Ah yes Romeo - the legendary Paddy Bonner was a greaty guy and a gentleman. He stood no nonsense at all and could foresee the smart tricks that some of the bad lads had in mind He was, though, perfectly fair and reasonable and I believe he's still around and hale and hearty in his long retirement. There is now a virtual total lack of inspectors and the Company thinking seems to be that revenue loss is far cheaper than paying large numbers of route and point inspectors. As the old saying and song goes "FINGS AIN'T WOT THEY USED TO BE !!"
There's nothing like keeping the past alive - it makes us relieved to reflect that any bad times have gone, and happy to relive all the joyful and fascinating experiences of our own and other folks' earlier days.
Cut backs I'm afraid is the demise of inspectors. I was a first bus inspector for 5 years and thoroughly enjoyed it although I spend my time behind the taps now I agree more inspectors are needed.
neil jackson wrote:Cut backs I'm afraid is the demise of inspectors. I was a first bus inspector for 5 years and thoroughly enjoyed it although I spend my time behind the taps now I agree more inspectors are needed.
As a lad I remember people would say with great respect "Ooh her husband is an Inspector on the buses".
When an inspector got on my bus my ticket always seemed to have been rolled up and nearly disintegrated as I had to show it, never got chucked off or pay again so the obviously had met this many times before.
School Board men and Park keepers would not stand a chance with the kids of today, simply no respect.
Respect has to be earned tho these days..simply having a respectable job isn't enough. Treat people as you would like to be tret and respect will follow. Oh and it does help when the bus turns up on time lol.
neil jackson wrote:Respect has to be earned tho these days..simply having a respectable job isn't enough. Treat people as you would like to be tret and respect will follow. Oh and it does help when the bus turns up on time lol.
Tret. Now there's a Leeds dialect term.
I disagree that respect has to be earned. I respect everyone unless they give me cause to lose that respect.
In regard to bus inspectors, their demise was signalled with the advent of prepay passes and the like. Simply put, their wages would exceed any revenue they would garner.
The inspectorate team proved year in year out that the revenue gained well out wayed the wages costed out. Also take out the costs of en-street info providers, stopping drivers that take a cut,clamping down on early running buses etc . Believe me there's more fiddlers,fare Dodgers and general bad attitudes on buses now than there's ever been and it reflects on the good respectable passengers that want to travel to work or shops quickly and cheaply.
In the early 50s me and my pal used to get on the Dewsbury Rd. bus to town every morning about 7.30am. at the Broadway. the bus had left the terminus and had only gone about three stop but was already nearly full, the conductor would be taking fares downstairs and as we went up stairs I would assume a brisk voice and say loudly "Hares ready mow please." immediately about twenty arms would shoot out into the aisle with hands clutching their money. I know it was juvenile but it gave us great amusement at the time.
A bit off-topic but seeing the long queues brought back recollections of the very long queues on Lowfields Road in the 1950s after Leeds United matches at Elland Road as massive crowds lined up to get a tram back into Leeds to the tram depot at Swinegate (Queens Hall). Lots of trams quite soon however shifted us all.
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.
Leodian wrote:A bit off-topic but seeing the long queues brought back recollections of the very long queues on Lowfields Road in the 1950s after Leeds United matches at Elland Road as massive crowds lined up to get a tram back into Leeds to the tram depot at Swinegate (Queens Hall). Lots of trams quite soon however shifted us all.
AS the Football Special Trams used have such long queues on a Saturday to get to Elland Rd. my brother and I along with crowds of others used to walk from town to the match. in later years I lived in Beeston so would be home in 20 minutes or so. I recall after Newcastle had played we walked up Wesley Street behind the famous Jackie Milburn, his brother Jimmy (who played for United) plus some members of the Charlton family all walking up the hill to the Milburn house. no cars or taxis even for a superstar in those days.
