A Bus Journey

A Bus Journey

At the moment, all the talk is of The Crisis (also known as The Credit Crunch, The Global Recession, The Slowdown etc.). Having stayed indoors all day, I became a little depressed with the repetition of the gloomy news emanating from the radio, as well as Channel Four News....I therefore decided to go and stretch my limbs a little, and took a bus into Camden.
London buses are a strange phenomenon. Ever since I can remember, well at least since 1966 when our family arrived here, it has been quite common to wait for half an hour or more for a bus , only to see two or three of them arrive simultaneously! Nobody has ever been able to give a convincing explanation for this, and countless initiatives started by the former Mayor, Ken Livingstone, do not appear to have eliminated this irritating occurence.
Livingstone's administration spent millions of pounds on new buses, including the single-deck articulated "bendy buses", but, outside of the rush hours, it is possible to be left stranded at the bus stop for a vehicle which does not operate to any discernible timetable. I once fell into conversation with an exasperated fellow-passenger-to-be who speculated that the reason why three buses were emerging from the same terminus was that the drivers were sitting round playing cards with each other!
During the day, you can see uniformed inspectors dotted along most bus routes. They are charged with ensuring that the buses arrive on time; it must be a very difficult task, given the volume of traffic in London. Even the existence of exclusive bus lanes does not guarantee that passengers will arrive at their destination on time. Most of the time, the buses are fine, but I cannot help but feel that the introduction of the single-person modern buses has slowed down the traffic. Nowadays, the person who drives the bus is also responsible for collecting fares and issuing tickets, thereby further slowing it down.All the ticket collectors (conductors) have been laid off with the disappearance of the old Routemaster buses.
The one great advantage of travelling on the bus is the amount of money you save--especially if you buy a weekly Bus Pass. I pay £13.00 for a pass which allows me to travel throughout Central London. Thirteen pounds for a week's travel is a bargain, when you consider that a single-journey ticket costs two pounds!
As a consequence, I have not used the Underground train for over 2 years...I like to see what is going on around me as I travel, but there is no scenery on the Underground.