Things that annoy you on bus and coach journeys

[Qwerty133]

The advantage of the pass is to get normally housebound OAP's out to enjoy what Britain has to offer. Think of those who may have lost their husband / wife because of their age and don't want to travel far, it gives them freedom.

Going by your post, it seems that Labour has brainwashed yet another youth. Wake up and realise that you'll be old one day.

I have no problem with OAPs and the genuinely disabled getting free travel at off peak times, but there's something genuinely wrong with the system where 17yos like myself are having to pay almost full price to get to college, especially now the government have decided we must remain in education or training until 18, while the disabled* (and some OAPs), get to travel free to their paid jobs.

 

[Greenback]

The 'disabled' are as bad as the OAPs around here, although they manage to run for the bus and get up the stairs I'm not sure how they manage to get a free loading pass. (Of course this is the same people who complained when the council rightfully put a time restriction on their free passes, because they could no longer get to their paying jobs for free).
N.B £465 is the cost of my student ticket to get to college (and it's still compulsory that I'm in education), so this may be why my sympathy is severely lacking.

As you can't know why someone has been given a pass, your comments, and your conclusion appear to be ill judged. It's not necessary for a free pas holder to be mobility impaired in order to be given concessionary travel facilities.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

As you can't know why someone has been given a pass, your comments, and your conclusion appear to be ill judged. It's not necessary for a free pas holder to be mobility impaired in order to be given concessionary travel facilities.

Absolutely Greenback. Being disabled need not be a physical impairment - the person could be profoundly deaf?

Qwerty133 should be a little more considered - perhaps some empathy (as opposed to selective sympathy) might be welcomed?

 

[fusionblue]

Children who are old enough to walk but get pushed around, including on a bus, in a pushchair. I saw a parent who argued with the driver that there was two buggies already on (with babies) until he relented - his child then unbuckled the seat belt, walked on with no difficulty and went straight up the stairs.

Also, people who beep their oyster and get a red light and rather than reading the error message (most frequently not enough funds or card read error) just beep it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. The driver not saying anything either.

 

[ThePannier]

Another thing I forgot to mention in my first post in this thread - is how irritating chavs can be.

About a year ago, as an example, I was sitting alone on the upper deck on a Volvo B5HL/Wright Gemini 2 on the 21 from Durham, as far as Chester-le-Street.

Some chav got on just out of Durham Bus Station and sat in the middle of the upper deck, legs spread across the aisle as if he were lying down - on the phone (on loudspeaker of course) having a dirty conversation with a woman...

Some of the words I learnt that day will never leave my vocabulary...

 

[Qwerty133]

Absolutely Greenback. Being disabled need not be a physical impairment - the person could be profoundly deaf?

Qwerty133 should be a little more considered - perhaps some empathy (as opposed to selective sympathy) might be welcomed?

Ok, it came across wrong, but the post was a aimed at a handful of people, who never stop complaining if disabled pass holders, free passes gain new restrictions.
These people can run for buses, travel upstairs, have headphones in, and drive (their most recent complaint was over the park and ride now charging these people, and they were saying they were going to park, and then catch the normal bus outside.).

 

[Bevan Price]

A few thoughts:-
1. Road humps / raised junctions.
2. Wasting 5-10 minutes at intermediate stops because schedules are too slow.
3. Schoolkids leaving remains of their breakfast on the seats. (Get up earlier and have your breakfast at home, you idle slobs....)
4. Bus heaters left on in summer.
5. Feet on seats. Do they do this at home without taking off their shoes ?
6. Buses moved out of locations where people want to travel (or sent on long roundabout deviations) due to pedestrianisation & traffic mismanagement schemes.

 

[Seacook]

It's not necessary for a free pas holder to be mobility impaired in order to be given concessionary travel facilities.

And sometimes it is almost impossible for people who are mobility impaired to obtain a concessionary pass - being classified as "severely disabled" is not enough.

 

[Tom B]

Buses starting from a terminus outside a depot late. There are a hundred excuses in many situations which are wheeled out, but if the journey begins at a depot and the incoming journey is in, there are A) buses and B) staff available to allow the next one to leave on time!

 

[Rapidash]

OAP's who absolutely must be on the 0931 out of town and queue up from around 0830 to do so.

OAP's who can somehow afford a fare at 0929, coming back down the stairs at 0931 to tap in.

OAP's who are 'of a different era' who are incapable of not being racists, and must titter on about 'those coloured thieves' who looks remarkably like schoolchildren to me.

OAP's getting a new phone, and loudly and proudly going through all the frigging ring tones at maximum volume.

OAP's who queue jump due to, apparently, 'being in the war, show some respect!' Not sure how a 70yo would have been fighting off the Goosesteppers in nappys but hey ho.

EFL students who are incapable of a)queueing b) shutting up for less than a second.

Driver breaks or changes that are in the most illogical places imaginable and must be diagrammed after a heavy night on the tiles.

No extra capacity in summer holidays

Grockles who panic at the thought of the RFID reader being in a different place to the one back home

Grockles who don't know what time their passes activate

Grockles who travel in the middle of the sodding rush hour, just to annoy all the commuters

Ill people who cough and splutter everwhere. If you are that ill, stay at bloomin' home!

And, just to top it off, the inevitable screaming baby

 

[quarella]

A few thoughts:-
2. Wasting 5-10 minutes at intermediate stops because schedules are too slow.

Passengers who want a regular, reliable service at X minutes past each hour but are unable to see that a slow schedule at 1015 is barely achievable at 0815 due to traffic and passenger numbers.

 

[Tom B]

Passengers who want a regular, reliable service at X minutes past each hour but are unable to see that a slow schedule at 1015 is barely achievable at 0815 due to traffic and passenger numbers.

... Companies who do not plan their schedules to allow extra time at rush hour!

 

[90019]

... Companies who do not plan their schedules to allow extra time at rush hour!

On a similar note, companies that add extra time in rush hour by shortening layovers, rather than putting out a rush bus. So the part of the day when you could really do with having that extra time for when you're running late for whatever reason, it isn't there. :roll:

 

[Martin1988]

One annoyance I've never got over concerns the bus route I used to travel to and from college on.

The vehicle was normally a very uncomfortable merc benz vario with little legroom between seats and a very noisy engine. The company didn't seem to like using coaches on this route and there were a number of instances where the drivers mentioned having had a coach on their previous job but being required to return to the depot and swap vehicles before doing our service. Whilst the loadings were sufficient for a minibus, it did get rather uncomfortable when there were enough passengers traveling to fill it up.

Adding to that I found a few of the students who used the route that year to be rather irritating and one of the passengers used to bring her 2-3 year old boy on everyday to take him to nursery. On a good number of occasions he threw a huge temper tantrum on the bus. In addition whilst nobody had previously boarded at the stop I got on at in the morning, that year there was at least one person who did so I often didn't manage to get the seat I wanted for the journey.

Also, the service also used to regularly get held up in traffic and on a number of occasions I arrived for my first class of the day late.

I was also really gutted on one occasion when I had a day off college, and when I returned the next day, one of the passengers told me that a coach had been on the route. Typically the minibus was back on it from that evening.

That route is now worked by a different operator using full size coaches(some of them executive standard) and the passengers are much more tolerable. I feel really gutted about it given how stressed out that journey

 

[Class 33]

Also drivers who don't reply to my 'thank you' and those who don't acknowledge the presentation of a ticket, but just stare blankly! I appreciate it can be a tricky job, but these are basic courtesies, IMO.

Yes I've experienced that a fair number of times. In fact a number of occasions every week for years really.

When I leave a bus at the door by the driver, I usually say "Thanks." to the driver. Some of them do respond and say thanks, bye, or whatever back or at least nod their head to acknowledge me saying thanks. But a number of them don't respond atall or even show any acknowledgement atall, which is annoying. Makes me think well I wish I hadn't have even said thanks to them now. And sometimes because of this I don't allways say thanks when leaving the bus, because I think it may be another driver who doesn't acknowledge my "thanks".

On the older buses(or indeed a lot of the current buses in London) which had the exit doors in the middle there was less inclination to have say thank you to the driver when leaving.

 

[Busaholic]

Yes I've experienced that a fair number of times. In fact a number of occasions every week for years really.

When I leave a bus at the door by the driver, I usually say "Thanks." to the driver. Some of them do respond and say thanks, bye, or whatever back or at least nod their head to acknowledge me saying thanks. But a number of them don't respond atall or even show any acknowledgement atall, which is annoying. Makes me think well I wish I hadn't have even said thanks to them now. And sometimes because of this I don't allways say thanks when leaving the bus, because I think it may be another driver who doesn't acknowledge my "thanks".

On the older buses(or indeed a lot of the current buses in London) which had the exit doors in the middle there was less inclination to have say thank you to the driver when leaving.

Slightly off topic, but it relates to bus driver courtesy. When I'm driving I try to let bus drivers pull out from a stop where possible, so long as they signal their intention, and when in London many, if not the majority, acknowledge this with a hand signal or flashing of lights, whereas where I now live in Cornwall this is rare. Any experience from other parts of the country?

 

[fowler9]

Passengers who think having a go at racists is O.K. and at the same time complaining about the Aboriginals in Queensland. You don't like racists unless they don't like Queensland Aboriginals? I don't get it

 

[Temple Meads]

Slightly off topic, but it relates to bus driver courtesy. When I'm driving I try to let bus drivers pull out from a stop where possible, so long as they signal their intention, and when in London many, if not the majority, acknowledge this with a hand signal or flashing of lights, whereas where I now live in Cornwall this is rare. Any experience from other parts of the country?

Probably boils down to the driver being shocked to see a courteous road user in London

 

[AnonymousUser1]

The 'disabled' are as bad as the OAPs around here, although they manage to run for the bus and get up the stairs I'm not sure how they manage to get a free loading pass. (Of course this is the same people who complained when the council rightfully put a time restriction on their free passes, because they could no longer get to their paying jobs for free).
N.B £465 is the cost of my student ticket to get to college (and it's still compulsory that I'm in education), so this may be why my sympathy is severely lacking.

oddly enough you can get a 'disabled' pass if your are completely bodily fit and well

but just happen to have a sensory disability which prohibits you from holding a driving licence, a neurological condition which is grounds for refusal of a driving licence, or any other condition which is grounds for the DVLA medical branch to refuse a driving licence

where did you get your teleaethic powers of diagnosis ? or are you just an immature and childish bigot.

 

[Class 33]

Something which I noticed on a Megabus journey from Amsterdam-London recently, which I found a little annoying. A group of SEVEN young people who were sat near the back. But each of them was sat on the window seat of a set of two seats to themselves, rather than them all sat together on three sets of two seats together and the other one by theirself. Meaning that for any other passengers who got on after had less comfortable seating available, and would have had to occupy those aisle seats next to these people. Furthermore, one particular person frequently kept leaning over their seat to chat to their friend in the seat behind. That must have been particularly annoying for the other passenger on the aisle seat of that seat behind! Why couldn't they have just all sat together?!

 

[Mag_seven]

oddly enough you can get a 'disabled' pass if your are completely bodily fit and well

but just happen to have a sensory disability which prohibits you from holding a driving licence, a neurological condition which is grounds for refusal of a driving licence, or any other condition which is grounds for the DVLA medical branch to refuse a driving licence

where did you get your teleaethic powers of diagnosis ? or are you just an immature and childish bigot.

Unfortunately some still think that disabled only means being in a wheel chair or carrying a white stick.

 

[quarella]

Grockles who panic at the thought of the RFID reader being in a different place to the one back home

Grockles who don't know what time their passes activate

Due to the pass being available covering each of the home nations, but time constraints being on a local basis it is perhaps understandable that confusion may arise, similar to having to go through the recyling bin after a guest has been 'helpful'. The full blown rants I have seen in West Wales when an English pass is declined have to be seen to be believed. On the forms I have seen the area of validity has been perfectly clear.

 

[BestWestern]

I wholeheartedly agree with the posts regarding drivers who make abslutely no attempt at courtesy or human interaction. A certain large urban chunk of a certain large transport group appear, on one busy route at least, to have employed a full set of regular drivers who lack any form of people skills whatsoever. Using the service frequently with a mixture of weekly passes and single cash fares, at no point have I had a driver greet, smile, verbally inform me of the fare due, acknowledge the validity of a pass or otherwise engage in any form of positive customer service. Being sat behind an assault screen doesn't make said courtesy impossible, either.

Another annoyance is the certain breed of driver for whom a schedule is an irrelevance. If it's rush hour then you'll be late, nobody can do much about it. But if it's mid-morning and both the bus and the road are quiet, ending up 10 - 15 minutes late by driving as though you're running early is inexcuseable. Spending five minutes sat outside a certain depot where driver changeovers seem to take an eternity also irritates me.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Another annoyance is the certain breed of driver for whom a schedule is an irrelevance. If it's rush hour then you'll be late, nobody can do much about it. But if it's mid-morning and both the bus and the road is quiet, ending up 10 - 15 minutes late by driving as though you're running early is inexcuseable. Spending five minutes sat outside a certain depot where driver changeovers seem to take an eternity also irritates me.

More annoying is drivers who for similar reasons rag round as quickly as possible and thus run early. This is worst on cross-city routes. Better that the bus is a few minutes late than early, as if it's early you've missed it.

Neil

 

[Martin1988]

I can see why you would have found that annoying.

I had a similar experience on a Megabus journey between Bristol and Leeds about 15 months ago. Two people spread themselves out across the 5 rear seats and used two of the seats in front for their hand luggage.

I didn't approve of this one bit. Especially later on in the journey when the coach got busy.

Something which I noticed on a Megabus journey from Amsterdam-London recently, which I found a little annoying. A group of SEVEN young people who were sat near the back. But each of them was sat on the window seat of a set of two seats to themselves, rather than them all sat together on three sets of two seats together and the other one by theirself. Meaning that for any other passengers who got on after had less comfortable seating available, and would have had to occupy those aisle seats next to these people. Furthermore, one particular person frequently kept leaning over their seat to chat to their friend in the seat behind. That must have been particularly annoying for the other passenger on the aisle seat of that seat behind! Why couldn't they have just all sat together?!

 

[jon0844]

I'll counter that with "drivers who overtake at a stop in a manner than passengers standing by the flag won't be able to see the number and put their hand out in time". Unless it's an identical bus (same route AND destination), which in most areas they have no way of knowing, and they know it isn't full, they should stop anyway and not overtake.

All the buses around Hertfordshire (whether Uno, Trustybus or others) that have no working displays and think it okay to write the number on a bit of A4 paper on the dash or stuck to the glass should be forced to stop at ALL stops and announce to people at the bus stop what service they are.

It can be near impossible to read the number at night, so by the time you can read it the driver has already decided to proceed and isn't likely to slam on the brakes.

I for one would like all buses to be required to have working, illuminated, and readable, displays or the operator is fined heavily.

 

[Busaholic]

All the buses around Hertfordshire (whether Uno, Trustybus or others) that have no working displays and think it okay to write the number on a bit of A4 paper on the dash or stuck to the glass should be forced to stop at ALL stops and announce to people at the bus stop what service they are.

It can be near impossible to read the number at night, so by the time you can read it the driver has already decided to proceed and isn't likely to slam on the brakes.

I for one would like all buses to be required to have working, illuminated, and readable, displays or the operator is fined heavily.

All buses introduced since 2000 are required to have a route number and destination displayed on the front and on the NEARSIDE, which a lot of people don't realise, including some operators, plus a number at the back. Any bus which doesn't meet these and other standards has until 1st January 2016 (single deck) or 2017 (double deck) to conform. This applies to buses with 22 seats min. If Uno aren't complying, contact the Traffic Commissioner. Illumination of blinds (or other displays) I'm not sure about.

 

[90019]

Another annoyance is the certain breed of driver for whom a schedule is an irrelevance. If it's rush hour then you'll be late, nobody can do much about it. But if it's mid-morning and both the bus and the road are quiet, ending up 10 - 15 minutes late by driving as though you're running early is inexcuseable. Spending five minutes sat outside a certain depot where driver changeovers seem to take an eternity also irritates me.

More annoying is drivers who for similar reasons rag round as quickly as possible and thus run early. This is worst on cross-city routes. Better that the bus is a few minutes late than early, as if it's early you've missed it.

Of course, the problem is that, no matter how you drive, there will always be some people who think you're driving too fast and others who think you're driving too slow.
There are definitely some who take the p*ss though.



Someone I know was driving down a straight bit of road on a clear, sunny day last summer, doing 15-20mph because he was a minute early, and a woman came up to him while they were sitting at a set of lights and complained that he was 'driving like a maniac'.

 

[Tom B]

All the buses around Hertfordshire (whether Uno, Trustybus or others) that have no working displays and think it okay to write the number on a bit of A4 paper on the dash or stuck to the glass should be forced to stop at ALL stops and announce to people at the bus stop what service they are.

It can be near impossible to read the number at night, so by the time you can read it the driver has already decided to proceed and isn't likely to slam on the brakes.

I for one would like all buses to be required to have working, illuminated, and readable, displays or the operator is fined heavily.

I seem to remember back in the 80s/90s an operator was fined somewhere for this. They had thrown a bit of paper with the destination into the windscreen, but didn't show the service number. It was argued that you could not consider the number 42 bus to have run if no bus displaying service number 42 had made the journey.

First Mainline went through a phase of doing this regularly with the early dot-matrix displays failing, it was quite regular for a driver to pull an advert card out from the lower deck and scrawl a number on it!

 

[jon0844]

Uno said this week (via Twitter) that they're seeking to replace screens at huge expense (their words). Goodness knows if they will, but they run an awful lot of buses without the displays working - and some hired in buses that have no displays AT ALL.

Side displays are very hit and miss. If they're manual blinds, forget it. And rear screens - also forget it if they're manual. In fact, don't be surprised if they just show the wrong number (000 is quite common, but often it will be left on whatever some previous driver set possibly days before). A lot of their fleet have LED displays, but many don't work on the back - and many displays are also terribly faded.

Some are even installed badly so the side or bottom is cut off from view.

But Uno isn't the only offender. There are operators around Cheshunt/Broxbourne that are like that. The exception to the rule is Arriva, which seem to have fully working displays on virtually all buses. I did see a weird bus running as the 724 once, but that was clearly a stand-in and perhaps it was a much older bus anyway.

Metroline on the other hand likes to have the displays showing how to follow them on Twitter and the special offers on weekly tickets. This doesn't scroll under the destination/number but actually replaces it on a 'page by page' basis. God knows how that's allowed*.

(* Actually he probably doesn't either).