'Why I enjoy taking the bus' - Your Letters plus a snapshot of 1913 and the No. 44 tram in motion, in our Picture from the Past series

Bus experience is excellent

I was sorry to read of Mr C Lloyd's experience of bus travel and thought I ought to show that experiences can differ. Mr Lloyd does not mention the operator responsible for the service he used, but I will mention Diamond for the excellent local service I have. I have only been let down a couple of times in the past year and I use the service three or four times a week.

When you think that buses are on the road for say possibly 16 hours a day and several days a week then it must not be surprising that breakdowns will occur and to achieve such reliability as I experience must mean excellent work by the maintenance team. Not to mention those who have to ensure each bus has a driver when they need to leave the depot.

I find the drivers are generally friendly and considerate, waiting for us, not so young ones, to sit down before they move off and for us to stand up to get off at our destination. Yes, there is the odd grumpy driver but who has not had a bad day? And yes there is also the odd one who thinks he could be Stirling Moss (giving my age away) but most drive well, and they do have to deal with some other road users who don't appear to have had much training at all.

As for my fellow passengers I cannot say I have experienced much coughing and sneezing from them, as most behave in a civilised manner, and who objects to the odd upset baby? As I use my bus regularly, I have met several people from my area at the local bus stops and there's many a "good morning" exchanged when I board. I do feel the bus can be, in a small way, one way of combating loneliness and we sometimes chat in the bus station while waiting for the bus home. If you use a car you tend to be isolated much more of the time you are out.

When I go on holiday now, I use the local buses as you see more of the scenery as you're not having to look at the road all the time.