For reasons which will become obvious, I think I ought not to be too specific about the company and locations concerned.
It happened to my father-in-law today, enjoying his leisurely journey using his ENCTS pass. At least until a tyre blew midway. The driver called in to his depot, and they despatched a couple of mechanics; in the meantime all the other passengers alighted and either walked or got family members to pick them up. The mechanics eventually arrived and began to change the tyre; as it was in a cold location the driver kept the bus engine idling to maintain heat and went outside the bus to supervise proceedings. In the meantime warning lights began to flash and the engine cut out.
So (and I'm not making this up honest), the driver asked my father-in-law to go sit in the cab when the lights flashed and press the accelerator to get rid of the warnings! What he didn't think of was to flag down the next service bus, an hour later, which Dad could have caught to get him to his next change point a lot quicker. Anyway, the finally set off and a few miles down the road a huge gust of wind blew the doors open and blew out the driver's cab window; fortunately he didn't call the fitters again. Somewhat disconcertingly he also revealed that the offending tyre was only held by four nuts instead of six to save time at the roadside.
This led to knock-on missed connections and late running in the evening peak so a four-bus journey of around forty miles ended up taking around seven hours door-to-door to South Manchester.
It happened to my father-in-law today, enjoying his leisurely journey using his ENCTS pass. At least until a tyre blew midway. The driver called in to his depot, and they despatched a couple of mechanics; in the meantime all the other passengers alighted and either walked or got family members to pick them up. The mechanics eventually arrived and began to change the tyre; as it was in a cold location the driver kept the bus engine idling to maintain heat and went outside the bus to supervise proceedings. In the meantime warning lights began to flash and the engine cut out.
So (and I'm not making this up honest), the driver asked my father-in-law to go sit in the cab when the lights flashed and press the accelerator to get rid of the warnings! What he didn't think of was to flag down the next service bus, an hour later, which Dad could have caught to get him to his next change point a lot quicker. Anyway, the finally set off and a few miles down the road a huge gust of wind blew the doors open and blew out the driver's cab window; fortunately he didn't call the fitters again. Somewhat disconcertingly he also revealed that the offending tyre was only held by four nuts instead of six to save time at the roadside.
This led to knock-on missed connections and late running in the evening peak so a four-bus journey of around forty miles ended up taking around seven hours door-to-door to South Manchester.