Easy Rider

A few days ago I did something that I'd resisted doing for the last eight years, ever since I qualified for a State Pension in November 2014. I applied for a Bus Pass, which gives me free bus travel in England after 9.30am Monday to Friday, and all weekend. I did it all online, on my phone. It was pretty straightforward. I was able to use the phone to select and submit a good photo of myself, and to take pictures of documents to prove my address and identity, and submit those too. I've now got a plastic card - the pass - which I can flash in front of drivers as I board any bus I might catch. It arrived yesterday. This is the front of it:

Strangely, it doesn't say 'Bus Pass' - I wonder why not? And equally strange, it's still a plastic card: why isn't it an image on an app, like my latest Senior Railcard, which looks like this on my phone screen:

Perhaps the issuing authority is behind the times. Or else reckons that many, perhaps most, bus users are the sort of people who use their phones - if they have them - only for voice conversations, and haven't grasped the concept of apps. You know, fuddy-duddy people who 'don't understand all this new technology', even though the said technology has been around for fully fifteen years. (The first iPhone was, after all, launched by Apple in 2007: apps are not the latest thing) 

Never mind. I'll produce this bit of plastic instead of my phone, and just take extra care not to lose or mislay it in between bus rides. 

And how often will I be riding around on the bus? Well, not very often. It would be different if I lived in a town or city. There's good reason to hop on a bus in Brighton: they are very frequent, and run all day long, and far into the night. It's as good as London. But out in the sticks it's a completely different matter. If I want to catch a bus to - say - Lewes, the service is sparse, running only twice a day, on only two days of the week. And I must catch the return bus within two hours, or be stranded. 

In practice I shall be getting out my Bus Pass only where it makes sense to use a Park-and-Ride bus service to reach a city centre, or to get me from an outlying railway station into the city centre. So I might amuse myself, for instance, by driving to the edge of Brighton and then exploring all the many bus routes in the city, hopping on and off as I please, much as I once did for fun in London with my 1980s Travelcard. If, that is, I have lots of time to kill, which I usually haven't.

Mind you, there are several other problems with bus travel, beyond any issues with frequency: 

# It's not always clear which bus company's service to use. Buses tend not to go to out-of-the-way places. Bus travel is in any case a slow way to get around. 

# I don't like the thought of being in an enclosed space with strangers, with a heightened risk of catching a cold (or worse). 

# You can't carry much onto a bus. Using one for a big supermarket trip isn't on. Nor would I want to tote heavy bags around.

# On the very few occasions I've used a bus in recent years, there has always been at least one irritating passenger sitting nearby who turned the journey into an endurance test. 

# As for travel after dark, forget it. I wouldn't like to take the risk. A woman waiting in the light at a bus stop is too vulnerable. And not much safer on the bus, if out of sight of the driver. So I'd be a daytime traveller only.

Given all this, can you wonder that I naturally want to use Fiona, my own car, to get around in? It saves so much waiting around and other hassle, and I can't breathe in other people's germs. Yes, there are car parking charges and restrictions that make me feel resentful; but on the whole it's a much nicer option. 

At least it will now be free to use a bus, in England at any rate. And if I dare to go upstairs and sit on the upper deck, I'll enjoy a good view. 

Besides, having this Bus Pass is a kind of insurance policy, in case I am ever temporarily deprived of my car and need to get around, or simply get home. (Assuming there's a bus that will take me there)

Keen-eyed readers may have noticed that the photo used on the Bus Pass is the same as the one used in the Senior Railcard app display. It was taken on 29th September this year at Scott's View, a stop on the B6356 north of Dryburgh in The Borders, not far from Melrose, where you look south-west at the Eldon Hills. This was Sir Walter Scott's favourite view, so it's an important and well-known spot. He remains Scotland's literary hero. He'd be contemplating this:

It's a justly famous tourist attraction, that view. Although the sun was out when I was there, it was windy and threatening to rain - hence my windswept appearance in the Bus Pass photo. But that's OK: it gives me the outdoor look of a Lady of Adventure. Perfect for roving by bus, surely. 

But do any buses go to Scott's View? None whatever. Need I say more?