A Sad, Sad, Sad, Sad, Sad Tale To Impart

A few of our readers have noticed that none of us seem have not been travelling on the our beloved Banga Bus of late …….. and that we always seem to be on a modern No. 5 or 5A nowadays  ……

……. and that is the sad news we have to impart ……. the Banga Bus is no more in our village!

The bus shelter that holds so many happy echoes of anticipated journeys back and forth to work and town for shopping and friendly village banter. ….. now stands abandoned and unkempt ……

….. and the timetable ……. remains, mostly unread,  sad, sad times indeed.

Once, we only had an hourly service at certain times of the day and nothing at the weekend, but now the village is awash with so many numbers it’s hard to keep track with “Clippers”, to give their correct names, departing, arriving or passing through every 20mins or so.

The Banga demise happened very, very gradually ….. to be honest, they became more and more unreliable and sporadic with people waiting between the two bus stops to catch whichever came first ….. until one week people realised it hadn’t shown up at all, and no longer waited for it.

As I said sad, sad times. Our rides may now be warm, smooth, and comfortable with a quiet humming engine……….

……. but now that all it’s gone, we sort of miss the cold and noisy bumpy ride, being able to get change, all the villagers talking to one another as they travelled, being able to write you name on the windows and that certain frisson of danger! Hugh will be gutted when he hears, it was the one thing he desperately wanted to do during his State Visit to Wolverhampton …… but at least he can say, he did it …… as we say a tearful farewell to the end of a memorable village era!!!