On Mondays I travel into Bath and use the Park and Ride. Most of the time it runs fairly smoothly with buses arriving every ten minutes, bang on schedule. But on one particular Monday in January things were a bit different. The late afternoon was becoming lighter, dusk creeping in over the city around five instead of four and the weather had turned chilly. The wintery air was crisp and fresh as I made my way down the narrow Georgian streets to the bus stop at the bottom end of the city. I joined the queue which was long but not unusually so and waited.
Ten minutes later we were still waiting. I stared down the long line and then looked behind me to see the same line snaking up between the shops. I stamped my feet feeling the chill and turned up my collar in an attempt to keep the cold out. Some people must have left the queue for we shuffled forward or perhaps we were bunching up like penguins trying to huddle together. A girl behind me began to speak into her mobile.
“Hello” she said. “I’m at the Park and Ride, still waiting for the bus,” she said wearily. She turned to her companion and the talk turned to hot steaming baths and “proud to be pink.”
“I’m hungry,” said someone dressed in a smart grey coat. Her curly locks squashed tight under a black woolly hat. The chatter behind me turned to food and what was for tea tonight. Still we waited. Another ten minutes went by. It must have been a serious hiccup for us to be stuck here for so long.
After waiting twenty five minutes, a bus came into view. A muffled cheer went up from the line. People began to edge forward and then a second bus turned up. What’s that saying about bananas? Us Brits have a reputation for queuing politely but after a slight hesitation, a breakaway group surged towards the second bus. It was almost full when a third bus turned up, but finding nobody waiting, it lurked for a short while and then carried on up the road completely empty!
We sat comfortably in our seats as the bus toiled its ponderous way up the hill and wondered what the problem had been. A chap next to me decided to find out from the internet.
“Ah!” he said. And the reason for all this? The answer was apparently ‘misbehaving traffic lights’. Some things just do not move on. Well that’s life.
Ten minutes later we were still waiting. I stared down the long line and then looked behind me to see the same line snaking up between the shops. I stamped my feet feeling the chill and turned up my collar in an attempt to keep the cold out. Some people must have left the queue for we shuffled forward or perhaps we were bunching up like penguins trying to huddle together. A girl behind me began to speak into her mobile.
“Hello” she said. “I’m at the Park and Ride, still waiting for the bus,” she said wearily. She turned to her companion and the talk turned to hot steaming baths and “proud to be pink.”
“I’m hungry,” said someone dressed in a smart grey coat. Her curly locks squashed tight under a black woolly hat. The chatter behind me turned to food and what was for tea tonight. Still we waited. Another ten minutes went by. It must have been a serious hiccup for us to be stuck here for so long.
After waiting twenty five minutes, a bus came into view. A muffled cheer went up from the line. People began to edge forward and then a second bus turned up. What’s that saying about bananas? Us Brits have a reputation for queuing politely but after a slight hesitation, a breakaway group surged towards the second bus. It was almost full when a third bus turned up, but finding nobody waiting, it lurked for a short while and then carried on up the road completely empty!
We sat comfortably in our seats as the bus toiled its ponderous way up the hill and wondered what the problem had been. A chap next to me decided to find out from the internet.
“Ah!” he said. And the reason for all this? The answer was apparently ‘misbehaving traffic lights’. Some things just do not move on. Well that’s life.