Todays blog is gonna be a big moan about the bus I have to take to work. Getting to work this year is a real pain in the arse for me at the moment because I (perhaps foolishly) have chosen to live in a place called Wallisdown which is almost 3 miles from where I work in Blockbusters. In fact it is miles away from almost anything. Winton, Charminster, the two most popular areas for students to live in are a trek to get to, and town is even further away. The only place Wallisdown is close to is the Uni, which is about 15mins walk away. But at least there are plenty of reliable buses that go to those places.
But where I work in Moordown, there is only one bus. The number 15. It is the most unreliable bus service I have had the misfortune of waiting around for, and it only runs until about 7 or 8 o'clock which means it can get me to work but it can't get me home. Almost every shift I have to walk almost 3 miles to get home, but I'm getting used to that now, so long as it's not pouring with rain.
What really gets me angry with the service is the fact that the bus is never on time, ever. They could use traffic as an excuse if it happened every so often, but there is always traffic between 4 and 6 every night. If the bus can't make the time it says on the time table then change the fucking timetable!!! Plus all the other buses are on time what is this bus' problem?
Today's little episode with the bus has got to be the worst so far. Because the bus is always late i send a text to a traveline service that will send me a text back with a (hopefully) accurate time for my bus to arrive. I sent a a text at 4:05pm because I hoped to get the 4:13pm bus but the text came back saying it won't be there until 4:39pm. I thought fair enough, I don't have to be at work until 5pm, if it gets at the stop for that time I should be on time for work (but I knew this was unlikely).
I get to the stop in time for that bus and I look up at the electronic screen (that is a pretty new addition to this particular bus stop), and it says the bus is due to come at 4:43 (which is what time the bus is supposed to arrive according to the timetable). I wasn't worried, that should still get me to work on time. After 5 minutes I look at my watch it is now 45 minutes past the hour and I look up at the screen to see the 15 bus at 4:43pm suddenly disappears. It doesn't update to another time, the bus doesn't turn up around the corner of the roundabout. The bus times just disappears. I wait another 5 minutes and nothing happens. No bus, no times, nothing. I phone work to tell them i'll be late and sit back down.
Now everytime this happens, and it more or less happens very similiar to this everytime, like most people I start to get really angry. I get sooo fucking annoyed, in this state I am angry in a way that only the incredible hulk wished he could get angry. I decide I'm going to call the Wilts and dorset offices to shout down the phone at them, but oh no, they're offices are closed at this time and shouting at an answering service will only serve to exacerbate my enraged state. I think, "okay then, I'll wait til I get home tonight and send them an angry email, no wait, better yet, I wait until tomorrow morning and then I'll phone their offices and shout at the fuckers. No! I'll march down to their offices and scream in their weasley pathetic little faces! Actually no, I'll march down their, find the person responsible for the bus time tables and the number 15 service and do violence on him. And if I get taken to court, in my defence I'll have the judge and the jury to ride the 15 bus service for a week. At the end of the week they unanimously decide that it was a provoked attack and that the victim actually deserved the beating I gave him. In fact they'll commend me for my efforts, and while they wouldn't usually encourage such behaviour, on this occasion they'll agree that my actions had justifiable cause."
But then I thought "no, your usual brand of violence isn't enough, bones will knit, bruises will heal, plus I'm not really that tough, and pretty cowardly to be honest. One on one confrontations scare me. I know, I'll phone in a bomb threat! In fact I'm that angry right now that I'll convert to Islam and put a Jihad on the Wilts and dorset bus service!!!!!" (In fact a bomb scare is not a bad idea if I do it like the plot of the film Speed, and tell them that there is a bomb on the bus that will blow up if it drops below 50 mph. That way it might actually get me to work on time, though I think that will only work once or twice. They'll probably realise it's a prank after that).
kay, you're probably thinking that I've gone to far with this. But in the heat of the moment I actually feel that I could do many of things that I have said here (except from writing them an email, that's just a pointless waste of time.) However once the moment has passed, the minute my bus finally arrives and I'm on my way to work the anger quickly subsides. My rage seems to exist only for that particular moment, once the situation changes I'm back to a very normal rational state. And what's more I'll forget to do all those things I said I'll do. Like I really think it probably would be a good idea to phone the Wilts and Dorset buses about their bus service. I'm not sure that it would achieve anything, but for all those times they made me angry I feel someone there should be on the receiving end of my loud angry voice at least once.
But shit like that is never one persons fault, and the chances are the person you're speaking to is nothing more than a customer service representative taking all the flak for someone elses crap. And it's not fair for them to get shouted at because of it.
So lets go back to what happened this evening. It got to after 5 o'clock, the bus still hadn't arrived and my shift was supposed to have started now. The little electronic screen was now showing the bus time for the next scheduled 15 bus at 5:13pm. Where the fuck did the other bus go?!!!!
I decided to phone the company knowing that the offices were closed but I managed to get an extension to the traveline service, the very same service that operates the text update on my mobile, they informed me that there are no 15 buses running today because of a bus strike!!!!!!!
Now I have no problem with strike action. I have just taken a look on the internet about it and the drivers are striking because they're having to drive more hours than i reasonably save without a break. Good luck to them. But the company should provide some sort of notification for it.
If that electronic screen they have at the top of the bus stop is nothing more than a glorified timetable!!!! Those things are meant to provide accurate and frequent updates for bus times, but when all they do is show you exactly what can be found on the bus timetable then they are nothing more than a flashy looking bus timetable! And what about the traveline text service that I used? That told me that the 15 bus would be at the stop at 4:39, but clearly it was a load of bollox!!! Why not just send a text back saying there is no 15, or even just return with providing no time for the 15 bus?
In the end I had no choice but to get a cab in to work, so I was an hour late for my shift and had to pay £7.50 for a cab, which equates to almost an hour and a halfs worth of my wages. Someone's going to pay.
DEATH TO THE WILTS & DORSET BUS COMPANY INFIDELS!!!!!!!!!!!!
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