Bus driver who faced attacks from youths says driving prison buses is 'a lot safer'

A former bus driver who faced a spate of attacks by youngsters in and around Glasgow has said it’s “a lot safer” to drive a prison bus than a service bus.

It comes after First Bus temporarily halted the 240 service, which is widely used by locals to get to and from work in Glasgow city centre, after a series of relentless attacks by youngsters on e-bikes and scooters.

On Friday, one bus was disabled after its emergency cut-off switch was accessed, on the same night that three buses were struck by missiles.

Jodie Mullen, who worked in the area, quit driving service buses after suffering multiple attacks and later opted to drive prison buses instead.

She said it’s safer to drive a prison bus than a service bus.

“I done the prison bus stuff there for about a year and a half, and honestly, a lot of us that done the prison bus came from bus driving, came from First Bus, came from McGill’s,” she said. “And every one of us has said the same thing.

“You get less abuse from people coming out of prisons, coming out of police stations, people that are supposed to be violent aggressors, you get less abuse and less grief from them than we ever did from the kids.

“Every bus driver that’s in that job agrees, it’s a lot calmer and a lot safer than it is on a service bus. You’re a lot more protected as well, I would say, but yeah, there have been many scary incidents on the buses.”

Jodie Mullen quit driving service buses STV News

The 240 service route runs between Glasgow city centre and North Lanarkshire, but Viewpark has been the epicentre of the recent attacks.

However, Jodie says the behaviour is happening “everywhere”, and that bus drivers are limited in how they can deal with it.

“It’s quite common, not just in Viewpark, but everywhere,” she said. “Since those kids got those bus passes, it’s become a lot more frequent, because they know there’s not really much consequence with it. As a bus driver, we don’t have a way to block their card, or to say you’ve done this damage, you can’t come on.

“And as well with the bus driving, there’s kind of a right of duty to kids, a lot of time you don’t really have much of a position to say no, so they know they can get away with it.”

‘Kids use free passes to go on joyrides’

Jodie said she has had knives pulled on her, empty cans of drink thrown at her, and has heard stories of fellow drivers being spat on.

She has called for more restrictions on free bus passes for young people in Scotland.

“A lot of us as bus drivers always thought it was a good thing them having them because there is the kids that use them rightfully,” she added. “But then there are too many of the wrong crowd. So we always thought the best way around it was maybe school times they’d be valid, and that was it, kind of.

“But see when they’re able to use these cards to just go joyrides, because that’s all they do now. They just come on the bus, sit on it, go laps, give abuse, get kicked off and repeat the next day.”

First Bus says it strongly condemns behaviour which puts members of the public and colleagues at risk.

‘Stop your kids before someone is killed’

A spokesperson said, “Our 240 bus service experienced incidents of anti-social behaviour in the Viewpark area of North Lanarkshire on Friday evening.

“As a result, we had to withdraw the services from the area for the rest of the evening.

“We strongly condemn this behaviour, it is completely unacceptable and puts members of the public and our colleagues at risk.

“We are currently working with the local authorities to help prevent similar incidents from happening in future. The safety of our passengers and colleagues remains our top priority.”

Local councillor Helen Loughran says parents have an important role in deterring such dangerous activities.

The Thorniewood councillor said: “It does not get much more serious. First Bus under siege last night. I now know of four separate attacks on buses within a period of two hours, which prompted the decision to withdraw service.

“I have spoken today with the network planning manager. Urgent talks with partners are taking place to save our service 240.

“Quite simply, accessing the running engine and prompting an emergency engine stop, these young people are seriously risking their lives.

“If you have a youth who may be part of this life-threatening incident, for the sake of their and everyone else’s safety, stop your kids before they or someone else is killed.”