Transport -
Buses 2
A 73-year-old widow
received an unreserved apology after being sent
an internal memo from a bus company which
described her as a "miserable old cow".
She received the note on Arriva letterhead in
error, it had been attached to her lost bus pass
which the company had returned by post. The memo
said the pass had been left behind and
"everyone on the bus said it belonged to the
miserable old cow." The note went on to say
that "one lady serves her in a cafe and said
she would pass it on. The question is, how did
she get home? Ha! Ha! Gary." She later
learned that "Gary" was the driver of
the bus she had taken to visit her daughter in
Stevenage. Arriva said it had taken
"appropriate disciplinary action"
against those responsible for the
note.
Dunn-Line bus
company has received several complaints in the
last couple of years. In August, the firm
announced it was cutting buses taking fans to the
football ground. Earlier in the month, the
council dropped Dunn-Line from school runs
because of complaints of lateness. Around 35
pupils were left stranded for five hours at a
farm centre in July after a Dunn-Line bus broke
down and a replacement was not sent. More than 30
children had to walk several miles to school
after a Dunn-Line driver dropped them off at a
lay-by in January. However, Dunn-Line was voted
Coach Company of the Year 2001 at the annual
Coach Industry Awards in London.
An elderly
couple from Glasgow were going to Fort William to
visit their son, but were told to get off the bus
in the village of Ballachulish 14 miles short of
their destination in a row over free travel. The
village was the furthest the couple could travel
for free and their offer to each pay the extra
£2.60 to continue on to Fort William, was
refused. A spokesman for Strathclyde Passenger
Transport who administer the scheme said
customers aren't allowed to pay extra for a
ticket unless they are changing buses.
Buses in
Manchester city centre were restricted to a 10mph
limit after an investigation by the city's
newspaper. The decision was made after the
Manchester Evening News went out with a radar gun
and recorded the speed of buses in the busiest
pedestrian areas. It followed the deaths of four
pedestrians who were each hit by buses in the
city centre - although none were directly
attributed to speed. The deaths raised concerns
about the dangers of buses in heavily pedestrian
areas. And as a result of the study, rules were
brought in to slow them down to 10mph, and force
them to drive with dipped headlights. It was part
of a voluntary code of practice between the local
authority and bus operators.
Outside the busiest areas, they had to have a
20mph limit. On one 30mph stretch of the city
centre, where a 45-year-old man was killed - and
where speed humps were supposed to slow traffic -
the MEN radar recorded a bus travelling at 34mph.
At the scene of another death, the speed trap
measured a bus at 38.8mph. The progress of the
new code is monitored - both by police who check
the bus speeds, and by the bus operators, who
have to make sure drivers are not under increased
pressure to meet timetable requirements as they
are slowing down to 10mph.
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