Reading Roars!

The Thames Valley Park bus service is in danger of becoming a joke.

Around 6pm this evening, I joined an already large queue at Microsoft Campus bus stop to catch the TVP bus into Reading town centre.  Cars sped past, but no bus appeared and the queue continued to lengthen.  Although it wasn’t raining (or snowing!) - the sky was beautifully clear - the air felt very, very cold.  Bitterly cold.

And we waited and waited.  Still no bus.  Unfortunately my phone battery was dead, so I wasn’t able to amuse myself with a little game (if “amuse” is the right word) of mobile snooker, and my iPod music collection was on the stale side.

A group detached itself from the queue and returned to reception to call for a taxi.

And still we waited.

Eventually the familiar outline of the bus appeared ahead (after at least 20 minutes of waiting).  The vehicle stopped at BG, disappeared momentarily and re-appeared at the Microsoft entrance.

Then a few mutterings from the queue.  “It’s rammed,” said one.  It certainly looked full from where I was standing.

The security gate opened, the bus passed through and stopped before reaching us, letting several passengers out.  Belt loosened, the bus continued its journey, approaching our stop.

And then a strange thing happened.  The bus stopped again - at the tail of the queue.  The driver then very unfairly began admitting people from the end, not head, of the queue!  This prompted a rush of people from the “correct” end and an angry outburst was made by one guy, whose reasoning was ignored by the lady behind the wheel.

Luckily, I got a foot on the bus.  It was wrong of me to do this - others were before me - but the driver had made a mockery of the queueing system and I grasped the opportunity. 

Now, what next?  I’d expect someone to complain.  Loudly.  The TVP bus service appears to be letting many people down, for whatever reason.  I recognise that it’s a free service for people travelling between the business park and Reading, but the quality of the service seems to have worsened over a 12 month period and something should be done about it.  Perhaps it’s time to charge passengers to use the bus.