David B wrote:

Most bus passengers are a miserable bunch. They whine and moan about
everything and anything, particularly if there is a delay of any sort. Coach
passengers on the other hand tend to be different and don't seem to mind
late running. As a for instance, I used to drive route 24 which had a 5
minute headway in the daytime. One particular morning the bus in front was
'missing' (either broken down in the garage or no driver available for it)
so the gap was increased to 10 minutes. It was around 8am, the morning peak
and I filled rapidly and the bus behind caught me up. The whining and
bitching and complaining at each stop as I picked up was unreal. "we've been
waiting 15 minutes for a bus and then 2 come at once etc" - I knew it had
been 10 mins since the last one went, I watched it leave. I also knew a bus
was missing and wasnt allowed to leave early. And I also knew I'd lose time
because of it.

So the buses were scheduled to run every five minutes, but you didn't
leave until ten minutes after the previous one??? Even though it would
delay you and at least one bus after you, causing huge inconvenience for
the passengers, and possibly preventing you from reaching the end of the
route in time to start the return journey on time? No wonder the
passengers were angry! I sincerely hope you made an official complaint
against the controller who had disallowed your early departure.

Buses on frequent routes should ALWAYS depart at as near to even
intervals as possible.