Bus Ride from Hell

Item: Translux/City To City
Rating: 1

I, along with many other people travelled from Durban to Johannesburg on the "9" am bus on the 16th of October 2016. This was a bus ride from hell. I am hoping that the other people will also complain about this. The bus arrived late - no explanation. We were told to load our luggage ourselves and then remove it as they were changing busses. No explanation. No tickets for the luggage. Then I asked the driver about the fact that my ticket was booked to Germiston and he refused to take me there saying it was not on the route. I told him City to City book my ticket to Germiston. After a huge debate he was told to take me to Germiston. The driver was not alone in the bus. He had either a wife or Girlfriend with him and anyone who wanted to sit in the seat "Reserved" for her was told to move. An old feeble Indian man was also chased from the seat and it would have made sense for him to sit there. By now we are over an hour late and the driver is acting like its our fault. We eventually get moving and the freeway was closed for the cycle race, and the driver has no garmin so we took a tour of Cato Manor Squatter camp. We eventually directed him to the right direction with the use of our own cellphones. The driver then proceeded to cut off cars and other vehicles with his reckless driving, and even pulled over and was going to stop and have an argument with a person who he nearly crashed into. I even sent my son a message from my phone saying the driver is reckless. That I was a little scared. So we eventually get to Montrose, and we are given a 15 minute break, the driver gets back to the vehicle and does not do a headcount but just drives off, leaving 4 people behind. We have to tell him he has left people behind. He waits for them 250 meters down the road!!!! Do the drivers not have to do a headcount to make sure the passengers are on the BUS!!! When they spoke to him about it he screamed at them and his girlfriend or wife also had something to say. She has no authority. Had we not have spoken up he would have left the people stranded. So now we are two hours late. We get to Germiston and we are riding around Germiston for 45 minutes. No explanation once again, and by now we are pretty fed up. He is apparently looking for fuel. He wasted 45 minutes of fuel anyway. I eventually had to direct him to the station after we all started getting really agitated at this. He did not know the way. He did not offer explanations, and he nearly lost people along the way. He was rude, tardy, downright nasty and directionless. I was supposed to be the only person getting off at Germiston, but a lot of people disembarked. I think they were worried they would not make it home that night. I use the bus service on a regular basis, but a lot of us agreed yesterday, never again will we use city to city or translux ever again. I see the busses are not as full as they used to be - maybe now you know why. Honestly it was a bus ride from hell. I expect no response from this complaint, but I am warning people to rather spend a few rand extra and take a bus that values its customers, their lives and gives good customer service.

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