What is this that roareth thus?
Can it be a motor bus?
Yes, the hideous swell and hum
Indicat Motorum Bum!
Implet in the corn and High
Terror me Motoris Bi:
Bo Motori clamitabo
Ne Motore caeder a Bo
Dative be or Ablative
So thou only let us live;
Whither shall thy victims flee?
Spare us, spare us, Motor Be!
Thus I sang; and still anigh
Came in hordes Motores Bi,
Et complebat omne forum
Copia Motorum Borum.
How shall wretches live like us
Cincti Bis Motoribus?
Domine, defende nos
Contra nos Motores Bos!
A R Godley wrote that about eighty years ago, probably in his cups. I expect, like me he had just travelled between Leeds and Ilkley by bus. Never again. Bus filthy, driver morose to the point of rudeness, timetable meaningless, fare enormous.
Public transport: big joke, ( as in Some Like It Hot)
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As someone who uses Leeds (First) buses every day, it's almost always down to the individual driver. I pick up my bus at the start of it's route, and it's not difficult to see a driver sneakily stop around the corner for a quick cigarette.
Even this morning a bus closed the doors and drove off while I was sprinting towards it. Plenty of opportunity to bang on the doors (yup, I was that close), the side of the bus, and shout abuse at the driver. They never stop, even if you plead.
The trouble is, they mount the emergency engine stop on the other side of the bus, otherwise I'd be seriously tempted to pull open the little flap and push the button. Don't know if it's anything like our tractor at home, but it's a good 20 minute job to get it going again if it's pushed.
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Buses round our way have abandoned all road rules and just pull out on you as you're negotiating a roundabout. Hard to argue with them!
Just to add insult to injury, a driver who did this to me the other week was on his mobile phone!
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The buses here try to get across the ring road roundabout by accelerating as fast as they can at it and going across in a straight line.
Doesn't always work though; every so often a driver judges it wrong and skids (literally) to a stop blocking all 3 lanes of the roundabout...
Is it fairly easy to get a license to drive a bus? To be fair, the drivers are an excellent judge of distance and squeezing their buses through gaps and navigating tight corners.
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Good on yer jesse. Until I retired my wife had to catch buses daily, the tales she told me about the disgraceful behaviour of drivers were awful. The bus companies frequently cancel buses without prior notice if they think there will be few passengers.
I am lucky enough to have use of a car but lots of people around here rely on public transport to travel any distance. Come the REVOLUTION!!!!
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I think it's the same with everything. The small numbers of people who consider that they have received sub-standard service tend to publicise the fact. The large numbers of people who are perfectly happy with the service they receive say nothing. What about a thread publicising stories of good service for a change?
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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The large numbers of people who are perfectly happy with the service they receive say nothing. What about a thread publicising stories of good service for a change?
Well in my opinion the buses round here (Leamington) aren't that bad. At least the Stagecoach ones I use aren't. Usually if a driver sees you running for a bus he will wait for you. But as already mentioned, it depends on drivers.
It has to be understood that drivers take a lot of stick from disgruntelled customers claiming "you're late". They're not late, it's just that the bus before them didn't show up! OK that's not the experience all the time.
The Student paper at Uni usually forks out a lot of abuse to bus services. While a lot of this has resulted in improved service and extra buses e.g. on Sundays, they can't just magic replacements for sick drivers out of thin air or sacrifice other services for Uni buses. I think the big job advertisements have paid off a lot though, but I'm sorry to say I don't see other companies doing the same.
There is the occasional silly complaint about buses I hear such as a classic complaining that "The buses are too old... they bounce around too much over speed humps when you're on the top deck and you're trying to get down the stairs". Well wait until the bus has stopped then!
That'll do I think :-)
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There is the occasional silly complaint about buses I hear such as a classic complaining that "The buses are too old... they bounce around too much over speed humps when you're on the top deck and you're trying to get down the stairs". Well wait until the bus has stopped then!
Except that if you do wait (as the safety notices tell you to do), then the bus pulls off before you have gotten down the stairs. If you're unlucky, they pull off with suficient jerk to throw you dowen there stairs (happened to me twice last year).
Then if you have the nerve to object, you get an earful of abuse from the driver, who is paid awful wages and treated badly by his highly profitable employer.
If you complain to said employer, you eventually get a formal but hollow apology, a promise that the driver has already been rebuked/disciplined/boiled-in-oil, and no assurance that the drivers are ever actually told to obey the safety notices (which really only exist to absolve the bus company of liability) ... and you end up feeling that you have solved nothing and made the bus-drivers tough job even more miserable.
Happy days ...
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The seaside resort where I live has an excellent bus service operated by Arriva; vehicles are clean, run to time and, on my particular route, operate every 10 minutes until after the evening peak period, when it's every half-an-hour.
I'm lucky (?) to be old enough to qualify for a free travel pass and can use buses, trains and ferries over a vast area; it means that, for short local trips especially, using the bus is easy and with less wear and tear on the car.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Got to agree with Stuart. Arriva are very good. A few years ago I used to have to catch four buses a day to get to and from school. They used to be all old Leylands operated by Merseytravel but then they all got changed to nice new Arriva ones.
Both services were very good, on time and never cancelled.
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Adam
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Arriva in High Wycombe arnt the best in the world to say the least! On our route i live on a hill, we have older buses (c-m reg!) & most of them cant tackle because they are so old & gutless! There arnt normally on time either because of this. Talking about the fares, they've gone up quite a bit in the last 5 years or so!
We are due some new buses on this route but they re not yet in service, so it will be interesting to see if they will be to scratch!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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I don't have much of a problem with Arriva, but then again, they are THE only bus operator in my area so I have no view on any others. But I think they run an acceptable service which in most cases (from my experience) runs reasonably on-time, and rarely being over 5 minutes late.
The busses IMO could do with a damn good scrub on the inside as they can be a little grubby depending on what bus you get. When they took over from the old operator (northumbria) they introduced an entirely new fleet of 'mini' buses to do the town service, which are pleasant to use. They are those Dennis/Paxton 'easy access' buses which allow wheelchairs onboard.
>>we have older buses (c-m reg!). Well that?s not that old. We still have y reg Leylands trundling around our routes and the popular Newcastle service makes do with busses which are primarily of m-p reg. But they are still ok to use and are reasonably refined.
Fares can be a little strange at times, but they are not too bad. We have a maximum return fair of £4.50, which is the same price as an all day ticket, so you can use the bus as often as you like in a day for 4.50, which i don't think is bad. Not forgetting that I now use buses to commute to Uni all the time, because at £18.00 for a weeks unlimited travel, its nearly half the cost of driving/metro (And a lot less stressful!). Plus, with thus bus pass, I don?t have to use the car for small runs into town, just hop on a bus, because it wont cost me any more.
People are quick to criticize and slow to praise, and I think people sometimes expect too much of the buses.
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>>operated by Merseytravel>>
Just to be pedantic - MerseyTravel isn't an operator but co-ordinates public transport, acting in partnership with various private bus and rail operators to deliver public transport services in Merseyside.
Your bus operator would most likely have offered a school run service at a particular price or subsidy to MerseyTravel. Many of our local school bus runs are operated by companies based up to 20 miles away...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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MTL then I think. I'm pretty sure that was painted on the side of the bus. Either way, it wasn't a school one as I lived about 14 miles away from school and wasn't in the catchment area.
I did get a bus pass though!
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Adam
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Except that if you do wait (as the safety notices tell you to do), then the bus pulls off before you have gotten down the stairs.
I see your point. It's also unfortunate that the top deck of most of the Olympians around here only have bell buttons at the top of the stairs, so if you're sat at the back you've always got to get to the front when the bus is moving anyway unless someone else rings the bell for you.
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Another thing is that u shud never walk never down (or even up) the stairs wen the bus goin throu a corner you might topple over!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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Hi Frazer
I know it's been mentioned before but please keep away from the text speak in your posts, ie U instead of you.
It's undersandable if you've a mobile phone with only 12 buttons but let's face it, I've lsot count of the keys on my keyboard ;)
Thanks in advance
H
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When I used to live near Leeds, there was a decent train service from Leeds to Ilkley. Just wondered why you found yourself on a bus?
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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