BronzeRiders

Bronzeriders are bus passes that school children can obtain. Basically what they are is a free school bus pass that the local authorities issue to children who qualify for free travel to and from school plus they can be used on the buses at all other times. The idea is that the children will get used to travelling on the bus and when they leave school and find work they will continue travelling by bus. I think that is the ides anyway.

They are dated from when school starts next month to some time in December when the school term ends. The problem is there are several thousand of these tickets and the local authorities have started sending them out already even though school doesn’t start for two weeks. They are accompanied by a letter explaining that the Bronzerider tickets can be used to travel to and from school and at all other times. In one way this is a good thing for us drivers. Before they were introduced a few years ago we used to have heated discussions with young people at 8:30 on a Friday evening who were, the females anyway, made up to the nines and dressed for a night on the town and claim they were going to a school function and could therefore used their pass. Now they can use the pass if it has the word Bronzerider printed on it. Now some of the children who have got their passes early think they can use them now, the letter says they can be used at any time. However on the pass it has the words,” Valid between Sept 3 2007 and Dec 21 2007.” So they can not be used until the September date.

A couple of young persons got on a bus today and presented their passes only to be told they weren’t yet valid. They did not display unbridled joy at receiving this news. The first bus they tried to board left without them and the driver used the radio to warn the next driver of the delights awaiting him at the Cary Parade bus stop. He reported that the young ladies had greeted his repeated refusal to accept their passes with, “Attitude!”

And it had been such a nice day until then.