Worst experiences on public transport.

parsi · 11-02-2013 12:03am #1

People ofen cite the behaviour of other passengers as a reason not to use Public Transport.

I thought it might be useful to see what negative experiences people have had with other passengers.

In my own case they're minor - smelly folk on a bus to Wexford many moons ago and of course the regular train occurrence of golden ticket holders drinking their Dutch Gold en-route to visit their buddies in prison.

However anecdotal evidence suggests that other folk have fared worse..

Cookie_Monster · 11-02-2013 1:06am

Scumbags on the 7: smoking, drinking, pissing on the seats, the top of the bus closed off cos someone had taken a ****, buses diverted off my road because people are throwing bricks at it

Heat on the London underground, makes it unbearable to travel at times.

STForSale · 11-02-2013 10:03am

Personal worst experience is a hung over looking guy pucking up all over the place. After that it all pretty minor but regular stuff.

Knackers playing loud music and singing out of tune.
Someone sitting near me eating a pack of tayto.
Fat people sitting next to me causing spillage into my personal space.
An old guy who wanted to talk to me.

I used to think these where real problems until cookie_monsters post.

hollster2 · 11-02-2013 10:17am

woman drinking vodka smelling off pee the stench was overwhelming.

young ones giggling,shouting, music on phones blaring.

worst of all packed bus i was 7months pregnant and no one would give me there seat wasnt just going to ask someone to move but long story short stood for the whole 20mins nearly fell walloped my tummy off bar to hold onto people can be so rude sometimes.

loyatemu · 11-02-2013 12:47pm

"Hell is other people" as Sartre said. Public transport is one of the few scenarios where you are trapped with other randommers and can't just leave.

n0brain3r · 11-02-2013 1:27pm

Back in the late ninety's there was a serious amount of anti-social behavior on some Dublin Bus routes through Tallaght.

I used the 65 regularly back then and on at least 5 occasions just past the Jobstown Inn bus windows where smashed by stone throwing youths in one incident the girl next to me got splinters in her face and when the driver stopped to investigate the assault continued and he had to drive to the Embankment for safe refuge! The stoning continued for a number of months culminating in drivers switching off the internal lights to negotiate that stretch of road!

There where various attempts to set bus seats on fire and heroin smoking I think that's what is was? Something heated in tinfoil with a lighter and a cigarette although it's so long ago I can't be sure.

Worse was one night the 77's had been stopped after 7pm due to all the trouble and this guy and his girlfriend where on the 65 shooting up complaining about how far they have to walk as the buses weren't running!

When done he held the syringe with a plastic bag over his hand and started threatening everyone to hand over there valuables or he'd stab them! All this on the happened upper saloon he made a few swipes at people and connected with one guy collected some wallets rang the bell and just got off like nothing happened!

After all that I think I need to balance with the some examples of my far more numerous good experiences!

A couple that spring to mind.
Some poor guy was hit by a car and knocked off his motorbike in front of the bus. People where milling around him not knowing what to do (The car driver as trying to pull his helmet off!) The bus driver just jumped off the bus and knocked the car driver out of the way and proceeded to take charge and perform first aid on the guy.

More mundane there was no minimum fare on the 65 back then(Is there one now??) so regularly the 65 would be full of people making short journeys so by the time it got to Templeogue it was full and anyone heading to Blessington could be left waiting and hour or more for the next bus. Some of the drivers used to actively police this and would announce that he would not stop the bus between here and Tallaght and anyone intending to do so should get off and catch the bus following.

Also on a few occasions i missed the regular Waterford bus and would end up hitching as there could be a significant wait for the next service. I'd head out to the N9 as it was then at Kilcullen and start hitching more often than not the driver would stop the express once he saw you!

The_Wrecker · 11-02-2013 2:35pm

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Scumbags on the 7: smoking, drinking, pissing on the seats, the top of the bus closed off cos someone had taken a ****, buses diverted off my road because people are throwing bricks at it

The northern section of the 46a is so bad i wont touch the handrails!
The display of all the above is on show to all the tourists going to the Park/Zoo, with the odd arrest to spice things up.
Open conversations about the best drug deals and err' application of, shows us at our best. While outside to your left child and pitbull at peace together.

devnull · 11-02-2013 2:43pm

My worst experience was generally lots of mornings on the 7 in 2009 and 2010 getting on at O'Connell Street. Serious attitude problem with drivers on that route at the time I used to get them, three times got accused of having a fake travel 90 ticket.

In one case the inspector bailed me out and another one a different inspector disputed over the validity of my ticket, just walked off and got the 4 behind, normally I got that driver and bus and he'd seen me for months and let me on and ticket scanned fine.

Tried to avoid the 7 where possible if a 4 was not far behind, on the third occasion a driver on the 7 had a go at me as I was from the northside and the bus was for "Southside people" and confiscated my ticket as it was 'fake' I told the inspector, previously mentioned driver on the 4 let me on and reported it and I got a travel 90 ticket in compensation and a letter of apology. Driver on the 7 gave me no more bother ever again.

I don't generally venture much on buses these days, but I always felt that Donnybrook drivers (sorry Aleksmart and The_Wrecker, sure they were not you!) were the most miserable unhelpful public hating bunch I'd ever experienced in Dublin, the contrast from the drivers on the 4 couldn't have been more great. On the rare occasion I went out on a bus and misplaced my leap card months ago it was returned to me through the post, since the driver handed it in! Top man!

There are some great drivers ho will greet their regular customers and really be helpful to the regular passengers, but there are some which really should not be in a public facing role. Favourite one is some guy singing "An empty bus is a happy bus" as passengers were getting on, continuing to sing and ignoring all questions that came his way! Also high marks to the drivers on a VT who make an announcement downstairs by voice from the front of the bus, not realising that nobody upstairs can hear a thing and he should try using his microphone?

Partizan · 11-02-2013 4:27pm

Worst experience on public transport:

Luas - junkballs and assorted

Train - Waterford to Dublin on a Sunday afternoon is best avoided. Despite the no drinking policy, many of Dublin's finest having been on hen/stag in Waterford/KK or Carlow get on polluted, proceed to horse back the vodka and cause an absolute nuisance to any poor unfortunate sitting around time. Que roaring, shouting and bawling. Feral kids are another problem. In my many years travelling on that train, I have seen it all. Fights, Gardai dragging skangers off the train as well as a skanger woman flashing her massive floppy tits.

Classy eh!

However I praise Jehovah I never witnessed this - http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/woman-admits-sex-on-the-dart-26438316.html

crushproof · 11-02-2013 5:22pm

Coming out of Bray on the DART a few years ago and the windows are smashed in by bricks thrown by kids on the side of the tracks, raining glass all over a few passengers, thank god nobody was seriously hurt.
One time in Canada coming home from work a guy attempted to stab a fellow homeless guy, needless to say it was a freaky few moments while the two scuffled. Luckily they take that kind of thing seriosuly there so there was dozens of transit cops waiting at the next stop!
While in Oz the bus driver on my regular route turned up one morning with a black eye, a bunch of scumbags hopped him when he refused to let them on.
So you'll be glad to hear that it's not only Ireland that all this crap happens!
Other than that the usual knacks down the back of the bus shouting, smoking, giving racial abuse, pissing and the poxy mobile phone music.

parsi · 11-02-2013 8:24pm

Crikey.

Some scary tales there - certainly shows that there is scope for better policing on our transport or does it show that there is a general malaise in some sections of society with which we are expected to live ?

corktina · 11-02-2013 8:56pm

Partizan wrote: »

Worst experience on public transport:

Luas - junkballs and assorted

Train - Waterford to Dublin on a Sunday afternoon is best avoided. Despite the no drinking policy, many of Dublin's finest having been on hen/stag in Waterford/KK or Carlow get on polluted, proceed to horse back the vodka and cause an absolute nuisance to any poor unfortunate sitting around time. Que roaring, shouting and bawling. Feral kids are another problem. In my many years travelling on that train, I have seen it all. Fights, Gardai dragging skangers off the train as well as a skanger woman flashing her massive floppy tits.

Classy eh!

However I praise Jehovah I never witnessed this - http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/woman-admits-sex-on-the-dart-26438316.html

the train did not have cameras inside the carriages....thank gawd for that!

Run_to_da_hills · 11-02-2013 9:03pm

Travelling from Meknes to Fez Morocco in the height of summer in a packed carriage, sealed windows and the air conditioned not working.

parsi · 11-02-2013 9:10pm

corktina wrote: »

the train did not have cameras inside the carriages....thank gawd for that!

There's a video on youtube of someone pleasuring (poster used the w word) themselves on a bus to Belfast so God knows that scene mentioned above may be floating around somewhere in the vile depths of the internet (there seems to be plenty of voyeurs out there).

GarIT · 11-02-2013 9:10pm

hollster2 wrote: »

worst of all packed bus i was 7months pregnant and no one would give me there seat wasnt just going to ask someone to move but long story short stood for the whole 20mins nearly fell walloped my tummy off bar to hold onto people can be so rude sometimes.

Prenant people that think it makes them entitled to a seat.

grimbergen · 11-02-2013 10:56pm

GarIT wrote: »

Prenant people that think it makes them entitled to a seat.

Eh, it does. Always sickens me when people knowingly leave pregnant women stand

LoonyLovegood · 12-02-2013 12:03am

Getting on a bus with a broken leg and having to stand for the 40 minutes...that was a bad one.

Then the usual ones, people smoking, drinking, all that.

kingshankly · 12-02-2013 1:06am

Traveling on the underground in Barcelona going to the nou camp for a game against Madrid now I'm just shy of 6 foot and nearly 14 stone and my feet wernt on the ground. Never seen crowds like it and every stop more and more would try to push on while there were women crying and being crushed.

generalmental · 12-02-2013 2:10am

it was a couple of years back when the 50 was still running, I was upstairs just minding my own business and next of all a drug dependant person got on the bus that I did not know came straight at me and started to hit me on the head with an old lucozade bottle and at the time they were made of glass and it bloody hurt.
I managed to get him to the ground picked up the seat and smashed him with it and the worst part of it was the guards were gonna arrest me until another passenger told him what happened.

Another time about a year after my niece was born I brought her out for the day so we took the bus but it was full downstairs so I packed the pram away and went upstairs,when I went to get off some prick had taken the pram I couldn't believe it.

Roger_007 · 12-02-2013 2:16am

Auld WANs falling all over me every time the bus goes round a corner......I paid for my seat...go and stand somewhere else!

foggy_lad · 12-02-2013 3:16am

Babies screaming down the back of the bus at 11pm at night.

hollster2 · 12-02-2013 8:48am

GarIT wrote: »

Prenant people that think it makes them entitled to a seat.

I didnt say that I thought someone would of moved its the thing to do, Id move for a pregnant person or a person with a smaller baby then me id fold my buggy also for a elderly or a diasabled person obviously your one of the obnoxious ppl that gets buses.

STForSale · 12-02-2013 9:40am

Got on the Maynooth train at Pearse station, had my hands in my pockets.
Train was so crowded I couldn't get my hands out until Leixlip, I sh1t you not.
When the doors opend, a lady fell out on to the platform, She'd fainted and was being help up
by a combination of the door and other passangers.

gugleguy · 12-02-2013 9:51am

Few months ago on a 39 going towards citycentre. Kd model bus . 2 adult women and a boy abot nine or .ten board around Stonybatter. Arrgument about fare ensues from boarders. Then the oldest lady about 45 leads the other lady and boy in a TIRAde of pure racist abuse against driver. The passengers then go upstairs. The same passengers go downstairs again to get of around fourcourts. Same stream n torrent of abuse to driver. Full blown skangers all 3 of them. I empathised with driver like another decent irish bloke did before getting off. Webre not all bad. Also i reported incident to dublin bus. For wat its worth.

donvito99 · 12-02-2013 11:43am

Getting stuck at Athlone/Longford going to Sligo.

Bloody year in, year out.

goingnowhere · 12-02-2013 12:12pm

gugleguy wrote: »

Few months ago on a 39 going towards citycentre. Kd model bus

Few months? Try 10 years, KD class buses went a long long time ago :rolleyes:

Judgement Day · 12-02-2013 2:23pm

GarIT wrote: »

Prenant people that think it makes them entitled to a seat.

Strange that, I would have thought that common courtesy would demand it but then I'm old fashioned. :rolleyes:

juan.kerr · 12-02-2013 2:38pm

Judgement Day wrote: »

Strange that, I would have thought that common courtesy would demand it but then I'm old fashioned. :rolleyes:

Courtesy, not entitlement.

Plus there's always the risk she is not actually pregnant.

juan.kerr · 12-02-2013 2:43pm

I get the DART and green line Luas regularly, nothing of note on the Luas. Not much on the Dart either over 15 years, the odd beggar, scumbags with cans, saw a guy being 'escorted off' in a headlock by a Garda once, not sure what he had done.

vard · 12-02-2013 2:52pm

When I lived in Manchester a couple of years ago, there was a mental Indian woman who would get on the bus every morning and stand there bellowing and shouting rambling conspiratorial nonsense about the NHS until she was kicked off.

I must admit, I actually found it entertaining!

Lightbulb Sun · 12-02-2013 6:55pm

juan.kerr wrote: »

Courtesy, not entitlement.

Plus there's always the risk she is not actually pregnant.

Risk? Strangely enough it's usually physically evident at 7 months.

juan.kerr · 12-02-2013 6:57pm

Lightbulb Sun wrote: »

Risk? Strangely enough it's usually physically evident at 7 months.

Tell that to anyone who has mistaken big boned women for pregnant women. Not all are '7 months'.

hollster2 · 12-02-2013 7:00pm

well it all started me saying when i was 7mths pregnant on the bus and noone gave me a seat and im not big boned or larger women people could tell i was pregnant just being rude all it was not brought up with morals

Worst experiences on public transport.

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