What happens when a bus stop is discontinued? For that matter why is a bus stop ever discontinued? Every street corner is, technically, a bus stop: all you have to do is stand there and wave, unless you’re on a street where the buses never go, and in that case you’re going to be waiting a very long time, but that’s another story. There’s even a bus stop that I used to go to regularly even though it meant walking an extra three blocks every day. The bus had been rerouted for several months because of construction, so if I’d gone to the regular stop I’d have to wait a very long time. Now I’m back at the regular stop and the other bus stop has been discontinued even though there’s still a bench there, the bus still goes by there, and it’s on a corner.
I do know what happens when a bus route is discontinued: the bus just no longer goes that way. I once accidentally got on a bus on the #13 route and when I realized I’d made a mistake I got off and walked several blocks back to my regular stop to catch the right bus. I later realized if I’d stayed on the #13 bus there was a place much farther down the route where I could have transferred to my regular bus and I’d now have a story of riding the ill-fated #13. Why it was ill-fated is still a mystery to me since that one time I rode it the bus was packed and if I hadn’t already told you I got off the bus because I didn’t know I could eventually transfer to my regular bus I could tell you I got off because there was no place to sit down. It traveled down a stretch of road with a very popular local grocery, a very popular taco place, a very popular bagel place, and a laundromat that somehow stays open, but now anyone who expects to catch a bus at any of those places will be waiting for a very long time. The only thing I can figure is that someone official’s triskaidekaphobia really got the better of them which is unfortunate because they’re missing out on some really good tacos.
Anyway just for the heck of it one day I decided to stand at a discontinued stop just to see what would happen and what happened is that no buses stopped. No buses went by either because the route had also been changed which was why the stop was discontinued, but I didn’t realize that until I’d been waiting there for a very long time.
What happens when a bus stop is discontinued in a foreign country? You don’t know the language; there are notifications that there will be a change, but you can’t read them. It’s a conundrum that happens occasionally while living in a foreign country.
I guess you end up waiting there for a very long time. A college professor of mine was on a small island in Greece where people say “no” by nodding and “yes” by shaking their heads–the opposite of almost everywhere else, but the professor didn’t know that. He kept asking the man, “Is this where the bus stops?” And the man nodded so my professor just kept standing there.
Very frustrating for you. The bus service in England is awful too and very expensive. I try and avoid bus travel if I can
That’s extraordinary. I had a fine time on the Dyfedd buses in Wales, although that was also, wow, almost twenty-seven years ago. Most of my travel across the UK was by train which was more expensive but probably much better than the buses.
As long as your blog is not discontinued, I’m fine.
I hope to keep going forever and I hope you do too.