Public Transport

Following Andy and Bigs, I thought I'd just rant about public transport.

Andy has been known to say, "The only problem with public transport in Britain is the public. And the transport."

Firstly the transport. The buses are always late, the bus drivers are rude, they are crowded, uncomfortable and generally quite crappy.

Today I was about to get off the bus, so I pressed that little bleepy button that you press when you want to get off. (the name escapes me) Well, attempted to press, anyway. The button was broken, as were the all the other buttons I discovered, so I had to run downstairs from the top layer and stand near the front so the busdriver knew I was getting off. He looked like he was about to pass my stop, so I asked him, very politely, 'Can you please stop here?' Obviously this offended him, because he glared at me and snapped, 'I know where the bus stops are, love.' Unfortunately due to my deafness I couldn't hear him, so I asked him what he said, which anatgonized him even further to say, 'Like hell am I going to take orders from you where to stop and not to stop!' (evidently forgetting I am a PASSENGER on the bus, and HAVE to tell him where to stop or not to stop) and sped up and dropped me off at the next stop. Seriously, WTF? And it was cold, and dark, and miserable out, and I was already late home!

And this is one of many busdrivers who have been rude to me and other passengers. Another experience was when me and my friends got on a very crowded bus to go home from school. Anyone who takes the buses know how extremely packed they get. I was the last person of about 5 of my friends to get on, and the busdriver very quietly said, 'there are seats up top', but we couldn't hear him because 1) he was too quiet and 2) we had already walked past him. I thought he was speaking to the other people getting on. So we just stayed up near the front of the bus. Because it was so crowded, my friend sat up on the place where people put their stuff. Once we got to the train station, a very stressed passenger came down and started having a MASSIVE go at her because she had, and I quote, 'sat on my f*cking new books, what the F*CK do you think you're playing at, I'll send you the f*cking bill if you think you're going to get away with this!' before stomping off. And then the bus driver also had a massive go at us, saying, 'You kids are blocking up the bus! I have a hard life too, I want to go home too, why can't you make it easier on everyone to just sit down where I told you to, at the top, but NO, you have to just ignore ME and EVERYONE and stand where you like, god knows this is a sh*t job for the amount I get paid, f*ck you all...'

Anyway, I don't think that's very good customer service.

Secondly, the public. I've had lots and lots of experiences with people on buses, but today was probably the worst two experiences I've ever had.

The bus I got on was extremely crowded and very late. I sat across from a very mean, stressed looking man who was obviously late to go somewhere. The bus driver wasn't very good and kept on stopping abruptly, and we stopped at ALL the red lights so we were making very slow progress. The man kept on swearing loudly and gesticulating aggressively, so every time he did I looked up. When I was unfortunate enough to catch his eye, he shouted loudly, 'what the F*CK do you think you're looking at, you nosey b*tch!?' and then, when I timidly replied, 'nothing' he proceeded to have a massive go at 'kids these days' for the entire bus to hear.

On the same journey, a retarded man, after putting his hands in his mouth, wiping his very gooey nose with his hands, scratching all different parts of his body with his hands, forcefully grabbed my face and my chest when I stood next to him, after eyeing me the entire bus journey. Anyone who knows me knows how EXTREMELY germophobic I am. I had to put antibiotic stuff on my FACE. It BURNS.

I also nearly got hit by two cars and a bicycle, and was sworn at twice.

Fuuuuun.