General Chat

Poor older Londoners, they might become Twirlies like much of the country.

There is talk of them losing their free rush hour travel. I’d say welcome to the real world but they have no idea what it is like to have no or virtually no public transport.

twirly means: Noun. A senior citizen, or OAP (old age pensioner). Originally bus driver's slang, from supposed senior citizen's regular attempts at using their cheap off-peak journey passes before the permitted off-peak hour, and therefore being "too early" (a verbal corruption of). E.g."How can I keep the bus on schedule when at every bus stop I have to refuse all the twirlies."

how unkind

I've lived in both worlds. The one where you just walk to the bus stop and a bus appears and now in the one where you have to go online to see if there is a bus at all! Dark ages! :-0

What are Twirlies? :-S

something i would be if i weren't housebound :-(

How did you know I was going to ask that Maddie? :-S

Not unkind at all!

it might be if you were a twirley, they have probably not heard of such a phrase

OH doesn’t drive so I was really annoyed when I discovered they knew our little bus was still running.

Our bus doesn’t arrive until after 9.30 so I never have the chance to be a proper Twirly.

Never heard that. But I did see that our bus passes might be suspended to ease overcrowding. No problem we will survive without going to town.

:-S Sorry Maddie I don't understand your reply at 16.18

Ah...…. crossed wires. I was responding to namelessones opening post.

crossed wires can be vey painful ;-)

Our free bus passes start at 9.30am, but from 8.30 we can get a concession and travel for the 'young person's ' fare if we show our pass ;-) I have frequently been a twirly in the past :-D The thing that got me is our pass is only valid until 11pm :-0, after that I should be at home wearing my tartan slippers with the pompoms on the front and sipping cocoa in front of the telly ;-)

I did read they might stop our rush hour travel which is not too bad, it will only affect me if/when my after school child care duties resume

Lyndi
OMG , 11 pm. Weekdays the last bus is 5.30 and worse on Saturdays it’s 4.30!

Our "bus" passes are actually travel passes and cover the whole of Scotland. There are no time limits for buses - any bus, any time, anywhere in the country. Ferries (for local residents only) are subsidised and trains are cheaper, although the latter are only for non-rush hour travel.

There have been calls at times for the passes to be stopped/restricted, but the Scottish Government, of all parties, have resisted this because they say that the passes more than pay for themselves. They reduce loneliness, let pensioners go shopping more than once a week, thus keeping the local economy going. I only use the car when I have a load of shopping to do and can't carry it all.

what's he on about now?
:-S

These oldies need keeping in check. First they try getting on buses for working passengers on their free tickets the cheeky so and so's, now we hear they're going to rebel against lockdown and risk jail. :-0 :-0 :-0

We twirlies in the area where I live have long known we were twirlies. :-D

Get on the bus at 9.25 am and ask 'Am I twirly (too early)?' Most of our drivers are nice enough to say 'No pet. Get on.'

They can call me whatever they want if they let me on their bus. :-D

:-D

You're not in London then Joy? ;-)

AndysMum, English bus passes are valid in England but not Wales and Welsh bus passes are not valid in England so I expect the same rules apply for Scottish bus passes.

We are lucky as our buses into town are every ten minutes. I wonder whether that will change when we get back to the time we knew as normal.

If we want to get an 8am bus we are charged half price.

I never use my car into town as the parking fees are colossal. :-0