wletters: Trapped on a bus | Patricia Hutton NW1 | Traffic jams happen in London for a variety of reasons.

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 23 May 2008

Trapped on a bus because the driver wouldn’t open the doors

• TRAFFIC jams happen in London for a variety of reasons.
Last Tuesday Oxford Street was cordoned off east of Oxford Circus because of a murder there the previous day.
I was on a bus which was held up for over 45 minutes between the stop in New Cavendish Street and the stop in Oxford Street. For safety reasons the regulations say drivers must not let passengers off between stops.
The only progress we were making appeared to be when a car managed to turn round or turn off.
A number of passengers asked the driver to let us off and he said that his was not allowed. After nearly half an hour we asked him to use his two-way radio to ask for permission to do so, but he would not. I then noticed the phone number displayed in the bus and called it on my mobile phone.
The person who answered confirmed the rule but said he would talk to a controller and ask for an instruction to be issued. Nothing happened in the next few minutes so I called again and was asked to hold while a controller was called.
At last, after 45 minutes, the driver was instructed to let us off.
For some of this time we had been right beside the pavement. Surely if people are responsible enough to drive a London bus they are responsible enough to be allowed to use their discretion in such a situation to judge where it would be safe to allow passengers to alight with due care.
Patricia Hutton, NW1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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