What are bus drivers like up in Finland, do you get as many grumpy pricks driving buses as you do in Ireland?
On Friday night after the studio at around 0230 I headed up to Hakaniemi from Katajanokka to check for the last trams heading to bed in Koskela Barracks, but the last one had left fifteen minutes earlier. So I went to the bus stop and waited for one going my way, then hopped on (without a ticket - there was no vending machine at the stop and I'm updating a flashy new phone) I flashed my (new) phone at him but he didn't even look at me.
They don't really care one way or the other, especially that late at night.
Their view is very Finnish: '
you're here - these are our trams, not yours or mine. You do your thing and I'll do mine, just don't be bothering me while I'm driving, thanks'.
So I took the ride home.
It seems like most bus drivers here absolutely despise their jobs, along with members of the public in general.
My Dad was very popular. He was very handsome and always well turned out in his full CIE suit. He mostly did northside routes but for one summer he was doing the old 79 route from Ballyer into town. Mam would pack his lunch and when I came home on lunch break from the De La Salle I'd take it to the stop and he'd take me into town and back a few times until I was bored. Then he'd write a little note for the teacher saying I was needed for urgent work for the national transport authority.
He was very cheeky like that.
But he was also a union man and was part of the team who spearheaded the big bus strike in 1976 (I think it was) when the army were drafted in to carry people instead. Hard times, CIE held out for over six weeks. Then folded eventually, somewhat. But the kitchens in the homes of bus staff were fairly bare for weeks and weeks.
With that said you do come across the occasional bus driver who isn't an arsehole.
It's not exactly the best job in the world either, eh? Bus staff are at the coal-face with knackers and skangers hassling them, trying to rob them, trying to cadge a ride, trying to start a fight, puncture a tyre, smash a few windows, get sick all over the seats, piss down the back seats upstairs, gobbing and spitting, smoking hash, grass, drinking, slappers getting fingered and gays getting battered.
It was safer when there were two staff members on board: driver drives, conductor does the tickets (or in Ballyer, the 'go-ahead') and they can sort any issues between the two of them. That said, they'd be stupid to get too heavy with any one fucker on those lines: the cunts on the estates just wait a few days, then hop the bus and smash your face in while driving. And they'll keep doing it until something changes - like removing the service because it's too fucking dangerous serving some people.
Then they come out complaining they can't get into town, or cross the city.
Scumbags, really.
