The Mark Ellis Blog

The bus industry has changed a lot over the years and access to vehicles has improved leaps and bounds.  This is a superb improvement as its making public transport much easier for people to use, especially if you're not so good on your feet, have a pushchair or are in a wheelchair.  I can remember the days of my parents struggling to get prams etc into guards vans etc on the train and not having too many pleasant journeys standing with blanked out windows. So, we've moved on and the vast majority of buses are now low floor and easy access, plus trains and metro's are also a lot easier and more pleasant to use if you've got a pushchair or a wheelchair.  There's no doubt that there's been a huge move forward with bus operators spending millions of pounds on new vehicles ahead of the DDA access regulations. Even though there's been a huge move forwards in access, there was a case recently in Darlington where a local disability group took Arriva to court re...

Firstly, I do know that snooping in on other people's conversations is pretty rude, but some people (like me) are just too loud and you can't help but listen in - especially when they're on the bus.  One day this week was a particular cracker as I had a canny bit of time out on the buses and heard allsorts - it was truly fantastic.  I do follow a twitter account @busoverheards which has some funny anecdotes on it and whoever does it, is very funny and some of them are spot on and make me chuckle. So there I am, sat on the bus and waiting to leave a well know North East bus station that has a pub nearby. There's a man and a woman sat a couple of rows in front of me and the guy notices his Dad stood outside said pub and then points him out to the young lady and then goes onto explain who all the other people are stood in the group.  One of the group (and I can't remember her name, thankfully) was pointed out as the Dad's ex-partner, but he doesn't have much ...