I wanted to do something very rare today. I wanted to catch a bus. I don't normally catch buses because, on the whole, they don’t go where I want or they take such an indirect route the journey time is almost as long as walking. Generally I prefer to drive or cycle. Today was an exception.
As many might have noticed, the weather in the South of England has been warm today; so warm walking a long way was particularly tiring and dehydrating. Added to that, I was without my car, and collecting it was the reason for my journey. I had delivered it to a garage about 3 miles away for a service and MOT, and had already walked home. My bicycle won’t fit inside it so I couldn’t use that. I decided to take a bus.
I got to the bus stop just as the bus arrived. In the old days, when we paid our fare on buses, that would have been ideal, but these days we have to buy the ticket at the stop before we get on. There is a ticket machine provided for that purpose. So, while the bus waited I tried to buy a ticket. The first thing the machine asked me was whether I had a travelcard. No, I just needed a ticket. Then it required me to choose the type of ticket. As it was just a single occasional journey I selected a single. A new screen came up asking how many I wanted. Well, just the one, since it was only a single journey I needed. The display showed “0”, so I tapped a button labelled “+” next to it. The display changed to “5”, so I pressed “−”. The display changed back to “0”. I tried again and the same thing happened. Then it dawned on me. The bus company would not let me buy a single ticket for a single journey. I had to buy five tickets for five journeys, but I did not want to make five journeys. I only needed one. I threw my hands up in disgust and the bus moved off. I began to walk in the hot sun.
I can’t help wondering what the bus company thinks a single ticket is for, if they are only sold for multiple journeys.
