Stupid mistakes involving buses

[Alex]

When i mean this, the question is, has anyone caught the wrong bus, but thinking it was the right bus, or decided to go a long way round to get somewhere, even though there is a bus that goes direct
For Example, this happened on the third week of my 6 week holiday:

Anyway, it started when my friend asked me to meet him at B'ham New St station, so i left the house in Willenhall at 9:00am, for the journey to Brum, via Sutton Coldfield as i had to pick something up while i was there, anyway, so after picking up what i needed, i decided that the 71 from Sutton wont take long, it'll probably take about the same time as the 5 to West Brom

[the trainbasher]

My mom boarded the 251 thinking it was a 226. I had to send her on a GRS  246 to get to Russells Hall!

[Alex]

sorry hadn't finished writing that. So i caught the 71 in Sutton, to Solihull, not knowing that it took over an hour and a half, but anyway, so realising my mistake, i got off the bus, 55 minutes later in Castle Bromwich, and not knowing my way round, caught the 94, thinking it was going to B'ham, in fact was going to Chelmsley Wood. About 25 minutes later, i got into Chelmsley Wood, and had to catch the same bus home. When i got to B'ham, i ran round New St for nearly an hour trying to find the platform my friends train was due into, turning out that the train wasn't in yet, and was just passing StarCity. That is one of the only times that i have actually being so annoyed that i turned red with anger, and walked into a post at the station. Result:Me being bright red, and having a black eye, from the post

[Westy]

Not a bus, but when the Stourbridge & Walsall line shared a New Street platform,  somehow I got on the Stourbridge train & not the Walsall train!

I had to get off at Cradley Heath & catch a train back!

[Sh4318]

Not a bus, but when the Stourbridge & Walsall line shared a New Street platform,  somehow I got on the Stourbridge train & not the Walsall train!

I had to get off at Cradley Heath & catch a train back!

The xx:38 to Wolverhampton and xx:39 to Birmingham International often share the same platform at New Street, and they're both 323s. Once I got on the International train, luckily the conductor announced it was the Birmingham International traaim and not the Wolverhampton before the doors closed ;D

[trident4370]

Worst I've ever done on my own steam was board a 2 thinking it was a 3, although at the time they interworked so there is a good chance it was a 3 when I got on!
I can think of one many years ago now, my first ever trip to the Black Country, must've been about 2008, I was in Dudley and I asked one of the Centro staff which bus was the quickest to Stourbridge, and instead of telling me the 246, he pointed to the nearest bus which just happened to be a 297A. I can barely remember it now though!

[Ossie]

Last Saturday, I was in Wellington (Telford).  I needed to get to Telford itself, and I knew from a past visit that I wanted the 44 from Wellington bus station, which is frequent, pretty much direct via Oakengates, and takes around 20 minutes.  But there was a 55 at a stand in Wellington bus station with "Telford Town Centre" on the display, so I thought why not, and hopped on that. 

When I eventually got to Telford about an hour later, having travelled through Hadley, Trench, Donnington, Wrockwardine Wood and Trench again, and that was before even getting as far as Oakengates ......

At one point in the journey, I noticed I passed the same row of shops I'd passed about 10 minutes previously, but going in the other direction ...  :D :D :D

[Stu]

A few years ago now, one evening I'd found myself at a friend's house party somewhere in Erdington. It got to about 9pm when I decided I'd had enough and wanted to go home (I was living in Bearwood at the time). Not being over-familiar with the area, I just knew I had to get back to the main road, and I could get a bus into town, which wouldn't take long.

It seemed like perfect timing, I got to a bus stop on the main road, and saw a 115 approaching. In my defence, I was a bit tipsy at the time, but the destination blind did say 'Birmingham' (it was a Metrobus, I do recall). So I just got on. I hadn't realised I was actually on the wrong side of the road. It was only after I'd been on the bus about 10 minutes, when I realised we hadn't even got to Salford Circus yet! Next thing I know, I'm in Sutton Coldfield town centre! Walked around for a bit as the next bus back to Brum wasn't for another 20 minutes or so. It was about 11pm when I eventually got back to Bearwood.

[domino.99]

Not really a mistake on my part but the drivers.

So before I used to get the 07:07 82 towards Wolverhampton from Roseville. One day on my way to school and the bus came, a merc as usual at the time, and the driver pulled up. Id never had nor seen this driver before but showed my bus pass grabbed a paper and sat in the front left seat. The bus pulled off and then went straight on over the island in the Wolverhampton direction of Roseville. The driver did this when i thought and said "bollocks ive got on the wrong bus" so went down to the front and asked the driver if she was the 82 she said yes and I subsequently replied with you've gone the wrong way she.then did a u turn in the street the coseley school is in and carried on. She.know drives as far as I know on the 529.

[Mike K]

I took a fancy to a girl I used to see most days on the bus home from work. After seeing her in a local pub I plucked up the courage to speak to her and she ended up being my girlfriend for a year and a half. She was a nightmare - a moody, bad tempered nutcase, and when we split up she owed me over £1000 which I never saw again.

That was a disastrous and expensive bus related mistake.

[Trident 4609]

I took a fancy to a girl I used to see most days on the bus home from work. After seeing her in a local pub I plucked up the courage to speak to her and she ended up being my girlfriend for a year and a half. She was a nightmare - a moody, bad tempered nutcase, and when we split up she owed me over £1000 which I never saw again.

That was a disastrous and expensive bus related mistake.

Ha Ha ;) You do make me laugh sometimes ;D

[Kevin]

When the Premier Waste place on the A34 in Perry Barr caught fire, the police were diverting everyone along Church Road. The buses, however, were doing a u-turn there (from the bus lane straight across all the lanes of traffic) to head back up the Walsall Road, then right down Beeches Road... Except the X51 I was on on me way to work, which carried on straight at Tower Hill, followed by a proclamation of "ah shit, sorry! Autopilot" from the driver. U-turn again just before Scott Arms and we're back on track

[Ally]

The creation of KX60 LHO, now that was a stupid mistake involving buses if ever I saw one!

I've had a few!

- Falling asleep on a bus to School and ending up around 15 miles away, with it then going out of service!

- Directing a driver on the Coventry 19 service on New Years Day (run by Stagecoach), leaving Tile Hill Village terminus and I just went off into my own little world, eventually the driver said to me "Shouldn't we have turned off by now?" followed by me realising and exclaiming "Sh*t! Yes we should have", noticing the bus was in Burton Green, far past the turn off!

- Directing another driver the previous New Years Day, this time on the 13 route! I said to him "It's this next right" he replied back with "Okay" and immediately drove straight past it...

- I was showing someone how to display the blind test sequence (that one with all the random letters and numbers) and went into the wrong menu on the controller, I tried to get out of it but the arrow keys kept changing the blind settings, I held the enter button in until the signs reset and when they started, the side one only had the top left LED illuminated! Kaput!

- My biggest and most common muck up is with the Stagecoach 57 service, on Saturdays after 16:35, there isn't another until 19:18, but there's still pretty much 2x 57's an hour between those times on a Weekday, so I'm stood there on a Saturday wondering where the hell my 57 is and then it hits me!

[Liverpool Street]

I took a fancy to a girl I used to see most days on the bus home from work. After seeing her in a local pub I plucked up the courage to speak to her and she ended up being my girlfriend for a year and a half. She was a nightmare - a moody, bad tempered nutcase, and when we split up she owed me over £1000 which I never saw again.

That was a disastrous and expensive bus related mistake.

You should've sent her my way...

...I could do with a woman with fire in her belly right about now...

...I've got a used one you could've had in return, Mike K.

[Stevo]

When Stephen Morris was editor of 'Buses' he was in Walsall and saw a Timesaver Metrobus that said Birmingham, so he boarded and anticipated a rapid ride south. But it was the 901 which went north up to Lichfield before heading south for Brum, so he had a very long bit of time saving. At least, as he said, it was only 32p.