When you take as many photos as I do, lots of strange things start to happen – like accidentally photographing the same bus twice on the same day. But having that happen with two different buses on the same day – what are the odds?
I photographed Transdev bus #369 0369AO departing Footscray station on route 216 to the city at 8:39am.
I board a train towards work.
And spot it again at the corner of Lonsdale and William Street at 9:06am.
I head out to inspect the Metro Tunnel works at South Yarra, and photographed Ventura bus #1034 5396AO on an all stations rail replacement service at 1:38pm.
I board the next train towards the city.
And spot the same bus passing beneath Richmond station at 1:47pm.
None of which was planned – that’d be cheating.
So you want to be a bus spotter?
Ready to go down the bus spotting rabbithole – the Australian Bus Fleet Lists details the fleet and registration numbers on virtually every bus in Australia.
And what are the odds of those buses being as fast as trains?!?
The rail replacement bus was surprisingly quick to get from South Yarra to Richmond – I hardly beat it.
But the route 216 bus from Footscray was much slower – I spent 15 minutes dilly-dallying about on top of the train trip before I saw it again.
Pretty amazing coincidences. Who was stalking whom?
Quite accidental – I didn’t notice it was the same bus until I looked over the photos at home. 😛
I have occasionally missed a bus, travelled a different way and seen or caught it further on the route. More often I’ve caught buses somewhere and then the same driver (& presumably bus) on the way back or further on. At least once I recovered a missing item that way, but they were deliberate attempts to catch the same bus.
A lot of improbable things seem to happen to me, but of course I notice them and don’t recall the times nothing seemed odd.
I’ve done the same thing on route 57 a few times – if I missed the outbound tram on Elizabeth Street it the following route 59 tram would often overtake it by Flemington Road, because it doesn’t take the deviation via North Melbourne.