I got on the bus to go to work and asked the driver how it was going. He said 17 words, sixteen of which were swear words. So I guessed it wasn't going too well. I feared the worst. And what happened when I got out on the road myself? Not much. The biggest excitement of the day was when a couple got on with the new pass and I looked to see where they were from. Rotherham, Gateshead, Grimsby, Morecombe, Poole, Knott End, Whitehaven, Basingstoke? All these places I know or have at least visited but Centro. Where the bloody hell is Centro. I mean who would call a town Centro and if they did surely I would have heard of it?
OK; if that isn't bad enough then those with long enough memories will also have heard of Selnec the bus company with the worst ever colour scheme. I personally believe they bought ten thousand tins of different coloured paint and mixed to lot and got a new colour; Vomit.
Anyway I digress. I have taken less money than today's effort but only when I have spent about half the duty broken down ( back in the old days when we did occasionally break down). It seemed everyone decided to come out and try out their new passes, even those who hadn't actually got their new pass, which was most of them. A council official told me that the new passes were, "in the post." A couple of discrete coughs from me and he added, "or will be any day now."
Actually the delay in the passes is due to Central Government. Instead of letting each local authority produce their own passes, I know Torbay council have the technology to do this so others probably can as well, they insisted that the passes were made at only Authorized Pass Producers and there are only 6 names on the list. Eleven million passes divided by 6 equals 1.84 million passes per printer. That would be like the government saying we could only have six toilet paper suppliers for the whole country. Think about it. Well no, perhaps not.
Anyway, I will only mention bus passes again to let you know when mine does arrive and of course in passing. Oh yeah, I will also have a rant at Central Government any day now about Carers passes when I can find the energy.
5 comments:
Centro is the PTE for the West Midlands region :-)
David:
Thank you so much for the above comment.
I would fully support an experienced Bus Driver like your self having a well informed "RANT" at Central Government - you are Sir, such a fluent, flowing writer - and I wish you well!
Yes, Tom's right Centro covers Birmingham and the Black Country and its commercial branch has recently been renamed 'Network West Midlands'.
Covers trains as well. Confusingly, they retain the Centro livery which is getting a bit old.
please note all bus drivers, wales bus passes can be used in england and vise versa.
Up here limited journeys into scotland are supported, things are getting reviewed within the year, so probably sometime next week buss passes will be national.
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