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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

That they are cancelling my bus and I am really pissed off

111 replies

RedBlu · 17/09/2015 21:24

We moved to this area last year, it's sort of semi rural but I ensured before moving here it had a good bus route as I work in the city and I don't drive.

Been using the bus service for months with no issues and then today, look in the local paper and the bus company are going to stop serving our area as its not "viable".

I am FUMING! They will be going as far as the next village, which is a 15 minute walk. Not an issue in the summer months, but now it's getting cold, dark and wet, it's not something I want to do.

There is a train station a bit closer but I can't afford it, even buying yearly pass through work would mean paying back £90 a month.

I am currently paying the bus company £45!

I am actually really upset about it as its has totally fucked me up as I don't know what to do. Obviously walking is the only option it maybe getting a bike and cycling to the next village.

Either way, I am really fed up. I know I should learn to drive, but it's expensive and I don't have the spare money to spend on it at the moment.

Sad
OP posts:
ThursdayLastWeek · 18/09/2015 07:38

I live rurally too, and this would piss me off no end.
There is a massive difference between walking on pavements on a well lit street to a station filled with other people and trains that run every half an hour.

I expect that if the OP misses this bus that's it for the day, or at least for a few hours.
Roads don't have pavements for 15minutes worthoif walking around here, and as I sit in my bed I can hear cars racing through my little village definitely NOT doing 30 mph in the peeing down rain.

You have my sympathies OP, yes, get protesting

Mrsjayy · 18/09/2015 07:42

A 15 minute walk doesnt sound much if you are in a town but the op has to go to the next village where maybe the paths are not great or something

EponasWildDaughter · 18/09/2015 07:46

There are often mutterings about cancelling buses as the routes are 'non profitable'. Here it would be a 25 minute walk to the next village. One long narrow twisty lane with cars doing 65mph + along them squeezing past each other in places. No pavement. No lighting. Long grass and ditches both sides.

Bus only comes once an hour (nothing after 5.30pm in some cases) so if you miss it, or your connections are out - well you're stood in the middle of nowhere out in the open for an hour at the very least.

It's not just a case of putting on a mac FGS!

So different in a town or city, where it's lit, inhabited, there are pavements and somewhere to shelter if you do have to wait.

This is why all 3 DDs are learning or have learned to drive.

DollyMcDolly · 18/09/2015 07:48

I walk 20 minutes to school and back in all sorts of weather. 15 minutes is nothing

stripytees · 18/09/2015 07:49

Could you try to save £11 per week from your other spending to be able to afford the train instead?

southeastastra · 18/09/2015 07:51

i live the outskirts of london and they are always cutting our bus routes. don't assume bus services are great here. there are lots of places that are very near but have no bus service at all. buses should be a service not a bloody profit making business.

Notasinglefuckwasgiven · 18/09/2015 08:13

I agree. But it was privatised so the government could make tax money from it instead of spending money providing services I believe. Renationalisation would sort it out and make working for them better. Conditions are terrible because it's profit driven. We are overworked and consistently understaffed too. Most drivers are getting 2 or 4 days off a month. Pressure on you to give up time off to cover the manpower shortfall is constant. Being sworn at and threatened with not being granted leave to go to child's school/family event etc if you don't give up your day off that week is an every day normal thing in the large depots. It's money. They need to make money. Put it back in the states hands and this issue disappears taking with it the cutting of non profitable rural services.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 18/09/2015 08:20

ok, so for redblu, it is an inconvenience. What about others in the village, who are less mobile who have become isolated by this?
redblu - check your pms.

Anotherusername1 · 18/09/2015 08:22

The weather actually isn't always that bad in the winter. I live around 25 minutes walk from my local railway station. My husband walks every day, and walks back most days too. I walk there and back when I have to get the train (car park costs £8 and I am too tight, also it's good exercise). I've actually very very rarely got completely rained on, and a taxi is cheaper than the bus on the odd time I've jumped in a taxi. But I live in a town so it's pavement all the way.

They cut the buses where I live too. There was a HUGE protest. We've actually got better buses than before now. Get protesting.

Notasinglefuckwasgiven · 18/09/2015 08:23

badkitty again I agree. Money. Take it back from private sector. Solve everything. Sadly not quite the Tory belief system so won't happen anytime soon.

BikeRunSki · 18/09/2015 08:23

When my (hourly) rural bus was cancelled, the entire route was cancelled. The next nearest alternative is a train station 2.5 miles awa (also hourly trains)! This was about 12 years ago. I have since got a job with a company car (and a lot of driving!), but other bus users campaigned successfully for the route to be reinstated. It now serves all the same villages and more, so takes longer, but it is back. Campaigning can work, but be careful what you wish for.

SwanneeKazoo · 18/09/2015 08:29

I can understand why you are pissed off, but you and a lot of other posters are focussing on the negative aspects of walking to the next village. I agree with others that 15 minutes is nothing, and to do that walk first thing on a beautiful morning as the dawn is breaking, listening to the dawn chorus, is a perfect start to the day. The number of days it is pissing down with rain is not as many as you might think. At 6 am there won't be that much traffic so if you do have to walk in the road just be sure to wear some hi-viz reflective gear. It's actually easier to walk in the road (facing the oncoming traffic) when it's dark, as you can see the cars' lights soon enough to get on the verge.

As Billy Connolly (I think) said, there's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.

LIZS · 18/09/2015 08:35

Yanbu to be disappointed but u to have moved depending on it. I doubt you are the only person affected, can you organise a combined taxi/lift share to next village, campaign to mp etc I think other posters may be underestimating a 15 minute rural walk, it could well be along unlit lanes without pavement. Could you consider the walk while weather is good then rethink the train for the winter months. Maybe you could learn to drive longer term.

lorelei9 · 18/09/2015 10:13

I'm confused
I don't the poster has an issue with the 15 minute walk - it's the lengthening of the commute
I have a choice of Tube or bus or a combo - in order to save money i try to take the bus, but it makes a 1 hour commute into a 1.5 hour one, a 3 hour round trip daily is just grim.

I'm not getting the impression that the OP is just too lazy to walk 15 minutes so I'm a bit baffled why people are focusing on it.

Fizzielove · 18/09/2015 10:21

Do you own or rent ur house? If you rent and the lack of bus annoys you enough you could easily move?!

hooliodancer · 18/09/2015 10:24

I think 15 minutes is not a long walk at all. I walk that to and from the station, to and from the gym most days. It is a case of getting used to it, it will seem long at first because you don't usually do it.

LadySheherazade · 18/09/2015 10:27

I think you're being a bit pathetic tbh. Yes it's annoying, but plenty of children walk further than that to school, I walk further than that to work and I live in a city.

LadySheherazade · 18/09/2015 10:29

lorelei what would you like people to focus on? Confused.

Are we not being specific enough? YANBU to be annoyed OP. But it's not a big deal.

Plentychilled · 18/09/2015 10:35

I walk 15 minutes to my bus stop, 45 minutes on the bus and then another 5 minute walk to work. I also have to get the earlier bus as they're unreliable. I leave my house at 6.40 for an 8.45 start because half of the time the 7.30am bus doesn't turn up and I can't risk it.

It's annoying and a pain in the arse, but you get used to it and it's not really a big deal, it's pretty standard.

Mrsjayy · 18/09/2015 10:35

I think bus service being cut is quite a big deal tbh we dont know where the op lives it could be village -road no pavements- next village that is not only a pain to walk but it cuts villagers off if they rely on a bus service

lorelei9 · 18/09/2015 10:35

LadyS "lorelei what would you like people to focus on?"

the fact that the OP's PITA commute has just become a worse PITA commute. Maybe I'm just more sympathetic about these things than most, I don't know.

I'll bow out now - but Flowers to the OP.

Arabidopsis · 18/09/2015 11:03

Yes, it's annoying but it sounds like you still have a couple of options, bus or train.

One takes longer, the other is more expensive - take your choice.

I'm intrigued by the costs you quote versus the time it takes. £45 a month would only get me 2 miles down the road on the bus.

whatdoIget · 18/09/2015 11:09

A 15 minute walk may be "nothing" to the op, but older people and those with mobility problems will be affected and quite possibly become isolated in their own homes. Very sad.

descalina · 18/09/2015 11:45

15 minutes isn't nothing when its on top of what is already a journey of over an hour and a half!!

DamnBamboo · 18/09/2015 11:57

It's a 15 minute walk.
YABVU