Today I drove the Winchester to Birmingham and return Megabus. The return departure from Birmingham is at 15:10 and with monotonous regularity there is someone at the stop asking about the “two thirty five bus” to Glasgow. I then ask to see their ticket and explain that the 02:35 time on the tickets means that the bus went 12 hours before they thought it should! They’ve arrived for a non-existent 14:35 departure. I’ve written about this before, once when the passenger was foreign and didn’t seem to be able to grasp the problem. Other passengers who do understand what’s happened when it’s explained are usually, and quite naturally, fed up but are at least philosophical about it. Today’s passenger wanted compensation for the bus leaving early! I asked him why he thought Megabus should pay him compensation when he turned up 12 hours late for his bus and he complained that “no one told me it was in the morning and not the afternoon”. He agreed the ticket showed the time as 02:35 and understood the 24 hour clock but felt that Megabus should put the word ‘morning’ or ‘afternoon’ after the 24 hour time format. I just smiled and told him to ask Customer Service for any compensation he thought he deserved.

When I got to Oxford I knew that one of the passengers who’d boarded in Birmingham was ticketed for Oxford. As I pulled up at the stop I announced “this is Oxford” and opened the door …… silence, no one moved. I announced again “this is the only Oxford stop” and still no one stirred. I checked my ticket list and then announced “the passenger with ticket number ‘x-abcd’ has a ticket for Birmingham to Oxford so this is their stop. Finally a young woman said “I think that’s me” and got off. Odd.