Misbehaviour on bus

Press, 1 February 1986, Page 18

Misbehaviour on bus

Sir, — When I have travelled with the. New Zealand Road Services I have found the attitude of some staff towards drunkenness and general misbehaviour to be sadly wanting. I was on the 9.20 p.m. Christchurch to Invercargill service on January 18 when a passenger decided to relieve himself by standing in the aisle of the bus. The driver and inspector had words with the man, but to my amazement no effort was made to call the police or have him removed, which would have been appropriate. We continued with urine lying in the aisle from Ashburton to Timaru where at last it was cleaned up. In my opinion the driver and inspector treated the matter in a most casual way and made little effort to discourage this disgusting behaviour. — Yours, etc., J. DUNNE. Dunedin, January 23, 1986.

[The acting Regional Passenger Manager of Railways, Mr B. J. Larcombe, replies: “Every effort is made to ensure that the conduct of passengers on all our services is of acceptable standard and in this instance the inspector had been assigned to duties to investigate previous reports of unacceptable behaviour of some passengers traelllng on this late evening service. The vehicles allocated to this service are our most modern coaches and driving staff had requested that special efforts be made to ensure that the high standard, of these coaches was maintained. I express regret to your correspondent and to other passengers on our coach concerning this incident, and give an assurance that all complaints have been given attention and action taken against the passenger concerned.”]