Odd occurrences during bus journeys?

[Jetlagged]

I was taking an excursion to Blackpool for the illuminations and missed the turn off the M62. The next one took me up through Aintree and past the racecourse. By the time I had got back to the garage that night, some wag of a fitter had drawn a cartoon showing my coach going over one of the jumps at Aintree and bookmakers giving odds of whether we would make it to Blackpool or not. Actually the joke was on them. Thanks to very heavy traffic on the M6 delaying the rest of our vehicles, I was actually the first to pull into the car park.

 

[darloscott]

I've not had that many strange things happen on my bus over the last 7 years or so of driving... one I do remember is a young child being sick just as I left Middlesbrough and I had to struggle onto the other end of the route to meet a changeover bus as it absolutely stunk. The mum had tried her best to clean it up bless her but it was more the smell than anything else!
Done the going the wrong way thing a few times too, if any bus driver tells you they've never done it, they're lying. Momentary lapses in concentration are so easy.

 

[sk688]

Dont know if this really counts as odd , but last year was on the 140 , near Hayes/Yeading when the driver turned around and proceeded to shout at the passengers , to stop " Ringing the bell "

It was because we were at the stop , and people kept pressing the bell ,while we are at the bus stop . He then turned around and told everyone to stop pressing the bell , because it " makes the door open " . I think theres a clip of it on YouTube somewhere

I found it odd , as it was the first time that I saw a driver get visibly incensed over people excessively pressing the bell

 

[Cambus731]

I remember a driver on an eastern National Leyland National getting incensed because a load of us (I wasn't one of them) kept pressing the bell on a schools working of the 55 in Chelmsford one afternoon. It would have been 1981 or 1982. (probably 1981) he yelled at us to stop ringing the bell. when his 'request' was ignored he said that if we keep ringing the bell he will not stop at the stop where the majority of us wished to alight. Cue more ringing of the bell. So he carried out his threat and sailed straight on the the next stop. Cue some futile ringing of the bell.

 

[ECML180]

I've never really done buses rather than coaches but I've had constant bell ringing on school buses. Having a switch to switch off the bell was a god-send!

I've had much more experience of the other end of the scale where an angry passenger suddenly shouts "you've missed [village]!" to which the reply is "pretty sure I drove right through it"..."but you didn't stop"..."well you didn't ring the bell?". The walk back to the village ought to do them good anyway. I still can't understand how people just expect the bus to stop where people wanted without them telling the driver - even if it is a regular driver then it's different passengers every day!

 

[PeterC]

even if it is a regular driver then it's different passengers every day!

Not on our rural routes. I have been out for a walk for exercise and the regular driver has stopped the bus on the assumption that I was heading for the next stop.

 

[GusB]

I've never really done buses rather than coaches but I've had constant bell ringing on school buses. Having a switch to switch off the bell was a god-send!

I've had much more experience of the other end of the scale where an angry passenger suddenly shouts "you've missed [village]!" to which the reply is "pretty sure I drove right through it"..."but you didn't stop"..."well you didn't ring the bell?". The walk back to the village ought to do them good anyway. I still can't understand how people just expect the bus to stop where people wanted without them telling the driver - even if it is a regular driver then it's different passengers every day!

I once ended up being taken halfway to the next village because I didn't use the bell, despite getting out of my seat, walking towards the front of the bus and standing by the door as it approached my stop. The driver said "but you didn't ring the bell", or words to that effect, to which my reply was "isn't it bleedin' obvious?"

I'm somewhat curious as to when it became fashionable to use the bell on my local route. No-one ever used it, apart from visitors who would get funny looks when they did!

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's such a local thing. On the hail and ride Little White Buses around Ormskirk years ago, ringing the bell was considered rude, you were meant to get up and tell the driver where you would like him to stop. Whereas on the MK hail and ride routes (very few left, fixed stops have been installed in most places now) you used the bell.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Same on the hail and ride routes in Bradford, back when we had the MicroRider routes you got up and said to the driver where you wanted off. I moved up to Durham and was overcarried a few times before I cottoned on.

 

[spuddie]

I was once pulling out from the exit road of the garage with a Leyland National turning left on to the main road, on turning left one of the door came off it's upper hinge and was hanging off by the remaining lower hinge....cue an immediate left back in to the entry road of the garage....must have been the quickest returning of a vehicle with a fault ever!

We also went through a spell with the Mercedes 709D's having loose wheel bolts, one had a rear wheel come off and I felt strange vibrations on another occasion and found I could tighten the bolts by hand.

On another occasion I was on my way to run an evening minibus contract with a Metrorider and the accelorator cable snapped....managed to get to a phone box by letting it roll in gear. Unfortunately the vehicle the engineer brought out to swap it with was a 12m Leyland National....far too big to get round some of the tight roads on the route.

 

[northwichcat]

On a double decker Arriva were using between Whitby and Scarborough, it got to a steep hill in the Robin Hood's Bay area and seemed like the bus couldn't make it to the top - it had slowed down so much it was only moving up at walking pace. The driver pulled up turned off the engine, then 30 seconds later started it up again and it carried on at around 15mph.

 

[Jetlagged]

Ah passengers. Don't you just love 'em? It would be a darned good job if it wasn't for the passengers!

I was operating a 60 minute journey passing through many small villages. A passenger boarded at the start and the conversation went something like,

"One to the church."

"Which church?"

Passenger looking at me as though I was stupid, sarcastically said, "The one in the village."

"Which village?"

Passenger now getting peed off, angrily said, "Hykeham."

"Certainly sir," I said with a smile. "North or South Hykeham!"

Silly me. Of course I should have known which.

 

[londonbridge]

Most recent one was when the driver closed the exit doors and as he started to pull away from the stop a kid came tearing down the stairs, pulled the emergency door release and jumped off, falling into the road as he did so.

 

[northwichcat]

Ah passengers. Don't you just love 'em? It would be a darned good job if it wasn't for the passengers!

I was operating a 60 minute journey passing through many small villages. A passenger boarded at the start and the conversation went something like,

"One to the church."

"Which church?"

Passenger looking at me as though I was stupid, sarcastically said, "The one in the village."

"Which village?"

Passenger now getting peed off, angrily said, "Hykeham."

"Certainly sir," I said with a smile. "North or South Hykeham!"

Silly me. Of course I should have known which.

Reminds me of an old lady boarding the bus a few months ago

Driver - Where to?
Old lady - The bank
Driver - No which...
Old lady - NATWEST
Driver - Which STOP?

 

[Bantamzen]

Many, many, many years ago I was on a WY Metro schoolbus from Thornton Upper to Clayton in Bradford (A37 I believe), when it got stuck in heavy traffic and parked cars approaching Lidget Green. A gap eventually appeared but it still looked tight and as the driver approached it, as quick as a flash a sixth former downstairs quipped (can you guess.....)

"Come on mate, you could fit a bus through there!"

Well it was funny at the time.....

 

[Segedunum]

I've had a lot of fun commuting to school since 2010. My local route is the 40/41, with one going via my school and one not. Confusingly though, the 40 served it up to November 2010, then the 41, then the 40, then the 41, then the 40 again...and at one point it was the 40 one way and the 41 in the other direction

Hence, i've had many instances of drivers deciding that they're both the route that doesn't go where I want to go (made even more hellish as one was timetabled 0803, and one at 0804) and on more than one occasion, even at age 11, I was pulling up drivers and asking them to double check their route. Thankfully this particular arrangement ended at some point in 2012.

I've also had the Scholars service miss out my estate on a couple of occasions (the bus takes the 2nd exit of a roundabout, runs back up and down, then takes another exit at the same roundabout). At the mere age of 12 I managed to pressure a driver who had gone and skipped the first part of the route into going into a sidestreet, doing a three point turn and going back rather than doing what he wanted to do, which was dump everyone up to a mile and a half from their stop For the record, this was a rather large Northern Counties Palatine Olympian!

There was another driver on the scholars service who refused to move if somebody wasn't seated, which made for some hilarity and irritance if there were more kids than seats.

On the route into Newcastle i've also had plenty of entertainment too, including a man sitting eating an Argos catalogue, a driver screaming swear words to himself for the whole journey, and some recent instances of the doors on the Mercedes Citaros we have completely refusing to close, resulting in an entire journey with the doors being kept shut with one finger on the button and one hand on the steering wheel!

My favourite moment on an early morning was a driver on the 0551 service departing at 0546, with me just about to get to the stop. He however departed so slowly that I was able to run alongside the bus, knock on the door, and make him stop before asking what he was playing at!

 

[spuddie]

You've just reminded me of another incident I had with a Metrorider where the doors would only stay open when holding the button down, phoned the garage and they could swap it over when I got back to Hatfield but nothing available before that so had the interesting journey all the way back from St Albans to Hatfield with trying to take fairs and issue tickets with left hand whilst right hand was stretched in opposite direction to keep the doors open.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

One time the bus took the wrong route into town but it actually worked out better for me as the route it took stopped closer to home

 

[philthetube]

One of my collegues was driving a school service using a coach. The emergency door buzzer went off and when he went back to check it he saw that the handle was raised, he pushed it down and continued, after another half mile the buzzer went off again, same thing. He told the kids that if they did it again they would all walk to school, half a mile later it happened for a third time and he threw the bus load off, (only half a mile from school). He then put the handle down again, moved off and half a mile later the buzzer sounded again. OOPS.

 

[ECML180]

Not on our rural routes. I have been out for a walk for exercise and the regular driver has stopped the bus on the assumption that I was heading for the next stop.

My point exactly...ring the bell if you want to get off the times I've stopped pre-emptively only to get grief because someone isn't on or is going to a friends house :roll: Assuming your rural routes are quiet it's probably not too bad, the ones I'm thinking of were school routes with 70 passengers that take around 1hr20 from the school to the terminus.

I once ended up being taken halfway to the next village because I didn't use the bell, despite getting out of my seat, walking towards the front of the bus and standing by the door as it approached my stop. The driver said "but you didn't ring the bell", or words to that effect, to which my reply was "isn't it bleedin' obvious?"

It's such a local thing. On the hail and ride Little White Buses around Ormskirk years ago, ringing the bell was considered rude, you were meant to get up and tell the driver where you would like him to stop. Whereas on the MK hail and ride routes (very few left, fixed stops have been installed in most places now) you used the bell.

Same on the hail and ride routes in Bradford, back when we had the MicroRider routes you got up and said to the driver where you wanted off. I moved up to Durham and was overcarried a few times before I cottoned on.

As far as I'm concerned too that any indication (getting up, walking to the door, ringing bell, "next stop mate") is good enough, but you ever get the feeling some drivers just want to be awkward?

Ah passengers. Don't you just love 'em? It would be a darned good job if it wasn't for the passengers!
[...]
"North or South Hykeham!"

Agreed, that's why I loved feeder work, plenty of empty mileage! I'm talking about a similar part of the world to you...perhaps they're weird round there?

 

[ECML180]

With regard to the bit about door buttons. At one point we had a service switch from 70 seat coaches to nearly 90 seat double deckers because it got too busy. These had 2 separately controlled doors at he front so typically it was one to enter but both to exit, so they offloaded quickly but passed the driver to show the pass or pay when loading. No matter what stop or what passenger in the first few weeks somebody walked into the closed door on each day...usually despite everybody else managing to use the right door.

 

[MotCO]

I recall couple of examples many years ago on my buses to school.

In London, route 189 used to run to Raynes Park, but one or two buses a day were extended in the rush hour to Worcester Park. To get to Worcester Park required a left turn at the roundabout in New Malden. One day the driver forgot this left turn and continued for about two miles towards Kingston, before stopping a bus behind and asking the way!

Secondly, on the way into Kingston, there was a 'diversion' road sign, so the driver followed it and turned left. However, what was not clear was that the diversion was only for traffic turning left at the following traffic lights, and not for all traffic. Once the driver realised his mistake, he had to do a three point turn to rejoin the line of route, much to the surprise of the next bus coming along!

Lastly, in the days of RTs, route 152 used to hurtle along the A3 from Hinchley Wood to Hook. It started with a slight hill, but once it reached the top, it went down the other side such that the bus probably reached 45 - 50 mph and was shaking every rivet. Woe betide anyone that wanted to get off the bus half way down the hill while the driver was enjoying himself!

 

[fairysdad]

Can think of a few.

Living in a rural village in the back end of Devon, even in the late 90s, our village bus was one of these: https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1444/23948889044_fca0738ab7_b.jpg (Link as not my pic; one of those 'breadvan' buses)

On one occasion, I was on the bus to town, and decided that as I was on my own and not with Mum, I would sit at the back of the bus for once. (Mum suffers from travelsickness so used to always need the front seat of the bus for any length journey) However, I was put off by the fact that the roof at the back of the bus was absolutely covered in flies. It was like a moving black carpet. It was also a different bus on the way back - as the route was run by a local coach company, it was actually one of their coaches rather than an actual bus!

My second story relates to the same bus, and, thinking about it, might explain why there were flies in the bus. As I said, my village is a rural one where one of the livestock that is around the area are pheasants. Pheasants must be one of the stupidest creatures on these fair isles (with the possible exception of EDL members), and until the local farmers realised that they could send them up the hill instead of down to where the main road was, there were countless pheasants on this road, who would often seem to wait until a vehicle was coming before deciding to cross. (I always think of quoting Douglas Adams' sperm whale here: 'What is that thing coming towards me at a great speed? I wonder if it will be friends with me?') This particular occasion a few days before Christmas, I was on the bus into town, and the driver, whenever he saw a dead pheasant that was 'usable' would stop the bus, get out, grab the bird, and put it on the floor of the bus. By the time we reached town, there were about 5 or 6 pheasants, three of which had been claimed by my fellow passengers for Christmas dinner.

Other experiences with this particular bus company include during a snowy and icy winter where our normal bus was replaced by a Land Rover with seats in the back (something like this https://www.flickr.com/photos/k_garrett/8329670766/, again not my pic, with more seats in the back) (and I wonder whether it was actually licenced for passenger use...), and the interesting experience of being the first passenger on one of their coaches after it was back from repair from an accident. What makes that interesting is that my Mum was on that coach when it had the accident. (A Shogun 4x4's driver wasn't paying attention on a single track road and drove head first into the front of the coach; the coach had stopped.)

What also makes that latter one interesting is that I was also involved in a bus accident a few years later, a normal bus by a reputable company (First) - but it was the same driver (in all three occasions!).

I have a few more tales, but this has ended up a bit longer than I intended, so I'll leave it there for now!

 

[PeterC]

With regard to 2 door buses my local company has a number of ex London midibuses converted back to single door. For a while a newly acquired vehicle was in operation with both doors. Despite the driver opening both the passengers always walked to the front to get off.

On the other hand with three door boarding on the bendibuses in London I remember seeing a guy running up the road towards the bus. After he ignored both the rear and middle doors the driver decided that he was running for some other reason and closed the doors and started to move off leaving a very angry prospective passenger at the stop.

 

[stuart100100]

A few years ago getting a stagecoach double decker from Ormskirk bus station on Christmas Eve morning, the driver attempted to reverse out of the bay but couldn't due to the front wheels slipping in snow/slush that had fallen overnight.

The handful of us on board ended up getting out and pushing the bus out the bay with the driver on the pedals and revving the engine

 

[extendedpaul]

Last summer, very hot day, I caught a vintage bus from Epping in Essex towards Brentwood as part of a trip on the Epping-Ongar railway. There was a "Groupon" offer that weekend so the bus was fairly full.

Between Epping and North Weald the bus brushed against some tree branches and a swarm of wasps, their nest having presumably been disturbed, flew in through the open window at the front of the top deck where I was sitting. There was a panic as everybody stood up and made for the stairs but fortunately the wasps just flew through the bus, and back out of windows and the open platform and nobody was stung. Bit scary at the time though.

Driver pulled up, conductor checked everybody was okay and the wasps had all gone and the journey continued.

 

[Teflon Lettuce]

I remember one icy snowy morning I was driving a service that used a coach... I only had 3 passengers on board... all Japanese... we got to the top of a hill and was blocked by a snowdrift... nothing we could do but wait for the snowploughs to clear the road.. I said to the passengers that I'd put the radio on for some entertainment... switched on to radio 2 to be greeted by what can only be described as something akin to a wailing and gnashing of teeth... at the end of the "song" the dj announced that that had been White Christmas.... in Japanese!

 

[Busaholic]

I recall couple of examples many years ago on my buses to school.

In London, route 189 used to run to Raynes Park, but one or two buses a day were extended in the rush hour to Worcester Park. To get to Worcester Park required a left turn at the roundabout in New Malden. One day the driver forgot this left turn and continued for about two miles towards Kingston, before stopping a bus behind and asking the way!

Secondly, on the way into Kingston, there was a 'diversion' road sign, so the driver followed it and turned left. However, what was not clear was that the diversion was only for traffic turning left at the following traffic lights, and not for all traffic. Once the driver realised his mistake, he had to do a three point turn to rejoin the line of route, much to the surprise of the next bus coming along!

Lastly, in the days of RTs, route 152 used to hurtle along the A3 from Hinchley Wood to Hook. It started with a slight hill, but once it reached the top, it went down the other side such that the bus probably reached 45 - 50 mph and was shaking every rivet. Woe betide anyone that wanted to get off the bus half way down the hill while the driver was enjoying himself!

Your story reminded me of a time I'd been waiting in Southwark Park Road for a no.1 going further than Surrey Docks Station (half the service continued to Bromley Garage at the time). Eventually one turned up, driven by an 'old boy' who'd probably never driven at more than 30 mph in his life, and we crawled along for a while, until in the Surrey Docks one way system he seemed to lose it altogether and we ground to a halt. He then hailed a passing 47 bound for the same destination and the young driver of that said 'follow me' and, I'm sure, decided to have some fun with him by tearing off. Our driver then seemed to panic that he might lose his way again and, I swear, because I was downstairs at the front and could see all his actions, he threw his bus round corners, mouth wide open, eyes popping and imo almost without control until we caught up with the 47 again at a bus stop. He then took his peaked cap off, again possibly for the first time in his life, and produced a large handkerchief and proceeded to mop up what looked like gallons of sweat.

 

[Deerfold]

I had a couple of odd incidents on buses in West Yorkshire.

First Manchester at one time operated two routes through my village - but only on a Sunday. One was a fairly straightforward route from Oldham to Halifax. The driver then did a local route which started the same but diverted off the main road to a hamlet called Commons before returning to Oldham. One day, instead of getting off at my local stop I directed the driver to Commons as he had no idea where it was and got off at the same stop on the return journey.

Another occasion I'd been out for a drink in Otley. I caught the evening/Sunday only minibus service which ran Ilkley-Otley-Bradford. I was the only passenger for a while before two fairly drunk girls got on. They decided they needed the loo so the obvious answer was for both of them to urinate on the bus floor...

 

[Martin1988]

I remember once on a NX journey between Birmingham and Derby I was sat next to a young lad. At some point I got talking to him and asked him if he'd had a good day.

He then revealed he'd got arrested in Birmingham during the day, was already on bail and had already been inside and the police were waiting to take him back to prison when he got home!

A young lady sat the other side of us then revealed her brother had been in prison and the two spent the rest of the journey talking about it.