Bus drivers

Mac daddy

anybody know what there problem is? everytime i get on the bus they are always giving somebody grief? and they are as ignorant what seems to be there boggle?

ferdi

yeah, jayzus, did you hear that on joe duffy today?

this girl some how left her baby on a bus, the driver drove off,

everyone on the bus was screaming at him to stop with the mother running after the bus in total panic,

the driver only stops at the next official bus-stop up the road but the mother couldnt run fast enough so this psycho driver drove off again with the whole bus in panic shouting at him to stop!!

eventually she got her kid, but this driver must have been a total head case.:mad:

Mac daddy

i seen this girl the other day one the 38 to the blanch, she was getting on the bus with her child she wasn't getting on fast enough for the bus driver, he was saying to her will ya ever hurry up i haven't got all day to be waiting on you, and there she was struggeling to get on the bus with the pram and the child, loozy f*ckers.:eek:

cartman

yea i was on my way to witness last year and i had all my tent cans bags everytin in the bus n i told the busa driver ill be a minute [the gf forgot her ticket] and it was literally a minute up she was back in the bus station and when the driver saw her he drove off with all our stuff.. there moody ****s coz they drive a bus i suspect... i wonder how there all the same?? have they got a little union of be fu<kin arseholes...

[this is only in my personal experience and no offence to any bus driver who read this if you dont drive for ennis bus people coz then u probably are a fu<ker:)]
cartman

Lenny

What do you lot expect?
They're told this ****"wait a minute"
they deal with utter scumbags everyday, a lot of **** about 'ol wans complain'
Give them some respect for **** sakes

KdjaCL

What Lenny said , seriously dealing with the public is a poxy poxy job and i feel sorry for bus drivers specialy on the 78A (my local bus) the amount of junkie scum on that bus is sickening.

But that girl who left her kid on the bus prolly shouldnt be allowed to have kids , i mean how the hell do you forget a kid?
I have 3 kids under 4 and never once forget about one no matter how stressed or busy i was with them.

kdjac

ferdi

she didnt forget her kid, she was carrying the pram down the steps to the street and was about to go back in for the child when the loony drove off.

lots of jobs require interaction with scum, mine does but i dont feel that this gives me cart blanch (sp?) to go around being a total arsehole.

if they cant deal with the public without turning into narky pricks, then they shouldnt be in the job.

i have had plenty of great bus drivers in my time btw, really nice guys who help and are glad to help.

Victor

Originally posted by Lenny
What do you lot expect? ... they deal with utter scumbags everyday

Best one ever was scumbag with Dublin accent in Busaras: "Is this the bus to Portlaoise [Prison]?"

JohnK

I haven't used a bus much in the last 3 years however for the 5 years before that I used the bus daily and found that if I treated the driver with respect s/he treated me with the same. In fact I have found that it is pretty much the same everywhere. Be polite to the bus driver and you will get a lot further with him/her.

seamus

Right, who the feck puts their child on a bus and then gets off? You never ever leave an infant sitting on the bus on their own, even if you are just getting off for a second. Just like having a child in the bath, even 2 seconds unattended can mean the difference between life and death. There are a lot of places a child could fall in a bus, and a lot of things to hit their head off.

Have you ever sat at the drivers section of a coach? It's actually quite difficult to hear much except for the couple of rows at the front you, and I'd say that the driver is quite adept at drowning out the background noise from passengers. Anyone at the back or middle of the bus screaming at the driver to stop wouldn't be heard.

The correct story was this (fecking Joe Duffy). The woman sticks her kid on the bus and gets off. Bus driver drives off. Woman catches bus at the next lights and bangs on the door. She's non-national so he's not sure what she's screaming at him, assumes she wants just to get on, he won't let her (obviously). She doesn't make it to the next bus stop on time to catch the bus, but gets another bus, which catches it at the next lights, and she switches bus.

:rolleyes:

Straightforward case of parental stupidity and misunderstanding.

I have noticed bus drivers are far more irritable nowadays though. A mate of mine regularly falls asleep on the bus when locked. At the beginning, he used to be woken by a middle-aged bus driver, who'd give him a lift back close to home. Now he gets a woken up by a foreigner screaming at him in a forgeign language, and gets thrown off the bus.

Maybe they've changed their pay arrangments for getting the nightlinks back to the terminus or something.....

Tazzle

Can honestly say I've never had a problem with a bus driver, if anything I've found them really sound, must be a Dublin thing.

richindub2

Never had a problem with my local 114 drivers or the 46a i get into town drivers. Never gotten any grief, they smile at me when i ask for child fare but rarely gimme hassle, they wait for me if im running for a bus etc. Half the 114 drivers id chat to. Have to say I think they do a great job!

DMT

Was getting on a bus once. Two people got off. One got on before me and all of a sudden the bus driver says the bus was full.
He was a right pr1ck about it too.

(BTW, neither myself nor the first in front of me were "large")

Squall

Well, if the only job you could get was in public transport youd be pissed off too. Plus ppl can be utter ****es. Still though doesnt give them the right to be arseholes.

(no offence to busdrivers or anything, i sure as hell wouldnt want that job)

sleepwalker

The correct story was this (fecking Joe Duffy). The woman sticks her kid on the bus and gets off. Bus driver drives off. Woman catches bus at the next lights and bangs on the door. She's non-national so he's not sure what she's screaming at him, assumes she wants just to get on, he won't let her (obviously). She doesn't make it to the next bus stop on time to catch the bus, but gets another bus, which catches it at the next lights, and she switches bus

utter bull****


what about the entire lower deck telling the bus driver his mistake and him ignoring them all ? what about the fact he didn't even have the respect to apologize to the mother. when one of the passengers told him she was going to report him for his actions he sat there and stared at her couldn't even say a thing

she put the kid on the bus first so she could pull the pram up next, one of the other passengers was even trying to help her fold it up it was an easy mistake to make but I think the problem is more the fact he just ignored everyone telling him what he had done. whats worse leaving a kid on a bus alone for 20 seconds or a kid out on a busy path / street for 20 seconds ?

it was entirely the bus drivers fault so shut the hell up

Man U babe

I have sympathy with them. Occasionally. Wed nite, the guy driving the 10 let a load of guys on at Belfield who were absolutely hammered. Stopped 4 times to tell them to stop drinking and smoking and finally kicked them off in Baggot St. This all took so long that i missed the 49 in town that i was trying to get and had to wait 40 mins for the next one. Tis not that nice waitin that long in town on my own at that hour of the night(bout 11.00).

ballooba

I hate getting that 11. All the dolly burds on their way to Redbox and Fireworks. "and Oi was loike hoi" and all that. I wouldn't kick them out of bed for farting though.

I find that if you are civil to bus drivers that most of them are civil back. There is one 46a driver though an we don't exactly see eye to eye. I think he stung me once for fare dodging and he checks my fares from now on. I said to him that i was going to leeson st one day and he gave out **** to me for getting off at the stop after the burlington. That is Leeson St FFS.

ferdi

Originally posted by ballooba
I find that if you are civil to bus drivers that most of them are civil back.

yes of course, most of them are grqand but there is an unusual proportion of bad apples.

Repli

Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man!

Rabies

the wheels on the bus go round and round......

Lenny

On another note about bus drivers being sound too... I remember I was on the bus, and 6 lads and 2 youn ones came down to me(down stairs) and jumped on me, I got a bottle to the head about 30 punches to the nose, face head, I took out a 7" blade(protection) and I tell yea when they stood back the bus driver came down and hit 2 of them a solid and they droped like a ton of bricks. he got them off the bus and gave me some stuff out of his first aid box thing

BeatTun

Originally posted by Lenny
On another note about bus drivers being sound too... I remember I was on the bus, and 6 lads and 2 youn ones came down to me(down stairs) and jumped on me, I got a bottle to the head about 30 punches to the nose, face head, I took out a 7" blade(protection) and I tell yea when they stood back the bus driver came down and hit 2 of them a solid and they droped like a ton of bricks. he got them off the bus and gave me some stuff out of his first aid box thing

Lenny
Tallaght Scumbag

DeadBankClerk

There is one woman driver on the 46Abus route. She is completely oblivious to Leeson Street bridge. She doesn't slow down, and everyone upstairs is thrown around everytime.

Idiot.

Sangre

Problem is if a bus driver leaves his box to help someone in a fight he isnt covered by the insurance...what a joke.

richindub2

Originally posted by DeadBankClerk
There is one woman driver on the 46Abus route. She is completely oblivious to Leeson Street bridge. She doesn't slow down, and everyone upstairs is thrown around everytime.

Idiot.

haha. At the start of this school year I was a 'leeson street noobie' and stood up twice when upstairs before we crossed the bridge. I got a sore head

Victor

Originally posted by Sangre
Problem is if a bus driver leaves his box to help someone in a fight he isnt covered by the insurance...what a joke.

I'm not sure about that, perhaps it is policy not to get involved, but any clause in an insurance policy that prevents / discourages someone saving someoone else would probably be ruled contrary to public policy.

jd

Originally posted by Sangre
Problem is if a bus driver leaves his box to help someone in a fight he isnt covered by the insurance...what a joke.

You sure about this- I'm pretty sure Iarnrod Eireann are self insured-I thought the same would apply to Dublin Bus..

Man U babe

He drinks and he cusses,and stinks up the buses,

Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man!

Pigman II

I think bus-drivers get a bad rap. I mean not only do they put up with every kind of arsehole in the city (and then some) but then have to spend their day driving round-and-round-and-round in circles til they complete their shift. I know that it'd drive me mad so how the vast majority of them keep on good form at all deserves respect.

Makaveli

Originally posted by DeadBankClerk
There is one woman driver on the 46Abus route. She is completely oblivious to Leeson Street bridge. She doesn't slow down, and everyone upstairs is thrown around everytime.

Idiot.

I think she's learned now, at least the last time she was driver it didn't happen.
I've always found the 11 drivers to be sound. Never had a problem with any of them (except one 11A driver).

Frank Grimes

Originally posted by Pigman II
but then have to spend their day driving round-and-round-and-round in circles til they complete their shift.

What else could being a bus driver possibly entail?
It's not 'On the buses' and I doubt CIE get too many phone calls from Dennis Hopper either.
It's hardly an excuse for some of the drivers that act like total assholes.

Tyrrial

Originally posted by Pigman II
I think bus-drivers get a bad rap. I mean not only do they put up with every kind of arsehole in the city (and then some) but then have to spend their day driving round-and-round-and-round in circles til they complete their shift. I know that it'd drive me mad so how the vast majority of them keep on good form at all deserves respect.

i totaly agree, i would hate to have to do there job, sopme of them even do it and keep a happy face on... when i see a pissed off bus driver i simply know how he feels... and simpathise

Saruman

This is another one of those stupid threads based on generalisation... oh there was this horrible bus driver on the #47, all bus drivers are bastards... complete muppetry!! You have no idea what its like to be a bus driver so unless you do shut the fúck up about it. Im not a bus driver so i dont pretend to know or justify any of their actions. My dad however is. He has to put up with scum. He was even assaulted once.. he was very smart about it though... It was late, the bus was at terminal and not due to leave yet.. some little scumba comes up and starts banging on the door.. he lets him know the bus is not due to leave.. scumbag tries to open door with emergency button and my dad tries closing it.. eventually he has to let it open and try reason... it goes out the window when the guy hits him and staggers off. My dad did not do anything but radio the station... this was outside the Irish Times building.. the CCTV got the whole thing on tape and the people in the building watched it on the monitors and allerted the police... He is a very polite driver though if someone smokes etc he will call for inspector and have him thrown off the bus.

There are ignorant drivers sure... probably the ones who were born into it and will never leave and are so secure in their jobs and doing it so long they just no longer can be the friendly sort they once were.

As to the mother and baby.. how the hell would the driver know the baby is still upstairs??? did the mother say it to him? If she did this could have been avoided.. i blame the mother, NOT the driver.

MDR

Saruman,

I don't think anyone would (or indeed) has argued that the all Dublin Bus drivers have a bad attitude, but i do feel and perhaps my feelings are shared ?, that among the older generations of drivers, unionisation of Dublin Bus, has bred complancy about job security. This complancy has inturn bred a flagerent disregard for the customer in general. I have had some very bad expierences of Dublin Bus drivers, which I don't care to re-count as none have happened in recent years.

Similarily this can be found in similar organisations such as the Garda, the Civil service etc, I think out of the whole lot i found the Civil Service the worst. Now my Da was a Garda for years, and would be first to admit that there are alot of Garda who have rotten attitudes to civilans for similar reasons.

Dublin Bus drivers don't have a particullary bad jobs, certainily no worse than say casulty nurse, so their job doesn't excuse the bad attitude, nothing really can.

The only thing that will sort this out will be sort out the unions in Dublin Bus. I do feel that unions are important, and I amn't arguing that Dublin Bus have perfect pay/working conditions, but I do feel that the unions at Dublin Bus are having a largily negative impact on the service and on the city.

I would rather sort out the unions, than go down the road of privitising Dublin Bus altogether as I believe that would result in more pronounced problems.

Saruman

Yup MDR i would agree with that.. some of the eh older generation might feel like that.

Tyrrial

i have only good merories of bus drivers and i've been going to school via dublin bus since i a wee little fella in 4th class. and it wasn't just five min's on the thing, i got the 39 from hartstown and then the 10 to baggot street, for me at that age..... it was a bloody long trip twice a day, and as i said, the drivers were never in any way horrible to me. they really should have been i was a little brat back then.:D

Victor

Originally posted by Tyrrial
i got the 39 from hartstown and then the 10 to baggot street, ..... they really should have been i was a little brat back then.:D

So it was you I had to put up with everyday

jumpingjack

i have found some drivers to be pricks and others to be sound.i understand that they deal with some bad people but that is no excuse.

i wont brush all bus drivers with the same brush

Tyrrial

Originally posted by Victor
So it was you I had to put up with everyday

yup, i'm sure you were one of many that would have liked to see me under a bus rather on one

wombat

Originally posted by JohnK
I haven't used a bus much in the last 3 years however for the 5 years before that I used the bus daily and found that if I treated the driver with respect s/he treated me with the same. In fact I have found that it is pretty much the same everywhere. Be polite to the bus driver and you will get a lot further with him/her.

That is of course, assuming they bother to stop at all.
I was waiting to catch my first bus in two months yesterday (been getting taxied around the place by work lately) and a number 10 came along, I stuck out my arm, he slowed down, then decided not to bother stopping at all, he even waved his arms at me to make sure I knew he saw me.

sligoliner

I take the 122 most days. There is a young woman driver (I am not knocking women here) who regulalry opens the rear door by mistake and when the bus is full people they get hit by the door opening. She then blames the people for geting hit with the door that she opened by mistake. She also constantly passes people standing at stops waiting for buses even when her bus is almost empty. Last week, a young girl rang the bell at Camden Street and stood by the door to get off. This bus goes past the stop. At the next lights the little girl says she rang to bell to get off the bus at the last stop. The wagon behind the wheel comes out with "I though yer were only messin when ya rang the bell!

Now remember, if Brennan brings private companies to our Buses, it'll mean the end of the world class serivce the SIPTU members currently provide and we'll be reduced to the horrible sitution in the UK where even the smallest country vilage has a regular bus service and drivers will be sacked if they are no good. Des Gerritrety (who thinks he is the re-incarnation of Jim Larkin) and Neil Tobin will do everything to protect the fantastic intergrated transport system that CIE *all bow* are currently offering...

Minister Brennan being in the private firms ASAP.

MDR

we'll be reduced to the horrible sitution in the UK where even the smallest country vilage has a regular bus service and drivers will be sacked if they are no good.

or where my pensioner uncle lives in Luton (large housing estate), there is no bus service on sundays ..... privatisation onily serves to close unprofitable lines, which is not in the broader public interest.

sligoliner

Of course that what they do - work to make a profit. The unprofitable lines for both rail and bus are run by the state as social service. This is how it works in Denmark and Norway and would work here as well. If provate firms take over 25% of the city's buses that mean Dublin Bus have a surplus of 25% in buses and drivers that can be reallocated to routes that need them. It quite simple really. Full privatisation is not even remotly on the cards and it's just hysteria and nothing else. The SIPTU rail and workers are acting like the Taxi Federation and it will backfire. If they had any sense they would see that this suplementary provatisation will give them greater career prospects. In the UK a train driver was a crap low-paying job. Now train drivers in the UK are paid salries of £70,000 average and they are often head-hunted by various train companies. Bring in more private companies and the public gets more choice and the drivers are not 100 dependent on CIE. What's wrong this? Answer NOTHING.

Anyway, we already have Mortons, Saint Kevins and Lough Swilly bus companies. Only a eejit would be against the idea of expanded public transport in this coutry.

MDR

What's wrong this? Answer NOTHING.

do you always answer your own questions ?

The unprofitable lines for both rail and bus are run by the state as social service. This is how it works in Denmark and Norway and would work here as well.

Now you where holding up the UK as the model the Irish should follow, all I was doing was pointing out the UK model isn't all that good.

I duly acknowledge that Denmark and Norway have decent models which we can follow indeed. We can't let things continue as they are, but we have to very cautious about how we proceed ...

sligoliner

>do you always answer your own questions ?

You are not being clever or funny at all. The only person laughing at this quip is yourself so get over it and stick with the subject like a good little boy. Thanks.

>Now you where holding up the UK as the model the Irish should >follow, all I was doing was pointing out the UK model isn't all >that good.

I was in the English West Country on holiday last week. Amazing bus and rail services. All private. It works there - much better than here. It's better than here so much so it's almost unbeliveable. Country villages have regular buses that run every half hour until 12:30. You leave the pub after a good night you get home on the bus... They intergrate perfectly with the trains amd they are operated by different companies. Irish Rail claim that the Sligo train is integrated with the CIE Boyle bus at Ballymote station. The "service" is a bus ONCE A WEEK. The UK has a world class public transport system compred to Ireland dispite the faults.


>I duly acknowledge that Denmark and Norway have decent >models which we can follow indeed. We can't let things continue >as they are, but we have to very cautious about how we >proceed ...

I was in India last year the rail service there is better that Irish Rail. The buses were scary though. I agree we need to be cautious. But the SIPTU unions are being deceptive and hysterical. We won't get the Danish and Norway models unless Tobin and his cult learn to comprise and understand they are a public service.

Victor

Originally posted by sligoliner
Bring in more private companies and the public gets more choice and the drivers are not 100 dependent on CIE. What's wrong this? Answer NOTHING.

It's removes the unions monopoly! (the NBRU only accepts CIE group workers as members). :rolleyes:

I haven't decided whether part / privatisation is good or bad, but I'm not indifferent to the matter. I attended the Defend Public Transport meeting organised by the unions, to be honest it was embarrassing ... people were calling for The Revolution :rolleyes:

sligoliner

>I haven't decided whether part / privatisation is good or bad, >.but I'm not indifferent to the matter.

Neither am I - I am just pointing out that right now we have a very poor and completly unintegrated transport network operated by CIE and they are convinced that we will lose something precious and perfect it CIE is broken up.

>I attended the Defend Public Transport meeting organised by >the unions, to be honest it was embarrassing

In what way? The title of the demonstration alone is hysterical and delusional.

Victor

Originally posted by sligoliner
In what way? The title of the demonstration alone is hysterical and delusional.

It was basicly a pro-left, pro-union, anti-business, anti-politician (their words not mine) rant that offerred nothing constructive. It was about 60% trade union transport workers (fair enough) and 35% random militant trade union / militant socialist and about 10% common sense.

They ranted against UK bus companies operating less than safe busses (the reasoning being they are private), when the NBRU itself has had to do safety checks on busses before they leave the garage and you still get a quantity of dodgy busses out there.

The final insult was the guy from the Danish Communist Party demanding free public transport for all (nice way to overcrowd & bankrupt the system) and then tries to sell his literature to me on my way out. :rolleyes:

dmeehan

can anybody explain to me why the unions are so against privatisation or the breakup of CIE?

if there were more transport companies in operation wouldnt it offer MORE employment oppurtunities to their members?

MDR

can anybody explain to me why the unions are so against privatisation or the breakup of CIE?

For some reason it much harder to sack someone who works for the government, as opposed to someone who works in the private sector ....