‘I’m the Captain of This Ship’ Bus Driver Insists on Dropping Passengers at Wrong Stop, in Wrong City
Imagine you climb aboard a charter bus from New York City to Washington D.C. late one night, doze off, and wake up to absolute pandemonium. One passenger is screaming at the driver. Another is on the phone with the police. You ask around and realize that the driver has announced that he won’t be taking any of you to D.C.
No, this wasn’t the Colorado school bus driver who made all 40 students get off at the wrong stop, in the snow. But the two operators might as well be related.
The bus in question was a regular “BestBus” route from Penn Station in NY to Union Station and Dupont Circle in D.C. It should have been a 228-mile journey that took about four hours. But the bus pulled into a rest stop to swap drivers. Then the second driver blew right past the Washington D.C. exit.
A passenger uploaded live updates on the chaotic bus ride
A passenger began to write reports on the wild ride on social media at 9 p.m.: “Everyone on the bus has figured out we are not going to the right place…The new driver is telling everyone that they’re the ones on the wrong bus?? He’s refusing to talk to anyone while he’s driving and is now just driving really fast.”
The passengers’ first solution? Call the bus company. The passenger added, “The company wasn’t being super helpful.” So they put the bus driver on the phone with his own employer. That’s when things really went off the rails.
“The company told him to take us to Union Station and he screamed that he doesn’t get paid enough and is refusing.”
Passengers begged the driver to get them to their connections in the city. His response: He “has family to go home to and doesn’t have time to stop in DC.”
That’s when the passengers decided to call the police in Washington D.C., but even that call didn’t go well. “The area being what it is we have to call different police lol.”
“We’ve been kidnapped”
The passengers finally got in touch with the Fairfax County Police as the bus passed into the Virginia suburbs. One passenger even claimed they’d all been “kidnapped.” That’s when everyone realized there wasn’t much the authorities could safely do. The passengers “suggested they avoid pulling the bus over bc he’s driving so erratically.”
The passenger wrote “It seems like the consensus is get him to just stop the bus somewhere??” Even in the freezing January temperatures. “Police are asking where we’re going to stop and we don’t actually know.”
Just before 10 p.m., the driver finally pulled off the highway and rolled up to the Metro station in Vienna, Virginia. It may seem like a random location, but BestBus actually stops at the Vienna Metro station on other routes.
Passengers took a video of the driver, who insists “I’m the captain of this ship,” and even flips them off while they collect their luggage and disembark.
BestBus immediately sent a vehicle to pick up the stranded passengers and take them into Washington D.C. It wrote, “The experience described on social media does not reflect the standards we expect from our team or the service our passengers deserve.” So it decided the passengers should get a double refund. “All affected passengers have received full refunds and a credit voucher for a future trip…We appreciate their patience as we complete our review.”
Meanwhile, the Fairfax County Police Department explained that it got to the station too late to intervene. “Upon arrival, the complainant advised that police assistance was no longer needed and that the bus had left the area.”
