Apology after OAPs ordered off their bus (From Bournemouth Echo)

Apology after OAPs ordered off their bus

7:30pm Tuesday 14th October 2008 in News By Stephen Bailey

YELLOW Buses has apologised after a driver left pensioners “stranded” and ordered three others off the vehicle.

The driver apparently didn’t realise it was after 9.30am and their bus passes could be used – and wouldn’t listen to their protests.

Bournemouth resident Bob Barter, 77, was one of the people affected as he tried to catch a 5B at The Richmond Arms in Charminster Road with his wife Brenda.

The bus arrived right on time at 9.31am, and Mr Barter said three out of half-a-dozen pensioners waiting managed to get on board.

“He just said ‘Off the bus’, just like that. No ‘please’ or explanation. I just couldn’t understand it.”

Mr Barter said he explained it was past 9.30am and said: “One lady even phoned the talking clock and it was 9.34am but he still ordered us off several more times.”

He claims the driver turned off the engine and the face-off only ended at 9.37am, when the driver headed off without the other pensioners.

“He left them stranded on the pavement,” said Mr Barter, a former aircraft paint-sprayer at Bournemouth Airport.

He added: “The driver must have got out of the wrong side of the bed in the morning. I told him he was a miserable-so-and-so.”

Jenni Wilkinson, Transdev Yellow Buses’ head of marketing, said: “We have investigated and concluded that the high standards of customer care, which the 12 million passengers who travel on our services each year have a right to expect, were not met on this occasion.

“We wrote to Mr Barter and apologised for what we accept was a situation which should have been handled with more discretion. We’re happy to repeat that apology.”