In message , Matt Ashby
writes
There are many things most bus drivers in London don't even know
about. Off the top of my head:
Snip
It's a customer service job - if you don't want to deal with customers
then go drive a lorry!
I had a really friendly one on the 76 today; he seemed to be thoroughly
enjoying his work. This was coupled with a friendly Station Assistant
at West Ruislip. It must be contagious!

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

Helen Deborah Vecht wrote the following
in:

"Sunny Dale" typed


Have you thought of complaining to TFL?


"Gaz" wrote in message
...
STOP DRIVING PAST ...


Whilst I don't like abusive posts in capitals, I feel the OP has a
point. I have two frequent gripes.

Edgware Bus Station has some bays which have poor visibility from
the passenger waiting seats. I frequently wait at 'D' bay and have
missed, and watch others miss, buses that overtake others and sail
past waiting passengers. (Sometimes this happens even if waiting
outside, watching bubes like hawks)

I had a similar problem while waiting on the Strand the other day
trying to catch a bus to Waterloo. I missed the first one because I
wasn't able to fold up my bike in time, which is fair enough. The
second one I missed because there were two buses already at the stop
and so it stopped in the middle of the road quite a long distance from
the stop. It drove off before I had time to realise it was actually
stopping there, let alone walk over to where it was. The third one
managed to actually stop next to the bus stop and let passengers on.

--
message by Robin May, enforcer of sod's law.
Enjoy the Routemaster while you still can.

Crime is confusing.

Robin May typed


Helen Deborah Vecht wrote the following
in:

"Sunny Dale" typed


Have you thought of complaining to TFL?


"Gaz" wrote in message
...
STOP DRIVING PAST ...


Whilst I don't like abusive posts in capitals, I feel the OP has a
point. I have two frequent gripes.

Edgware Bus Station has some bays which have poor visibility from
the passenger waiting seats. I frequently wait at 'D' bay and have
missed, and watch others miss, buses that overtake others and sail
past waiting passengers. (Sometimes this happens even if waiting
outside, watching bubes like hawks)
^^^^^
OOPS! ;-)

I had a similar problem while waiting on the Strand the other day
trying to catch a bus to Waterloo. I missed the first one because I
wasn't able to fold up my bike in time, which is fair enough. The
second one I missed because there were two buses already at the stop
and so it stopped in the middle of the road quite a long distance from
the stop. It drove off before I had time to realise it was actually
stopping there, let alone walk over to where it was. The third one
managed to actually stop next to the bus stop and let passengers on.

Do you think the bus drivers do this deliberately, or do they genuinely
fail to appreciate the presence of waiting passengers?

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

In article , Helen Deborah Vecht wrote:

I had a similar problem while waiting on the Strand the other day
trying to catch a bus to Waterloo. I missed the first one because I
wasn't able to fold up my bike in time, which is fair enough. The
second one I missed because there were two buses already at the stop
and so it stopped in the middle of the road quite a long distance from
the stop. It drove off before I had time to realise it was actually
stopping there, let alone walk over to where it was. The third one
managed to actually stop next to the bus stop and let passengers on.

Do you think the bus drivers do this deliberately, or do they genuinely
fail to appreciate the presence of waiting passengers?

I sometimes have problems at request stops with bubes - er, buses which
run really close together - waving my arm often just makes the first one
stop, so I'm essentially buggered if the second one happens to be the
one I want to get on...

Niklas
--
"Never go off on tangents, which are lines that intersect a curve at only
one point and were discovered by Euclid, who lived in the 6th century,
which was an era dominated by the Goths, who lived in what we now know
as Poland." - Unknown from Nov. 1998 issue of Infosystems Executive.

In article ,
Helen Deborah Vecht wrote:
Do you think the bus drivers do this deliberately, or do they genuinely
fail to appreciate the presence of waiting passengers?

It may be that the drivers are under pressure to keep to the
timetable, (or at least do end-to-end runs in the timetabled time),
and waiting for the proper stop to clear would cause them to get
bothered by managment.

(This is a generous-to-drivers view, of course)

--
You dont have to be illiterate to use the Internet, but it help's.

Helen Deborah Vecht wrote the following
in:

Robin May typed
I had a similar problem while waiting on the Strand the other day
trying to catch a bus to Waterloo. I missed the first one because
I wasn't able to fold up my bike in time, which is fair enough.
The second one I missed because there were two buses already at
the stop and so it stopped in the middle of the road quite a long
distance from the stop. It drove off before I had time to realise
it was actually stopping there, let alone walk over to where it
was. The third one managed to actually stop next to the bus stop
and let passengers on.

Do you think the bus drivers do this deliberately, or do they
genuinely fail to appreciate the presence of waiting passengers?

It's really quite hard to tell. I think in this situation it may have
been quite possible that the driver didn't see the passengers, because
as a passenger waiting for the bus I certainly didn't see that it had
stopped in the middle of the street. I just assumed it was waiting for
the buses in front to move off and clear the stop. Surely though a bus
driver should make it a bit more obvious that their bus has stopped and
passengers should board. The bus in question was positioned in the road
as you would expect it to be if it was just driving along the road, it
was quite a significant distance away from the bus stop and I couldn't
see the indicators (presumably it was indicating that it was stopping
there) because the buses already at the stop were blocking the view.

--
message by Robin May, enforcer of sod's law.
Enjoy the Routemaster while you still can.

Crime is confusing.

Mike Bristow typed


In article ,
Helen Deborah Vecht wrote:
Do you think the bus drivers do this deliberately, or do they genuinely
fail to appreciate the presence of waiting passengers?

It may be that the drivers are under pressure to keep to the
timetable, (or at least do end-to-end runs in the timetabled time),
and waiting for the proper stop to clear would cause them to get
bothered by managment.

(This is a generous-to-drivers view, of course)


Oh I see, passengers are those unfortunate beings who stop buses running
on time and should be avoided at all costs. Now that many journeys are
cashless, a driver can just press a button a few more times and no-one
will ever know many passengers were left behind.

Oyster and Saver ticket will leave some trace though, I suppose.

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

In article ,
Helen Deborah Vecht wrote:
Mike Bristow typed
It may be that the drivers are under pressure to keep to the
timetable, (or at least do end-to-end runs in the timetabled time),
and waiting for the proper stop to clear would cause them to get
bothered by managment.

(This is a generous-to-drivers view, of course)


Oh I see, passengers are those unfortunate beings who stop buses running
on time and should be avoided at all costs.

If that's the clear message that drivers get from their managment (and
this is hypothetical, I've never worked on the busses), then it's
a little unfair to blame the drivers for doing what their bosses
tell them.

Save your ire for the Evil Managment, and support the Working Man!
(c) B. Bragg, 1980-2004

--
You dont have to be illiterate to use the Internet, but it help's.