as soon as I noticed it, and some drivers are nice enoguh to remember me (and my coworkers) and let us off at the corner. Today, the driver I had mentioned she is on the route executive and has noted the gap, so hopefully someone will be out to put up signs soonish. (It's not like I want them to reroute or anything, just add an extra stopping spot basically halfway between the two existing ones).

Otherwise, the drivers I have around here are pretty good. Our system isn't used enough to be packed full most of the time, and the drivers tend to recognize the regulars and know where they go. They're also pretty good at stopping if you flag them down as long as you notice them. And in the winter when stops can often get snowed in, they're good for stopping at the next closest driveway/road to let people on/off.

[Jarlaxle]

The second one you described are usually called "articulated" or "artics" here.

[greek_jester]

I think our bus system here had something like that a few years back, but I'm not sure if they still do.....seems like they go more with having more frequent trips and using "double buses" (as I refer to them, anyhow......can't recall what the right word is)

If it's a bus with 2 storeys it could be a double decker.


If it's one large bus with another large bus attached to the rear with a flexible rubber concertina then they're commonly known (in the UK) as bendy busses (or bloody hindering awkward).


If it's one individual bus following another individual bus it's "the first one's late again..."

[retro]

I had the opposite happen to me once. I was on a bus home. Now this service I've caught on and off recently but I used to catch it pretty much every day.

The bus was coming up to my regular stop so I stood up and walked far enough forward so the driver would see me standing next to him. He steamed straight past the stop and said, "You didn't press the bell". Yes, that's right. He decided to invoke a feature of the bus that nobody uses to avoid stopping at my regular stop.

I was confused but I pressed the button for the bell and he pulled up at the next stop (about a hundred yards further on).

I did once report a driver though. I used to go from work and if I walked quickly enough, I could get to my bus stop at 9.08pm. As the bus didn't even leave the first stop until 9.10pm and would take about 3 minutes to get to me, I usually had about 4-5 minutes to spare. Yes I know that's cutting it fine but early's still early. One day I got there at 9.09pm to find nobody at the bus stop. As time drew on, it became apparent to me that the driver had gone already. My next bus was two hours later meaning I got home after midnight. I complained the following morning about this.

A couple of weeks later, I was on the bus (at the normal time) and I was the only person on the bus left. The driver turned to me and asked, "Did you complain about a driver a couple of weeks ago?"

I must have looked worried but the driver then said, "Oh no. Don't worry. I just wanted to tell you that I'm glad someone reported him because he's been doing it for years but no-one complained until you."

He wouldn't tell me what happened to the other driver but interestingly I only ever missed a bus after that when it was my fault.