The Australian bus driver, a mixed-race woman in her mid-30s, tops, bombarded us with three messages in as many minutes, as two stops into my regular journey, the bus was held for five minutes to ‘REGULATE THE SERVICE’. It’s the message that will haunt many Londoners and set our teeth on edge. If the bus has arrived early, why can we just not have a bus that gets us to our destination that little bit earlier for once?
“Sit back, relax, close your eyes and just take some time for yourself.”
Okay, once, I’ll let that pretentious message slide. I don’t need to hear it three times in three minutes, on public transport, because it’s just having the opposite effect.
At least, to give credit where it’s due, she was the first driver I’ve ever heard say ‘Apologies for THE inconvenience to your journey’, rather than ‘any inconvenience’. Acknowledging we are being inconvenienced makes the world, in my view, a better place.