Commuters left baffled as driver gets off bus to buy plantain while on duty

03 February 2023 , 16:09

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This passenger was shocked when her bus driver up and left the bus to grab shopping (Image: Getty Images)

Public transport can be a minefield of odd interactions and etiquette with most passengers keeping to themselves unless forced to interact.

While most people will have experienced strange passengers causing a disturbance, less commonly the driver will be the cause. However, they are still human and sometimes they can make decisions that leave everyone else travelling on the bus or train utterly baffled.

On her podcast, The Pour Decisions Show, Anissa Whyte told her twin and co-host about a time when her bus driver stopped the bus mid-route, only to hop out to grab himself some food shopping. The driver came back having picked himself up a plantain.

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The Londoner said: "I remember one time when I was riding the bus, I think I was coming back from New Kent Road, and I was getting back into, Rylane and Peckham, and I was on the 63.

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"And we pull up at the bus stop outside, Peckham Library. The bus driver, he drives a little bit further than the bus stop and pulls to the side, gets off the bus and goes into the shop and he's buying plantain."

Her sister Anna laughs as Anissa continued: "Everybody on the bus is watching the man buy the plantain and I'm thinking to myself, 'Listen I love plantain as much as the next person but, hello, sir? You are on the clock.

"You got the whole of us on the bus watching you buy plantain.' It's like, I get it, bro, but I don't get it. And then he got back on the bus and drives as normal.

Plantain is a fruit used in cooking. They are also known as green bananas or cooking bananas due to the similar appearance to a yellow banana. They feature commonly in Caribbean and African cooking and are usually fried or boiled but can be turned into flour and dough when processed.

The sisters then discussed how maybe the driver didn't have time after work but Anissa still thought he should have addressed it.

She laughed: "He didn't even say, 'oh, sorry, guys, I just needed to get something' he just came back on the bus and drives like normal."

While Anissa didn't report the incident, she did say that she "just would not" have stopped if she was a driver, despite understanding the love of plantain. She added: "[Needing the toilet] would have been different because that's an urgency within your body."

The small podcast got a lot of love for the tale, with one viewer saying: "This is my favourite story ever."

Danni Scott