Lothian Bus driver refused a lady and young baby in a pram to board

Far be it for me to stand up for the rights of women with children but on Thursday I was waiting for a bus into town and when the 16 pulled up, I moved to the side to let the lady and her baby on first.

However, the driver said "does that fold?"

"No" replied the Mum laden with bags of shopping as well.

"You can't come on then" he responded.

After a little bit I also waded in to ask why, I was told the rules clearly state it must be a foldable buggy or a wheelchair in that space.

Now, I knew a wheelchair passenger took priority, I didn't know about the foldable buggy rule and in the two and a half years I have lived in Edinburgh I have seen hundreds of Mums and Dads board buses with buggies/pushchairs and prams that were not folded.

So, I thought I will check out the Lothian Buses website.

3. ACCESSIBLE BUSES

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our buses in safety and comfort. All our buses have a dedicated wheelchair space while some buses also have a space for a buggy.  If there is no wheelchair user on the bus, other passengers including those travelling with a foldable buggy or with bulky luggage may occupy the wheelchair space. Whenever the space is needed by a wheelchair user, other passengers must move to make it available. On those buses which also have a designated buggy space, an unfolded buggy may occupy that space.

Please note that mobility scooters are NOT permitted on our buses.

That is fairly clear, although it doesn't actually mention unfoldable buggies etc.
 
However, the rules go on;
 
8. LUGGAGE

Accompanied luggage is carried at the driver’s discretion and the passenger’s risk. The Company will not be liable for any loss of, or damage to, luggage. Luggage must not be placed on any seat or cause any obstruction.
The following items may NOT be taken onto the Company’s buses:

a) any weapon or explosive or any article which is dangerous, offensive or excessively cumbersome

b) prams

c) bicycles other than folding bicycles which are folded and fully enclosed in a suitable carrying bag

d) non-folding wheelchairs, except where the designated wheelchair space is unoccupied

d) mobility scooters

f) any battery from which corrosive liquid might leak

So, prams are now excluded but an unfoldable pushchair gets no mention, unless Lothian Buses are treating those just as prams.
 
However, what is the actual difference?
 
The pushchair in question would have easily fitted in the allocated space and as the lady in question said, she had got the bus there in the first place, the driver wasn't having any of it.
 
I think Lothian Buses need to review their rules and use a little more discretion.

Lothian Buses must take responsibility for their own actions

Wow, god I'm angry.

I'm interviewing in Edinburgh West today for a new member of staff, had caught the number 10 in time from home but little did I know the horrors that were awaiting me in town.

We came through St. Andrew's Square but instead of turning right into Princes Street we turned left because the driver had forgotten that Princes Street was shut so buses were diverted down George Street.

We did a big loop and then turned right into George Street, so off I got.

I spotted two "supervisors" and asked where I could catch the 26 from and why hadn't the diversions been advertised more widely?

One supervisor, the pleasant and professional one said "it had been advertised in the Edinburgh Evening News".

I then asked why the bus stops hadn't been marked yesterday morning (none of the ones I had used had been) and the second supervisor said "its all TIEs fault, they are cleaning the tracks".

I replied that its easy to blame TIE but as far as I'm aware the operation of Lothian Buses is down to Lothian Buses?

He then said "But TIE closed the road".

I'm sorry this is pathetic and I will follow this up because he is out of order just to blame another organisation when clearly the providing of information for bus diversions has to and does remain the responsibility of Lothian Buses.

A big fail today for Lothian Buses and their man of misinformation.

Its Easter Egg time

ASDA and Lothian buses are first to sell and advertise, Easter eggs respectively.

I'm actually not sure its something to be proud of Cadburys and ASDA PR people, I think its crap!

Technically its still Christmas, tomorrow is Hogmanay and yes it is still 2009.

Do you remember when Easter eggs were sold at Easter?

ASDA and Cadburys need to learn that the consumer does get sick of these stunts.

I for one will be very fed up of seeing easter eggs advertised on Edinburgh buses for the next four months and definitely sick of seeing them piled up at the tills at ASDA.

Edinburgh and the bus stops

My work colleagues in London and Scotland know and some share of my frustrations about the sheer volume and the close proximity of bus stops in parts of Edinburgh.

My bus journey in Edinburgh takes the same time as my old train journey from Kent into London, which is completely ridiculous.

So, my suggestion to Lothian Buses is to stagger the services to particular bus stops as they are on George Street, and Princes Street once it reopens.

Let us take Leith Walk for example and my bus, the number 10.

The bus turns onto Leith Walk and the first stop, often the busiest is at the foot of the Walk, then a mere 10-15 seconds on and only a matter of yards is the next one, now this is where they could start splitting the service and make that just for say the 16 and 22, then the next one could be the 10 and 12 and alternate accordingly.

By the time my bus is at the top of the Walk we have stopped, potentially, six times, seven if you count the driver change over.

If the alternation system came in it would stop the stacking that happens at rush hour, the other week I was in a snail queue of 5 or 6 buses that just crawled up Leith Walk, taking 35 minutes just to get up the Walk - it is just crazy.

Lothian buses - please have a serious think and see if it would work?