Basil Jet wrote:

Some years ago, I was on a rail-replacement bus in suburbia chatting to
the driver, and he showed me his hand-written route description, which had
been given to him by a colleague. It went through several tiny roads and
tight corners which can barely take a car, and in some places jumped from
one road to another which did not adjoin. Since I had once accompanied a
friend who used to drive this particular rail replacement, I showed him
the right route for the first half, but had to leave him to it after I
alighted. I was surprised that the process was not systematic, but nothing
seems to have improved.

I remember a similar case about 12 years ago. One Sunday I needed to go into
London from Epsom but on arrival at the station it was announced there would
be rail replacement services because of a shortage of staff. A coach
proceeded on the route for Wimbledon but for some reason chose to approach
Stoneleigh station from the residential side. It got stuck in a suburban
road with cars parked on both sides and the driver had to go and knock on
doors on a Sunday morning to get things clear. He also got hit by a cyclist
on the pavement. When we reached Stoneleigh station the station staff were
astounded we'd come that way.