Bus passengers can be quite rude. Buses themselves have a tendency to be a bit offensive and they don't work in reverse which can be a little irritating. However, it's the jaw-dropping bastardness of this story that drove us to add to our store of bus related tales.
13-year-old Jennie Scott and her female friends of similar ages were twice refused entry to a local bus by the same driver. While many of us would happily applaud the barring of teenagers from buses if they were playing unpleasant hip hop tunes through crappy mobile phones so that all anyone can hear is a loud, rasping, buzzing noise punctuated by occasional shouts of "bitch, ho, ass", these girls were simply trying to travel for free, as Transport for London allows them to, and that left them stranded in Leatherhead, Surrey and then the following night, outside Chessington World of Adventures after closing hours.
We have it on good authority that having to do anything in Leatherhead at any time of day isn't great so the girls have our sympathy. But the real slap in the face is the fact the unpleasant driver wouldn't let them board his precious bus at Chessington World of Adventures and was quite happy to leave four young girls in an empty car park at night. When it was pointed out by one Jennie's friends that it is within the law for 13-year-olds to travel for free on London buses, the driver replied: "I make the law on my bus."
The man clearly aspires to be a community police officer.
Jennie's dad had to collect the girls from the closed Adventure Park and wasn't very happy. Transport for London are investigating the case. There is no comment from the driver, who had only one other exchange with the girls before driving away the first time he refused them entry- he allegedly said to them "go on the internet and click Oyster."
We would like to return the advice to the driver and say to him "go on the internet and click 'I do not make the law, I am just a bus driver and I could be nicer to my passengers, yes, I think I could'."
Image taken from edwin11_79's Flickr stream.
