The Parts of Being a Bus Driver That Simulators Miss

Amongst the many things I do, when not working, studying, socialising, or (most importantly) gaming, is drive buses. Yes you heard me, I am a bus driver!

Before I started my current profession, I played bus driving simulators to see how the games matched up to what I saw as a passenger day in and day out on the buses. Now, after a year of being a fully licensed driver, I can accurately compare the simulated and actual reality out in the world of Public Transport.

I decided to play two simulators to see which would gather the atmosphere and complexity the best. These were Bus Driver Gold (1.5) by SCS Software, and European Bus Simulator 2012, by Havok.

1. Passengers & Their Interaction

If you're on a nice route, well in Devon anyway, you have every old dear saying “morning driver” and passing you a chocolate bar.
Bus Driver misses this very important interaction between driver and passenger and replaces it with a “bing” as each passenger boards on to your bus. This is very impersonal, treating the passengers like a number, and there is no mention of chocolate bars!
European Bus Simulator however actually handles passengers like people. They ask for their fare, get on carefully and don't queue jump, and sit down in good time, the only issue for me - it’s in German, and I only speak basic German!
More importantly as a driver you have to issue the correct change to the passenger, else they don’t sit down!
Either way the truth of it is captured in European Bus Simulator when the person presents you with a 20 euro note for a 2 euro fare, now that’s a real problem every day!
I remember just last week I was on my last trip around town, my penultimate stop a young guy got on with a £20 note for a £1.25 fare. Needless to say I let him travel for free, and working out all that change whilst I’m ready to cash in would mean a late finish for me! That sort of intuition cannot be found in a simulator.

2. The Vehicles

I usually get quite excited each morning when I collect my duty card for the day, and then finding out what bus I am going to drive. It could be a double decker, single decker, two door, one door, the combinations are endless. This is also true in Bus Driver, when you can master driving coaches, double deckers, schools buses and all, with the game correctly representing their relative sizes and driving tricks, such as how far to go past the corner before turning. These are also portrayed in a variety of colours and designs as buses are in this modern age.
I was disappointed with European Bus Simulator on this front, the game with simulator in the title. Your choices of buses to drive was between two buses, a standard size Mercedes Citaro, and an extended version which had a flexible centre. I would have thought that Havok would have invested more into this and produced some more designs for the player to experience, allowing it to simulate a lot more variations of the real world.

A "real-life" Mercedes Citaro

3. Driving Accidents

In Bus Driver, wiping out a lampost scores you -75 points and harsh braking a mere -50 points, however crashing your bus marks you down by around 200 points, upsets your passengers, and causes them to want to get off at the next stop. To be honest, I don't blame them!
European Bus Simulator misses out the entire issue of bad driving and has nothing in place to stop you wanting to go on a wild drive over pedestrians and fences. In fact, I found my bus drove better on grass than it did on tarmac!
Just to say that in the industry it costs 100 times more what Bus Driver debits you, but in cash, not points. Each passenger usually costs between £50 - £5000 dependent on how severe their injuries are, so the situation isn't great for anyone really.

It is unfortunate to say that in this experience, the simulators have done OK, with the arcade style prevailing over the “purpose-built” simulator.

It is sad to say that both games missed a very vital ingredient, a bus driver must always start their day with a coffee.