It is a wet and miserable Friday night in south-west London, as i discuss the extraordinary life of a 26 year old London bus driver with a TFL driver himself. I get the impression that life is ultimately comfortable and stable in his eyes. He seems completely content with his salary of £3000 a month - comparing it to his previous pay of £1200 a month after achieving a three year degree in software engineering. Nonetheless, he goes unnoticed by the hundreds of people he transports across the city every day. When he tells me about the everyday issues that can occur; an almost comedic story of a man projectile vomiting all over passengers from the top deck down the stairs contrasts heavily to a man whose heart stopped beating on this drivers bus. He states that sick, drunk and rowdy passengers are most certainly not a rarity to a bus driver. The 1:00 am drunk teenagers that climb aboard the vehicle are the epitome of a drivers worst nightmare, I am told that sometimes being firm and clear is just not enough when these people try and cheat the system of paying with an oyster card and instead resort to verbal abuse and horrific scenes. Bus drivers suffer much verbal abuse, misrepresentation and generalisation from the unaware british public. If something goes wrong on a bus then all the drivers are blamed and tarnished with the same brush. However, the council supports their drivers and urge them to remember their main purpose; “to serve our passengers and people at the end of the day”. This gentleman witnesses anything and everything - he lets out a slight giggle as he recalls the time that he forgot to check the vehicle for hidden passengers at the bus garage and to his complete shock discovered three elderly sleeping ladies emerge from the back in the dark. The youthful and energetic man is proud to be a TFL bus driver - without drivers like him, people in our city would lack the ability to stay connected and go about their daily jobs. It is thanks to hard-working drivers like himself that London thrives, however, the poignant fact is that TFL drivers’ hard work may only truly be noticed and respected when they are not around, but of course still needed by their people.
