As a strong believer in and defender of using public transport as opposed to clogging the roads and the air with lots of unneccesary car journeys, this really pains me. Yesterday’s little tour had us feeling all smug: We bought Daysaver tickets for £3, and boarded a bus, bound for the delights of the urban West Midlands. As I’m lead to believe that the area is the

Second Largest Conurbation

in the UK, one might expect an exemplary public transport system. Well, one might well be seriously fucking dissapointed.

Oh, most of it went well. We travelled without problem from near home here to Sedgley, and had only a minor blip when the bus from the Pie Factory was run by Diamond Bus- meaning our tickets just entitled us to a reduced fare. Still, we’re still happy- we’ve saved some 8 quid so far in fares. Eight quid, which didn’t pay for the taxi journey of 3.7 miles that was made neccesary due to the fact that our previously rather nice half-hourly bus service had now changed to hourly (for the record, that journey costs nine pounds and fucking sixty pence). I know that the bus frequency still isn’t that bad: the Bumpkin doesn’t have a bus service at night at all- but that’s his fault for living in the sticks, frankly. We’re townies here- we live near to a main road, and so suffer the traffic, noise and pollution, but we have the compensations. Pubs, takeaways, shops, transport. As a further whinge, the revised bus now comes (in that shape of a clapped out Metrobus with no transmission oil, by the sound of it) thundering past my window at about 6am, and the rerouted service that no longer serves Walsall Wood goes to Pelsall. Great.

So go on, explain a few things. Why:

1. Change the route down a residential street?

2. Reduce the frequency in evenings when the srevice was useful?

3. Actually have more services on a Sunday evening than Friday or Saturday?

4. While we’re there, why did you move lots of buses out of the purpose-built bus station and spread them liberally around several square miles? Are you inept, on crack, or do you have ‘special needs’? Fuckwits.

5. Why do i now have a better local evening service to Birmigham than the nearest large town (and no, that shouldn’t mean reducing the 56 service…)

Could it be that bus provision has more to do with the privatised services (thanks for that, Conservative Government) making a shitpile of money than providing a decent service?

Maybe I should use my car all the time instead. Maybe even take up drink-driving if I fancy a pint? Frankly, all of the noise about lowering carbon footprint is bollocks. Clearly those in control want us to use our cars as much as possible (out-of-town shops, par example?), then tax us for it. Makes my want to indulge in a bit of tuning, and then drive in circles pumping soot out:

Go on, tell my why we should all use public transport.