I've caught the same bus at the same time every weekday for the past few years. There have been dozens of different drivers over that time. I never noticed anything untoward about them until, for the last two days, the driver has been manically happy and enthusiastic!

Every person who validates their MetCard gets a 'Thankyou!' - which, at stops where quite a few people are getting on, leads to 'Thankyou... Thankyou... Thankyou... Thankyou...'. Every passenger that gets off the bus is farewelled with 'Have a lovely afternoon!'. Everything he says is so forceful and upbeat that it deserves an exclamation mark. He laughs, and sings along to the radio. Once I heard him say 'I enjoy driving anywhere!' to a passenger.

So what, you say, you had a nice bus driver. What worried me is how disturbed I was by this, and some things don't match up. He jerked to a stop at a green-light yesterday, throwing us all into the seat in front of us, then kept the bus stopped there for some time while he rubbed his eyes and stretched. I also heard him say "5 hours to go! I've been in the seat for 8 already..." Thirteen hour workdays! We begin to see the reason for the ragged edge to his enthusiasm, only emphasised when you compare him to other bus-drivers.

This also shows that for it to be such a shock to find a cheery bus-driver, that there is a bit of a problem with customer service in that particular bus company. Still, give me one of those surly bus-drivers any day, if they're at least going to drive safely.

I can't work out why he's like this.

No-Doz?

This entry was posted on May 21, 2005 at 8:19 AM. |