Personal safety on night buses

[arrivaarriva]

Are there any night bus routes considered more prone to rowdiness/violence than others?  I have been led to believe that the N29 can be a bit scary at times.  Would you feel more confident travelling west of Central London or east?

[snoggle]

Dec 17, 2018 19:45:52 GMT arrivaarriva said:

Are there any night bus routes considered more prone to rowdiness/violence than others?  I have been led to believe that the N29 can be a bit scary at times.  Would you feel more confident travelling west of Central London or east?

I suspect things have calmed down somewhat. As ever with night buses it only takes one or two people to be "off their heads" or to take a look the wrong way and there might be trouble. I've never had any sort of issue with night bus use although I'm not a regular user. The nearest I ever got was a somewhat boistrous ride on a N279 but nothing happened. In many years of going into town to do night bus photos I've only ever had one altercation - again someone who was very drunk who took a dislike to me for no reason other than I was stood on Oxford St at the same time he was. I said nothing and did nothing to provoke a reaction. Thankfully the woman he was with dragged him away. As ever it just boils down to being reasonably self assured and not going out of your way to trigger reactions - in short being a bit street wise. Obviously that's from my stand point as a nearly old git - younger people may have different experiences for a wide variety of reasons.

[6HP502C]

In all my life, I've never had any problems with fellow passengers on public transport, day or night and I have racked up a fair amount of mileage.

[redexpress]

Dec 17, 2018 19:45:52 GMT arrivaarriva said:

Are there any night bus routes considered more prone to rowdiness/violence than others?  I have been led to believe that the N29 can be a bit scary at times.  Would you feel more confident travelling west of Central London or east?

I've been travelling on night buses for the best part of 20 years.  All I can say is that there's no point singling out routes or areas to avoid. I've only felt personally threatened a couple of times, and both times were on supposedly quiet routes in supposedly quiet areas.

99.99% of the time you'll have no trouble at all.  I'd say you're much more likely to encounter random acts of violence out on the street than on the bus - in fact if I'm planning a night trip in an area that might be risky, I'll pay much more attention to where I'll have to wait for buses or walk between bus stops than worry about the bus journey itself.

The N29 has always had a bit of a bad rep, but things got much worse in the early days of artic operation, when there was a spate of "steaming" attacks (where large gangs would storm the bus, rob and assault as many people as they could within 30 seconds, then run away).  It took a sustained police operation to put an end to that.  These days it can still be a bit rowdy, but in general it's not particularly threatening.  I still avoid it, but only because it can be unpleasantly busy, not because of any perceived risk.

[ronnie]

I guess it’s more a case of night buses being loud rather than anything else. I have used the 25 numerous times and it has mostly had people coming back from / going to work even very late at night! Similarly, the N15 the several times I have used has also been o - a bit loud perhaps but never feeling threatened ....

Of course the 25 also has the reputation of maximum drivers calling police because of people sleeping rough on the bus and not leaving at the end ...

[Deleted]

Very off topic on my part but related to night transport

Back in the early 2000s I had to use the Central Line from Woodford to Stratford most evenings around 10.30pm and used to find the experience pretty intimidating - train stations in the Woodford area were left open with little or no staff! had a few occasions where I was followed into a carriage alone and once off a train into Straford Station.  Used to be glad for the train to arrive at Leytonstone when it got much busier.

[snoggle]

Dec 18, 2018 21:02:23 GMT @dannyb said:

Very off topic on my part but related to night transport

Back in the early 2000s I had to use the Central Line from Woodford to Stratford most evenings around 10.30pm and used to find the experience pretty intimidating - train stations in the Woodford area were left open with little or no staff! had a few occasions where I was followed into a carriage alone and once off a train into Straford Station.  Used to be glad for the train to arrive at Leytonstone when it got much busier.

That experience reminds me of my first day of grappling with London's transport system as I tried to find digs in London in 1983. I'd come down on the sleeper (there was still such a thing then) from the N East and had been trecking round London all day - mostly by tube as I had no idea where the buses went. I ended up seeing a place in the early evening on Hermon Hill Wanstead that was rather naff. I got the Central Line from, I think, Snaresbrook which was deserted as it was about 8pm. A train pulled in and one carriage had a gang of skinheads in it. I was mildly terrified but only had to go to Leyton from where I caught a 58 (the first London bus I ever used). The last digs I saw, rather late in the day, were offered to me and I said yes and thus began a long relationship with Walthamstow. IIRC I was given a lift to Blackhorse Rd tube so I could get the sleeper home from Kings Cross. That was a very long day covering places like Wapping, Leytonstone, Turnpike Lane etc.

[Pilot]

Day can be as dangerous as night...the odds of having drunk people are far greater at night though.