'NS'

I despair of some passengers, I really do. This tattooed thug sat for over an hour waiting for a bus on Saturday that didn't operate. During the time he was sat he was next to a timetable - fully in date and clear for all to see. He hadn't even bothered to look at it. I was heading in the opposite direction at 0800, when he tagged onto the end of my people.

"Oi mate! When's the next bus to [town A]?"

"You can't catch one from here on a Saturday!" said I

"Course you can, I catch it every day!" he replied

Well obviously he doesn't. He looked like he was going to work on a building site and I've never seen him before. A bus does operate from where he was waiting at 0700 on Mondays to Fridays, but not at any other time. This can be easily identified on the Monday to Saturday timetable as there is 'NS' at the top of the column. Looking at the codes at the foot of the table, 'NS' means 'Not Saturdays'.

Simples.

Clearly too complicated for some. I just cannot fathom why ANYONE would sit for an hour, adjacent to a timetable, and not look at it once. Thick as shit.

I committed gross misconduct and gave him a free ride to somewhere where he could intercept a bus to his destination. He did thank me, I will admit that, and as I drove away with him on board, he stood in the area where the wheelchair goes. One of his friends boarded at the next stop and I heard him communicating with him.

"It's an absolute fucking joke!" he exclaimed. He was reasonably polite to me, but to a friend, he was letting his true feelings be shown.

"Yes it is an absolute fucking joke!" I remember thinking to myself, "How someone can even consider it to be anyone's fault other than their own for waiting for a bus that does not and has not ever operated on a Saturday".

Common Sense Solution: Buses are sometimes the victim of their success. High-frequency services extol the virtues of not needing a timetable and some people extend this to lesser services. This guy had clearly only just started catching the 0700 bus that week and didn't bother to check that there was no alteration on a Saturday morning. The fault was his and his alone. Countless examples of this type must take place up and down the country every day. Drivers just have to deal with it in their own inimitable way.