At work I read Elvan ‘s blog about her trip to Zwolle yesterday. I was higly amused by the hilarious adventure and her complains. I could exactly image how it all happened. Shortly later, I found out that public transport in The Netherlands is in a very bad state. 

I had to take the bus home from Amsterdam Central Station towards my house near Westerstraat. A bus ride which will take you 10 – 15 minutes. My busline (18) has a bad reputation, but tonight is was worse then before. It was raining. Arrived at the busstop around 19:20 and saw I just missed the 19:18 bus… I don’t think it left then, because it was already crowded there. Around 19:35 a bus arrived, all passengers left the bus and everyone expected that it will move just 15 meters to front to allow everyone to enter the bus. No, it did not. It accelerated an drove empty away… we all couldn’t believe what happened. So, we all thought, a next one will come in a minute… No. It did NOT!

We (almost 50 people now) waited more, at 19:51 finally a bus arrived… Everyone entered the bus quickly, no one complained towards the bus driver about the situation. We don’t expect anymore that complaining about these things bring any solution. It will only made the trip home longer lasting. So, finally sitting in a crowded bus, I place my self always at a strategic place to enter the bus as one of the first, once it happened, after waiting for 30 minutes I could not enter the bus because it was full… in the front, not in the back.

So, while sitting in the bus, packed like sardines in a can, I heard a smart girl behind me calling the buscompany ( GVB ) and asking why the bus left without passengers… no answer she got. She immediately used the opportunity to complain about the terrible busline we all were sitting in. Telling the person on the other side that in the morning the bus hardly comes, and when i arrives, they turn up with 4 busses at the same time… It was not needed to leave her name and other information behind. There would not beany action following her complaint, we got the message. She got great support from other people in the bus…

Next time, I will walk home (30 minutes), it gives me more energy, and less stress. Getting wet (soaked) is sometimes one of the side-effects…