Hail 'n' Ride

The term Hail 'n' Ride throws fear and dread into a bus driver's life. With the average IQ of those being conveyed so low, the ambiguity a scheme like this produces is ticking time bomb, just waiting to go off.

Effectively, a bus operator designates certain stretches of route as Hail 'n' Ride because they can't be fagged to cough up for some bus stop signs to attach to lamp posts. They have to registered which sections are Hail 'n' Ride with the Traffic Commissioner with the bus service registration document, but have no obligation to make reference to it in the public timetable. This is a good thing.

One passenger's 'safe' location is not always the driver's. We have a rural route that passes through a number of villages where Hail 'n' Ride is employed. To make matters worse, rather than there be no bus stops at all in the villages, there are some. One village has its eastern half littered with them but none in the west. Another has one in the middle (timing point) but none anywhere else.

The guys I work with do not make things any better. Some drivers are happy to stop a million times in the same bloody hamlet, dropping old ladies off at their front doors. Others, with a sense of punctuality, do not.

And this is when the arguments start. I'm all for making life easy for both passengers and drivers, but Hail 'n' Ride works contrary to this. Passengers simply are not qualified sufficiently to assess whether the location they're stood is safe for a bus to stop. A sad but accurate truth.

If someone is stood on a road junction and flags me down, I pass them, slowly, and pull over a little further up, so that my 40-foot bus is not illegally obstructing the road adjoining from the left. This woman I collected from this location today was most put out at having to walk 35 feet to board. I told her that she needs to stand here in future so that I'm not blocking the junction. Her response?

"I've always got on at the corner!"

No you haven't you two-faced lying cow. I know as I've picked her up here before. I'm sure they do it rather than acknowledge that something a bus driver has said is actually true.

"Can you drop me off at the horses?" is another request often given.

But the main entrance to the equestrian centre is not enough - horse owners want to be dropped off at the actual stable within the complex, each backing onto the passing road. Tough shit. You get dropped off at the main entrance and picked up there afterwards.

Then there are the occasions when the passengers aren't at fault (yes, it does happen). I stopped outside a tiny retail park on Saturday, to drop some OAPs off, and as I pulled off I spotted a collection of people stood four or five bus lengths down the road, who proceeded to flag me down. They were new to the area and I collected them as they were stood in a very clear and safe locality. But what can you say? If you tell them to wait where the small retail park is, they could legitimately say: "But where does it say to do that?" or "But where in the timetable does it say I have to wait in that specific spot?"

All true.

Common Sense Solution: Ultimately, operators' and local authorities' hands need forcing by making the stoppage to load/unload passengers anywhere other than a signed bus stop illegal. This would force them to splash out on some bus stop signs. Some authorities take responsibility for the erection of bus stops and timetable information and these tend to be more comprehensive than areas where bus operators are responsible. A bus stop flag is surely an advertisement tool - paint the countryside with them, to promote your service. Don't be stingy and rely on Hail 'n' Ride schemes as a cheap cop-out. Drivers should be consistent and all adopt the same policy on what is and what isn't a safe place to stop.