MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
My wife went back top work for the first time in 15 months this week. She tried to pay a £4.10 bus fare with a £10 note and the driver said "no" and followed it up with "we're not a bank".
If that is the attitude you are barely a bus company.
Would never happen in a shop! Complain to bus company.
Sounds like he was an arse to me. I hope she just went and sat down on the bus. I would have done.
This happened to me in London, as I did not have enough cash on my pre pay oyster card. I wonder if the bus companies know ATM's only dish out tenners.
my other half has this quite frequently, some drivers give change, others whinge and whine.
I believe you can simply ask for a 'unpaid fare voucher' on most bus companies if you or the driver doesn't have the right change & send the bus company the money later
I suspect the driver wouldn't offer this option though as he'll have to fill it in
I hate buses. The drivers can be right tosspots. I'm sure some people make a point of making other peoples lifes as difficult as possible
Yes, if only bus drivers were as reasonable and easy going as the folk on here, the world would be a far nicer place.
Bus Driver, unreasonable Ar$e? Surely not?
how far was she going for £4.10?!
My wife went back top work for the first time in 15 months this week.
Is she returning from mat leave? Wish her luck if so. Mine's doing the same and just passed her proficiency tests yesterday and is extremely happy.
It's hard coming back from mat leave so wish her all the best.
Oh and can I be the first to reply:
how far was she going for £4.10?!
For that kind of money i'd say 'all the way'. budum tish!
OK I just undid the nice things I said earlier didn't I. 😳
how far was she going for £4.10?!
All the way? 🙂
Manchester and back. 4 miles each way.
I will ignore the other comments. 😉
Don't start me - they make my life hell.
Last week one refused to let me on the bus - w****r had seen me running (the bus was early) and shut the doors, but hadn't moved an inch due to traffic so was still on the stop. That wasn't even being a jobsworth that was just nasty. Then of course we had the famous 62 bus drought and the next scheduled one didn't turn up and I was stood at the bus top for an hour then had to stand all the way home as 3 loads of people crammed on one bus. Poor driver had to sail past some people at Penicuik, who could have been waiting over an hour already, as the bus was full.
But yes, if driver refused to give me change I'd be like "OK, I'll pay you tomorrow then" and sat down. Although I do try to take the right money as you even sometimes get a thanks out of them and it's worth it to see one behave like a human being.
Sorry I know its not an easy job driving all day and dealing with the public and I am sure it is just a few ruining it for everyone.
This happened to a young guy here, Driver told him he was going to have to take the £10 for a 2.50 fare as he had put a handwritten sign on the windscreen stating exact money only!
wonder what would have happened to the £7.50!
This is the best reason in the world to commute everywhere by bike
[i]Manchester and back[/i]
From London I hope!
It's been the way in Edinburgh for some time that LRT (Red buses) do not give change. The driver has no access to the cash thing.
The First (formerly the Green buses) pick and choose depending on the facilities on the bus.
I think it is designed to save them time at stops. Crap system though, surely all it needs is a conductor like the olde days and this will also keep Senga and Chesney up the back seats in check and stop them playing happy hardcore crap on their phones.
Yes LRT. Their bus drivers are at least a bit friendlier ! And I do feel almost sorry for them having to explain 1000 times a day to foreign tourists during the festival WE DINNAE GIVE CHANGE LUV.
Schaudendfreude is the badly spelled german word !
Manchester and backFrom London I hope!
The price you pay for living in The Promised Land. 😉
The bus company in question is FIRST. No problem with change on Monday, different policy on Tuesday.
The only proffesion who [b]think[/b] they are more dangerous than bus drivers are train conductors, who are the opposite of dinner ladies who [b]Know[/b] they are dangerous.
Bus drivers are the worst kind of dickheads, especially in Manchester.
A £4.10 fee with a tenner is fine imo, if she was trying to pay a an 85p ticket with it then you could maybe see his point.
Stagecoach Bus will give change if the driver has it or the option of a change voucher which can be later exchanged for cash with another Stagecoach driver. The unpaid fare form can only be issued if the customer has identification showing their name and address.
I don't see his problem at all - surely the less change he has at the end of the shift the better as it means less cashing up? (Assuming they still have to do their own cashing up these days).
Tell her to turn up every day with ID and not the right change and see if they prefer giving change or writing the ticket?
She ended up paying him in shrapnel and Polo mints found at the bottom of her bag, purse and pockets, but it took some time.
If he'd thrown her off the bus there would have been a scene involving riot police.
Do they not do weekly saver tickets or somesuch? Sadly the concept of an Oyster type card hasn't really reached the outer lying cities of the UK, when I had to start using buses last year I was really shocked by the prices, fortunately (!?) I'm eligible for a disabled person travel pass so get free travel on buses & trains in the Mersey area until I hopefully get my driving licence back. I wouldn't use public transport if I was paying for it.....
Still get tits telling me the pass is only for off peak travel until I show them the T&Cs on the back which are perfectly clear, free travel until midnight on the date of expiry at any time of day. Shuts them up pretty quick.
Do they not do weekly saver tickets or somesuch?
They do. But they are not much use if you only go to work 2 days a week.
OK, furry muff. As I said I don't pay much attention to ticket prices but the merseyside buses all tend to push those saver tickets.
...refused to let me on the bus - w****r had seen me running (the bus was early) and shut the doors, but hadn't moved an inch due to traffic so was still on the stop...
There will be a small red button immediately to the right of the doors marked "Emergency use only".
Press that next time and, as if by magic, the doors will open. 😉
surely the less change he has at the end of the shift the better as it means less cashing up
There's a cashing up machine at the depot, a bit like paying cash at a self service supermarket checkout.
It's easier to tip a bag full of coins in than to feed the notes in one at a time.
Didn't the Mark Thomas comedy product do something on this a few years back? IIRC if they can't give you change then they have to give you a voucher to pay the bus company directly.
There's a cashing up machine at the depot, a bit like paying cash at a self service supermarket checkout.
Is that how it goes now? When I worked in the business (Saturday job as a kid) the drivers manually cashed up and we had those machines to check against and consolidate.
Hels - I thought you rode to work anyway?
as said above, just smile, sit down and see what they do.
if she was trying to pay a an 85p ticket with it then you could maybe see his point.
Where can you get an 85p bus ticket? 1987?
It £2.50-odd for less than 2 miles into town from our house. Mrs PP used the bus a few years ago when she was on crutches and was shocked at the price.
SBZ
I ride to work a couple of times a week tops, wish I was fit enough to ride every day ! Take the motorbike when I can and bus the rest. But with recent weather have to slum it with the proles way more often !! I hate it sooooo much, and it's expensive. Might have to WTFU and get on the motorbike more in the crappy weather.
Can I do my rant now about bus customers ?? And riding buses visibly disabled with my arm in a sling and big ole pins sticking out of it, and NAE F*****R standing up for me ??
Where can you get an 85p bus ticket? 1987?It £2.50-odd for less than 2 miles into town from our house. Mrs PP used the bus a few years ago when she was on crutches and was shocked at the price.
I think there are still 85p/£1 fayres on the student magic buses that shuttle up and down Oxford Road in Manchester. Either way, I think you see my point.
"There will be a small red button immediately to the right of the doors marked "Emergency use only".
Press that next time and, as if by magic, the doors will open. "
do this at your own risk, as it is a criminal offence to interfere with the doors on a bus.
as a bus driver, i agree with most of the comments on here, many bus drivers are utter w@^&*(s, i hate it because most members of the public treat me as though i am too.
however, it must be said, bus fares are too high, so high in fact, that some passengers cant afford soap.
however, it must be said, bus fares are too high, so high in fact, that some passengers cant afford soap.
Hahahahahahaha! Classic!
Bus drivers are ar$eholes. I had one try to intentionally run me over last week on my bike. I was waiting at a junction to cross a one way street. In front of me was a yellow box junction. The traffic was queued up on the right hand side of the box and a bus was approaching from the left. It should have stopped before the junction obviously but he saw me waiting to cross, slowed down then crept the bus into the junction and stopped right in front of me with his front wheel more or less in front of me. I decided to just go around the front of him and when he saw this he started moving forward again and as I got in front of him he moved forward fast, forcing me to swerve. I jumped off the bike and politely invited him to step off the bus and explain what he was doing. Sadly he declined my invitation...
Agreed - bus fares are high. My brother and his mate have stopped getting the bus into town when they go out as a taxi is a cheaper option (around £8 between them as opposed to £4.60 each on the bus).
And they only will get higher as the fuel duty relief they get is being reduced apparently.
Martymac you can drive my bus anyday !
Like the soap comment. I have a special bottle of what I call Bus Perfume. If somebody smelley sits next to me I spray it all over myself. Subtle but effective. Well maybe just effective.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but, if at every stop on his route he gives change to everyone with a tenner then his float is screwed.
They have not got space for an unlimited float - and no i'm not a bus driver.
Public transport does however suck. The tyne and wear metro will only take coins, not notes, which if you actually pay your fare and don't use a pass is a ball ache at times.
Ah well - its nice to live in Edinburgh. Bus fares are £1.20 any journey or (iirc) £2.50 for all day. Buy a ticket from the machine at the bus stop its £1,10. No change tho all money goes into an underfloor safe via a chute
The buses are modern and frequent and amazingly they are careful and courteous towards cyclists generally - I have had buses stop to let me out of junctions! I think its a critical mass thing.
if at every stop on his route he gives change to everyone with a tenner then his float is screwed.
That's not likely though is it?
and no i'm not a bus driver.
You sound like you'd be well suited though.
😉
TandemJeremy - Member
The buses are modern and frequent and amazingly they are careful and courteous towards cyclists generally - I have had buses stop to let me out of junctions! I think its a critical mass thing.
Posted 2 minutes ago # Report-Post
No the drivers are absolutely terrified of you giving them a long speech on unions and the power of the unions etc etc, then typing it all up on here. 😀
Bus driving is a difficult job, made worse by the customers, some who dont speak,some with the mnners of a street dog,some with no money ,who ride past their stop, traffic conditions,motorists who dont let the bus out,poor road design, and just sometimes poorly maintained buses, then they have a timetable to follow.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but, if at every stop on his route he gives change to everyone with a tenner then his float is screwed.
But surely he serves everyone and gives them the due change if he has it and only if he does not HAVE the change that he could question them?
Buy a ticket from the machine at the bus stop its £1,10. No change tho all money goes into an underfloor safe via a chute
I hate it when they do this - put in £1 and you get a fine if caught so often you have to put in more (assuming you don't have the correct change) - just another trick to get more money from people. It is often the same with pay and display machines when parking cars.
Waht on werth are you on about MF?
Its a non issue here as it been like this for decades - you simply make sure you have the right change. People are adaptable adn get used to it. No fines - simply put in your money and get your ticket
ticket machines at bus stops?
uh?
anyway for what it's worth, I think [i]many, if not most[/i] bus drivers are complete bellends.
One got off his bus once for a fight with me after I rode past his open window and called him a bellend for almost killing me.
He had a busload of passengers. What a bellend.
yup terrahawk - ticket machines at bus stops. Not at every one but at a lot of them - along with real time monitoring of bus positions and a screen to tell you when the next one will arrive.
LRT bus driver are IME actually pretty considerate of cyclists
Waht on werth are you on about MF?Its a non issue here as it been like this for decades - you simply make sure you have the right change. People are adaptable adn get used to it. No fines - simply put in your money and get your ticket
Quite simple really - if you are unprepared and do not have the correct change, you have to pay more. Perhaps not a problem for locals, but tourists...
I'd be more surprised if they gave change to be honest, but then I'm used to Nottingham City Transport and their rules have been exact change for years. We have citycards and mango cards if you don't want to have to worry about correct change.
I am not surprised they don't give change, what I think is pretty underhand is the pricing structures which means more people end up paying more than they should.
For example, in TJs post, the fare is £1.10. Why not £1? Because they expect there to be a percentage of people who don't have the correct change and end up having to put in £1.20, £1.50, £2...
It is exactly the same in Harrogate in the Pay and Display parking spaces. And with those machines there is absolutely no reason why they can't give change.
Exact change or no travel on our local buses, and £2.30 to travel 6 miles and it takes over 40 minutes. Plus if you buy a multi-buy ticket for 20 passes they then won't let you use two passes in one journey to take a friend/relative, you have to use one and pay again.
Is there any wonder people use cars instead?
As for being unprepared and having to pay more money - most people these days don't have stashes of cash about, the world has gone plastic/electronic. I don't need to be punished for being unprepared when I want to use a bus - I'm paying for a service, they should be falling over backwards to make my paying for their service easier, not acting like some sort of all-important only means of transport. Idiots.
MF - It was £1 for years. It had to go up
Its nothing like pay and display machines. This is done for the drivers protection. All monies paid in goes down a chute into a safe so the driver has no access to money so there is no point in trying to rob him
it really is not an issue. People will help tourists out..Big signs on the buses say exact change only.
Classic non bus users not understanding how buses work.
terrahawk - a fine salvo of "bellends" sir. Good work.
In an earlier post, I went for the French version "fin du cloche." A little more charming.
Bus drivers are ALL miserable bastards stranded in the winter of 1978. V-neck jumper wearing bellends.
TJ - are you seriously telling us that there is no way a machine can be made that accepts money, gives change, can be sited on a bus and is secure?
And of course it was £1 for years, it would have been wouldn't it?
But this has nothing to do with being a bus user or not (would you be surprised to hear I do use them - and trains too?), it is an observation of how money is taken automatically and the pricing structures used to maximise profit.
Stagecoach is one bus company who's drivers give change. However even being a huge national company they expect their drivers to provide a daily working float using their own money !
Seems to me that whenever there are lots of bus companies vying for business, you magically get change offered. When there's only one company, you can overpay or go **** yourself. Surprise surprise.
I'd use the bus into town for simplicity's sake (I hate urban driving and parking) but it takes 50 mins to get into town, and only about 15 in the car (as long as it's not choked up).
Its a complete non issue MF / Molgrips - it really is.
I'd use the bus into town for simplicity's sake (I hate urban driving and parking) but it takes 50 mins to get into town, and only about 15 in the car (as long as it's not choked up).
That sounds like cycling distance to me 🙂
I'd cycle at the drop of a hat, but it's a bit of a challenge for Mrs Grips with all the busy roads, and they're not particularly trailer friendly either for lil grips 🙂
Its a complete non issue MF / Molgrips - it really is.
What's a non-issue? The lack of change? It's a pain, that's all. With the prices that they pay for busses, you'd think they could have a card machine that just takes an unverified swipe of a card like car parks have, for those who are caught without change.
I'm sure that WMPTE was exact change only from about 1978, you just need to get your provincial bus companies to offer RFID pre-payment systems like Oyster, it really is so much easier. Especially now that SWT has finally been manhandled into line as well.
No way id cycle in to town and shop / work, there is no way you could reasonably expect your bike to be where you locked it on your return.
3 miles so unless carrying something large or heavy, i walk.
It's a PITA for the occasional bus-user IMO. Typical British customer-unfriendly attitude.
LRT drivers are mostly pretty good tho IME, but the ticket machines and displays are not that common.
Its a complete non issue MF / Molgrips - it really is.
Well if you are happy to overpay every time you don't have the correct change then I am sure it isn't an issue.
In fact I recall a few years ago our local bus company had a machine that you fed money into and it dispensed both the ticket and the change. But I guess that means more time with the vehicle stood still so greedy bus companies decided it made sound commercial sense to just have a bin to throw money into, get the bus on the move sooner and have some passengers overpay.
The price you pay for living in The Promised Land.
Are you talking about Manchester? 😯 Who was it 'promised' by, Nick Clegg?
Oyster FTW. Brilliant, brilliant system. Here in That London's famous London, we can uses them on buses, tubes, overground, trams and River Bus. You can use them as a weekly/monthly/yearly travelcard, or pre-paid PAYG, which you can have automatically topped up to a pre-set amount so you never, ever run out of credit, and they max out to the cost of a daily travelcard if you make several journeys. You can buy them in newsagents even, for a £3 deposit, so you can have spare ones if guests from abroad/Manchester etc come to stay. You can get printouts of your recent journeys if you need to claim travelling expenses, too.
Quite simply the best travel payment system in the World, as befits the Greatest City on Earth.
[img] 
[/img]
Greatest City on Earth
it's funny. Whenever I've been to London I've been repeatedly convinced that it's an overgrown shit-tip chock-full of self-important bellends.
All of my friends say this too, including the sane ones.
Oh, I nearly forgot the 😉
Here we go....
You're just jealous because you live in a shite city which can only dream of being a fraction as good as London and anyone with any sense there would rather live in London anyway.
I've never been to Manchester. Why would I want to go there? There's nowt there for me. It would be like gong from a Ferrari to a knackered Ford Mondeo. But you have to come to London. You love it here, you just can't admit it.
You know I'm right, too.
I win, so shut up. 😀
All of my friends say this too, including the sane ones.
You haven't got any friends. You're a Mancunian.
I have lived in London - it was shite. Edinburgh for the win. Get on the train Elf - I'll protect you from the locals
Be'ave yourself. Why would I want to go to Edinbugger? It's full of heroin addicts. I've seen the tourism video:
[img] 
[/img]
No seriously, don't give it, you lot. Our Oyster card system is the best.
I've never been to Manchester. Why would I want to go there? There's nowt there for me
Well it's got loads of good riding just outside it for a start.
I don't understand who catches a bus. It's cheaper to drive most places, and in the countryside is quicker.
In Embra it used to be convenient when it was £1 but now rummaging for extra 20ps is annoying.
And London is the most hateful, self centred, busy, unpleasant place in Britain.
Yeah parking's dead easy and cheap in cities.
[i]I've never been to Manchester. Why would I want to go there? There's nowt there for me[/i]Well it's got loads of good riding just outside it for a start.
So go to just outside it then.
I think the 1 time I've paid for parking since I lived there for 2 months and then started visiting embra every week was when I got that ticket last week.
So go to just outside it then.
Not many jobs in Hadfield or Marple, on the whole. Plus Elf would be arriving by train 😉
yup terrahawk - ticket machines at bus stops. Not at every one but at a lot of them - along with real time monitoring of bus positions and a screen to tell you when the next one will arrive.
The Cambridge Guided Bus is just like that.
Well, almost.
First of all, it's not actually running yet - only 2 years late though.
And then there's no cross-ticketing.
So you have to figure out which bus company the bus in the distance comes from, then rush over to the ticket machine and buy a ticket for the right company.