Trivia: Most Hostile Bus Routes

[TheSel]

Surprised no-one has mentioned Northern Ireland. During 'The Troubles', vast numbers of buses were hi-jacked, burned and used as barricades. Belfast and Derry / Londonderry were worst affected, but the problem affected other towns and cities too.

Nothing like on the same scale nowadays, but the occasional sporadic incident has been known to occur.

 

[Pat1105]

Rural routes can also be quite hostile. While it no longer applies (evening services were withdrawn a few years ago) the 331/32 Elgin - Burghead Bluebird route regularly encountered missiles at the terminus.

Otherwise known as seagulls

 

[GusB]

Otherwise known as seagulls

That's a topic for another thread, and one I could rant at length about!

 

[KGGXXXY]

Lothian's service 14 between Greendykes and Muirhouse. Known as the 'Rentokil Express' at one time because of the rough nature of the housing schemes which its route passed through at Niddrie and at West Granton.

When I lived in Edinburgh (2004-2015) I heard folk call the 14 the "Methadone Express"

 

[randyrippley]

The 40, 41 and 42 to and from Lancaster can all be really bad during the school commute.

Thats just kids being noisy.
What has been a problem in the past in Lancaster is the Rylands estate, with both Ribble/Stagecoach and LCT withdrawing services following stonings and firebombing of the buses. At the moment Lonsdale run through there and seem to be OK.
It wasn't just the buses - all three emergency services got the same treatment

 

[scotrail158713]

When I lived in Edinburgh (2004-2015) I heard folk call the 14 the "Methadone Express"

I think a lot of people still think of it like that and I can understand why. It certainly goes through some interesting areas.

 

[matt_world2004]

Route 18 (London) has regular code reds. Has had loadings in the 60s consistently through the pandemic. Even when the capacity limits were introduced they didn't drop significantly

 

[alex397]

Growing up on the edge of London in Essex, with TfL services, routes such as the 20, 167 and 397 were best avoided due to antisocial behaviour. Especially the 167. Many groups of kids just hung about on the buses causing trouble. There were many occasions when drivers had just had enough (e.g just turning the engine off and going off for a fag, or refusing to stop at any bus stops until reaching the terminus). I’m so glad I don’t live there any more.

 

[CN04NRJ]

Surprised no-one has mentioned Northern Ireland. During 'The Troubles', vast numbers of buses were hi-jacked, burned and used as barricades. Belfast and Derry / Londonderry were worst affected, but the problem affected other towns and cities too.

Nothing like on the same scale nowadays, but the occasional sporadic incident has been known to occur.

When I worked at Edwards Coaches we had some of the Ulsterbus Wright darts. No opening windows and the cab 'window' was an escape hatch on some of them - I had to go home from work one summers day with heat stroke as it was so hot on board. As I understand the lack of windows were to stop things being thrown *out* in the event they were hijacked!

Eventually they installed some opening windows on them, thank goodness!

 

[cnjb8]

That's a topic for another thread, and one I could rant at length about!

None of you will believe me when I say they're bad here and I live in the middle of the country

 

[route101]

Lothian's service 14 between Greendykes and Muirhouse. Known as the 'Rentokil Express' at one time because of the rough nature of the housing schemes which its route passed through at Niddrie and at West Granton.

In Edinburgh , surely not ha , thats what i like about the buses in Edinburgh, nae hassle like Glasgow.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Not far from where I live, Arriva Medway route 176 / 177 once stopped serving the Weeds Wood Estate (Chatham, Kent) for a short period, apparently due to people who kept throwing stones at the buses there. The 177 especially doesn't surprise me for being a bad route, as it does go via Luton Road which is known for being a very bad area.

 

[PaulMc7]

In Edinburgh , surely not ha , thats what i like about the buses in Edinburgh, nae hassle like Glasgow.

Any bus is rough in Glasgow if you get it at the wrong time lol. Used to have people drinking buckfast on my 10 after college even on an early day when I finished at 1

 

[LancasterRed]

Thats just kids being noisy.

Not at all.

What has been a problem in the past in Lancaster is the Rylands estate, with both Ribble/Stagecoach and LCT withdrawing services following stonings and firebombing of the buses. At the moment Lonsdale run through there and seem to be OK.
It wasn't just the buses - all three emergency services got the same treatment

Ryelands is really bad - you never go near Ryelands.

 

[Jordan Adam]

Any bus is rough in Glasgow if you get it at the wrong time lol. Used to have people drinking buckfast on my 10 after college even on an early day when I finished at 1

Must admit Glasgow is a strange place, every time i've been there you feel like you're about to be mugged. I caught a 255 out to Hamilton late last year and quite a few undesirables did get on along the route, although they weren't any bother.

 

[AJW12]

I remember reading an article in the London Evening Standard some years ago that the 140 which goes from Heathrow to Harrow was particularly bad for anti social behaviour.

Before I moved recently, I lived and worked on the 140 route and used it daily. I actually never had any issue with/on it... an occasional cleanliness problem (think the worst was half-eaten hot fried chicken drumsticks that had begun journeying down the stairs) but never any crime. Maybe worse things happened further north of Harrow!

Route 18 (London) has regular code reds. Has had loadings in the 60s consistently through the pandemic. Even when the capacity limits were introduced they didn't drop significantly

Always insanely busy at nearly all times of day. But then not sure I'd call it 'hostile' - just a typical 'Brent' route multiplied.

I would suggest the 204 (Wembley and Graeme Park areas - attracts groups of interesting people), the 109 and 25 I've heard some horror stories too.

 

[Dave W]

Some routes in London, e.g. the N29, have been known to be very dangerous apparently.

I must say, as a regular N29 user, they can be rowdy and might get the occasional spat, but no worse than any other night bus, really. These days, the 29 route takes in much improved areas, including here in Harringay. Trouble is sporadic. That may not have been the case 10+ years ago, of course.

 

[PaulMc7]

Must admit Glasgow is a strange place, every time i've been there you feel like you're about to be mugged. I caught a 255 out to Hamilton late last year and quite a few undesirables did get on along the route, although they weren't any bother.

Yeah even since I was a kid it's generally got a lot worse. There's not even a safe time of the day either here anymore. Had one Saturday morning with a guy easily in his 70s shouting, swearing and being verbal towards other passengers. It was the first 1A of the morning.

I think dealing with other members of the public puts a lot of people off of using our buses tbh and I can't really blame them.

Witnessed violence, racism etc over the years on buses here

 

[DunsBus]

Eastern Scottish's services in the east end of Glasgow had more than their fair share of vandalism. These were run by Baillieston depot and you could tell its buses apart from those of Eastern's other depots, as Baillieston's ones would often have an almost total lack of vented windows.

 

[Geordie driver]

Jasper Carrot, the comedian, used to do a bit about mentally ill people on the bus, the phrase he used would be unacceptable now but much of what he joked about was based on reality.

We had one old lady regular, if she got on your bus after 10am she would be drunk and often belligerent, passengers would see her boarding and would double up so she couldn't sit next to them, she could be fine one day then terrible the next, she stank to high heaven too.

Back when the pubs kicked out at half ten all buses after that on a weekend would be rammed, some drivers hated driving them but it never bothered me and I saw very little trouble.

As a driver I was loathe to interfere with troublesome passengers, the company would never back you up and the police were not interested. As long as they paid their money and didn't wait for a ticket I was happy.

I did have a few passengers soil themselves and a fair few drunk and incapables,just used to drop the latter off outside a police station.

School kids are a law into themselves, the only time I would deal with trouble makers was when I was a passenger,if I was driving it was head down and get the run done. School specific services meant a cab full of smoke, all the kids seemed to smoke. I never had a problem with them being a bit lively, they are kids after all, some schools were better than others.

Getting bricked was not that rare and could happen anywhere, not just run down estates. We had one driver robbed at Wallsend metro and he ended up with brain damage.

 

[mlambeuk]

Numbers 4 & 6 in York can be quite hair raising

 

[156478]

Eastern Scottish's services in the east end of Glasgow had more than their fair share of vandalism. These were run by Baillieston depot and you could tell its buses apart from those of Eastern's other depots, as Baillieston's ones would often have an almost total lack of vented windows.

That tradition has lasted well into beyond the millenium!

Too much like hard work trying to rubber gasket mount a window with the frame for a window vent also to fiddle with also.

Which is entirely understandable considering the sheer amount of glass that Glasgow has went through due to vandalism since what feels like the dawn of time.

I vagulely remember that Hendersons buses on the Motherwell to Newarthill SPT bus at night were suffering from attacks at night, which got to the stage where they were taken off for a while. Hendersons at the time had to invest heavily in CCTV for the buses and bandit screens for the drivers- which for such a small company was quite a large investment.

A fair few times buses to Castlemilk had to come off due to every bus going into the scheme losing windows.

First Glasgow adopts zero tolerance to vandalism - CBW

First Glasgow has confirmed its zero tolerance approach to combating vandalism has produced dramatic improvements. Broken windows have been reduced from 8,000 about 10 years ago to just 750 for last year, the firm said. [...]

cbwmagazine.com

Some of the early build SVs and the ST Tigers that First ran in Glasgow- you were lucky on some of them to have a window vent on them sometimes, both of those types of buses were in horrific nick at the best of times as the vents were all replaced with plain glass, made worse in a Glasgow heatwave.

It used to also bug the hell out of me why on all the single decks Wrights only put the window vent hoppers in the low section of the bus and not the high up back section. Wasnt very pleasant when one of the many mutant lifeforms you get in Glasgow would smoke something at the back of the bus and it would waft across the entire bus. Or in a hot day when your up the back and sitting on top of a roasting hot engine and only getting ventilation when the bus was going at a moderate speed. But as mentioned earlier on in this thread this was probably influenced by problems in Northern Ireland.

Coming back onto topic, most bus routes in Glasgow involve some kind of hostile section of route.

Anyone for Kevin Bridges skectch on the old Number 40 bus from Clydebank to Easterhouse via Drumchapel.... that said all you need to know about bus travel in Glasgow.

 

[PaulMc7]

That tradition has lasted well into beyond the millenium!

Too much like hard work trying to rubber gasket mount a window with the frame for a window vent also to fiddle with also.

Which is entirely understandable considering the sheer amount of glass that Glasgow has went through due to vandalism since what feels like the dawn of time.

I vagulely remember that Hendersons buses on the Motherwell to Newarthill SPT bus at night were suffering from attacks at night, which got to the stage where they were taken off for a while. Hendersons at the time had to invest heavily in CCTV for the buses and bandit screens for the drivers- which for such a small company was quite a large investment.

A fair few times buses to Castlemilk had to come off due to every bus going into the scheme losing windows.

First Glasgow adopts zero tolerance to vandalism - CBW

First Glasgow has confirmed its zero tolerance approach to combating vandalism has produced dramatic improvements. Broken windows have been reduced from 8,000 about 10 years ago to just 750 for last year, the firm said. [...]

cbwmagazine.com

Some of the early build SVs and the ST Tigers that First ran in Glasgow- you were lucky on some of them to have a window vent on them sometimes, both of those types of buses were in horrific nick at the best of times as the vents were all replaced with plain glass, made worse in a Glasgow heatwave.

It used to also bug the hell out of me why on all the single decks Wrights only put the window vent hoppers in the low section of the bus and not the high up back section. Wasnt very pleasant when one of the many mutant lifeforms you get in Glasgow would smoke something at the back of the bus and it would waft across the entire bus. Or in a hot day when your up the back and sitting on top of a roasting hot engine and only getting ventilation when the bus was going at a moderate speed. But as mentioned earlier on in this thread this was probably influenced by problems in Northern Ireland.

Coming back onto topic, most bus routes in Glasgow involve some kind of hostile section of route.

Anyone for Kevin Bridges skectch on the old Number 40 bus from Clydebank to Easterhouse via Drumchapel.... that said all you need to know about bus travel in Glasgow.

That Kevin Bridges sketch is the most accurate thing about Glasgow bus travel. The 40 hasn't exactly changed except the number to a 60 but there's still trouble on it occasionally. Been on a 60 with my girlfriend just before she got latest car nearly a year ago now and there was a couple having sex up the back of the bus. Would have guessed that they were 14 at the oldest as well

 

[156478]

That Kevin Bridges sketch is the most accurate thing about Glasgow bus travel. The 40 hasn't exactly changed except the number to a 60 but there's still trouble on it occasionally. Been on a 60 with my girlfriend just before she got latest car nearly a year ago now and there was a couple having sex up the back of the bus. Would have guessed that they were 14 at the oldest as well

I thought I had seen all sorts from my decades of bus travel, from the reassuring days of seeing an Inspector now and then checking tickets with a proper busmans cap on also chinning people for antisocial behavior, to no inspectors and no back up to drivers, to bus drivers getting water at public toilets (remember them!) to top up radiators, bus driver change overs at the Eglinton Toll at the Star Bar and seeing driver emerge from the Star Bar itself - **This was well before FirstGroup days and there is no allegation of drinking and driving being made here, but emerging from a pub to then get on to drive a bus is not reassuring**, experiencing sitting on bus and hearing the "bang" and people screaming in fright as something had been thrown at the windows and then seeing it all shatter into tiny pieces, fights, racism, domestics, sectarianism, football crowds, the middle eastern guy who used to get on and ask people for a pound coin- but offered nothing in return, buses with sick on the floor and other human fluids, glass bottle rolling around the upper decks of buses, school chucking out time, kids getting on at a stop near a McDonalds and using the straw and napkins to shoot soggy baws at people and the worst irk was the smokers.

No wonder bus drivers and indeed depot cleaners and maintenance staff can become demoralised and hardended towards the job.

 

[PaulMc7]

I thought I had seen all sorts from my decades of bus travel, from the reassuring days of seeing an Inspector now and then checking tickets with a proper busmans cap on also chinning people for antisocial behavior, to no inspectors and no back up to drivers, to bus drivers getting water at public toilets (remember them!) to top up radiators, bus driver change overs at the Eglinton Toll at the Star Bar and seeing driver emerge from the Star Bar itself - **This was well before FirstGroup days and there is no allegation of drinking and driving being made here, but emerging from a pub to then get on to drive a bus is not reassuring**, experiencing sitting on bus and hearing the "bang" and people screaming in fright as something had been thrown at the windows and then seeing it all shatter into tiny pieces, fights, racism, domestics, sectarianism, football crowds, the middle eastern guy who used to get on and ask people for a pound coin- but offered nothing in return, buses with sick on the floor and other human fluids, glass bottle rolling around the upper decks of buses, school chucking out time, kids getting on at a stop near a McDonalds and using the straw and napkins to shoot soggy baws at people and the worst irk was the smokers.

No wonder bus drivers and indeed depot cleaners and maintenance staff can become demoralised and hardended towards the job.

I'm amazed anyone wants to be a bus driver in Glasgow, to be honest. It's no wonder why car usage is going up and bus use is falling here too

 

[[.n]]

There was a bus route in Pompey about 15 years ago, that was always being delayed reaching me going towards the centre of the city, as it was forever being attacked with bricks, etc in the estate before mine. Quite frightening as as occasionally I went the other way, and sure enough several journey were disrupted by bricks etc being thrown at the buses. I can no longer remember the route number

 

[Ken H]

Midland Red West canned several evening buses in Redditch due to 'anti social behaviour' - they didnt say if it was passengers or people outside the bus.

 

[dazzler]

Numbers 4 & 6 in York can be quite hair raising

...and the 1 in Chapelfields!

 

[Wolfie]

why is every suburb called “northfield” dodgy? one in Edinburgh isn’t very pleasant either

Northfield London isn't bad AFAIK.

 

[Scotrail314209]

Over in West Scotland, it's not a route but a bus station. Kilmarnock Bus Station certainly has some characters lets just say.

The 11 from Kilmarnock - Ardrossan also tends to have quite a lot of characters onboard. Drunken people, people out of their face on drugs, aggressive people etc.