I had a genius plan this morning, since I was going to be too early for work this morning I would get off the bus at the other end of George Street and then walk back. Brilliant plan, it would make me bang on time for work and I’d get a little exercise. Sadly I didn’t count on having a deaf bus driver. Or my seemingly unyielding ability to find dysfunctional public transport.
Now would probably be the time to point out he wasn’t actually deaf (to the best of my knowledge), he clearly just had selective hearing. Cutting a long story short, I didn’t get off where I had intended. Nor at the next stop. It wasn’t, in fact, until we were stopped at the traffic lights before Waverley bridge that someone pointed out to the driver that we’d gone passed two stops. His response “Oh, I didn’t hear the bell. And anyway, they’re not actually stops at the moment”. Whilst I have no idea how the driver actually knows when someone wants off (although as a light goes on in the rest of the bus I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to imagine there’s a similar system for the driver) and it is entirely feasible that those stops have been taken out under the dubious reason of ‘Tram Works’ I was still rather annoyed. And – by the time I’d walked half the length of the New Town – late for work.
All moans aside, the fact that I had to walk back along Princes Street did have one upside – the view was a lot better than George Street. Perhaps there was some benefit to having a deaf bus driver after all…
Cr
