What is the purpose of a bus service? Is it to a) provide an alternative means of transport for those that don't wish to use their cars or b) generate huge profits by extorting overinflated fares from those that don't have or don't wish to use a car? I ask because Blue Star -- our local bus "service" -- would appear to fall into the latter group. After the misery of grinding out 2000 asinine words on representations of innocence in The Innocents, I decided to reward myself by heading into Winchester to get a haircut: perhaps if I could see the screen, writing wouldn't be so incredibly hard.* Rather than polluting the environment, I decided to hop on a bus, thinking that there was a 3 quid ticket that gave me access to the buses all day. Apparently not. I could either have a single fare for 3.10 or a return for 5.10 -- for a 10-minute journey! These fares are ludicrous. I can park at the leisure centre car park for 60p for 2 hours. What incentive do I have to pay an additional 4.50 for the inconvenience of travelling on a tatty bus stuffed with loutish schoolchildren?4.50 is a couple of pasties from the Cornish Pasty Shoppe, or a coffee and a bun in Starbucks, or a couple of paperbacks from the Oxfam Book Shop! If PJ had been with me, we would have been down 10 quid on driving in! If Hampshire County Council want people to leave their cars at home and take the bus to work/town, they have to make it considerably cheaper than parking.
I got off the bus and walked home in a sulk, kicking stones as I went. Bah!
* I've never had writer's block before; it sucks.
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