General Chat

Another bus window was smashed in Edinburgh last night just after 10pm. Groups of seemingly bored youths think it’s hilarious to hurl rocks at bus windows without any thought to the consequences. Thankfully nobody was physically injured in the incident.

Between Boxing Day last year and April 21st this year there have been 92 broken bus windows and including the broken windows over 550 incidents of antisocial behaviour towards drivers. :-(

We have a very good bus service which runs 24 hours a day. Not for much longer though I fear if this continues which will be a major blow for those that work nights or start early.

I wonder if hitting the parents in the pocket for the cost of the broken bus windows would have the desired effect.

It might be a good idea to find out why they are doing it.

These children are standing on the street and hurling rocks at passing busses.

Strange, there's no free bus transport around here, and no broken bus windows.

In fact, many areas of the UK have no free bus journeys for 5 - 18 year olds, and they dont appear to have their bus windows broken on a regular basis.

I'd be intrigued to know what the reasoning for the correlation between what happens in London, and what happens in Edinburgh re. broken bus windows is.

Really? It's a problem in many UK cities?

What constitutes a 'problem' to you?
One or two a year, or as Tawny points out, 92 in 4 months?

In Hampshire, we've had at least 2 buses getting caught under bridges in 7 months.
Can I claim it happens in 'many UK cities', as it occasionally happens anywhere?

Free transport is only available for three under 5’s per paying adult and over 60’s on presentation of a senior bus pass. The senior bus pass is free and anyone can apply for it just before they turn 60 in Scotland.

The senior pass allows free travel on any bus in Scotland.

Between 5-15 a single ticket is 90p and 16 plus is £1.80. The single ticket allows a person to travel one way, any distance on the bus they’re on. We also have day tickets which can be used on any standard LRT bus for one full day 5-15 is £2.20 and 16 plus is £4.50.

Edinburgh has a serious problem but I think it’s sad that bus drivers anywhere have to be alert to things like this. Once a year or 92 times in four months could all lead to drivers leaving the job and what happens then.

There is legislation afoot for free bus travel for 5 - 18 year olds in Scotland.
However, I don't believe the lack of free bus travel is the cause of this vandalism, as you said, Tawny, it could lead to the cancellation of services.

During lockdown, a lot of facilities for the young have been closed.
This doesn't excuse their behaviour, but could be part of the reason.

Facilities being closed for the young won’t have helped. For some the facilities that were closed may have been their only outlet or means of escape for a few hours a week.

One of my fellow brownie guiders used to help out with Barnardos. These were children whose home life was less than ideal but not serious enough for the children to end up in care. Every Saturday she would take out a young boy for six hours and during lockdown she had to stop. For children like this little boy that might have been one thing to look forward to every week.

I thought the Wombles lived in Wimbledon which would mean they live in theTfL area.

The UDA in Ireland are known by some as Wombles.

Thank you Tawny.

Interesting if the youth are throwing the rocks because they can't afford to travel on the bus......but more likely they're just being usual idiots that are bored nothing else to do. We have free travel on public transit for all children 12 and under without any pass needed at all, we still get windows broken and vandalized buses/trains.