Park & Ride forget it!!
- 29 April 2012 18:56169248I had a few shops that I had to visit in Canterbury a few days ago and thought that I would avail myself of the Park & Ride which saves looking for that much needed parking space. I parked the car and saw a bus just starting to pull out, the driver kindly opened the doors for me and I explained to him that I was going into town and asked him the time of the last bus leaving Canterbury, he told me 7.30 pm so all well and good.
I sat down and got to chatting with a nice elderly couple called Mavis & Fred, we noticed that the bus turned left down the Old Dover Road and we thought that it must be a diversion of some sort, then the bus turned into the cricket ground, right through it and then into Kent & Canterbury Hospital and started to call at all the Out-Patient & A & E depts etc manouvering around all the parked cars, I started to worry if I would make all my shopping calls but he eventually drove out of the hospital grounds so I thought, Ah Well, I should make it now.
But to mine and my fellow travellers horror he drove back to the Park & Ride, parked the bus and promptly left the bus with the same three passengers including myself he originally left with, without so much as a by your leave! I followed him into the office and asked him why he had just left us on the bus with no explanation at all and his answer came back, 'Didn't you all look on the front of the bus, it says Hospital' then turned his back on me, but I had told him I was going to the town.
He was extremely rude and obviously enjoyed it! Mavis and Fred had a puzzled look on their faces which reminded me of that advert on the telly where the elderly chap says 'What sort of cheese was that?'
We checked the signage on the next bus and went into town, needless to say I didn't manage to do everything I had originally set out to do
Is it me?
- 29 April 2012 19:23169251What a blighter. It costs nothing to be pleasant and helpful and I think it is in order to expect bus drivers to keep passengers up to speed. I used to have a friend who would have thought nothing of berating that fella with her umbrella!!
- 29 April 2012 19:28169253No its not you Collete ! what a miserable so and so !
- 29 April 2012 20:12169262There is a pdf Park and Ride Charter, worth checking that out, methinks.
http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/parkandrideIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing. - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
29 April 2012 20:17169264that must have been a 25 route bus colette,town center to hospital and back to town on a circular route.the next time you drive to canterbury try the park and ride at the pub [forget name of pub] theres a little roundabout there.jump onto a big bus to whatever destination you need to go to.
ps,pub dose nice lunches and dinners. - 29 April 2012 20:20169266There is a Park and Ride that goes from the Gate Inn site to the Hospital now Brian
- 29 April 2012 20:22169268does sound like the chap is in the wrong job, shudder to think if he was carrying tourists around.
luckily we are well served in dover by our excellent bus drivers, always helpful to confused visitors. - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
29 April 2012 20:25169271thanks for the tip sarah,might be worth try it out in june [next appointment at k&c]. - 29 April 2012 20:28169273it certainly is Brian . Parking at the K andC is never easy
- 30 April 2012 08:36169347Yes it does look like this guy is in the wrong job and very disappointing to hear. How can the driver just leave the same three people on the bus and clear off. Clearly he is just going through the motions, filling in the hours, perhaps disgruntled at low wages or something. Wasnt there a story last year where a driver put a teenage girl out of his bus late at night in a country lane, somewhere near Deal if Im remembering rightly. That one made the national news. her fare had run out or something..that caused wide spread uproar and quite right.email: dover7@msn.com
- Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
30 April 2012 08:41169348collette
all i can say is that having used the park and ride it worked quite well.
but that said drivers like any other such industry costs nothing to be pleasantALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS - 30 April 2012 08:53169351Absolutely disgraceful behaviour from that driver, he should be sacked. His attitude is not acceptable in any way.
- Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
30 April 2012 09:22169363I hope you have complained to the bus company, I would, he certainly needs to go for customer awareness training.
Playing devils advocate now. Maybe he had been called in on his Sunday off and was p***** off or had had a 'bad' day and it was near the end of his shift.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
------------------------------------------------------------------- - 30 April 2012 09:28169367Or mayhap he has been told that he "is paid to drive the ruddy bus and not play nursemaid to the pathetic punters" ?
Bad show, just the same.Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing. - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
30 April 2012 13:25169414if thats the case barry,i wonder who has been giving him atitude lessons.
- 30 April 2012 18:42169533Thanks for all your replies Guys and girls. It was the one Sarah mentioned, the Gate Inn site. I have used it several times before and never encountered any problems except for one time when I was with Daughter Briony. She was much younger then and was eating a chocolate bar when we jumped aboard. She was told off by the driver in no uncertain terms I might add, that no food was allowed on the bus, she meekly replied that it was only a little chocolate bar but he wasn't too happy with her reply so she put it away in her pocket
By the way it was a very wet Wednesday afternoon, last week in fact, when I experienced the unwelcome diversion and the rudeness of the bus driver. Yes Jan I have emailed the bus company, watch this space.
I didn't know they ran a bus to the hospital but NOW I do!!!!!!!! - Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
30 April 2012 18:45169534jan;
it doesn't matter if its the start/middle./or end of shift
being polite costs nothingALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS - 30 April 2012 18:55169545Have used that park and ride myself many times and always had a polite driver, was awhere that some of the buses do go via the hospital, but as has been said there is no need for rudeness and if you are hurrying to catch the bus you don't always look at the front to see were it is going.
- 30 April 2012 19:01169552Jan they don't go via the hospital some go to the hospital and back, but most go directly to town, I agree with you all being polite costs nothing.