The temperature today at 8am was - 9c.
My wife decided to use the car to go to work today. After half an hour de- icing the vehicle and digging her out of the drive and the road when she got stuck in the snow and ice, I was knackered. I decided to get the bus rather than walk.
Apart from the fact that it actually took longer for the bus to get me to my place of work than it takes me to walk it ,due to the traffic, snow, ice and completely useless drivers, what struck me was the amount of people getting on the bus who didn’t have Geordie accents and clearly had no idea about public transport (tip for you all : do not try and pay for a £1.60 fare with a £20 note- the drivers do not like this).
Normally in any city the people who use buses (apart from the obvious students) are local working class people. They know the vagaries of the public transport system in their city e.g. two buses arriving at once, rude and irascible drivers, unpredictable last minute route changes, bus driver road rage. They understand that you just never know who you are going to get a seat next to (if you’re lucky enough to get a seat). Will it be the drunk, the weirdo, the smelly old man, the woman with nursery age kids who climb all over her and you? Or will you sit in the seat just vacated by the incontinent old age pensioner you helped off the bus and realise too late that that smell and that strange damp feeling in your trousers is exactly what you think it is. (This has happened to me)
My daughter and her mates call a bus the”Poverty Wagon” which is harsh but I understand where they are coming from.
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