Park and Ride bus drivers are spiteful
06-September-2010
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Park and Ride bus drivers are spiteful

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Although parking can be a problem for many drivers in town and cities, there are many Park and Ride facilities around the country.  They are very useful except for one thing – from my experience, Park and Ride bus drivers are the most spiteful in the country compared with other bus drivers.

On one occasion whilst doing the Christmas shopping in Preston I was with my wife and I had both our tickets.  We were getting slightly overloaded and so I thought I would nip to the car with it and come back empty handed to do some more shopping.

Park and ride buses

I got on the bus and tore off one ticket to which the driver asks me for the other ticket.  Thinking he was curious of something I did but he wouldn’t return the ticket to me.  I asked for it back but he argued that if I was going back to the car and the other person wasn’t with me the other person wouldn’t need it and so he was confiscating it.

When I pointed out that I was going back to the car with the shopping, and then back into town to meet my wife and that we would be travelling together back later on, he still refused to return the unused ticket!

I put the shopping in the boot and went back to town and explained to my wife what had happened.  On the return journey I didn’t have a ticket for my wife and so I told the driver of that bus what had happened the first time.  He was reluctant to accept the story and let her travel so we didn’t bother travelling back to the car in their stinking buses and I have never used Preston’s buses since!  I park down the side streets which I am entitled to do and won’t park in the car parks.

On another occasion when I was in Oxford, I was walking towards a bus stop where an Oxford Bus for Water Eaton Park and Ride was letting passengers on.

As I got to the bus the driver closed the doors and whilst I was waiting for the door to be opened the driver read his newspaper and after about five minutes he put his paper down and started up.

There were about another five passengers waiting behind me but he drove off without letting any of us waiting at the bus stop get on and he saw me as I made eye-to-eye contact before he drove off so it wasn’t that he didn’t see me.  If he didn’t observe me he shouldn’t be driving a public service vehicle.

By: Mousey


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Funny, I work in Oxford and use the Park & Ride at least several times a week and have always found the drivers helpful and polite. Ok, I know where I am going and have a pass, so don't do more than say hello and how are you (you get to know them after all seeing them on a daily basis), but I also observe them dealing with then endless tourists who seem to mistake them for the local tourist office and ask them numerous questions which are nothing to do with the bus service. That and the people who ask if the bus is going to the city centre (the foot high letters on the digital display on the front of the bus are obviously not a clue - and no they do not have sight problems!!)
*Vix  29-Jul-2010 21:35

 
HA there are some people I tell you I do, they park and RIDE in those park and ride carparks, I had to cover my eyes, thats not right , I should say
*hoho  14-May-2010 02:34

 
Hey you folks, whats going on with your buses? Come to Salisbury and try our park and ride buses. Our drivers are polite, helpful and considerate drivers,most of the passengers respond to this attitude with a nice thank you when they leave the bus. And we have pretty well behaved teenagers who know how to travel sensibly.
*Les.L  08-Aug-2009 22:37

 
Why is it that transit riders will frequently wait ten or fifteen minutes doing nothing and then look for their fare or ask the driver about the bus route after boarding? Even if the rider knows the bus route and has his fare ready, why will he sit surrounded by trash at the stop rather than pick it up and place it in a convenient trash can? Have you ever heard a woman say, "Ooh, look at that cute guy surrounded by garbage near the trash can ! "? Me neither.
*Perfect Passenger  04-Dec-2008 03:08

 
I live in Pudsey quite close to the new FTR (means future in text lingo) bus terminus. Its a new type bendy bus with full air con and is fully accessible. Sounds good so far but there is a more sinister non green side to the new service. I assume a requirement of the job of driver and conductor (pilot and host) is smoking and therefore they both stand on the pavement leaving the engine running and the fog lights and air con on.

The maths is tricky when calculating the MPG for a stationary bus and who would the police prosecute for the illegal fog lights when the bus is empty?
*Mr P Norfolk  30-Oct-2008 15:51

 
Ashley aged 11... not all bus drivers are evil, there are some excellent drivers with good customer service attitudes as well as fantastic driving skills. I speak on behalf of other bus drivers who are all tarred with the same brush, that they're all bad mannered, mean, spiteful and unhelpful.

As for the original poster... Preston Bus offer great park and ride services. I have found most of their drivers most polite, friendly and helpful. Which I'll go into below. As for the Preston Bus P&R service, I believe you pay for the service into Preston and back. The return fare is £1.20 per person. This covers you for the outward journey into Preston and the return journey back. If you need to use it again, pay another £1.20. Hardly extortionate rates in my eyes.

I had gone to Preston to ride on their buses. I had asked for a day rider type ticket but only had a £20 note with me. The driver issued my ticket but said he had no change. I did worry at this point but he then told me he can issue me with another ticket so that I could go to the information booth and they'd give me my change. Not all drivers, anyway, would have gone to this length to ensure my satisfaction. I think for some, it would've been too much hassle.

Another driver, this time female, really did drive fantastically. Gave the bus engine a good thrash but I felt safe throughout the journey and upon my return to Preston, I told her she'd handled the bus well and that I really liked her driving. She was a bit bemused that a passenger would say such a comment.
*Youthful Griper  15-Jan-2008 16:36

 
When you're on their buses you don't like it when someone else is in charge and they can tell you what to do rather than the other way round.

Most customers who I see like to think they are in charge and inevitably like to dish out sarcasm and other forms of objectionable behaviour at shop or office staff. I think it's fantastic that when you people get to the bus you have to drop the drama queen act and get back to the real world. Because if you don't the driver can refuse to let you board or throw you off anyway!

I love nothing more than to see bus drivers puncturing the bubble of self-importance that most of you stupid passengers display! It's not the drivers who are spiteful it's you the passenger talking down to people again - you dick!
*Sid  01-Jan-2008 21:52

 
oh my word! I invite you all to stagecoach in hull buses. what a joke. bullying, nasty and thick bus drivers. they smoke on the Bus, use mobile phones whilst driving and and injure passagers when they feel like it for fun. the classic being putting the foot on brakes when and elderly or disabled person gets off. they are constantly leaving passagers at the stops and driving past, always late and I just hate the objectionable idiots. I'm late for school because of them. is it a special requirement that all bus drivers in hull are evil??
*ashley age 11  19-Dec-2007 04:11

 
Bus drivers are cut from the same cloth as the nasty, evil, idiotic, greedy, spiteful and disgruntled girls (and boys) who behave in the threatening manner you describe. Until we totally revist and rehash our laws, acknowledging that people now are not the people they were 40/60/80 years ago and hence not just alllowing, but compeling the courts to severly punish anti-social behaviour, things will get worse and worse. The protection afforded scumbag kids as well is ridiculous.
*That's All Folks  18-Dec-2007 13:48

 
I know, Prince, its a passive acceptance. No one wants to disrupt their own day.

Bus drivers have a responsibility to keep their passengers safe (by not crashing, etc) and that should extend to physical safely while onboard. I would never expect them to jump between me and a knife, but they have communication devices for a reason and should be contacting authorities. Its sad. I haven't taken the bus since. I thought I was being green and helping the planet by leaving the car at home, but I now want to focus on keeping myself safe.
*SLS  14-Dec-2007 15:46

 
SLS, similar situation in Sheffield on the tram. There are girls that spit and hurl abuse at others on the tram and everybody sits there pretending to mind their own business, no one intervenes.

I can understand this to a certain degree but not when there are policeman on the tram as there's usually at least two on their way to work - and you know they are policeman under their jacket. They do nothing.
*Prince  14-Dec-2007 11:19

 
Matt,

You seem like a mamby-pamby softy and it's because of you, yes you, all the oxygen thieves, that this is the way the country is.... Finished.

Grow a spine will yer for God's sake. Buck up and meet fire with fire.

To answer your question, until you come up with a solution (people want solutions not problems) the answer is yes, 'You have to crack on with it' so, give us the answer Matt, please, were'll waiting on you! Cmon Matt!!
*Martin  11-Dec-2007 17:07


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