'Whoopsie' Moments on Buses & Coaches

[ECML180]

Inspired by the strangest thing you've seen/heard on a bus thread, I thought I'd ask...what is the things thats gone most wrong or the worst thing you've seen happen on a bus/coach.

For me, it would be a few weeks ago when I was an Interchange Supervisor (responsible for 3 inbound coaches transferring passengers onto 5 feeders, plus a taxi and 2 of the tour coaches continuing on with passengers). This amount of vehicles and passengers is a tall order, and it was done in our depot at 14.00, just as a lot of school vehicles were due out(so very busy!). Unfortunately we were 2 feeder drivers short as they were still on previous runs when the tour coaches arrived, so I sent a driver to notify the operations manager, who then came out himself and brought along a company director to take over the 2 spare vehicles, which in the mean time I had loaded with passengers.

We spent the next few minutes assisting the remaining passengers and moving luggage, and in the end the feeders left about 5 minutes late, not bad given the lack of drivers! However it was at that point we realised that the taxi had not received his passenger and had decided not to speak up about it. It took around 20 minutes to find the passenger(along with a few others, on the coach due to finish there) and their bags, and shift them into place. By now the coaches were 30 mins late and in danger of running out of driving hours, so with all passengers aboard they left in a rush...

In his haste one of the drivers attempted to leave with his luggage locker doors wide open, nearly hitting the MD with it on his way past...whoopsie! Thankfully I spotted it and covered the length of the depot in record time to stop him before he pulled onto the main road outside, but it would have made quite a mess!

So...anything similar happened to anyone else?
Drivers, I'm looking at you too!

 

[Bletchleyite]

I've been on a Stagecoach bus which managed to go the wrong way round the old Manchester airport bus station, try to turn around and get stuck. He sent me off to get the bus station supervisor who sorted it all out.

 

[quarella]

The worst thing I saw on a coach, though I smelt it far sooner was used nappy discovered one very warm August lunchtime left over from the night before.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The Whoopsie moment that springs to mind was when my father did a Wallace Arnold feeder in the early 1990s. Summer Saturday traffic and accidents meant a delayed arrival at the services, Leigh Delamere that year I think for the interchange. The co-ordinator said they would sort out the luggage and passengers while he took his break. 45 minutes later back to the coach to head off for Torquay. At the hotel the cases were unloaded but no-one could find their luggage. A phone call was made to WA to explain the situation. It transpired that there was a coachload of passengers in Eastbourne with a load of cases that did not belong to them. The tour driver had met the passengers, nothing dad could do so I have no idea how quickly the luggage was reunited with it's owners.

 

[fgwrich]

The worst thing I saw on a coach, though I smelt it far sooner was used nappy discovered one very warm August lunchtime left over from the night before.

Something similar but slightly less disgusting - A young mother gets on one of the buses around here, after doing her shopping at Tesco. In the bag were several packs of Nappies... Printed on the outside of the bag... LOVE EVERY MOUTHFULL...

Er... Not what Tesco had in mind I think!

 

[starrymarkb]

Parents sent me on a Church Trip to Blackpool in 1996ish.

Truronian Coach broke down in Cornwall, so was subsituted with a Leger livery L reg Caetano something or other. Was about 90 mins late arriving in Exeter to pick us up as a result.

Then Sailing past Michealwood Northbound when we had about 10 pax to pick up. Those that know the M5 will know it's a very long way to the next junction to Stroud and Back down the motorway to Thornbury to pick up the M5 North again to get in the Services.

Driver then ran out of hours near Preston. They decided it would be best to press on to Blackpool and justify it if stopped as better then leaving 50 Teenagers in Preston at Midnight which would be worse then a 40 min overrun

As a result we had to get the service bus to the first event in the morning as the coach driver was still resting!

I didn't do another. I was tollerating the God part for the Pleasure Beach The Parents ended up with a Pagan

 

[neilmc]

I was travelling around Lincolnshire in NBC days and got an express bus from Doncaster to Scunthorpe. The whole route ran from Sheffield to Grimsby so was quite long, and was operated by a female driver from Scunthorpe who didn't really know the route. However all went well - until she turned on to the M18 rather than cross it! This ensured an extra 20 mile round trip and a rather late arrival in Scunthorpe, by which time I was the only passenger and agreed that I wouldn't mention the unscheduled diversion, which was put down to busy traffic in Yorkshire.

 

[Temple Meads]

Probably this - https://www.flickr.com/photos/transporttim/12525720463 - although I'm not sure how it happened!

 

[quarella]

Not long after passing my PSV I was doing a Shearings feeder with two passengers from Gordano services to Kingswood to the east of Bristol and beyond the reach of the Bristol A to Z. I decided the simplest way was M5, M4, M32, A4174. Approaching the Almondsbury Interchange I moved left to take the M4. Unfortunately you have to move across twice as the lane I was in becomes M5 north for traffic joining at Jct 16. Falfield and back is a long way in a stony silence. Plenty of time to wonder how I had never done M5 north to M4 east before.

 

[90019]

I think mine would be this, from November 2012, when the nearside rear airbag on the bus I was driving exploded halfway across a junction, and I grounded the bus to get it off the junction as it was part of the main diversion route while York Place was closed and had rather a lot of traffic using it.







You couldn't get your fingers between the bus and the road surface - the curve at the bottom of the panels makes it look like there was a gap, but at that corner, there wasn't.

 

[ECML180]

I think I've just thought of one that can top those actually! Route learning(i.e. dossing) last week in heavy rain, empty coach driven by a fitter who wanted to go home. Wipers going full wack and demisters struggling we had both driver and door windows open...then we came to turn left through a 6 inch puddle at 20mph. I have never seen so much water in my life! Flying over the coach, through the windows, everywhere. From the courier seat I was soaked through and the driver even had wet patches on his left leg! When I got off 15 minutes later there was still a foot of water in the stairwell despite the door being poorly sealed with leakage all the way. It was truly incredible, but now the (sodden) dashboard keeps getting electrical faults so it may be one off to the scrappers!

 

[Martin1988]

Back when Cotswold Green were operating the 620 between Tetbury and Bath, I remember one trip where the front windscreen of the bus was shattered by a long tree branch as we climbed Lansdowne Hill. I was sitting right at the front of the bus facing the windscreen and was very lucky that I didn't come into contact with any of the glass. The driver continued the route until we reached the end but I think the bus then had to be taken out of service.

Also, a few years ago when traveling on the National Express route between Bristol and London, the toilet on the coach was defective so the drivers sought permission for a quick stop at the service station. They made it clear to passengers that it was a 5 minute toilet stop only and nothing else. We then ended up waiting longer than that for a passenger who had decided to join the queue to get a cup of coffee.

 

[Strathclyder]

Was walking past St. Enoch Centre in May 2014 when I saw a First Glasgow E400 (SN61 BDV) stopping just beyond the traffic lights on Stockwell Place. This is why:

It may not look like much, but it was enough to put the bus out of service.

SN61 BDV (33912) would later become the first of Glasgow's E400 to appear in the new livery, emerging about a month after the above mishap took place.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

I expect that there has been a few "whoopsie" moments on the Sandbanks Ferry in Poole over they years with buses and coaches getting grounded/stranded. The old buses that Wilts and Dorset (Morebus) used to use had special suspension that could raise the bodywork, I would assume the new ones do, must be a lot of engineering to get it to work with the "kneeling" ability that all modern buses have.

 

[bussnapperwm]

This has to be up there with them!

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/roof-sliced-off-double-decker-bus-in-cradley-83876

PASSENGERS were forced to dive for cover when a double decker bus ploughed into a bridge which sliced off the roof.

Notice the irony in the billboard?

 

[jp4712]

Many years ago, at a bus preservation centre, I was walking past a Daimler CVG6 when its owner - a known 'tinkerer' - asked me to jump in the cab and start it while he "checking something in the lower saloon". I climbed up, started the engine and realised that the 'something' had involved him taking up the floor trap halfway along the lower saloon, plus the gearbox cover beneath! Cue large amounts of very sticky, smelly gearbox oil spraying everywhere. I reached for the engine stop (on a Daimler, it's a cable you pull to cut off the fuel)... and the owner had disconnected it. So now I'm in the cab of a bus with the engine running, no engine stop, with oil spurting all over the place and I can hear the sound of various screams and splutters in the back as he tried to plug the hole.

So, I walked around the front and 'pulled the rack' to stop the engine. As I got to the rear platform the owner emerged, covered from the waist up in gearbox oil. And believe me, that stuff once smelled is never forgotten - forget engine oil, gearbox oil has a viscosity and an odour that is all its own.

The owner then took off his glasses, and looked like a panda! It was a hell of a mess inside, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry but went for 'laugh'. Luckily the seats were leather but it was still quite a clean-up operation.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

I was travelling around Lincolnshire in NBC days and got an express bus from Doncaster to Scunthorpe. The whole route ran from Sheffield to Grimsby so was quite long, and was operated by a female driver from Scunthorpe who didn't really know the route. However all went well - until she turned on to the M18 rather than cross it! This ensured an extra 20 mile round trip and a rather late arrival in Scunthorpe, by which time I was the only passenger and agreed that I wouldn't mention the unscheduled diversion, which was put down to busy traffic in Yorkshire.

That was the famous 909 bus route. It's sad it doesn't run now as the train is costly, especially for OAPs.

The number 4 in Grimsby(renumbered back again) has a 4a varient every 2 hours on a Sunday and the driver always misses the turnoff and goes round the extra route backwards after a passenger complains.

 

[quarella]

I was grateful for another driver's whoopsie moment. On a country lane in Derbyshire he had pulled to the side to let something go past and the bank of the rhyne gave way. There was a bit of damage so it was left in the care of a local commercial vehicle repairer. I was 18 at the time so my PSV licence was restricted and it was rare I got to drive the newer vehicles in the fleet so I made sure management were aware I was more than willing to go to Derby and bring the coach back to Somerset which they kindly let me do albeit with the proviso that if I crashed it not to bother coming back.

 

[ValleyLines142]

When it said 'Whoopsie' moments I thought it meant people pooing themselves on board buses!!

 

[Rapidash]

Less of a 'Whoops' and more of a 'Whelp' moment was earlier this year where I was on the 1 to Cullompton, just going over the bridge over the Culm that leads up to Bradninch .Now this was just around the time of the Dawlish Smoting, so quite a stormy time. Unfortunately, the Culm was roaring over the bridge instead..... Could barely see the road!. Driver still decided to go for it though!

Certainly the most harrowing experience I've had on a bus.

 

[iantherev]

Parents sent me on a Church Trip to Blackpool in 1996ish.

Truronian Coach broke down in Cornwall, so was subsituted with a Leger livery L reg Caetano something or other. Was about 90 mins late arriving in Exeter to pick us up as a result.

I didn't do another. I was tollerating the God part for the Pleasure Beach The Parents ended up with a Pagan

You were lucky with that thing. Coming back from Austria overnight in November 98 the windscreen wipers fell off in a blizzard. I think that was the last trip Truronian did for Leger....

 

[quarella]

Some years ago my brother was driving a brand new Scania double decker coach. An overly complicated gearbox (in my view) allowed you to drive it as and automatic, semi automatic, pre-selector or manual. On a Friday evening about 5pm near the bottom of the incline leading into Bristol Temple Meads the computer said no and would not select any gear by any means for some time.

 

[swifty]

When the Endsleigh Garden Centre in Ivybridge was having work done around 10 years ago, a Western National Solo ended up getting stuck in the car park. IIRC it had driven through the car park to turn around but ended up on the building site and became grounded and was left to the forklift to rescue it!!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

When it said 'Whoopsie' moments I thought it meant people pooing themselves on board buses!!

http://m.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news...after_number_two_is_found_on_bus_seat/?ref=mr

Read, weep

 

[ValleyLines142]

http://m.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news...after_number_two_is_found_on_bus_seat/?ref=mr

Read, weep

Oh no! And on an E400 as well! So upset!

 

[Rapidash]

There was a bloke who ate some of a seat on a 12 going out of Torquay a few years back. Guess he was hungry.

 

[zuriblue]

Many years ago a Crosville driver told me about the National coach from Macclesfield to London (some time ago obviously)

A passenger had felt a bit sick and went into the toilet to throw up. When he threw up his false teeth fell out and dropped into the pan. He reached down to grab them and got his hand stuck. Fortunately his hand didn't go down as far as the grinder.

The driver pulled over and shut the grinder off, when they had let the passengers off at Macc the coach was driven to the National Travel depot in Manchester and they eventually ended up dismantling the bog so he could get his hand out. When he got his hand (and teeth) out he went over to the tap, rinsed his false teeth and popped them back into his mouth.

(looking for throw up emoticon)

 

[iantherev]

Back in Caerphilly Council days (so pre 1974) my mother and I were sitting on the Penyrheol bus waiting to go home. The crew arrived and we set off. The first hint of anything going wrong was when the conductor started telling people they were on the wrong bus. They suggested that he look at the blind which he did at the next stop. Turned out they should have been on the Pontypridd bus. Cue a quick trip back to the bus station and two very red faces.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

My father was a union rep and so I heard a few good ones. A favourite was a morning run when a service would serve a particular village that had a very large green that doubles as the cricket pitch and acts as a one way loop. Half way round this loop was the shelter so bus arrives and then waits time/driver has fag. Two mins later, driver looks across to see another poppy red bus enter the village. Two drivers each operating the same duty. The second one couldn't find the running board but had assumed it had gone missing. Cue a phone call and a dash back by the second driver to town to pick up a now very late running board on anothe service.

Not certain what mitigation my dad tried to forward at the disciplinary...

 

[Busaholic]

My father was a union rep and so I heard a few good ones. A favourite was a morning run when a service would serve a particular village that had a very large green that doubles as the cricket pitch and acts as a one way loop. Half way round this loop was the shelter so bus arrives and then waits time/driver has fag. Two mins later, driver looks across to see another poppy red bus enter the village. Two drivers each operating the same duty. The second one couldn't find the running board but had assumed it had gone missing. Cue a phone call and a dash back by the second driver to town to pick up a now very late running board on anothe service.

Not certain what mitigation my dad tried to forward at the disciplinary...

This September, Sunday evening. Last day of operation ot opentop service 17B. to be replaced the following day by ordinary 17, same timings leaving Penzance. Result? Both services operated all the way to St Ives.

 

[High Dyke]

A couple of the old town rotes we operated at Grantham usually caused 'brain drain' after a few hours of circuits... The Alma Park 610/611/612 service caught me out after about 6 or 7 alternative circuits - resulting in a couple of slightly 'off-route' diversions. The 614/615 Barrowby Gate circular also foxed me...many a time after turning left out of the bus station and proceeeding along the High Street did a voice in the saloon pipe up "shouldn't we have gone the other way?"; never really seemed to get it wrong when going the opposite way round.

No wonder i never really liked a day on Town services.