(01 Sep 2021, 7:57 am)streetdeckfan wrote I never really felt unsafe at Durham Bus Station when I was there at night, even with the occasional fight between drunks!
I feel more unsafe at Bishop Bus Station, to the point that when I have a long wait I just have a walk down Newgate Street as it's at least illuminated properly! Drunks seem to love loitering around the seats near the entrance to the Newgate Centre, which just so happens to be where the stand for the Arriva 6 is!
I somewhat agree. Safety has never really been a concern of mine whilst waiting at a bus station late at night. But I am conscious of the fact that I am getting older and it may be of great importance to me in 10 or 15 years time.
Like you I have never felt unsafe in a bus station, however I have felt unsafe on a bus before and have documented the experience here.
(21 Jan 2014, 8:42 am)MurdnunoC wrote My journey on the X35 was made all the more fun by 3 drunken morons (one apparently blind; another with a Petrol Can) boarding at Easington Lane hurling abuse at the female passengers on the bus. The other passengers alighted at Houghton and Doxford leaving me alone on the bus with them all the way to Sunderland. They were sitting at the back, me in the space where the two sets of seats face each other, so they were say right behind me drinking cider and being generally ladgeful. It was quite tense.
To add a little bit more to the story, it got tense for me because I was sitting at the back of the bus, a row or so in front of them, and didn't know how things would pan out. Despite there being CCTV onboard and the driver having a radio to alert the police if anything happened, I was fully aware that I was outnumbered in an enclosed environment with little choice other than to take a battering or to fight back (and probably still take a battering). As the journey progressed I became more anxious and paranoid that something would kick-off and I had to mentally prepare myself for that outcome. Luckily, nothing happened, and perhaps, in hindsight, my anxiety and paranoia got the better of me but it doesn't take away from the fact that, as a passenger, it was a really unpleasant experience - albeit not one which would put me off from travelling on public transport - but for some it might. Now, if that scenario happened in a bus station then I'd at least have the option of fight or flight (I'm still nimble and fit enough to run-away). On the bus, I felt the option of flight was taken from me.