Apart from taking an aircon bus where the aircon was not working (click here), which is extremely rare - my first ever since aircon bus was first introduced, I had the good chance to be on a bus that went the wrong way, which unfortunately is not uncommon nowadays.
It's because of the new foreign drivers who were recruited for the job. Most of these foreigners were trained on a specific route and if they make a wrong turn, they really had no idea how to get back to the right path. And being new, they can only recognize the road but not the landmarks along the route. So a lot of times, when you ask them about a particular place, they are unable to answer you even though the buses they are driving do pass by the place. This is a far cry from the past when the drivers are so knowledgeable that they can tell you where to alight and if you need to change to another bus, what number should you take. And if it's at a different bus stop, how to get there.
I boarded the bus from the train station bus stop towards my estate at about 7:40pm.
The bus passed by a cross junction, stopped at two bus stops along the way and filtered to the right lane as it will be turning into my estate from the slip road. Everything went predictably what I am used to.
I was seated diagonally across the bus driver just after the entrance door.
As the bus approached the slip road, the bus driver did not slow down and stop to wait for oncoming traffic from opposite to clear before turning it.
Instead, he stepped on the accelerator and missed the turn.
At the split moment, he realized that he has missed the turn and braked and slowed down.
Luckily he remained calm and quickly called the headquarter and inform his colleague of the problem.
His colleague asked the driver to turn right at the next cross junction and inform him of the bus stop number (yes, all bus stops have numbers assigned) after the turn.
The guy probably wanted to ascertain his exact location even though he might know the roads there well.
At this moment, I wondered if the guy at the headquarter was able to see the location of the bus and where it was moving to since all buses are supposed to be equipped with GPS tracking system.
Having lived in the estate for over 30 years, I am very familiar with the roads there. As most passengers who boarded the bus usually alight at my estate, I had wanted to guide the driver to get back to my estate so that he could drop off these people before getting back to continue to the bus terminal on the right route again. That would mean he has to go one big round.
Anyway, since he had already called the headquarter for help, I decided to adopt a wait and see approach.
Everybody on the bus were puzzled and wondering what's going to happen next,
True to what I suspected, the driver was instructed to go by another way before getting back to the right route. The problem with this was the bus had bypassed my estate where most of the passengers wanted to alight.
As he got back to the right route, he stopped at a bus stop and asked the headquarter what should he do now.
His colleague asked him to issue a refund ticket for affected passengers.
At this moment, an uncle came up to the driver and shouted at him.
"What are you trying to do? You are supposed to drive us back and you conveniently drive here for your own convenience sake. You've already missed two turns." he said angrily.
The driver was trying to hear the instruction from the headquarter and this man was here shouting at him.
I told the man that the driver has missed the turn and he will issue a refund ticket for all affected passengers. He can just go to the opposite side to take a bus back to the estate.
The man said, "I am using a monthly card. I don't need a refund. You give me refund for what? You are supposed to drive us back to the estate."
I replied, "The driver has already made a mistake. There is no way you can make him go back to the estate since he has already turned to this road. If you are really unhappy, you can go write in a complain letter."
Judging from what the man has said, he probably had the same idea as me on how to get the bus driver to get back to the estate. Why he didn't offer to guide the driver when he realized the driver had missed the turn? Was he also adopting a wait and see approach?
But since there's no way that the bus driver is going to detour back to the estate, why is he making a fuss?
He is using a monthly card which probably means he's not going to incur more charges regardless how many trips he takes. He isn't that old that he cannot walk. And there are many buses opposite that can take him back to where he wanted to go.
He can go on shouting and scolding the driver on the bus. Nothing is going to change. Much better for him to just go opposite and take the bus.