Bus stop campaigners song
EXCLUSIVE by Tom Jackson TWENTY-five years of campaigning for a bus to stop at a bus shelter has prompted one protester to write a song about villagers plight. The satirical song is written by Pete Harries and tells how residents of Walpole Highway wait
EXCLUSIVE by Tom Jackson
TWENTY-five years of campaigning for a bus to stop at a bus shelter has prompted one protester to write a song about villagers' plight.
The satirical song is written by Pete Harries and tells how residents of Walpole Highway wait in the rain outside the village primary school - 300 yards away from the shelter in Main Road - for the main bus that serves the village.
Mr Harries, of Mill Road, Walpole Highway, said: "You can stand and wait at the shelter and wave for the bus to stop, but it will just drive straight past. You also get dropped off outside the school."
Walpole Highway's regular bus service, provided by the First Travel group as part of its Excel X1 route from Lowestoft to Peterborough, stops outside the primary school every half an hour.
The problem came to a head for 57-year-old Mr Harries last week, when he was waiting for a bus to go to a Wisbech pub.
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"It was raining and I was standing outside the school when there is a perfectly good bus shelter to use 300 yards away. I looked like I had just come out of a shower when I got on the bus."
Mr Harries' song, to the tune of the Beatles' classic With A Little Help From My Friends, is not yet finished.
"I want to get people singing it at the shelter in the rain whilst waiting for the bus that goes past," he said.
A spokesman for First Travel group said: "The purpose of the Excel X1 route is to provide an efficient, limited-stop service. To stop twice over such a short distance would detract from its role as a quick, inter-urban connector."
With A Little Help From My Coat
What would you do if you wanted to catch a bus?
You stand at a bus shelter and wait.
So lend me your coat, we are going to get wet
Because it stops over by the school gate.
For 25 years I have waited like this
But the driver passes and he blows me a kiss
Oh, I get by with a little help from my coat,
Oh, I've got cold coming out of my throat.
Do you need any buses, we just need one to stop.
Could it be any buses. First Direct, they just won't stop.
