I will use the fact I’m in college half an hour early today to write my blog. The reason I’m early is because as I was setting out on the 30 minute walk to college the bus was pulling up to the bus stop as I was walking past, so I thought “why not”. Normally I’d grudge paying £1.40 on a nice day to get the bus, but it’s a Monday morning, it’s the start of the month (equals a healthy bank account) so I parted with my cash and got the bus.

Glad I did. I got to witness the snotty woman who missed her stop then spent the next 3 minutes complaining to the bus driver about this. Nothing the bus driver could do as he’s not allowed to let people off anywhere else other than the stops. Rather than being polite about this, the bus driver decided to be rude back to her resulting in an excellent slagging match between the passenger and driver. The woman was complaining that they have recently moved all the stops (something I too have complained about), but the woman even got to the stage of accusing the bus driver that it was his fault all the stops have moved. While I’m not 100% sure, I’d imagine in the grand scheme of First Buses, it has nothing to do with the driver of the number 16 bus where the stops are.

While he may have put one woman in a very bad mood this morning, he certainly cheered up everyone else on the bus.

I enquired as I was walking off the bus if the fare included the comedy show and the driver informed me it did, therefore today, my £1.40 was well spent.

Memo To: First Buses
CC: Aberdeen City Council
Dear First Busses,

It’s been 3 weeks since you changed your bus timetable to make the buses are bit more convenient for everyone (everyone that is except me).

Please Please PLEASE can you update your bus stops with the right numbers, maps and timetables.  I cant bear to watch the confusion all the old grannies now have every time they want to get on the bus.

I’m lucky, I know about the change to the bus timetable. If I were a tourist I really would be confused.

Saying that, if I were a tourist, why would I be going to Aberdeen on holiday?

Yours,

David

Regular blog readers will now know that after nearly 2 years of living in Aberdeen I have finally mastered the Aberdeen bus system.

All was well and good. I could work out what buses I could get, and what days and times I could get them.

I was even beginning to quite like the buses.

Until today when I picked up a leaflet which was telling me about the timetable changes coming into effect from the 6th April.

Lovely. The two buses I use on a regular basis are being withdrawn. They’ve been replaced by a bus which takes a slightly different route. Helpful for some, BUT NOT ME.

Taxi?