Arriva bus travel, a daily struggle.

A long time ago I think I may have blogged about getting the bus…. in fact I did, here.

Anyway, that was a long time ago, since then I’ve changed jobs within the hospital and therefore changed my bus route.

My route to work is now shorter.

Anyway, as you would expect the bus sometimes doesn’t run on time. A few minutes you can forgive, but as the weather has gotten colder the buses seem to have gotten later.

Sure I’ve sent a couple of emails to Arriva themselves to bring it to their attention but they’re just met with your standard response letters blaming road works somewhere in the area and promising it will be monitored in the future.

However yesterday I had the misfortune to meet a rude bus driver. For whatever reason the driver took offense at me asking to clarify the number of the bus. Below is how the conversation unfolded:

Me: is this the 403?
No response,
Me: is this the 403?
Driver: you should have checked the front of the bus.
Me: I did but it wasn’t clear.
Driver: *shrug of shoulders*
Me: Is there something wrong?
Driver: not with me, but there is clearly something up with you
Pause,
Pause some more,
Me: eh?….. hey any chance I can take your name?

Basically what followed was the driver refusing to give my name, stating the info required to complain was on the ticket. My last comment after this;

Me: so we have to put up with late buses and rude drivers?

The driver didn’t like this, seemed quite shocked I said it, then threatened to throw me off. I put my headphones in and sat down half way through this empty threat and that was that.

Sure I’ve sent another email of complaint to Arriva, and I’m pretty sure that in a couple of weeks I’ll get a response promising more monitoring etc. But considering I pay £55 a month for a bus pass, what’s the point. I mean yeah, its convenient, good for the environment but if I was still using a car I could be there in a third of the time and wouldn’t have to put up with late buses and rude drivers.

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