I've always enjoyed riding on this bus route. Sometimes I've not liked the contractor that the council have selected, as they've put prices up, changed the number of low-cost tickets, restricted the travel-cards, and used more shoddy, polluting vehicles to push up the margins. The crew have been variable; sometimes they're supportive, sometimes they're nasty pieces of work who are just in it for themselves.
It was nice a few years ago when they put the new buses in, saying they were investing for the future, but since 2010 they didn't haven't spent much on maintenance, and for the last five years we've often had substitute buses when these ones break down. I think that some of them are from companies that the council members are involved with.
The passengers are from all walks of life, and generally, get on fine. Most people are polite, and give up seats when they need to. You get the odd anti-social one, but peer-pressure usually keeps them in line. There's a bunch at the back from the posh school who keep themselves to themselves; some of them are drunk and pass comments, but usually, they've kept themselves to themselves whilst bemoaning the fact that the riff-raff are on the same bus and actually talk back.
The trouble started back in 2016 when they redecorated the bus, and they allowed advertising that told lies and broke all the rules. Some people believed it, others didn't and the passengers were split down the middle. The conductor passed brochures around and asked for a show of hands on the holiday plans. Like the advertising, the brochures lied, promising a glorious holiday in the UK that would save money. There'd be no need to compete for towels at the pool because we'd send all those foreigners home. The show of hands was in favour of the new holiday by one passenger. The conductor, who hadn't wanted to change the route and expected it to stay the same whilst shutting up the awkward passengers, resigned.
All of a sudden, the holiday route for the bus was changed from a European tour to a British beach holiday. They asked for a volunteer to act as the conductor, and the kids at the back fought amongst themselves. One of them came forward, but the comments still flew. 'We're not going fast enough', 'who needs plans?', 'We won the war, don't you forget that, where's your Blitz spirit?!'. We looked at the map book and realised that rather than a beach, it was heading to the cliffs at Dover. When we pointed this out, we were criticised for being negative. 'Of course it'll be fine', they said, 'If some people get badly hurt in the fall it'll be worthwhile.'
The new conductor got a lot of stick with some proposed changes, and ended up quitting in disgust, replaced by one of the posh yobs from the back who's been in trouble for snogging loads of people on the back seats and lying. He's very clear that we'll be on holiday for Halloween; originally we'd planned to go in Easter. He's fallen out with the driver, who has pointed out that they're in control, and there's no way they're letting the conductor navigate us off a cliff. They had to have a word with the police when the conductor ordered everyone off for a few weeks just before we got to the bus stop. They gave the conductor a stern talking to.
I'd love to get off and have a holiday somewhere else in Europe, but the package holiday airlines are going bust because everyone's fighting over the bus route... Whatever will happen next?
