h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

they come in bunches.

the reason for this is that, if a bus for some reason falls behind schedule even by a minute, the number of people gathering at the stops increases gradually, requiring proportionally longer loading time. as the bus fills to (over)capacity, the condition is aggravated, and together with the increased weight causes the bus to advance more and more slowly.

meanwhile, the diminishing interval between the two vehicles causes the next bus to proceed faster and faster by the reverse phenomenon. if the route is long enough, it will eventually catch up with the preceding bus, and indeed, if the 2 drivers act intelligently, will overtake it and try to reverse the process. and if you have ever hailed a packed bus and it didn't stop, this may have been the reason. if no one needed to disembark at the stop, the driver may have simply carried on knowing that the next bus was very close.

if you are waiting overlong (not subectively, but as regards the posted frequency of passage), and an overcrowded bus pills up, you may wish to continue waiting; the next one is likely to appear soon. if you are already on a bus suffering from this phenomenon, look out the back, the next bus may already be in sight. even if it isn't, you might get off anyway if you're willing to arrive a few minutes later but in more comfortable conditions.

note that this does not apply in 100% of cases. certain lines in rush hour will be systematically packed to capacity. moreover, some cities, notably but not exclusively in the third world, have transit systems that are so woefully inadequate that overcrowding and missed schedules are endemic.

How many reasons do yer want for a bus running late ?? I myself am a driver

Okay then, have you had any particularly interesting causes of delays?


Geggs

It depends,is it an odd 1 u wanna know about ??...how about some twit who got dog poo on shoes then wiped the seats wiv it,,,many were complaining of a pong.....or....having to stop bus cos some1 lost a snake !!!

Both of those sound sufficently unusual to be interesting.

Tell me more.


Geggs

nice one, but turn it round, I assure you this happens on a daily basis ( actually the record is 12 mins from leaving the depot).
I spend five hours fighting my way thru traffic, negotiating roadworks, accidents,stupid car drivers and people with £20 note's for a 27p fare and get to the bus station for my break, where my inspector begs me to do one more trip as a bus has broken down and he's got no spare buses. I reluctantly agree and pull onto the packed stop to get these people safely home whilst giving up part of my break, I open my doors to be met with - where the fcuk have you been you w***ker

Hi Tanstaafl...in whuch city n company do u work for ?

first group --- hereford

Hello again, I myself work for 1st,South Yorkshire....wot a wonderful firm to work for
...

I take it that its the same s**t where you work, 25% of the workforce short,unable to get and retain drivers so wot do first do - make the job harder for existing drivers with petty rules and regs (I swear I am going to burn my luminous jacket), sorry rant over but this was not a bad job a few years ago.

cheers tanstaafl

Oh,so u got the illuminous jackets as well ?...just to think,if they just got a few illuminous strips for say us to sew onto jackets,now wouldnt that be cheaper ?

Same here wiv short staffed,they tryin to blame us for not workin our days off !!!!,,

.I take it u heard of the strike we had in July ?,,,got a right old sun tan I tell ya !!!

strike! I wish! they have got us fighting amongst ourselves and have knocked all thought of fighting back out of us, our GM would just come down and lock the doors, because we are not making enough money, oh well I just had 8 weeks off with a bad back good job the sick pay aint bad

Hello again,

They tried to incorperate our sick pay into the pay deal by taking sick pay away,also if we got less uniform points(both self funding) to fund our pay rise !!,,,(robbing gits)...we WON tho !!!!.

I ya dont mind me askin,how many rates of pay u got down there ?....we got 4 different rates,Iv been there nearly 11 yrs now & am still NOT on the top rate of pay

..is yer back ok now ?...

Hi, back is ok now, thanks for asking.
We finaly got one rate of pay this year,but this new flexitime deal for blokes with disabled kids hase caused some probs, they only have to work between 7am and 7pm and no weekend work, but for some reason the company decided to pay them 1 hours paid break because they are on splits,(but no one else is paid on spits) so this has created a rota that does no lates and no weekends but is paid £40 more than anyone else, this was quite strange as we rejected this at the last union meeting,as you can guess this has caused some bad feeling. But hopyfully we can resolve it without anyone losing out.
Anyway back to work at midday my fav shift, do you have any silliness like this up your way. I start at 12, do 2 short trips then break, do another 2 short trips then,( this is the best bit) I go and sit in the canteen till 11.30 waiting for a phone call from a council paid for taxibus service that carries no one! because it does not come into town!, so in reality the council staff go home at 8.30 and as the council will not let their driver drive any other bus they tell you to go home at the same time not bad,4 hours driving 10.30 hours paid.
One more thing, do you have a 4 over 6 rota up there as we have a 4 over 6 and a 5 over 6, the 4 over 6 throws up a long weekend off (thurs,fri,sat,sun,mon,tue) every three weeks its the only thing that keeps me sane.
cheers

We got lots of silly shift patterns,,our week starts from Sunday,& get 2 days off,which r different every week.
As they r short off drivers the new uns the recruit will get £500 plus another £500 after about a year if they stay,,,wot us guys wanna know is wheres our bonus for staying !!!

We used to do football specials,about an hours work for 6 hours pay n we got to watch most of the match as well,BUT,the 's stopped running em cos they were a popular overtime or day off job,,,ie,they couldnt understand y we were workin the specials & not normal routes..!

then theres the when we get called in office for a rollocking,ie,,,they ask us if we can rememebr an incident where a lady fell on the bus & didnt say owt to driver & supposedly spent 8 hours in casualty !!...As the driver didnt know,his only answer is "I know NOTHING",,,the gaffers dont like that answer

U mentioned about the rate of pay,its similar here where they seem to try n turn drivers against each other cos 1 blokes on say £80-90 more per week for doing the SAME job !!!!!

The 1 thing u gotta watch out for as well is when the pensioners offer u some peanuts as they may have sucked all the chocolate off !!

average stint is say 4 hours on 1 route,then about an hours break,if we running late we demand our hpur break so the other bus after break doesnt run for a bit....the seem to cut the running times down each time they re write the duties,,,

A few years ago we got sone low floor buses,B6 something,they were crap for round here cos of the hills,they were origionally set up for Ipswich,which is flat ish,the thick's wondered y the bus was only travelling 3mph most of the time !!!!

yeh for people who are supposed to know what they are doing firsts managers etc seem to be living in a diffrnt world ie:- 6 mins to do 5 miles, 7 sets of lights,2 roundabouts, 1 hospital, 1 railway station and FIFTEEN bus stops.
oh yeh we are being sent to a customer care course next week , do u think I should mention my recuring dream involving twin machine guns as I approach bus stops and my fondness for pulling away like a jet fighter when some twat gets on slams his money down and grunts at me the sound of them hitting the rear window seems to cheer me up somehow

Hi pal,yeah,the who slams their cash down,& if they need change I slam it back down,sort of treat them how they treat us,u wanna see the look on some of em's faces !!..

Then theirs the wheels brigade,ie prams n wheel chairs,wot we think is wrong is that if the bay for prams etc is occupied & a few stops down road a wheel chair user wants to get on we av to tell the folk who got the pram to move,we say it should be 1st come 1st served !!


Oh,then there's the rollockin u get for ALLEGEDLY doin summat wrong,,ie,,,the gaffer asks ya,"Can u rememebr blah blah 18 months & 5 days ago ??????????",,,,

Interesting: hearing the driver's point of view!

In the year or so since I last logged on here, the REAL horror-story of a bus route I've had to travel on is the 22 (Stockport-Bolton) which is operated by First Bus.

I think this is one where what's expected of the driver, and the expectations of the passengers, are so utterly at odds with each other that it can only end in tears and bad feeling.

To begin with, it's a marathon route: starting in the bottom-right of Greater Manchester (technically Cheshire)and taking a long meandering route through the county to the top left-hand corner (Bolton, Lancashire).

The journey time is two hours twenty minutes one way. Is this as long as it can possibly get for a city bus driver?

The thing is,I suspect it's ONLY the driver who does the whole journey between Stockport and Bolton.

The vast majority of the passengers see it as a short local hop, along routes where buses don't normally go and where the 22 is the only bus. (ie, I ride it for the twelve or so minute trip from Stockport to Heaton Moor, others do Stockport-Burnage, still others might see it as the only bus connecting Davyhulme and Stretford...)

From the point of view of passengers, it's their local ten or twenty minute commute between two places that are relatively nearby. As the 22 is the only bus for much of this route, it's not as if they have a choice.

Now the driver is tasked with leaving Stockport on time and arriving in Bolton on time , two hours and twenty minutes later.

As one driver put it to me, quite reasonably, you really, really, really, need a stretch and a widdle after driving for that unbroken length of time. So comfort stops are essential at either end.

and two hours and ttwenty minutes offers a lot of hostages to fortune along the way - what if traffic's backed up at the Trafford Centre again or the Urmston road is jammed?

This is what we passengers don't see in Stockport Bus Station, stand H, when yet again the 1750 service doesn't show, and two no 22's are seen to arrive more or less together then park up round the back, while some of us are waiting up to an hour for our twenty-minute commute home.

I've seen drivers on this route really getting stick from irate passengers in the rush-hour who are, just as rightly, peed off that the timetable appears to be a complete work of fiction.

God knows what the answer to this is. Maybe split the route up and have three or four shorter journeys along the old 22 route,that still ultimately connect Stockport and Bolton? Nearly two and a half hours in the cab MUST take it out of the drivers. (It certainly takes it out of me to arrive at Stand H at 1735, to find yet again the 1750 departure fails to show, and then having to wait till 1820 for the next 22!)

Agprov.......Best way I can explain is that if you perch yerself on a chair/settee upside down & press your feet against the wall for 4 to 5 1/2 hours,,,,,,,thats what its like to drive the bus for part of the shift,as well as the 259 questions you get asked during the stint !!.....

The probable reason for the other bus not turning up is that the driver may have gone over his/her driving hours,ie,is running late so they need the maximum break possible as to NOT to break the driving hours law........if youn get what Im on about ??