XL Bully on coach

[Butterytoastandtea]

My daughter spent the day in a city (about 3.5 hours away) and got the bus back last night. She said she was quite anxious as a couple of men with an xl bully sat behind her and spent the journey rolling spliffs. She said it stank. She wanted to move but was scared to draw any attention to herself. I suppose the drugs were secondary. She was very afraid of the dog. I googled and their policy from 2023 says only guide dogs or in carriers allowed.

Am I being unreasonable to expect to be able to travel on a coach (for 3+) hours without being frightened of other people's large animals? It doesn't seem safe. Do I need to get a grip, does she? I don't know what is normal anymore! I would have picked her up if I knew this was a possibility.

Edited to add she's 17

You haven't said whether your DD has emailed a complaint OP?

The comments in this place get more and more ridiculous.

I understand it, I remember standing up to move away from a stag party once on a train. Huge mistake.

Her friend saw her off at the bus station and I was there to pick her up when it arrived. How much can go wrong on a bus? I mean, if she's going to uni in Sep she'll be living there and having to travel on that bus when she comes home.

It's not about her though. The dog shouldn't have been there

Because she sensed the driver was as scared of them as she was! Nobody wanted a scene.

I'm surprised no other coach passengers complained about the weed smoking, let alone the XL bully on board. I was on an ordinary single decker bus recently, and a man lit up a cigarette. The next minute, the bus had pulled over and two police officers came aboard and arrested the smoker. Coach and bus drivers are able to contact the police for assistance if they don't want to confront possibly violent and aggressive passengers on their own.

She was already feeling scared.

Even if the stoned men didn't notice, the dog might have noticed sudden movement on a bus full of people sitting still.

I’ve been on trains where passengers are vaping, I hate it, but what can you do. A group of them v lone person.

So many deletions but yes this. Yanbu op.

Owners of mutant dogs are not known for their social skills.
I had one facing me it was sat up on a seat
I moved and went upstairs on the bus but not before I was called an arsehole for moving.
This coming from the two junkies counting out their £180 drug money repeatedly after call to dealer.

You can’t even sometimes cross the road avoiding dogs without getting a filthy look by the owner.

You can’t possibly know that. They might not have noticed or cared. Or they might have noticed and become aggressive.

🤪😂🫣🥴

I’ve found national express do not stand for any nonsense but their rivals do not seem to enforce rules as much. Had vaping on the megabus a couple of years ago and people drinking on the flixbus last month whereas a few weeks ago the national express driver stopped the bus because someone opened a can of beer, must have multiple cameras. I suggest in the future she uses national express and pays the extra to reserve a seat near the driver

Her age and gender are totally irrelevant. We're talking about pit bull dogs being in public when the DDA came in in 1991. Pits should not fucking exist in the UK. DEFRA majorly fucked up by ever letting them through Heathrow. How did that happen? Oh, because they are the most useless gov department known to tax payers. I worked there, it was like living in the 1950s. Put down all pitbulls right now. There is no reason not to. Unless you're a soppy cunt who thinks their right to life trumps humans. In which case, fuck you.

I can't believe how many people are blaming a 17yo for acting "wrong" when she was terrified. FWIW she probably did exactly the right thing.

If a quiet word from the driver would have been enough to remove the men, then chances are that no one was in any danger. But if the men were actually dangerous, then that sort of intervention by an unsupported driver could 100% have triggered an awful situation.

The coach company needs better policies and training to help avoid and handle these situations.

Some of us are merely suggesting the girl should have moved.

If the driver was at all worried, he should have phoned the police.

If it was late I quite understand she might not get a reply but I had cause to complain about an Arriva bus driver (rude,left people at stop-last bus of the day on a rural service, dangerous driving) and I got a reply to my tweet very quickly. Your poor dd. BTP should cover coaches and buses too.

I can't understand not being willing to move seats. On long journeys people move seats all the time. How many other passengers were on this coach, were there virtually no spare seats?

I gather the dog did precisely nothing unpleasant other than exist. Was it muzzled, btw?

I would have moved and complained. She's learning

I agree that anyone afraid to change seats shouldn’t travel alone.

But it doesn’t matter if the dog was muzzled. It wasn’t allowed on the bus, and passengers are entitled to expect that the rules around animal travel be enforced.

Weird thread. The clearly entitled poster who thought the role of a parent of adults was to provide a car. People who suggest you should complain to the driver about a pile of stoned men with a dangerous dog, when they are still aboard the same transport. Yeah right, very safe and sensible!