Altercation With Bus Driver

mountainyman

I live in Terenure, I have had a couple of run ins with one of the drivers.

1st time he wouldn't stop at a traffic light (within his rights) but annoying, I ran down and caught the bus anyway and when I was getting on I gave my destination in 'deaf style' voice, which took ages.

2nd time he drove past my stop claiming (inaccurately) that I hadn't pulled the bell, I was standing just behind the white line at the time.

This weekend was going to mass at the church of the 3 patrons in rathgar and he gave me the wrong ticket. It was 90 cent but one of the new ones and said the stop I got on at was templeogue. He refused to issue a new one.

I'm not annoyed but this particular driver would no way have said to an inspector, 'it's grand he got on in Terenure' or anything like that.

PS almost all the bus drivers in this area are grand, a couple of them even let you top up your 2 easy tickets if you are going into town on a 90 cent ticket.

MM

markpb

mountainyman wrote:

1st time he wouldn't stop at a traffic light (within his rights)

I sometimes ask bus drivers to do this for me but it is perfectly understandable for them to say no. It's hardly an altercation if he refuses to do something he's not allowed to do anyway.

mountainyman wrote:

he gave me the wrong ticket. It was 90 cent but one of the new ones and said the stop I got on at was templeogue. He refused to issue a new one.

This has happened me a lot lately on a variety of buses. In every case, the ticket machine had the wrong current location. Sometimes its out by very little, other times its completely wrong. In the worst case, I was once issued with a 1.30 ticket on the #7 which ended before I ever got on the bus.

Always wondered what would happen if a ticket inspector got on and found everyone had an invalid ticket? :-)

mountainyman

Of course drivers are entitled not to pick you up at lights. There are safety issues and so on. At that particular lights it is a little bloodyminded.
He also gave me a lecture.

daymobrew

mountainyman wrote:

I gave my destination in 'deaf style' voice, which took ages.

Were you mimicing a deaf person? And delaying the bus because you were annoyed?

mountainyman wrote:

This weekend was going to mass at the church of the 3 patrons in rathgar and he gave me the wrong ticket. It was 90 cent but one of the new ones and said the stop I got on at was templeogue. He refused to issue a new one.

Tell the appropriate garage that the machine is wrong.

The phone number is at the bottom of the timetable on the web. For example see the page the number 7 says:

Operated by Donnybrook Depot. Telephone (01) 703 4420

mountainyman wrote:

Of course drivers are entitled not to pick you up at lights.

AFAIK they are not allowed to pick up or drop off except at bus stops. Dublin Bus have been sued by enough people so they don't want to take any risks.

mountainyman

daymobrew wrote:

Were you mimicing a deaf person? And delaying the bus because you were annoyed?

Iwas imitating a hearing impaired passenger it didn't really delay the bus though it irritated the driver. Rather poor taste in retrospect and rather juvenile, in fairness I use a hearing aid myself, but with it I don't have any real loss of hearing.

As regards the ticket who is going to ring the garage, once you're off the bus you aren't going to care. Further drivers have reissued tickets in the past.

Are they supposed to sell you a top up ticket (charge you 40 cent for a 90 cent 2 easy to bring it up to 130 cent)

MiniD

You are well within your rights to demand a proper ticket for the fare you've paid. You are paying for a service and must have a valid ticket to travel on the bus, the ticket issued to you was not a valid ticket. The bus fares work on a stage system and rely on the driver to input the relevant stage as they drive the route... it basically involves pressing the "stage +" button as they stop at the appropriate stops, in this case I suspect the drive had forgot to press that button as he was going along.

Next time you have an incident I suggest you contact customer service in Dublin Bus head office, details on www.dublinbus.ie
Make a note of the date, time, route, reg. of bus or fleet number of bus (you will find it on your ticket) and a description of the driver. Next time I would keep your calm and try not to wind the driver up, you may find it turning back to bite you!

shltter

mountainyman wrote:

Iwas imitating a hearing impaired passenger it didn't really delay the bus though it irritated the driver. Rather poor taste in retrospect and rather juvenile, in fairness I use a hearing aid myself, but with it I don't have any real loss of hearing.

As regards the ticket who is going to ring the garage, once you're off the bus you aren't going to care. Further drivers have reissued tickets in the past.

Are they supposed to sell you a top up ticket (charge you 40 cent for a 90 cent 2 easy to bring it up to 130 cent)

Making a bit of liar of yourself your first post said it took ages


The ticket does not say which stop you got on at it gives the Stage which could be a number of stops back
It also gives the time the ticket was issued so if it said you got on the bus 5 miles back but was issued 2 minutes ago it would be fairly obvious it was wrong even to the dumbest of Inspectors
Drivers have to manually change the stages on the ticket machine sometimes they just forget and there are so few inspectors out there that the need to keep it updated just is not there anymore

And lastly No drivers are not supposed to sell you a top up for your 2 easy ticket and with the new ticket machines it is not really possible to do that anymore

mountainyman

A few guys used to do it no hassle. Frankly the vast majority of DB drivers will drop and pick up at lights, let you top up 2 easy (m aybe not any more) and let kids travel free. Guys like the fellow I'm talking about are the exception not the rule.

Ages is a relative term , certainly long enough to infuriate. Though he is winning on that score.

daymobrew

mountainyman wrote:

As regards the ticket who is going to ring the garage, once you're off the bus you aren't going to care. Further drivers have reissued tickets in the past.

I would ring, but I'm strange like that.
Please do ring. Dublin Bus will never know that there is a problem unless someone tells them. I find that ringing the garage is better, more 'grass roots', than ringing Head Office. The supervisor at the garage can immediately talk with the driver and sort any issues out.
Maybe some day in the future some poor soul will get fined by an inspector as a result of the driver forgetting to advance the stage.

If you want you can PM me the details (route, date, time, stage, fare etc) and I'll phone.

Red Alert

he's quite within his rights not to let you off at the stop, given that a cyclist or domino's pizza could've pulverised you.

i'm considering setting up a campaign against the new ticket machines - not only are they a waste of taxpayers money but they also are destroying the camaraderie and 'beat the system' between driver and passenger

mountainyman

I was actually trying to get on at the light, so even more 'within his rights'. Still it isn't very irish is it? You might expect it of an Englishman but hardly in this country (and yes this driver is a 'Dub' before the racists :mad: acmong you identify that as the reason for his grumpiness).

Daymobrew, just saw what ****ter said about the times so I suppose maybe there is no need to change it.:rolleyes:

It was a 15B around 10 AM sunday, so you could probably track down the bus as there are so few buses on sundays. Why would you bother though?

There have only been 2 times I've ever thought that a driver should be sacked. Once the guy seemed to wait at a bus stop for an old woman and drive off,:eek: the other time a driver forced a cyclist onto the footpath and drove off.:(

shltter

People cant have it both ways

you want a professional service tickets with the right stage etc a driver who is curteous to the passengers and that is how it should be

But you want the driver to drop his professionalism when it suits you and allow you to board the bus at traffic lights and use your ticket incorrectly

And when the driver doesn't do as you wish you say that it is not Irish

come on either you want things done right or as seems to be the case you want things done just to suit you even if those things are unsafe

I have never heard of anyone dying from having a ticket that the stage was incorrect on but there have been plenty of people killed and seriously injured by trying to board and alight from buses in between stops