Dublin Bus workers threaten strike

My name is Mud

dub_commuter wrote: »

Commute Time = Your journey home.
Driving back to Garage will not be heading anywhere near home and in some cases driving away = Not a commute
Driving from Garage home in your car or on a bus after shift is finished and you have returned your bus = commute

To compare your issue CORRECTLY with a bus driver, would be when your shift finishes at 5pm, you must then go to head office (This is not commuting, it is caused inconveniences) AFTER your finish time AND ONLY THEN do you go home. Your commute starts when you leave head office.

You wanna check the definitions for a commute there mate...dosent necessarily mean when you travel to leave or start work. It means regular travel

In essence, the bus drivers are being paid to regularly travel back to Harristown, whereas Joe Shmoes like us pay for it.

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+commute&meta=
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/commute

MOH

dub_commuter wrote: »

There are 200 buses in Harristown at least, whilst your idea about clocking in and clocking out in the Town seems a good one, you are forgetting you require 200 drivers to drive the buses in to Town every morning and then another 200 when the buses are finished with.

dub_commuter wrote: »

I said SOME, not all, the vast majority will not, I was just using them as an example about how shifts work, if you o back a few pages you will see that there are a few different types of shifts.

You said 200 buses have to go into the city centre every morning.

dub_commuter wrote:

Whilst it will not happen to all of the buses at first, there is real fear that this will happen, both at Harristown and any future garages that may be built by Dublin Bus.

Does this not already happen in other garages?

dub_commuter wrote:

Driving back to Garage will not be heading anywhere near home and in some cases driving away = Not a commute

That's odd. You've got other drivers on complaining that they have to live outside the city centre, and some saying that they'll be clocking in at Harristown first to avoid being late before continuing to the city centre.
If Harristown is 'nowhere near' home, and in fact further away from home than the city centre, then surely they'll be happy that they'll now be able to clock in/out in town much of the time?

I may have missed it, but are you a driver? You seem very well informed as to how the system works?

the_syco

Bambi wrote: »

I'm a union member and if people in my job thought of striking over an issue like this i'd tell em to go f*** themselves frankly

Then quit the union. Or did you only join in case you got in trouble?

MiniD

There seems to be conflicting issues here. Are drivers striking because they only have 45 minutes to travel to Harristown, or are they striking because they have to end shifts in town?

If it's about journey time, surely a clock out system can operate, where if a driver does get caught in traffic, they are paid the extra minutes, whenever they clock out. If this 45 minutes is the core issue, then this can be easily solved surely?

As I've mentioned numerous times in this thread, in order for the 128 to operate on a 10 minute frequency, the shifts need to change over in the city centre. Drivers operating buses back to the garage "Out Of Service" means the bus will be off the road for over 30 minutes. In this time, the 128 could have traveled half it's journey and collected passengers.

A lot of drivers have commented on how this change in work practice will affect passengers, however, I believe if drivers cared about the operation of route 128, they would agree to leave the bus in service and use public transport back to the garage.

dub_commuter

MOH wrote: »

That's odd. You've got other drivers on complaining that they have to live outside the city centre, and some saying that they'll be clocking in at Harristown first to avoid being late before continuing to the city centre.
If Harristown is 'nowhere near' home, and in fact further away from home than the city centre, then surely they'll be happy that they'll now be able to clock in/out in town much of the time?

I may have missed it, but are you a driver? You seem very well informed as to how the system works?

I would kindly refer you to the traveling public who use Harristown routes and also have the option of using other routes. I would then kindly ask you to ask them how reliable their northside route that is fully operated by Harristown is. I am sure you will get a favourable response.

The facts are that I believe Harristown have no wish for their garage to turn into others where buses timetables are very often not kept to buses delayed, short terminated running out of service or starting further up the route. If this is rolled out here, it will happen all over the Harristown network, and will lead to a less reliable journey on all routes due to these reasons.

As it stands Harristown operates a lot of routes that are among the most reliable in the City, they recognize their is a problem with the four, but much of that is outside of their control as they are giving ridiculous running times that have no hope of being achieved in the peak. But that is down to management I would say.

One slight point I would add. The majority of Harristown services in the morning that are busy are inbound services to the City Centre. To have the buses starting at the garages makes far more sense as it allows easier recovery of broken down vehicles and extra services were provided. The ideas suggested make re-allocating and shift swapping and moving about much harder to achieve, which in turn will lead to delays for passengers, short notice cancellations and over-crowded buses.

I repeat what I said many pages ago. There is one particular route that I shall not name as I do not want to get anyone into trouble, that has extra buses in the morning that are not timetabled as DB will not allow them to implement these extra buses even though they are badly required. If these buses were not there people would be left behind at the FIRST stop.

The extra buses are made possible by juggling about resources such as drivers and buses that are available at Harristown from what the original plan is. This would not be possible if these drivers were starting in the city centre as they would not be able to allocate them to any spares that may come up in order to provide such a service. Harristown is close to a lot of the North side terminus of the north side routes it operates so can normally still run a good service even in major disruption. By rolling these new terms out across the garage major service interruptions will make a greater impact.

The ironic thing is if Donnybrook would have gone on strike and the precious 46A was effected or Summerhill and the 747 was effected, I doubt DB would have put up much of a fight, but thats a problem with the north vs south demand that has been here ages, not something really new.

bk

dub_commuter wrote: »

To compare your issue CORRECTLY with a bus driver, would be when your shift finishes at 5pm, you must then go to head office (This is not commuting, it is caused inconveniences) AFTER your finish time AND ONLY THEN do you go home. Your commute starts when you leave head office.

But you DONT HAVE to clock off at head office or Harristown. You are quiet welcome to clock off in town and commute home like the rest of us, your only heading back to Harristown to clock off as it is more convenient for you (because you left the car there and don't want to pay for parking in the city centre like the rest of us).

My example was perfectly valid and correct, your just trying to avoid it with the head office stuff, because you know that if most people looked at it in the way that I did, that most people would agree that the bus drivers are actually getting a pretty good deal compared to the rest of us ordinary private sector workers.

Gavin

dub_commuter wrote: »

I would kindly refer you to the traveling public who use Harristown routes and also have the option of using other routes. I would then kindly ask you to ask them how reliable their northside route that is fully operated by Harristown is. I am sure you will get a favourable response.

[....]

The ironic thing is if Donnybrook would have gone on strike and the precious 46A was effected or Summerhill and the 747 was effected, I doubt DB would have put up much of a fight, but thats a problem with the north vs south demand that has been here ages, not something really new.

All entirely irrelevant. As pointed out, it's up to management to maintain the quality of service, not the drivers.

Comments about the nature of the neighborhoods the bus route traverses are also irrelevant.

paulm17781

bk wrote: »

But you DONT HAVE to clock off at head office or Harristown. You are quiet welcome to clock off in town and commute home like the rest of us, your only heading back to Harristown to clock off as it is more convenient for you (because you left the car there and don't want to pay for parking in the city centre like the rest of us).

To be fair I think a % do HAVE to go to Harristown, morning a evening shifts would have to collect / return the buses.

I do however find that no matter how many drivers this is (it can't be all 200) it is completely unfair to hold the traveling public, the people who pay the drivers wages, at ransom. I have no idea how affecting the lives of thousands can be justified by an inconvenience to a few every week.

bk

paulm17781 wrote: »

To be fair I think a % do HAVE to go to Harristown, morning a evening shifts would have to collect / return the buses.

Oh, I agree completely, if you start early in the morning or late at night, when there is no public transport, your going to need your car.

However the drivers are being compensated for this inconvenience, with 46 minutes paid over time. That seems fair enough IMO. If they were being asked to do this without paid overtime, then they might have something to argue about, but I just not seeing the problem with it, how is this any worse then anyone who works in the private sector has to put up with? In fact it is far better as they are actually getting paid for it.

dub_commuter

For all those who have issues with the drivers and the Unions, please give me direct answers to a few questions:

1) Why do Dublin Bus just not postpone the new routes until the industrial issues are resolved and avoid disrupting 60,000 commuters? Whatever the rights and wrongs Dublin Bus could end this dispute NOW if they wanted to.

2) What does Dublin Bus have to gain by keeping the new routes officially active, considering they are not bring run other than pissing off more of it's customers and digging it's own grave with regards to privatization?

3) How can you justify if you were management of Dublin Bus, choosing to disrupt 60,000 customers whilst this dispute goes on when you have the choice of disrupting a much smaller number, which whilst not ideal, is better than 60,000?

I wish you luck with the last question, the Dublin Bus PR manager was on RTE earlier and she simply said the Labour Court ruled in their favor. Whilst her company line was admirable, it was not answering the question.

Gavin

dub_commuter wrote: »

For all those who have issues with the drivers and the Unions, please answer me a few questions:

1) Why do Dublin Bus just not postpone the new routes until the industrial issues are resolved and avoid disrupting 60,000 commuters? Whatever the rights and wrongs Dublin Bus could end this dispute NOW if they wanted to.

The Labour court ruled on the issue in the favour of Dublin Bus. DB used the correct procedure. Why should they back down and invalidate that procedure ?

2) What does Dublin Bus have to gain by keeping the new routes officially active, considering they are not bring run other than pissing off more of it's customers and digging it's own grave with regards to privatization?

As above.

3) How can you justify if you were management of Dublin Bus, choosing to disrupt 60,000 customers whilst this dispute goes on when you have the choice of disrupting a much smaller number, which whilst not ideal, is better than 60,000?

Dublin Bus did not start the strike. They are not the ones on strike. They are not the ones directly disrupting the commuting public. The drivers have made the decision to disrupt the 60,000 customers.

paulm17781

dub_commuter wrote: »

1) Why do Dublin Bus just not postpone the new routes until the industrial issues are resolved and avoid disrupting 60,000 commuters? Whatever the rights and wrongs Dublin Bus could end this dispute NOW if they wanted to.

Because the labor court approved their plan, in effect this strike is illegal.

dub_commuter wrote: »

2) What does Dublin Bus have to gain by keeping the new routes officially active, considering they are not bring run other than pissing off more of it's customers and digging it's own grave with regards to privatization?

Very little, unfortunately management are not the ones on strike, the drivers are. As I said above, management have made a bad move here, none the less, the drivers chose to strike over what I (if my job required this) would consider a pretty small matter.

dub_commuter wrote: »

3) How can you justify if you were management of Dublin Bus, choosing to disrupt 60,000 customers whilst this dispute goes on when you have the choice of disrupting a much smaller number, which whilst not ideal, is better than 60,000?

How can the drivers chose to disrupt 60,000 customers for the convenience of up to 200 of them. The old adage of "CIE are run for the drivers not the public" comes to mind.

Now, how can a person, whose job to serve the public daily, justify inconveniencing the people who pay their wages because their management are tossers?

E92

John R wrote: »

And all it takes is a €12 per day charge on every car entering central London to pay for it.

If it wasn't for the fines from congestion charging, it would make a loss. As it stands it made a profit of £6.3 million last year. Take away the fines and it would have lost £89.1 million.

MiniD

dub_commuter wrote: »

As it stands Harristown operates a lot of routes that are among the most reliable in the City, they recognize their is a problem with the four, but much of that is outside of their control as they are giving ridiculous running times that have no hope of being achieved in the peak. But that is down to management I would say.

Where are you getting this from? You have posted this many times, how Harristown is the most reliable depot in the city. What survey or report was carried out to make this statement?

Donnybrook, Summerhill, Phibsboro, Ringsend, Clontarf and Conyngham Road all provide the same service as Harristown. Not every route is alike, and while Harristown may operate a good service, they have their bad times too. I have experienced this first hand. That's not to say it's any better or worse than another Dublin Bus depot.

If you're basing your claim on one route or area, then it's a bit unfair. Perhaps Harristown took over that route because the other garage was having difficulty maintaining a good level of service. A decision was obviously made to address the problem on whatever route you found to be bad. Considering Harristown has had a load of spare drivers and buses lying around the garage for the last 10 months, it would be hard to understand why they may have trouble keeping buses on time.

MOH

dub_commuter wrote: »

For all those who have issues with the drivers and the Unions, please give me direct answers to a few questions:

Why don't the drivers ahve an issue with their union? They're the ones who failed to get this alleged agreement in writing.

1) Why do Dublin Bus just not postpone the new routes until the industrial issues are resolved and avoid disrupting 60,000 commuters? Whatever the rights and wrongs Dublin Bus could end this dispute NOW if they wanted to.

Because they've postponed them for ten months, gone through the labour court which found in their favour, and have every right to implement. I personally could have saved a small fortune if one of those routes had been in service months ago.

2) What does Dublin Bus have to gain by keeping the new routes officially active, considering they are not bring run other than pissing off more of it's customers and digging it's own grave with regards to privatization?

No, the drivers are pissing off the customers. They're the ones going against the labour court recommendation.

3) How can you justify if you were management of Dublin Bus, choosing to disrupt 60,000 customers whilst this dispute goes on when you have the choice of disrupting a much smaller number, which whilst not ideal, is better than 60,000?

How can you justify giving in to the whim of a bunch of a couple of hundred whingers ?
Why not disrupt a much smaller number of people, like 200 drivers?

I wish you luck with the last question, the Dublin Bus PR manager was on RTE earlier and she simply said the Labour Court ruled in their favor. Whilst her company line was admirable, it was not answering the question.

And I'm sure if the labour court had found in the union's favour, and DB was trying to push this through, you'd have a union spokesman on claiming that the labour court ruled in their favour. It's a perfectly valid statement.

rs

bk wrote: »

I want to show just how ridiculous this situation is
Take two neighbours living in Swords, one a person working in the private sector in the city centre, the other the bus driver.

This is a pretty specific case and sure, for the bus driver who lives in Swords it's not the worst thing in the world but most importantly it's not fair comparison! Not every bus driver lives in Swords.

The bus driver might already live an hour away from the garage (maybe he lives in meath somewhere) and already have an hour commute to get to work in the first place. Now he has a two hour+ commute to get home.

The private sector employee might work in Swords and only have a 5 minute commute as it is.

It's easy to pick out specific cases where the bus driver is still better off than a specific type of private sector employee but it proves nothing so it's not a valid argument.

The fact that they are being forced to extend their working day, in addition to their commute to the Garage is something I think is pretty crap. If my job role changed in a similar manner and I'd have to spend an extra hour commuting I'd be pissed. I don't care if I was going to be paid overtime for it, I'd prefer the extra hour with my family thank you very much.

That said, I don't believe in putting thousands of commuters out because some Bus Drivers are not happy with how their job role has changed. They have no contract that guarantees them that they will always start and finish at the Garage. If they don't like the new routes and the conditions they can either request new routes or find a new job. In the private sector that would be the choice and if faced with the same decision I'd probably move job.

dub_commuter

In any case, you will be all delighted to know that as from tomorrow there will be an even more limitied service on some routes as Dublin Bus will make further cancellations from Wednesday. For the guy who was moaning about the 38's, you will find there is even less now and for anyone in Tyrellstown the 5:30 has also gone now so you can bet on the 6.20 38C being even more packed no having a knock on effect for the rest of the evening.

For anyone who works in Dublin Bus, considering there are no more drivers striking than there were on Monday and the dispute is not spreading, can you please advise me why Dublin Bus have canceled more services as each day goes past. Is it an attempt to try and exert pressure on the drivers by using commuters as bait by going out of their way to piss them off perhaps to try and force the drivers to give in?

Curiously the routes that have had extra cancellations since the initial list seem to be those that have already been hit strongly by the strike.

RuggieBear

oh woot..the 38c is how i've been struggling home!

meanmachine3

QUOTE FROM VERB
"As pointed out, it's up to management to maintain the quality of service, not the drivers."
the next line answers that one.

QUOTE TAKEN FROM PAGE 17 POST 322
"I am sick and tired and blue in the face of asking for a new schedule on the route i drive.
So where are they serving the publics interest by NOT providing a new timetable where passengers
WILL know when buses are going to show up
WILL know that four up one down is not going to happen
WILL know the approx time they arrive in town.
thats all i want.
Is it to much to ask for?
Is it to much to give?
I dont enjoy driving an empty bus. the busier i am the quicker my day flies in."

99% of dublin bus management ARE recruited internally.
so they would've known the problems ahead long before they even started.
they are doing what alot of semi-state bodies are doing and that is bully boy tatics
how on earth can we do our job if we're not given the right times to do it.
when a bus is running late who is in the firing line. it's definately not the pen pushers that make these so called decisions.
it's the foot soldiers as always that get the abuse.
if you have a problem with dublin bus you either ring up, send an e-mail or send a letter.
but when do management face the public in person. NEVER.
theres none of them out in the streets answering your questions.
there are a few of us drivers here trying to defend our comrades
BUT NO DUBLIN BUS MANAGEMENT.

sorry dub_commuter cant answer that one yet. it doesn't make any sense to cancel services operated by other garages. in all my years i've never heard of that one

dub_commuter

meanmachine3 wrote: »

sorry dub_commuter cant answer that one yet. it doesn't make any sense to cancel services operated by other garages. in all my years i've never heard of that one

Yes - I don't see why additional services have been cancelled as the week has gone on, I don't think P/Boro should be short of vehicles when they have a load in Broadstone that could be used if required.

bk

rs wrote: »

This is a pretty specific case and sure, for the bus driver who lives in Swords it's not the worst thing in the world but most importantly it's not fair comparison! Not every bus driver lives in Swords.

I was basing this on a claim by a DB driver that many drivers live in the northern greater dublin area.

My example would still be the same if both the driver and the private sector worker lived in Meath.

Let me generalise it further.

A private sector worker who works in Dublin city centre works 8 - 9 hours a day (I wish!!!) and probably commutes 2 hours per day.

The bus driver who lives next door works a 8 - 9 hour shift and then commutes for 2 hours to home. However if home is in the area of or beyond Harristown, then he is being paid for 46 minutes of his journey on the way home.

So the bus driver is actually getting a much better deal then most private sector workers.

And as most bus drivers seem to start and finish at off peak times, they probably get home quicker then most office workers who have to commute during peak times.

I'm not actually particularly angry at bus drivers, I actually think that the vast majority are very nice people. However I'm just trying to show why their is so little support for this strike amongst the general public, because most of the public think that the drivers are in fact getting a great deal and what is the whining all about?

BTW just to add that both the Labour Court and LRC agree.

One thing for all the drivers to think about, the longer this goes on, the more feed up people are going to get and the more people are going to call for privatisation.

The drivers might win this battle, but they might lose the war.

This is probably why DB management and the government are holding their ground, they are actually happy to see this happen as it strengthens their hand for privatisation in the future.

dmfod

I'm really disappointed by the amount of private sector workers complaining about the strike on the grounds that any time their management wants to make their working conditions worse they just have to lie down and take it- so therefore public sector workers should as well. This seems completely wrongheaded to me. The problem here is not that Dublin Bus workers have a union which defends their hard-won rights, but that many private sector workers don't. The problem for private sector workers is not public sector workers, but management and employers. If anything private sector workers should follow the example of Dublin Bus workers in standing up for their rights. All workers (bar the guards I think) have a legal right to form unions and to strike, and this is the only way to prevent greedy managers and employers from exploiting workers even more than they already do.

As to a previous poster who said that if workers in his workplace went on strike they would be sacked- that is illegal- and rather than sneering at co-workers who have the courage to stand up for themselves (which is a difficult and scary thing to do in a company with an anti-union atttiude) and congratulating himself on his supposed hard-nosed realism, he should educate himself on his rights and start fighting for them. That is what Dublin Bus workers are doing and anybody who is an employee, public or private, should have the commonsense to support them. It may inconvenience you in the short term, but in the long run if unions are defeated, it will make all of our working lives far far worse.

(By the way I don't work in Dublin Bus before anyone asks & it took me 1 1/4 to get from Stoneybatter to the Ballymun road the other day due to lack of 4s & 83s so I am also personally affected by the strike)

bk

dmfod wrote: »

I'm really disappointed by the amount of private sector workers complaining about the strike on the grounds that any time their management wants to make their working conditions worse they just have to lie down and take it- so therefore public sector workers should as well. This seems completely wrongheaded to me. The problem here is not that Dublin Bus workers have a union which defends their hard-won rights, but that many private sector workers don't. The problem for private sector workers is not public sector workers, but management and employers. If anything private sector workers should follow the example of Dublin Bus workers in standing up for their rights. All workers (bar the guards I think) have a legal right to form unions and to strike, and this is the only way to prevent greedy managers and employers from exploiting workers even more than they already do.

I disagree completely, in the private sector you often need to be flexible and responsive to a changing working place.

In the private sector if your employer wants to change working practises, then you always have the option to leave and get a job elsewhere. However depending on the sector, it can be hard for an employer to replace you, so they will often bend over backwards in order to keep you.

The reason why unions don't work in the private sector in the modern world, is that we compete globally and the employers always have the right to pick up and leave for a country without unions.

However it isn't all doom and gloom, in the private sector you can often get working rights equal to or greater then unionised workers, as long as you agree to a little flexibility.

A great example of these is Japanese car makers in the US. Japanese car factories in the US have no union, yet the benefits they receive are often far greater then in the unionised American car factories just down the road. All the Japanese companies ask for is more flexibility in working practises so that they can quickly respond to changing markets conditions to keep the company healthy.

The result, US companies laying off tens if not hundreds of thousands of employees and the Japanese companies growing from strength to strength with many happy employees.

meanmachine3

oh for christs sake this is IRELAND not america or japan or russia.
my next point and it's a BIGGIEEEEEEEEE.
it's COMPULSARY to join a union when joining dublin bus. you do not get a choice of whether you want to join one or not. the only choice is either join
S.I.P.T.U. or N.B.R.U.

now stick that in your pipe and smoke it

MiniD

dmfod wrote: »

If anything private sector workers should follow the example of Dublin Bus workers in standing up for their rights. All workers (bar the guards I think) have a legal right to form unions and to strike, and this is the only way to prevent greedy managers and employers from exploiting workers even more than they already do.

That's incorrect. Not everybody has a legal right to strike. The best example I can provide is Luas. If a Luas driver went on strile, they would be sacked instantly.

The Connex/SIPTU pre-entry agreement, announced in autumn 2003, includes a rigid 'peace' clause in order to meet the strict condition of the Connex contract with the Department of Transport that the service must be provided without any form of disruption. Failure to meet this requirement will result in severe financial penalties for the company, even extending to a possible loss of the contract. Because of these strict performance conditions, the agreement also rules out any form of industrial action at any time, stating: 'it is agreed that there will be no industrial action of any form during the lifetime of this agreement.' This definition includes any disruption such as work-to-rules or 'go slows'. The agreement states that 'any form of industrial action will lead to immediate removal from the payroll and could render any employee involved in such action liable to summary dismissal.'

* Taken from European Industrial Relations Observatory online.

paulm17781

meanmachine3 wrote: »

oh for christs sake this is IRELAND not america or japan or russia.
my next point and it's a BIGGIEEEEEEEEE.
it's COMPULSARY to join a union when joining dublin bus. you do not get a choice of whether you want to join one or not. the only choice is either join
S.I.P.T.U. or N.B.R.U.

Ah, well then, strike away. :rolleyes:

BK, I totally agree with you. I often work late / come in early, sometimes on the weekend for no extra pay, should my job demand it. One of the reasons for this is to help my company grow, another is earn my annual pay rises.

These are things that the public sector don't have to deal with / worry about. If I were to get screwed by my company, I would go somewhere my skills would be appreciated.

dub_commuter

The 09:35, 10:40, 11:40, 1535, 16.15 38/38A service from Damastown has been re-instated 08.25, 15:15, 15:40, 15:45, 16:30 16:45 38/38A services from City Centre has been re-instated The 1730 38C from City Centre will not run from now.

As you have seen previously there was a problem with hundreds of people waiting for every 38C in each direction They have canceled the 5:30 38C which ran until today. This means the last three departures are now 17:00, 18:20, 20:30. However they have managed to re-instate 11 journeys on the normal 38 so it obviously not the case.

This looks a little like a attempt to stir up a situation where already services are badly hit. The 38C is a limited timetable as it is, yes the 38/38A is also a busy route, however these guys would just have to wait a bit longer, the changes they have made means that some of the 38's now are five minutes apart. People on the 38C would now be stranded.

January

People are deluded in how much of a state the bus strike is leaving them in. How are 38C customers stranded when they are only a ten minute walk from where they live if they get the 38??

bigar

When I moved 2 years ago to my new home, I decided to use the bus to get to and from work. On paper I would have plenty of busses to do this. I quickly found out this is not the case. Many busses did not show up or came late. OK fair enough with the busy Dublin traffic, I thought. Until I heard and later saw (when I was on a bus) that drivers actually take short cuts and bypasses many bus tops by doing so. I actually twice went up to the driver saying I needed to get off at one of the stops he now did not service and always got a rude answer back.

After a few weeks I went back to using the car as using the bus got me literally nowhere. I was disgusted by the inconsiderate and untrustworthy behaviour of the bus drivers and vowed never to set foot on a bus again.

Now with this strike I am sad to see my opinion confirmed. Not only do they refuse to provide the already bad service to their customers, they now also hold the north side of the city at ransom as it now becomes gridlocked with all the people taking the car to get to and from work or school. So now even people who never take a bus are affected and they double almost everyone’s (unpaid) commute.

Bus drivers are an inconsiderate lot (don’t get me started on their driving “skills”) and have proven this once again.

RuggieBear

adrieanne__x wrote: »

People are deluded in how much of a state the bus strike is leaving them in. How are 38C customers stranded when they are only a ten minute walk from where they live if they get the 38??

yep...i'm deluded about the fact it took me an extra 50mins to get home this evening.