Bloomin’ Buses Bother Me
I get very annoyed about public buses. They don’t like me, I don’t like them.
Firstly, they are dirty. I swear they never get cleaned. Imagine how many people have put their feet on your seat, pressed the bell or held that handrail. And then they put up posters about stopping the spread of flu germs, It’s just hypocritical. And does the driver use hand gel? I think not! Most of the time you can’t even see out of the windows properly, they are so scratched and smeared with mud, usually with somebody’s name written in the dust, or even a rude part of the male human body scraped in the layers of dead cells, dead flies and general muck. Let’s just say that a bus isn’t the cleanest place in the world.
They are dilapidated, they need much more maintenance. I have sat on many a seat which falls off its poxy metal stand. Not to mention the time when we asked a boy if he could open the window and he managed to pull the whole thing off! Yes, it was funny at the time but when you think about it, buses can be extremely dangerous. Imagine if he dropped the piece of window, or if it fell in the road? A few more pennies need to be spent to ensure the safety of the bus’ passengers.
They are scary. Especially when it’s just you and the bus driver, nobody else to witness what may happen, no-one else to stop any trouble. That’s just my imagination running away with me, but it isn’t half awkward when you’re the only one on the bus. The other day I saw a bus with a ‘Paranormal Activity’ poster on the side of it. It was getting dark and all the lights were out. Nobody was sat on the bus and it looked like something out of a horror movie.
They don’t come on time. They’re simply unreliable, and if you’ve been stood at a bus stop for half an hour it can get annoying. Then they come early. You get to the bus stop and nobody is there, it’s normally packed with school children waiting impatiently. You’ve missed the bus and there’s no other way of getting to school, all because the driver thinks it’s a race and doesn’t come at the right time. Then they don’t come at all! Decide they’re just going to let you down totally. I can understand if there’s been an accident, but just not turning up, the cheek of it!
The timetables are confusing. The amount of times I’ve stared at that grid of numbers, you’re better off just asking Rachel! I usually resort to getting someone else at the bus stop to help me, if anyone’s there. Once I almost ended up getting on a bus to Market Rasen when I wanted to go to Lincoln because the timetable made no sense!
The drivers are rude. For example, we had just got to the bus stop in time, and were running to the doors. In turn, the driver shut the doors and started to drive off! Poor old Lois ran alongside the bus to try and get it to stop, dropping her bags, waving her arms wildly to get the drivers attention. How could someone ignore innocent pupils who are just trying to get to school? You would have thought that the drivers would want the extra money.
And that bring me on to the bus fares. They are overpriced. An adult return from Lincoln to Welton is £4.60! You can get to Newark and back on the train for much less than that! It’s extortionate and unfair on the general public. Once I was three pence short of being able to afford a bus ticket and the driver was so mean, he wouldn’t let me off and kicked me off the bus in front of a queue of tutting pensioners!
They take so long. In the car, it would take me about 10 to 15 minutes to get to school, but if I catch the bus it’s 15 minutes to walk and at least half an hour on the bus! That an hour and a half of my day wasted simply by getting the bus to school and back.
The bus stops are rubbish so you get wet if it rains. There are hardly any shelters in our area; you can’t even sit down, think of the elderly. Waiting for a bus is tedious as it is. You don’t even know if your bus is going to come, so at least if you had a shelter you would have protection from the Great British weather.
Overall, buses are rather rubbish!