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Treated like a criminal by TfL
• I GET the N29 back from town after nights out and always have issues with overcrowding and overheating. However, three times in under a year we have suffered from pickpockets. Once my whole bag was stolen, once they went though our pockets but didn’t get anything and last Friday night I caught two men going through my bag, which I was holding at the time!
I caught them and stopped them, however was too frightened to make a scene, I thought I’d won so just wanted to get away from them. However as they jumped off the bus they managed to grab my iPod. What made it worse is that the driver made the situation more stressful making me feel as if I was the criminal rather than helping me gather the information I needed for the police.
These young men jumped on all together – about 10-15 of them – onto one door, creating a sardine effect in one doorway. This enabled them to be “innocently” up close to other passengers and as people were also trying to fight their way off the bus the thieves were able to have a good feel of our pockets and bags without us suspecting anything out of the ordinary. The gang then jumps off at the next stop (Camden Road in this case) and starts all over again.
As these gangs are so organised I feel it is TfL’s responsibility to outsmart these people by reintroducing normal double- decker buses where everyone has to board passing the driver and by placing staff at these trouble hotspots or having conductors on board.
What makes me angrier than the actual crime is how TfL haven’t taken my report of this offence or my later complaint seriously. While trying to make my complaint I was treated with a complete lack of respect and a mocking tone from the telephone operator.
The bendy bus and N29 problems seem to be common knowledge to everyone but TfL. This needs rectifying, they need to be made aware and make visible improvements urgently.
If I can do anything to help stop other people feeling threatened on London buses then something good can be come out of this expensive and horrible experience hopefully before another passenger is stabbed or attacked.
HELEN LLEWELYN
Bermondsey Street
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