Yesterday I did the Winchester to Birmingham Megabus run. I’m scheduled to leave the centre of Birmingham at 15:10 but put myself at the stop at 15:00, immediately a guy rushed up to me waving a booking reference printout indicating that the bus still hadn’t arrived. As I took his printout I was pretty sure I could guess what the problem was, I took one look at it and saw that it was Birmingham to Glasgow. I’d guessed right! His ticket was for 02:35 from Birmingham NOT 2:35 pm :-( Biggest problem was that the didn’t speak any English and I found it impossible to communicate to him that he’d missed the bus by 12 hours. I tried to indicate that the ticket was useless by doing a tear it up action, he seemed to understand that he couldn’t therefore travel now but still didn’t seem to comprehend what was wrong and what his options were. Finally he pulled out a mobile ‘phone and called someone, passing the ‘phone over to me. Their English was a little better and they understood that he’d missed the bus but I don’t think they understood the difference between 02:35 and 14:35 thinking he’d missed the non-existent 14:35 by a few minutes! I told them that he’d need a new ticket for the next bus but they didn’t seem to want to hear that, even if they got him another ticket would he turn up at 2:35 pm, 12 hours late, again tomorrow?

I tried to ask how he’d booked the ticket but he didn’t understand so I guessed it must have been done by someone else – this guy didn’t have sufficient English to be able to use the website and make the booking himself. I had to leave and I couldn’t think of anything else I could do. I wonder where he is now.