A little word about buses at their starting points – when walking towards the stop I never know whether to carry on with my casual walk to the bus and risk missing it, or to run and be slightly embarrassed if the bus is 5+minutes away from leaving.

Today it seemed I had my timing perfectly intune with the buses, a rare occurence! On my way to college, a number 2 pulled in just as I got to the stop, now, I wouldn’t usually get a bus from the Portland pub to George Street, but seeing as I had a bus pass AND the bus was there, I thought I might as well. Following this, after getting off at George Street there were TWO number 7 buses at their stop, I took this to mean that one of them would be leaving soon, a woman beside me must have had the same train of thought as we both made a run for it – good job we did too, hopped on the bus and we were soon off and away. I made my journey from home to Bhasvic in a record time of 20 minutes – I love B&H buses.

Before being struck down with the lurgy though I spent a happy weekend bussing around with a friend from London who was very impressed with the buses, which were on their best behaviour that weekend.

Then bussed to work as usual (whilst still feeling ill, grumble whinge) and nothing of any interest whatsoever happened.

Except last Friday on the way home there was a little exchange between a young woman who missed her stop and the driver. Said young woman stood up just as the bus arrived next to her stop, and pushed the bell just as it drew level. The driver had not been planning to stop as there was no one on the pavement and no one had yet rung the bell. I was getting off at the next stop so was standing behind her when she asked him, reasonably politely, why he hadn’t stopped at the previous stop.

Now, she had definately pressed the bell too late, as anyone who has travelled by bus more than about twice would agree. However his response was not the best. He could have – perhaps should – have smiled sweetly and said he was terribly sorry and perhaps she would try to push the bell at least 100 metres before the stop next time. Instead of which he got a bit Huffy.

Now no one likes a huffy driver, it creates an uncomfortable atmosphere on a bus and makes us all feel like naughtly schoolchildren and wonder who is to be scolded next (or maybe that’s just me and I need more therapy – could be). But he didn’t have to do the deep sighing thing and wearily point out that he was not a mind-reader and so hadn’t known because she hadn’t pushed the bell in time. He needen’t have then got into an argument about whether or not she pushed the bell in time – after all, “in time” is a matter of perception, and she thought she had, he thought she hadn’t. No point arguing it though, not with a bus load of people who just want to get home, eh?

Whenever a buggy gets on it is usually put facing the ‘priority seat’ the ‘priority’ passengers seem to take upon themselves, as a duty, to coo relentlessly at babies on the bus and talk to the parents. One comment is nice, two is pushing it, but the whole journey ends up, quite simply, being uncomfortable for the receiver and the parent. One woman today even started stroking this child’s cheek! I may be cynical but I would be uncomfortable if this were my child. This appears to quite a regular bus occurrence. As if it’s turned into some right of passage for a child on the bus.

It’s been a fairly good month in all. Never observed so much on a journey in my life. Used to just jump on and jump off. So what can be improved to make the journey’s better?

1 – More advertising and reduce the cost of tickets seems to be something many people mention
2 – Names or Numbers of a driver clearly visable so that passengers can write to the company with compliments and/or complaints.
3 – Improve customer services – At the start of the month there were too many drivers who hardly acknowledged you getting on / off the bus. Some choosing to totally blank you and not even gove eye contact. They need to know how to be more pleasant to passengers. I know some passengers are unpleasant and may make a drivers life living hell on a journey but we are not all like that. When I say good morning or thankyou I do expect some for or pleasantary in return rather than a grump!!!
3 – Cleaning – The buses certainly need to be cleaned more often. Even the ones first thing on the morning are not exactly great. However, during the day many buses could do with a sweep out. Sometimes I felt I was riding in a rubbish truck.
4 – This blog should be kept up and running for any member of the public to sign onto and share their veiws. (or a similar blog that the company uses). Let everyone in Brighton and Hove know about it and have their say. The bus company could even reply to some and give updates about some comments so people know they are being listened to.

Anyway folks – good luck with the rest of your blogs. i am still going to pop in to have a read and may end up writing a little here and there. But for now I need to start finansing my own tickets again and have to go get them lol xx

Hopefully you will enjoy my invitees Beth and Lucy’s blogs as much as I just know you enjoyed mine.

Caught the 5 home at around 10:45 in the evening. I had no idea!  The first thing that tipped me off to how different evening bus use is to day use was that the bus pulled up a few yards short of the stop to let off a young man who threw up … and up … and up. Four times, in fact.

As he stumbled along Old Steine, I noticed that he had a really bad cut on his face, not a joke one either, a serious gash dripping blood down onto his jeans.

The top deck was full of young people absolutely stinking drunk. I use stinking advisedly, as at least half of them wafted strong odours of vomit around the place, so I went back downstairs, wondering if I was turning into the kind of person I’d always hated – the ones who say ‘young people today … etc’.

When the bus pulled up at North Street, there were two St John’s Ambulance and another driver waiting because there was a young man on the top deck whom the driver hadn’t been able to wake up. They did manage to rouse him, discovered he was on a bus going in the wrong direction, and he too stumbled away up the street, clearly almost comatose with alcohol.

And so I take back everything I have said this month about grumpy bus-drivers. If they have to deal with vomiting, blood-stained, stinking, zombie-like hordes of passengers on a Thursday before eleven in the evening, what must their lives be like on the weekend Night buses? No wonder they are sometimes a bit abrupt, if that’s what driving a bus in the evening is like.

The driver was very apologetic and said we could wait on board for the next bus to come along. That would have made me late for work so off I jumped and had fast walk to Preston park. Just as I arrived at work with 2 minutes to spare the same bus and driver passed me. Typical lol. I am sure the walk did me good.

Anyway, am at work now and would much rather be in bed so good night to all you lucky bed goers, have a good sleep.

But anyway enough of that.. Heres just a query and would like it if anyone could answer it or comment on what you think? I forgot my weekly saver the other day so had to get a day one that costs 3.60. I know you can get cheaper ones in advance but I don’t always have time or the money on my card to do this. I literally have to gather change.. I think this is far too expensive, especially when I can remember a flat fare of 50p at one time! So I was really wondering why the bus company don’t sell advertising space inside the bus? They only advertise the bus services and I think this is silly as they could make so much money and put the prices of tickets down! Anyone agree/disagree? Am I missing some completely obvious reason as to why they don’t do this…?

On the positive side there was an old lady talking to a pretty friendly young chap just for the joy of some company, which was nice to see. I would have joined in but I think it would have seemed a little weird and I wasn’t feeling fantastic anyway. So at least some good came of my journey

And then we spent the rest of the trip talking about The Incredible String Band.

Going home around 10pm from that weird stop in the middle of Old Steine – no 5s showing at all on the indicator board which has buses up to 19 minutes in advance but a 5a pulls up anyway … I know we’ve all said it but what is the point of indicator boards if they don’t bloody indicate?

Anyway, during school times the 84 leaves the depot at 7.08am arriving 7.35am approx. Then when the schools are on holiday they put a 2nd bus on the route at 8.08am.

My question is this. Surely every day could do with the 8.08am to Uni. Why is this bus only run during school holidays when many students are on reading weeks, direct task weeks or study weeks. Even many of the tutors look after the family at this time so dont need that bus.

Why can this bus not be in service during school time as well? I don’t know but am going to email bus company and ask them. Be interesting and will post the reply.

8.57am he stopped to pick up two people. The 1st got on the bus then he told the old lady she could not come on the bus as it was not 9am and she was using her bus pass which could not be used prior to 9am.
I would understand if she was trying to get onto an already jam packed bus, but it was nearly empty. Fortunately for the lady there was another bus pulled up behind our number 23 and that driver allowed her on.
I do believe the jobsworth hat goes to him. How he could not bend a rule for like 3 minutes I do not know.

I must say the journey to Hove was nice so i did not mind that much. But why have I had a weekend of silly confusion?

Had a lovely meal out in Days listening to Christmas music!!!

Both journey’s and the one home were all pleasant.

It’s a fairly humdrum collection of information and random local articles, much like one of those in-flight magazines, but without the adverts for duty-free booze. (Selling booze on the buses? Probably not a good idea.) One thing that flummoxes me is that the ridiculously simple ‘prize crossword’ has an address to send it to, but fails to mention what the prize actually is. Which is a bit stupid.

On the way back I get talking to a girl called Sarah, on her way back from a shop job in Hove, about what she thinks of the buses. “I’m angry about the buses today,” she says, “‘cos every time it’s after six o’clock, there’s no number 49s. There’s 49A or nothing. Yesterday I waited and waited and waited for ages, and it said, you know, only 49A on the board – it doesn’t say anything about a Moulsecoomb bus – so I thought, maybe there’s one coming – what shall I do? Shall I hedge my bets? So I got the 49A, then two stops down, we got overtaken by a bloody 49, which we then followed all the way up, but not with enough time to get off and get onto it… aarrgghh! I had to walk up the hill. I don’t really mind walking up the hill but I’m just annoyed with these rogue displays. I mean, sometimes they’re just not right, are they?” And then, right out of the blue, with no coaching at all, she adds “And then when you’re going to Sainsbury’s on Lewes Road – it’s still not working is it, the display…”

Very few people on the actual bus when it did arrive but had a couple of nice conversations with people in town who were also waiting for a bus. I felt sorry for the lad who was waiting on the number 12 to come along and would have to wait 2 hrs.

Anyway, off to bed now to work out how I am going to make back the money I spent during the night in town. If only on my dreams lol

nngb all

Annoying: going for a bus the website tells you will be there in x minutes, only to arrive at the stop with comfortable minutes to spare to hear from similarly annoyed would-be passengers that it a) came early and b) went whizzing by, laden.

That’ll teach me to leave it till just after 9.00am, when there is (more often than there should be) no room for us workers to get to work in order to earn the money that pays the taxes that pay for the free travel for the older people taking up every spare inch of the 9.00 bus.

//rant over.  Sorry\\

The next bus is also full of eager oldies striking out for the day.  Well, not that eager – at least one of them is asleep.

I head upstairs where I meet a yawning toddler swaying in his back carrier thing that his dad has lugged upstairs and planted on the floor at the front.  He (the toddler, not the dad) can’t take his eyes off me.  I think he’s actually in a trance.

I make two more uneventful trips during my working day; all very quick and efficient, but then I’m not travelling all that far.  I often use the bus for work meetings, which is great when it’s not too far out, but there are times when it takes me up to hour.  I don’t particularly mind as I can use the time to read stuff I need to for work – but it’s quite a long chunk of the working day.

So, as ever, it’s all in the planning.

And now it’s the weekend and I’m off out for a rare Friday night off  – I’ll just check my last buses on the website before I go…

In other news I still can’t get the pictures up, perhaps I’ll do one big post with several pictures (what fun!!)

So today, with a bit of a lurgy on me, not an infectious one, I hasten to add, but enough of a headache to make me think I’d probably have less than lightning reflexes, I took the bus to Hove instead of driving. It was the bus called Myles Byrne that took me in and the bus called Sir Arthur Newsholme that brought me home. Myles Byrne’s driver said ‘mmph’ when I said thank you on getting off, but Sir Arthur’s driver sang out a cheery ‘goodbye’ so he gets my D factor vote for today.

I sat next to a woman with a French text-book, obviously doing her homework. I was brave enough to start a conversation and it turns out she lives only a few doors from me, although I’d never seen her before in my life. It just goes to show that you definitely meet more people on the buses!

It’s a work day for me so I’m on the 8.50 and already there are NO METROS left!  Of course, some of the people currently reading them will smooth them out and fold them up and replace them in the tray – thank you, kind people – so that they can be read and read again.  Look, someone’s just done it! and as soon as he left it as he stepped off the bus, a young woman getting on picked it up.

I must admit, sad though it may be, that I find that sort of ultra-efficient re-use very pleasing.  I’d love to see how many people read the average copy of Metro.  I think one day we should get everyone to put their initials on the front and then count them all up at the end of the day to see.   Of course I don’t have time to read the paper on the way to work these days as I’m far too busy blogging.

On the bus in our favourite back section, there is a teenage girl taking up the whole of one side – by looking sullen and having her feet up on the opposite seat and just generally being quite imposing-looking (in case you‘re reading this I mean you – yes you – with the bright pink hoody, black hat and jeans and the pink starred underpants). She’s deeply absorbed in her blackberry (when did they become the thing for sullen teenagers?!) but is surreptitiously monitoring anyone coming up this way and spreading herself out territorially when anyone dares. So far, everyone who has approached has ended up crammed on the same side as us.

At the Co-op in London Road a man comes to the seats just before the back – then observes the feet on seat and decides to go for it. My hero! He pointedly places himself very near the teenage legs, which are begrudgingly and wordlessly moved. Unfortunately, at the next stop one of the forward-facing seats in the main part of the bus comes free and the chap jumps up to grab it. Oh well, I don’t blame him – but will no one else strike an effective blow for good manners?

Roger; can I mention another thing about travelling with children? When I’m merrily waving my saver ticket at the driver on a busy day’s bussing, my DS still has to pay for a 20p ticket on each bus we get. Would it not be possible to get a 1-day saver on the bus to go with the BusID? Charge just over the going rate for four trips and I bet lots of people would use it for trips that are two-buses-there, two-buses-back. At the moment there is much faffing with his ID card and wallet, which rather defeats at least one of the benefits of the saver system, i.e. speeding up getting on to the bus.

10 minutes wait at North street (just enough time to stock up on football cards) and we’re on the 7. This bus is older and more lived in than we pampered 5-users are used to.

DS points out a chap reading The Prisoner of Azkhaban – how he can do that in the back of a bus without getting nauseous beats me.   Not because of the book you understand,; because of the motion.

We’re here: 45mins in total, and 15 mins early for our bowling birthday party date. It’s been straightforward and non-hassle-y. We bowl; we come second (DS) and 3rd (me), and set off for home again.

The No 7 is bang on time at 5.31pm. This is not such a nice bus; it is pretty littered and has that old bus smell of diesel. On the plus side, it’s quite empty, and remains so all the way to North Street, despite it being rush hour.

On the way through the Steine we spot a 5a just pulling up at the Pavilion – it’s good thing they are nice and frequent because there’s no way we’ll catch that one, not with the 7 looping right round in front of the Albion Hotel.  At North St we jump off, cross the road for what’s promised as a 4 minute wait. There’s a particular minute from Churchill Square that’s very long – I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed this, more on this another day – but eventually it comes and we are back in motion again by 5.55. It’s nice to be on a 5 again – I can’t see any litter with a glance around but I’m not about to inspect under the seats, most of which now how people on them.

A girl at the Aldi bus stop makes a face at DS, who is not sure if she’s trying to be rude or funny.  I reckon she fancied him.

And then we’re back at our home stop by 6.03. Nice one!

So how does it compare to the car?  Well, it took at least twice as long on the way there, but was quicker than that on the way back.  But actually it was quite a lot less stressful than driving, so yes, I might do it again – maybe.  This project is making me plan my journeys more than I usually do and I’m not so sure I would keep that up very well…

The bus I got today was pretty full,  so much so that there were about 6 or 7 people standing. Just in front of me was sitting a woman on the outside of the two seats with the inside seat completely free. A perfectly good ticket to comfort as opposed to stress and falling over for one extra person, but no. Of course nobody really felt like asking her to move for fear of being angrily grunted at or some such rudeness. My girlfriend was actually the one to point this one out to me but I’m glad she did. I suppose it’s not really that important but if I have to stand up because someone is too rude to allow some ‘bus-goer’ to grace their presence I will be pretty annoyed, mainly because I do not balance well on buses and have to clutch to the little swingy things so that I’m basically hanging off of them. Anyone who is a culprit of taking up two spaces I don’t mean to offend, I’m sure there are no bad intentions behind it.

I emailed the bus company back with my experiences today:

“Hello, thanks for the quick reply. Could you tell me, though, why it’s no longer a requirement for drivers to display their number? This morning when disembarking the bus in North Street I asked the driver for one of these ‘info tickets’. His first reaction was to give me a worried, paranoid glance as if thinking, “Have I been driving badly? Have I offended this guy in some way I haven’t noticed? What’s his angle?” This made me feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Also it seemed to have been quite some time – if ever – since he’d been asked for one of these. He spent some time scratching his head, going for the ticket machine, pausing, saying “oh… um….” and pausing again before finally giving me a ‘Free Travel Permit’ ticket which had the bus number and driver number at the top.

All this time there were lots of people waiting to get off, and lots of people waiting to get on, all of whom were visibly displeased at the disruption to their normal service. I held those people up for over a minute. This is how I made the bus late during Tuesday morning rush hour. Now imagine if he’d had his driver number prominently displayed in the driver’s window. I’d have breezed by, clocked it and clambered off the bus in one second. Instead I caused a pile-up and had to endure hostile stares from people waiting to climb on, and tutting from people waiting to get off.

It’s no wonder lots of people think bus drivers aren’t accountable in Brighton: we have to jump through hoops to find out who they are!! Was this the company’s intention? I’d like to know the reason, please, firstly for the decision being taken that drivers were no longer required to display an identifying number, and secondly why this policy hasn’t been re-introduced. Looking forward to hearing from you.”

This response came back a few hours later:

“Thank you for your further email.

It was the Government who stopped issuing Badge numbers in 1991. It is no longer a requirement as advised by the Government of the time.

The driver you encountered may well be a driver who has not had a complaint made against him and has therefore forgotten how to issue this ticket. If you feel strongly enough about a particular situation, your two options are to ask the driver for an info ticket or to obtain the bus number as mentioned previously. If a driver gives you any further difficulty when asked for an info ticket, it is entirely your prerogative to add this to your complaint when emailing and the driver will be advised accordingly.

Yours sincerely

Steve
Customer Unit”

…Well, I’m not going to press it, but I think it’s disingenuous of Steve to claim drivers can’t display identifiers because the government “stopped issuing badge numbers”. Why can’t the bus company re-introduce it? What are they scared of? Do they imagine any comments will be negative? They only need look at these bus diaries to see all the positive comments. I know from experience of working through the years that many employers simply don’t take the time to say ‘thankyou’ to their employees often enough, and the casual bus users’ inability to easily identify their driver is stopping these positive comments getting through and giving a boost to the workforce – as well, of course, as identifying the small minority of drivers who are bad-tempered or, indeed, positively dangerous.

Bring back badge numbers!!

When I got back to Brighton Station I saw that there was a 21 due which stops at the top of my road. Was very pleased because I was very very tired and wanted to get home! It said stop R however and when looking out the front I couldn’t find where that was but was told by another driver that it was round the back of the station. This wasn’t made very clear anywhere and so I missed the bus. I may have missed it pointed out somwhere but I was in quite a rush to actually get on the bus that I didn’t see anything so that was pretty annoying! However I just jumped on a bus to North street and got a bus home there.

As I have to get the 5B from Hove to Hollingbury on an almost daily basis I spend a lot of time doing this with my iPod headphones firmly plugged into my ears.

The more interesting characters are usually around Preston Circus and London Road.  Shop-keepers putting their stock out front or people stopping to have a chat.

There are always a couple of old women who stand chain-smoking outside of the amusement arcade in London Road. My favourite today was an old woman at the YMCA shop.

She was stood by the window looking at a fake cat which was curled up on a table at the front of the shop. She picked it up to reveal a flat round wooden bottom underneath, put it down, stroked it as if it was real, picked it up again, then smiled and walked off.

The fake cat really did look fake but watching her, put a smile on my face because it had obviously tickled her.

One of the advantages of taking the bus is that you can sit back, relax and watch the world go by.

This one is a baby bus.  DS starts up a mutual adoration society with a toddler with the most gorgeous smile. There is much waving (from all of 10 inches away), and a game of peep-oh; the cute toddler leaves her face pressed against her mum’s sleeve for the longest time until she’s feeling a little bolder and then starts peeking through her fingers, giggling, chattering and clucking – you know, that thing you do for horsey horsey.  Very sweet.

I have a soft spot for  Brighton and Hove Buses, ever since they changed the arrangements for traveling with children using BusID cards.  They used to only allow 1 child per adult, but a friend of mine wrote to Roger French and complained that this made life difficult for home educating families, who are often zipping all over town with numerous children, their own and other people’s, in tow.  Anyway shortly afterwards it was changed to three children per adult.  Whether the two things were related, I don’t actually know, but as a home educating parent these things are important; we’re not just out and about with our kids in the day time when we’re dragging them to the dentist, you know!   We’re doing actual life and you know,  educational stuff.

(Now, we just need for the older, more independent home educated kids in Brighton (there are loads) to get the reduced rate without having to have an adult with them…… Roger, are you listening?)

Today is a quick trip to town for birthday-party related items then home again.   Standing at the bus stop outside M&S I notice my water bottle is missing!  DS says “oh…. I had that, in that book shop”. So we dash over to Borders, grab the bottle from the counter where he left it and are back across in time for the bus.  Unfortunately, DS is so fired with the whole dramatic mercy dash thing, that he runs on ahead of me and leaps on to the wrong bus. He’s dishing out the cash for a ticket when I arrive behind him screeching “It’s the wrong bus!  It’s not our bus!”

DS is just the right age to find this scene highly embarrassing.  We’re on the right bus now, up the back, and he is repeatedly saying it was the “most embarrassing thing of his life”  (are you sure?  I can remember a fair few that may have been worse….).  Far be it from me to point out that broadcasting it quite so loudly may actually add to his public humiliation rather than lessen it.

There then follows a prolonged wrestle with his new insoles that have just cost me a fortune in Boots but which I am hoping will prevent a tragically early end to his footballing career.  Much as I love this cosy little back seat, there’s really not a lot of space for wrestling tricky shoes off, and more to the point getting them on again.  DS is getting stroppy and impatient and doing a lot of grrrring and people around us are doing that staring pointedly into space and pretending it’s not happening thing.  Which I’m quite grateful for, because he’s throwing quite a strop for a 9yr old and I’m aware that my voice is shifting from calm reason to controlled hiss.

THIS is when you should be embarrassed, matey….

Both the driver and conductor were great. The conductor was entertaining a group upstairs who ended up singing, “the wheels on the bus”. Everyone was acknowledge who used the bus and many spoken to about the day they had just had.

Maybe these two, driver and conductor should run a course for many other drivers who have no custmer skills and share some of their valuable skills.

I have a short recording and picture somewhere and will try put them up later. But I am off now for the early morning 23 back to study.

Have a good day all…

However, there was the kind bus driver who got out of his seat to help an old woman onto the bus because he could not lower the vehicle down to the kerb any more.

It may be all in a day’s work but a lot of the drivers usually begrudge having to do something like this. This bus driver was friendly, kind and courteous.

I did have a dire journey home the other day although this was no fault of the bus company.

It was pelting down with rain and there had been a crash on the A27, near to the Hollingbury industrial estate. The traffic was backed up for miles so I decided to hop on the first bus I could, which was the 24.

Now, I know this journey takes slightly longer than usual because the bus goes around Coldean before travelling down through Moulsecoomb but due to the weather and the sheer amount of traffic because of this accident, it took me more than an hour to get from Hollingbury to Hove.

This city at rush hour is ridiculous and it only takes one accident to bring everything to a standstill. I know some people do not like bus lanes but there are times when they really are needed and this was one of them.

The other thing I noticed was the number of cars on the road. If more people actually got on the bus, then maybe there wouldn’t have been as much of a problem.

Nothing to report in terms of driver D Factor, in fact, everything was tickety boo, until I was walking back down to the bus stop outside St Peters when a car either broke down or stalled at the traffic lights. It had hazard lights flashing but the bus behind it began to sound its horn as soon as the lights went green – and the driver continued to lean on the horn, oblivious to the fact that if a car won’t start, it won’t start, while the lights went from green to red and back to green again. Eventually I think a passer by managed to get the car moving, but during that time, every pedestrian on London Road was subjected to the 5b’s blaring horn. It was rude, intrusive and probably very distressing to the embarrassed and helpless car driver. A minus D factor of several magnitudes to that 5b bus-driver – we didn’t all want our eardrums shattered!

My driver on the way home (#5) wore dark glasses and even so, didn’t make eye contact. Rather odd.

“Hello,

In the afternoon of Friday 16th October I got on a bus in Lewes Road, Brighton and sat near the front on the lower deck. The bus drivers were changing over as it was right outside Lewes Road bus depot. The new driver was tubby and had glasses and close-cropped dark hair, perhaps in his late forties or fifties. I watched as for almost the entire journey up into Moulsecoomb he had his left arm resting on the place where customers place their coins. This is unacceptable – two hands are needed on the steering wheel for safe driving, especially on such a twisty route up through hills on narrow roads with a lot of parked cars.

However, by far the worst thing was that when the steering wheel turned and his right hand swung into view, it was holding against the wheel a see-through plastic folder from a clip-file with a blue lining where the holes were. Inside was a sheet of A4 with a heading that may have been “SA16″. The driver was reading this the entire time with only occasional glances at the road. This was at a time when children had come out of school and often play on communal ground or front gardens which border the road. There is absolutely no excuse for such catastrophically dangerous driving – not as the sole occupant of a car, and certainly not as an employee of the Brighton bus company with responsibility for customer safety. I’d had a long day and was stunned into inaction by what I was witnessing, although in hindsight, and for the safety of myself and the other passengers, I wish I’d said something to the driver when I saw what he was doing.

To help you identify who this was, the registration of the vehicle was YN57 FYD, the route number was 49 and the time of the journey was about 4:55pm until after 5pm.

I would like you to contact me as soon as possible and tell me:

1) What action has been taken over this;
2) Why bus drivers are currently not required to display a name badge or some kind of identifying number, and when this will change.”

Received this just now:

“I am concerned to receive your emailed account of the driving behaviour of one of our drivers last Friday.

All of our drivers receive full and concise driver training before they leave the Garage and are therefore fully aware of what they should and should not do. I am very sorry that you witnessed the latter and as a result the driver will be traced and a full investigation will take place. If required, the driver can and will be sent back to the training school and re take further training.

I am afraid that badge numbers and name badges are no longer a requirement. The driver if asked can issue what we call an “info” ticket. This will have the drivers number on it. Alternatively each bus carries a fleet number. This can be found inside the bus where you pay for your ticket or on the outside of the bus under the windscreen.

Thank you fot taking the time to contact us regarding this serious incident. We will ensure that the driver is properly dealt with.

Yours sincerely

Steve
Customer Unit”

But it is very unfriendly for the incoming driver not to acknowledge that a bus-worth of passengers are patiently waiting for him to finish adjusting his mirrors etc. It’s not like a rural bus where quite often the driver starts a conversation with passengers he knows as soon as he steps through the door. Perhaps Brighton and Hove drivers just have to concentrate more on the traffic etc, but it’s odd.

I also went down to the Marina a couple of days ago to see Disney and Pixar’s new film ‘Up’ it’s really brilliant so go and see it! Managed to get the 7 down there from the bottom of my road straight away and after the film had finished, a 21 home straight away to the top of my road.

Then, going home this evening, the bus was suddenly there outside the Pavilion while the board said it would take six further minutes to arrive. People, watch out: there are countless wormholes in time and space in Brighton city centre and its outskirts.

Sainsbury’s Lewes Road electronic boardwatch: STILL NOT WORKING.

Some drivers wear name badges (at least I think they are name badges). But due to wearing them on their chest it cannot be read by a passenger.

Should there be a name card (or drivers number card) placed in the cab that can easily be seen by all passengers?

I had an extremely smiley driver today and later a rather grump of a driver and the last bus home a rather rude driver so I guess I went through a range of driver emotions.

Have you ever noticed that people will stand at the bus stop waiting for the bus and talk to the same person each day, then get on the bus and say “have a good day” to that person, then sit in the same seat as yesterday (somewhere entirely different to where the person they were just talking to will sit) and talk to the same person as yesterday for the length of the journey, then get off the bus and talk to somebody else who was on the same bus.  I have noticed that the same people do this same routine every day, and wo betide he (or she!) who sits in somebody else’s chair…

The driver should win a prize though as he managed a smile at 6.30am – something which not everybody manages!

Stopped to get newspapers and milk at Lewes Road Sainsbury’s but THE FREAKIN’ ELECTRONIC BOARD IS STILL NOT WORKING!!!

What is the problem here? It’s been out of action for more than a week. Any time I’ve been there recently, there’ve been various pensioners unable to sit down after a long time humping it round the supermarket aisles with a trolley… there they are, the poor dears, loitering on the pavement, eyebrows raised in worried anticipation, ready to rush out waving their arms if their bus is coming, simply because some mechanically-minded spod from the depot literally 30 seconds up the road can’t get it together to come along with a screwdriver. This is what’s generally known as an ‘epic fail’.

SORT IT OUT!!!

I watched as a troupe of oldies clambered aboard at the bottom of The Avenue, just off Lewes Road, and heard the driver greet each one individually, then saw their faces break into geriatric grins. Greeting each person individually? Was this man on drugs??? Whatever the reason, it was extremely welcome. Good for him. So who is this shining example of everything that is good about Brighton buses? Possibly in his fifties; very smart; dark hair; band-aid halfway up his left forearm; swapped over with another driver at the Lewes Road depot (I would’ve asked his name, but in Brighton that question is invariably followed by “Your place or mine?” and, well, he wasn’t my type). Give this man a raise, or at least extra biscuit rations!

Rubbish afternoon shift in the shop. For some reason no-one really bought much at all today, and the till was almost exactly twenty quid down. Not good. And nor was what followed…

I was dismayed to see from the electronic board on North Street that the next 49 bus was a full 20 minutes away. I sat down on the bench outside that church no-one seems to go to, and started listening to Josephine Foster on my headphones and daydreaming, with one eye on the board. 19 minutes to go… 18… 17… Suddenly I became aware of a bus leaving the stop and caught a flash of a ’4′. I rushed up and asked a girl seated closer what bus it had been. “The 49″ she answered. AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!! PHANTOM BUS!!!!!!

Now, I’ve read the other blogs here, and this is the one point they keep coming back to: what is the point of having these electronic noticeboards if they’re not going to be used properly? Something like this really is unbelievably, intensely maddening to someone who’s been working for hours and just wants to get home. It cancels out all the good vibes you get from an otherwise decent service.

Luckily though, I saw that a 25 bus was due shortly and, taking a chance, jumped on it and crossed my fingers that it would swing by the other side of The Level in a shorter time that the phantom 49 took to negotiate London Road. I was right, and outside that working men’s club at the start of the Lewes Road I hopped off one bus and quickly onto the other. Ingenuity, man!

I would say the driver was the kind who would make it to boot camp on “The D Factor”. He was polite and waited for people to sit down before he started driving, it just takes a little more bubbliness and happiness for a bus driver with the true D factor.

Got to Victoria – queued for 11 minutes to get a railcard. Watched at least a dozen confused tourists and students wander down the steps to the underground, then wander back up and stand in the line at the portacabin to get a ticket. Both machines I was queuing for went out of action alternately: one would only process Oyster while the other would only take credit cards, then the first would take credit cards but not cash while the second would take cash but not process Oyster … quite infuriating if you have a deadline to meet!

Tubes crowded. People unfriendly. St John’s Wood looked lovely in the sunshine and as always there was zebra crossing homage outside the Abbey Road studios.

After meeting, back on tube – long delays on Jubilee line said the announcer. Not half! As I got of my Jubilee line train I looked up at the leader board and saw that the next train would arrive in 36 minutes … by which time the platforms would be dangerously crowded and people would be angry and confused.

Train to Brighton, out of the station, complete stranger says Isn’t it nice to be here, not there? and I agree. At Churchill Square I wait 2 minutes for a 5a, which has clean seats, no crowding and gorgeous views of the sea between the buildings.

Sometimes we don’t appreciate what we’ve got. Brighton buses are pretty bloody great!

I got a 2 from outside my house into Woodingdean yesterday. I especially like doing this as you can see the bus coming from my bedroom window and still have time to grab your bag, put shoes on and say goodbye, (although I have fallen over a couple of times running for it when it has been quicker than usual..classy.) I also especially enjoy getting this bus because it was my school bus for 5 years so it brings back the memories of everyone coming to my house in the morning as it was the only house where you could sit and get ready and leave for the bus at the last minute..!

In the evening I went to my boyfriends house which I always need to get two buses to. However it always seems to work out quite well, I get the 2 to Old Steine and then I have the choice of either a 46 26 50 or 5B so it’s not too bad. Even on a sunday I managed to get to the Old Steine with a 26 due already, having been panicking as I had just seen a 5B go!

Today I finished work at my pub and stayed for some drinks until there was a bus due, you can see the realtime board from the pub which is pretty useful!

So far there has been nothing particularly good or bad about the bus drivers. I usually recognise the grumpy/friendly ones as I use the buses so frequently but I haven’t seen any I recognise in the last few days..

On an entirely different note, after reading Dominic’s morning post I really want to get a nice and early morning bus and explore town at the crack of dawn, perhaps take a few pictures too. I really am a morning person and I cannot imagine a more beautiful time than the early hours of the morning.

Did they take a £20 note?
Did they stop for someone running for the bus?
Did they smile?
Did they lower the bus for people who needed it?
Did they wait for the elderly to sit down?
Did they sing?

What made them stand out as special?

We want to celebrate those fantastic drivers that make our journeys that much more pleasant. Be sure to add your bus driver comments to your blogs and for everyone else please comment here on the best bus drivers you have had and what made them so special.

Can you guess where in Brighton it was taken? (Clue: it wasn’t on the pier.)

I am a polite person but being that there was no way the driver could hear me, the only way for me to say please would be to walk to the front of the bus and clasp my hands together and beg. Now, forgive me if I am being unreasonable but I was really not aware that the way to get on a public transport was to beg the busdriver to let me on. Then when he finally let me on he refused that the short hop to fiveways existed even when I have been getting it ever since it came into practice.

Anyway I digress, the point is that from the open market to fiveways must be the most miserable part of the journey for all the bus drivers, perhaps it is the ridiculously slow traffic lights at the beginning or maybe dyke road is just deeply offensive I’m not sure. But the bus driver yesterday let us on and just angrily kept his eyes on the road, completely blanking us as though we had committed some terrible crime. For all he knew I could have presented him with a blank red piece of card and Brighton buses would have lost a whole 50p. Well I got off the bus and said goodbye and low and behold he blanked me again. Perhaps I am greatly mistaken and getting on the bus just after it has closed its doors is a great sin. But maybe we should draw smiley faces on dyke road just to make it a little easier for our good bus drivers.

The journey back was more … er … interesting.  Got to the bus stop about 2 seconds after our bus left, and the next bus to take us all home was timetabled to leave the sealife centre 15 minutes later at 3.45, so I filled up my water bottle in the R Bar (thanks to the very nice man behind the bar!) and topped the children up to stop them moaning that they were thirsty.  Well, 3.45 came and went, and a bus went past us full.  How does it fill up between Churchill square and the sealife centre???  Kids were getting annoyed with waiting (picking up glass from the floor, running around the R Bar entrance, and generally making old ladies moan that they were having too much fun!  My 2 year old decided to give everybody standing at the bus stop the fright of their lives and run towards the road when she saw a bus coming around the corner!  I knew that she was only going to the edge to catch the bus, and she was definitely not going to run into the road, but everybody else didn’t trust her that much! We were waiting at that bus stop for 35 minutes for a bus that is supposed to come every 15 (apologies to everyone at that bus stop by the way!)  Was still a good day though!

It was a long but fruitful day at work. On the bus back I strike up a conversation with a French couple who are staying in Moulsecoomb and are in Brighton for a friend’s wedding. They have bought saver tickets and say they’ve been travelling round on the buses all day and are genuinely impressed with the service. They are, however, mystified as to why there’s a swastika on the driver’s partition window. It’s something I’d never noticed before, but they’re right, y’know:

Needed to get the 81 which is around the corner rather than my usually bus stop for the 2 right outside. So actually had to run for this with 5 minutes to spare but caught it..didn’t have time to completely scratch off my weekly bus saver. The bus driver didn’t look too impressed to see that at first, was slightly suspicious that I may have been trying to con him…but then he noticed that I’d scratched off the 9 and Oct and I was also red faced and out of breath and accepted that I’d probably just manically ran to actually catch the bus, which is exactly what happened…

After the doctors, just walked down to London road and got the next bus along to town, it’s not too far but with a saver and a bus literally every two minutes then why not? Got on the 49 which was due in two minutes, it wasn’t too packed. After town just got the 2 home right outside my house

I have to cut this blog off now as I have the real time info up on the next tab and I need to get the 56 from outside my boyfriend’s house in 3 minutes, and there’s not one for another hour after that…

Sketching on the bus is really difficult, and possibly anti-social. I sat right at the back and tried to produce a very quick impression of the bus, but it was one of those days where everybody who got on, got off again after two stops, so the sketch was rubbish. The people who noticed me drawing gave me looks of hostility and doubt, so I put my sketchbook away.

London Road managed to look pleasant in the sunshine, which is more than I can usually say for it. Great coffee and chat in Moksha with James Burt, bought a huge sketchpad and an art-case to carry it in and then found a bus waiting to take me home as soon as I got to the stop.

It went via Mill View - it’s fun to see how the different drivers tackle the turnaround at this point: some rally it like Jensen Button – roaring into the turn, racing around it, screeching to a halt if there are any passengers but belting off if their aren’t. Others take it as sedately as a hearse driver, slowing easing round the circular area as if trying to balance a full cup of tea on their dashboards. There is almost never anybody waiting to be picked up here at the weekends, which I suppose is why the boy-racer tendency comes out in some drivers.

But this morning the driver not only lectured the poor lad who got on the bus about his weekly saver ticket but then repeated what he had said about five times while everybody else grew impatient.

The boy, who had limited English, had scratched eight instead of seven days off of his bus ticket. Something which is easily done, especially at the end of the month when there aren’t 31 days and you aren’t concentrating properly.

Yes, it means the ticket was meant to be invalid but it was obvious the poor lad had made a mistake, it wasn’t like he was trying to travel without paying.

The driver eventually let him on but in the meantime we’d all been sat there for five minutes tapping our feet and looking at our watches wondering if we were ever going to be delivered to our destinations.

(Sincere apologies to Shakespeare and, well, everyone).

Photo Challenge – Taking pictures from your route. Who can take the best picture? Can you guess where it was taken in Brighton?

The D Factor –Does your bus driver have the D factor? What makes the best driver?

Bus Interviews/Chats – Striking up a conversation with a fellow passenger and asking a few questions about the bus.

Bus Diaries promotion packs – some fliers and badges for you to distribute or leave behind on your bus journeys

If you have any ideas at all leave them in the comments or email us at twago@qubemedia.net

The bus arrives and as people pile on weighed down with bags and pushing pushchairs I notice a pimply youth loitering by the busdriver causing a bottleneck. I’ve seen his type before: stray, disaffected males (never females) who hang around at the front of the bus making the thoroughfare significantly narrower and causing passengers with heavy loads (whether overly corpulent or just carrying a lot) to contort themselves to get past, and denying elderly or unsteadier passengers proper access to the handrails. Who are these twits? I’m convinced they’re rampant ego cripples who hope to bask in some of the reflected glory of the bus driver. “Look at me! I’m so important that I’m riding right at the front! I bet you wish you were this important. Touch me! Touch me!”

I think every bus driver should have access to one of those high-powered water pistols, or perhaps an electric cattle prod, to eliminate this problem once and for all. Whilst stumbling out at my stop I gave this particular guy a hefty whack in the knee with a bag containing tins of coconut milk. I didn’t actually mean to, either (honest).

The older passenger usually has some kind of hat, from the concertina-creased plastic job that ties under the chin (always goes with a blue rinse) to the tweed cap (usually the partner of a blue rinse) to a baseball cap with a cheery message. These passengers sit at the front and chat away merrily to each other about the terrible weather while the young glare at them and draw faces on the steamed-up windows.  Some are smiley faces but there were a couple of emo faces with downturned mouths today.

Bus journey a waste of time – the small ‘fake moleskine’ notebook that Asda was selling a few weeks ago has sold out. A real shame as they are ideal for sketching.

On the way back, the man who sits next to me smells absolutely rank. Like he lives in a cat litter tray, only eats garlic and doesn’t ever take his clothes off. Very glad to get home!

I’d missed the 5B after leaving my flat late but the electronic board which tells you how long it is until the next bus is due said there would be a number 46 along in three minutes. Great, I thought, at least I won’t be late for work.

Two buses came and went and then the number 46 disappeared from the board altogether. I waited for five minutes and realised it probably wasn’t going to turn up so hopped on the next bus to Churchill Square where I would change for a connecting bus to Hollingbury.

The electronic board said the next one was a 5B in eight minutes. By this time I knew I was going to be late for work but at least I knew a bus was coming.

Then suddenly, a number 24 came round the corner and that hadn’t shown up on the electronic board at all.

This is a problem I have experienced before. Buses being advertised and not turning up, something I find intensely frutsrating when I am trying to get to work in the morning. This morning I ended up being 15 minutes late. I wasn’t the only one who was late to work this morning.

My colleague who starts work an hour later than me also waited half an hour for a bus which never turned up.

My journey home was uneventful. The bus turned up and left on time, although I did have to listen to a woman squawking down her mobile phone at her son/husband/boyfriend for 20 minutes of the bus ride home.

Hopefully tomorrow’s journey will be better.

A sign on the bus warns us not to play music too loudly through headphones. Once, a few years ago, a really bolshy bus driver had strode from his seat two-thirds of the way to the back of the bus to tell me to turn my music down. Guess he wasn’t a fan of Fela Kuti.

But this is the nub of the problem: if people’s headphones are loud it’s because – whether consciously or subconsciously – they want to share what they consider to be great music with the people around them. They know rightly everyone can hear what they’re playing, often over the sound of the engine at full rev. But what they mostly fail to realise is that the sound is distorted into its worst components – house music diminished to a series of tinny beats; jazz reduced to disembodied honks and parps; hip-hop a bassless approximation of a walkie-talkie. Nothing’s gonna sound good coming at you second-hand through the headphones of the guy in the next seat. Fact.

Someone sent me a clip from Youtube about an invention which would be awesome to use on a bus journey instead of an mp3 player. Check this out:

Outstandingly uneventful bus journey though.

Others were discussing, to their amusement who kept ringing the bell to wind the driver up and they were all planning to get on the next bus to mess about again.

Well done driver…..

The weather was rainy so it was nice I planned the time right and got there two minutes early because the bus was also early and did not wait for it’s allotted time to depart so had I planned on correct timing I would have missed it.

Anyway, by the time the bus appraoched Lewis Rd it was nearly full, By the time we arrived at the 1st stop on Lewis road it was like sitting in a can of Sardines. Everyone sitting up close or standing in the isle’s, popping up stair to see if there was a seat and ended up going back down.

Then looking out the windows at the dissapointed passengers as we drove past.

The journey home was not much better. Thought the rain had stopped the bus was just as full.

Busy times ~ we ride lke Sardines lol

I go to a class at Portslade Community College and while I shall drive there tonight, I’m wondering if I can get there by bus in future. There are both pros and cons – it would be great not to have to drive home afterwards as getting in the car and dealing with traffic does interfere with the relaxation I’ve worked for an hour and a half to obtain, but if the buses aren’t frequent and the stop isn’t close to the college, I’ll have to lug all my stuff around and that’s not conduicive to serenity either.

Still, I have a bus pass and I feel obligated to use it whenever I can, so I am off to investigate my bus options. Perhaps next Monday I’ll try the experiment.

Disco inferno!!

Since I had an alarmingly heavy rucksack I sat in the ‘priority’ seats on both buses. If I’d been challenged about this I may have been able to make a case that a leg rash (and intermittent hay fever) counted as a disability, but I wasn’t ‘cos it was the middle of the morning and there was only a couple of other people about.

The train journey was spent dozing and listening to an old John Peel show on my mp3 player. Once in Bedford I had to catch another bus – and it’s only when you leave Brighton that you realise how shoddy many other town’s buses really are. For instance, the only time the buses in Bedford ever lower themselves to curb level is when hooligans have slashed the tyres.

I met an old friend, Jon, and we had a drink and a blether. I left the scrappy old notebook where I jot down details of bus journeys for this ‘ere blog at his place. He said he’d bring it round the next day, and I asked him to note a few things down about the journey. Now, Jon’s a lovely guy and would give you his last fiver (as long as he had enough cigarettes) – but when he arrived the next day, his observations on his journey were, I discovered, less than useful:

Not today though. There are five people on the bottom deck with me. I’m sitting right at the back (rock ‘ard, you see) and I vaguely register a youngish redhead looking round and stealing glances at me from somewhere near the front. Then she’s standing up and walking towards me and sitting herself right down next to me. Our bums are touching. Now, I’ve seen “Breaking The Waves” and I wondered what was going to happen next.

She asks me the time. I look at my mobile and tell her, whereupon she launches into a sprightly monologue encompassing the joys of walking through Hove, her ex-boyfriend, the changing size of pebbles on the beach and many other seemingly unrelated topics.

I’m not at my most beautiful early on a weekend morning and decide this isn’t likely to be a pick-up - although she is vaguely alluring, in a kind of kids’-TV-presenter-meets-the-singer-from-T’Pau kind of way. She’s full of nervous energy and I wonder whether she’s psychiatrically compromised or possibly has just had too many cornflakes. But no – it’s just Brighton, man. There are people like this all over the place, and I can even feel myself lapsing towards a kind of sea-air-enhanced hypermania from time to time.

I love catching the bus and meeting someone totally unexpected. A few weeks ago I met a guy on the bus after he’d helped me pick up some of those tiny bottles of beer after my shopping bag had burst open. He was an artist who’d moved out of a tricky situation in London and had come to the city with absolutely nothing to his name. Then he found some chalk and started doing pavement art until he’d earned enough for a few canvasses and some paint. He was now earning more than me.

Anyway, the redhead and I had a grand old heart-to-heart and had managed to set the world to rights by the time we reached The Level. She loved listening to Dizzee Rascal and was trying to remember the name of the new Calvin Harris song. She said she used to walk 15 miles a day and fears she’s more roomy around the hips than she used to be. I complemented her on her shape without trying to sound too lascivious. And then she skipped off the bus at London Road while yodelling back at me the merry fact that Marilyn Monroe was a size 16 at the height of her fame. Thanks for that, redhead girl. I’ll probably never see you again.

And I never did catch your name.

As I was walking the final leg to my house I crossed somebody whom I only know as a brother of a loose aquaintance. He asked me nicely if I would spare him the 50p he needed to get home, needless to say I helped a fellow out and we had a nice little chat. It’s funny how something like the bus is so good at getting people together, simply putting everyone in the same place seems to make (most) people get along a lot better. I am a lot more friendly to people when on the bus than at any other time in my life. It truly is a public transport in every sense and it is wonderful that such a minor regular service can do so much for people’s relations and make my day a lot better, safe in the knowledge that on the bus, I am no different with my problems and irritations than anyone else.

I sat down on the side seats and let the bus take me to the city centre. Even though the day outside was swelteringly hot the bus managed to maintain a cool air. I got to the town centre where the buses are kings, pretty much every other vehicle in town is a bus; In a world where carbon footprint is key I must say that this thoroughly pleased me.

I then stepped off the bus and it was on with my day.

09:47 this morning, 5b to St Peter’s to take part in a drop-in experimental drawing class with Dinah Kelly. I am utterly terrified. Because I have left the house early the bus arrives within a minute and has a delay-free journey, so that I end up spending 40 minutes standing and staring at Phoenix Arts, telling myself it’s okay to be early. Sometimes simple, traffic-jam free travel trips you up – with time to kill I caffeinate, twice, and can’t tell whether it’s coffee or fear that’s making my hands twitch.

12:43 – 5b back home with a folder stuffed with drawings. Brilliant class, can’t understand why I was so worried. Listen to a mother whose young son was photographed by three newspapers. Three! she keeps saying, so I assume it was a positive experience, as opposed to him being the youngest hoodlum in Brighton. The way he’s kicking the seat in front rather suggests the latter.

I love the 5b because it drops me almost outside my door.

Mind you, it did feel good to do my good deed for the day

Having said that it was nice to have a couple of pleasant driver, smiling and happy.

I’m not a hypochondriac – in fact, I’m not even registered with a doctor and the last time I saw a medical professional (apart from a nurse I went on a truly disastrous date with a couple of years ago) was around 2003. But this was serious, dammit. I phoned NHS Direct and spoke to a lovely northerner called Liz who did her best to reassure me, and arranged for me to go to Royal Sussex County Hospital for an emergency consultation.

Luckily I’d picked up one of the newly-published free bus timetable magazines on a  bus a few days earlier, so I was able to plan which buses to take. The two journeys slipped by in a blur of worry and fidgeting and I don’t remember too much about them, except that the bus which took me right outside the hospital was driven by a roly-poly lady who flashed me a really disarmingly lovely smile as I clambered on. I remember thinking how super it was to greet a stranger in such a way, and it made me think while climbing the hill to the A&E Department how none of us know what kind of day random people in the street are having, and some of us may prize a simple comforting word or a smile extremely highly. I certainly did.

Well, I was all smiles catching the bus back. The lady doctor had looked frantically overworked and massively fed up – certainly no smiles, and no eye contact whatsoever – but she’d delivered the welcome news that I didn’t have mere minutes to live but was the proud owner of ‘a bit of a rash’. Yes, I felt like a dummy but also incredibly relieved. I spent some time on the beach watching seagulls trying to wrestle a pizza from some French schoolchildren, and then went on a little jaunt through the city as the sun set.

Still smiling, I caught the bus back to Bevendean. The driver looked like Roy Kinnear and appeared totally miserable (perhaps as a direct result of this). Upstairs the top deck was a riot of smiling, laughing Europeans. Very uplifting it was up there too, and it may have been good for the driver to spend a few minutes up there himself, although I fear he may have had considerable difficulty driving the bus.

My first thought, when I’d rescued my reading glasses from under a kitten and found said instructions, was that while Savers are a great idea, they’re virtually inoperable - on first acquaintance - for those with less than perfect vision. It’s not just buses that need to be simple and effective, it’s the systems by which people use them. Especially if public transport is to be viable for people who are older, don’t have English as their first language or have other issues that make complex systems a non-starter in their world.

Bigger print would be a fine first step – as would some instructions on the Brighton and Hove Bus website on how to ‘use’ a Saver card. Because it’s nothing like an Oyster, I promise you.

Unfortunately, the bus, though swept was still dirty – the floor and walls could do with mop and wipe to get rid of the sticky spillages from the day before.

Why is it many drivers never seem happy in their work? Out of the 5 journey’s on one of them actually said hello and goodbye or thanks.

Watching the people on the buses. Many seemed content in what they were doing and enjoying the journey. Others obviously had a stressfull journey trying to manage all their shopping etc. The main body of passengers that seemed happy on the bus were the University Student who were moving into Halls and had gone to get their bedding etc from town.

The last journey oth the day was to work. No eye contact from the driver, no smile, no greeting, or thanks at thge end. The bus was filthy. It was like driving in a rubbish bin with empty McDonalds cartons, half eaten pizza’s thrown on the floor, spilt juice and other rubbish. Not a pleasant journey lookiing at all this.

Now I have an opportunity to write down my experiences I will look forward to it.

Over the coming weeks a select group of Brighton and Hovians will be posting about their experiences on the buses of our city. Follow their highs and lows and join in with your experiences.