Be Excellent To Each Other

It only applies to one.

First, some background.

When I go to work, I need to get the X38, this runs from Plymouth to Exeter. The closest that route goes to my work is about 2 miles away and it's shortly after it enters the city. I can either get off their and walk (there is no bus that goes from there to nearer my office) or I can stay on for another 5-10 minutes where the route crosses the path of 2 buses that do go closer to my office. Those buses are the 52 (and the a, b and c versions too, which for the purposes of my journey all go the same way) and the PR4 (Park and Ride 4). The X38 and the 52 are run by 'Stagecoach Devon'. The PR4 is run by 'Cooks Coaches' which is owned by Stagecoach. Stagecoach operate a number of "use as many times as you want within a given time period ticket" Dayriders, Goldriders, Megariders, Day Explorers, Week explorers etc, all of them covering different areas and different time periods.

I buy a day explorer, it used to cost £6.00 (the same price as a standard return from Ivybridge to Exeter) and it entitled me to travel on all Stagecoach Devon busses (including those operated by Cooks Coaches) for one day. In August they changed this ticket to 'Peak Day Explorer' and 'Offpeak Day Explorer'. The offpeak version stayed at £6.00 and the peak version went up to £7.50, as you can imagine you can only get the offpeak version if you start your journey after a certain time (I think 10:00 but I could be wrong). Cooks Coaches will only accept the day explorer on their bus (you can buy their own tickets too), they will not accept the week explorer, or anyof the *riders tickets. So since the begining of August I've been getting a Peak Day Explorer ticket, and after some initial confusion when I got on the PR4 due to the wording being slightly different (from EXPLDAY to PEAKEXPLAD and the tickets changing shape I'd been getting on fine.

And so then on to today. I got the bus in as usual, changed bus in my usual place, got on the PR4 as usual, showed the ticket to the driver as usual and he waved me through, as usual. I did my time at work, and then was set to leave, so I waited by the bus stop (it's the end of the line, I work next to big a carpark that gives name to the P in PR4) and everyone gets off dashing to their cars, after a quick change of the sign on the front of the bus I am allowed on (I'm the only one there at this point) The driver refuses to let me on saying my ticket is not valid, I tell him I've used it several times on this bus and never had a problem, he tells me I haven't I said I used it this morning, he tells me I didn't it must have been a different bus, I assured him I had, I said I'd used it lots and that either all the other drivers and I were wrong or he was misinformed. He said he was only allowed to take Day Explorers and that this bus was run by Cooks Coaches (stage coach). Yes, you could hear the brackets when he said it!!! I said I was aware of that, and told him that this ticket was essentially the same as that, but it was a peak version of it. He said he was only allowed to take the £6.00 Day explorer, I said it no longer existed, I suggested he phoned his office to find out if it was allowed or not.

He ignored that and checked the ticket of a woman who had turned up and wanted to use the bus as well. He said again that he couldn't take the ticket. I said that he was starting to make himself look foolish and that he should phone his office, he tried and then said they were shut (They close at 17:00 apparently, which is a bit crap if he can't get hold of anyone and his bus breaks down!) So eventually he tells me to sit down as he "can't be arsed any more" I realise I've got him really worked up at this and he almost, but not quite loses his temper at me (the only thing I have done is assert my right travel, and said he was starting to look a bit silly). So he's driving along and we're still arguing over it, I offer him my address and details if he wants to check out the ticket and I'd pay if I was wrong, he doesn't want them, but says he will check into the ticket anyway. So he leaves it at that.

About 4/5 stops later some Polish dudes get on, the first with a normal ticket, the 2nd with the exact same ticket I've got. His English isn't as good as the first one, the bus driver tells him he doesn't accept that ticket, the 1st dude translates this to the 2nd one and the 2nd one gets off the bus. Then the driver says "But it's lucky day as we've already got one freeloader on today, you may as well take a seat too" One quick translation later and both Poles are on the bus.

I was so angry, I was made to feel like a criminal or if that's too extreme like a fare dodger trying to scam the driver. I am going to complain to Stagecoach/cooks coaches after I find out for sure if that ticket is valid on that route or not. And if it's not valid then I'm still going to complain, because increasing the fare by £1.50 and reducing what you can do with it is pretty crap!

I was so annoyed earlier, and typing all this in again has brought it all back up ARRRGRHRHH

Malc

£7.50!! Crikey, it's not just London, then.

It's enough to make you furiously angry Malc :/

Once, a mate and I were getting on a bus, and we both had the same bus passes, except his had expired a couple of months previously. However, knowing the bus drivers never give them more than a glance, he was riding it as long as possible until he was found out, at which point he'd buy another one.

My pass was still nice and valid, and we both got on the same bus. I show him my pass and walk by, and my mate does the same. We go and sit down and after a short while it occurs to us that the bus driver is shouting something down the bus. Strangely, he was shouting at me, asking me if I intended to pay for a ticket.

I get up, and go to the front confused. Turns out this fucking twat of a bus driver is furious because 'I haven't paid'. In confused disbelief, I again show him my totally valid pass. He then accuses me of not showing it when I got on, which I fucking well did, the twat.

Meanwhile, my mate, still at the back of the bus on his expired pass, gets away scot free. The cunt.

Oh! The bus that goes nearest my office is the 52. I feel like we share some kind of bond, or something.

The 52 bus used to go by my house before they shortened the route.

London fares aren't that bad if you have an Pyster card. Talking of which, I found out that you can get 1/3 off of the pay-as-you-go daily cap rate if you have a young person's railcard - just take your railcard to the ticker office with your Oyster card and they will apply the discount to your Oyster (you only need to do this once, not every time you travel, obviously.

Back to you, Malc - you should complain about the way he spoke to you, especially for undermining you in front of other customers. He sounds like a fool. I hope you got his driver number .

Or buy a car.

Actually, I can't say I'm surprised that a bus driver acts like a tosser towards them foreign types. Only the other week, there was a french lass trying to get the bus to Oxford and back (£4.30) and the driver wouldn't change a tenner for her. But it was OK in the end as I had my 4-30 in 10pence peices, so I told french lass this and then all was well as Mr bus Driver had plenty of change and I had the appreciation of a french lass. And loads fewer 10 pence peices.

Journey in this morning, driver of the PR4 says: "Is that a Day explorer then? On you go." It really is just that one guy...

Malc

There's nothing worse than a public transport twat who doesn't know his own ticketing rules.

My friends and I had the same problem once, when we were kids. We bought these 'Day Rider' tickets, which gave us unlimited bus and train travel within the West Midlands, and used them to visit towns and cities in our locale. We got as far as Sutton Coldfield when an anal-retentive jobsworth inspector confiscated my mate's ticket as it had been clipped twice, meaning he'd entered and left a station. "You can visit all these places as long as you don't leave the station."

Now, common sense tells you the then-British Rail wouldn't sell a ticket like that. If our Day Riders were clipped in the usual manner, ie. once on entering and once on leaving a station, under numb-nuts' rules it would be no more use than a single ticket (in actual fact, they weren't supposed to be clipped at all), but still he insisted he was right without consulting anybody.

We went back to the station where we bought the tickets and told them what happened, and were told (quelle surprise) that we were in the right and the prat in Sutton Coldfield had no reason to take the ticket. He gave us an address to write to, and the guy who had his ticket confiscated got his money back on its replacement.

I thought they'd banned drinking on London public transport?