John, 64, kicked off bus by driver after dropping card

Published on Wednesday 27 April 2011 14:38

A RETIRED man who accidentally dropped his travel pass into the coin box on a bus was ordered to get off and had to walk a mile and a half home.

&#149 John Collins was told to pay a fare after dropping his pass in the coin holder

John Collins, 64, a retired British Gas worker, was getting on to a number 27 bus near Crewe Toll when his concession card slipped from his fingers into the red "hopper".

He said: "I was putting it up towards where it should be but I chipped it and it went into the hopper, so I said to the driver 'Is there any way we could get that out?' and he said 'No that's not possible'." Mr Collins said the driver told him he'd have to pay a single fare to get home and call Lothian Buses to retrieve his pass.

Mr Collins didn't have any change, and asked the driver if would let him ride a mile and a half to the stop near his home at Silverknowes, but the driver refused and ordered him off the bus.

He said: "He could see the pass, but he said 'I'm sorry, you'll have to get off the bus'. I was just flabbergasted."

There was a further surprise in store when, after several days of paying for his travel in cash, he went to pick up the pass from lost property.

He said: "I went into the shop and they directed me to the back and she had my pass there. I thought she was just going to give it to me, and she said 'You've got to give me a pound to get it back' I don't know why. I thought it was very poor."

His daughter, Natasha Collins-Just, said she had been fuming after last Wednesday's incident. "I just couldn't understand how he would be chucked off the bus. It's a mile and a half he had to walk home. I had to phone up lost property and the lady said the driver should have taken him to his destination and issued him with a seven-day pass. It's not the money, it's the customer service. To throw somebody off the bus, when I hear stories like this it really enrages me."

Lothian Buses operations manager George McKendrick said it was investigating Mr Collins' complaint but stood by the driver's actions.

He said: "It is an unfortunate situation and we sympathise with the man. However, his free travel pass is issued by Transport Scotland not Lothian Buses, and the rules which we have to adhere to state that lost cards can only be replaced by Transport Scotland and until found or replaced the pass holder must pay a fare.

"The driver of the bus also cannot allow any concession pass holder to board for free unless in possession of a valid national concession card which has registered on the ticket machine and he was following the Transport Scotland rules. Also, the driver can only issue a seven-day pass if a concession pass holder surrenders a faulty pass to the driver. If they do not, they are required to pay a fare."