Bus driver buggy ban

Published on 29th March 2007 in News

A Goole woman and her two young children were left stranded in the town last week after a bus driver refused to allow them on the bus with a pram.

Sian Buchanan was outraged last Thursday, March 22 when she tried to catch the 156 East Riding bus with her two young children - one of which is two-years-old and the other six months old - from Goole Hospital to Howden, where she had a meeting to attend, but was told by the driver that she was not allowed on the bus because she had a pram.

As the bus pulled up outside Goole Hospital, the driver allegedly told Mrs Buchanan that she was "not getting on with that pram".

The pram was of the two-seater variety, but one in which both children sit above one another, rather than next to each other.

Sian told the Goole Times: "I asked the bus driver what he expected me to do, and he told me it was 'not his problem' and that prams were not allowed on buses, which is ridiculous because I've been on public transport with a pram plenty of times.

"I rang the bus company from the bus stop to complain and asked if there would be another bus arriving that goes to Howden.

Next bus - same driver!

"I was told that the next bus would arrive in an hour, but that it would probably be the same bus and driver.

"The bus company did tell me that it was the driver that was at fault, but it ruined my whole day. My two-year-old daughter was upset and I never made it to Howden for the meeting I was due to attend."

Ray Hill, Operations Manager at East Yorkshire Motor Services, said that the incident appears to have been a 'misunderstanding'.

He told the Goole Times: "The type of bus that was used on that route on that day did not have low-floor access to easily accommodate prams.

"The driver says he told the woman that she must fold the pram up, as it was quite large and would not fit onto the bus without blocking the aisle. The woman responded by asking the driver if he was refusing to take her, and he said that he wasn't, so long as the pram was folded up, therefore I think there has been a misunderstanding here."