The lies passengers tell

This morning I did two back to back Portsmouth to Winchester runs whilst another driver did the two corresponding Bournemouth to Winchester runs. The first run from Bournemouth departs at 06:40 and the second at 08:40. When we chatted at the end of our duties my colleague told me of a passenger getting on the 08:40 bus saying that she should have been on the 06:40 but it hadn’t turned up! “What time were you here?” he asked her. “Six thirty” she replied. “Then I’m sorry but your lying” he told her! She looked confused so he told her that he was the driver of the 06:40 bus as well as this bus. He told her that he had infact left 5 minutes late at 06:45 and would she like to apologise to him, admit she was late and missed the bus and ask if she could catch this one. Seemed a fair enough to offer to everyone else on the bus who was listening intently to the conversation. But no, she continued to claim to having arrived at 06:30 and that no bus had come until now. The driver, who would have taken her if she had admitted the truth, then told her that he wasn’t prepared to take someone who lied and continued to lie when confronted with the truth. Seemed fair enough to me. It’s passengers like her who try to get drivers into trouble, the driver is told of the accusation and then has to produce proof of his timekeeping by producing the tacho chart for the journey. Quite a number have complained about me going before they got to the stop but never has one been telling the truth.

2 thoughts on “The lies passengers tell

  1. Malcolm Post author

    Megabus certainly had allowed for the clock change. I think it unlikely that was the passenger’s problem; they would have been 1 hour early, not late, if they’d not changed their watch/clock. They would also have been 1 hour early for the bus they tried to board if they’d not changed the clocks.

    A possible scenario is that the passenger hadn’t changed their watch, arrived 1 hour early, no bus came along so they went home and then discovered that the clocks had changed! So went back for the 08:40. That is understandable and anyone saying that would certainly be allowed travel on the later bus.

  2. The Muller

    They were possibly both correct, according to their frames of reference. I suspect one party had neglected to allow for the clock change.

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