Last week’s news story about Stagecoach trialling driverless buses [routeone/News/25 July] was very interesting and detailed regarding an issue that many of my work colleagues, earning their living as bus drivers, are concerned about.
I cannot envisage there will ever be a time when a bus operates without being staffed by at least one operator, in the same way that aeroplanes – which I am reliably informed are flown by a computer – still have pilots on board who are there presumably to act if anything goes wrong.
Having said that, in the bus industry it may well have been stated 50 years ago – when I started in the industry – that a bus will never be operated by a driver working alone.
It’s a very interesting time in the bus industry that only the passing of time will reveal how things develop.
Kenneth Farrington
