Sensible or Silly?

A Daily Mirror report of about a fortnight ago almost passed Omnibuses by.

Staff at Nexus, the Tyne & Wear PTE, asked a 61-year-old man who was photographing buses at a Sunderland terminus to leave. Apparently, he was mistaken for a terrorist. Of course, the Daily Mirror might have things wrong, as they referred erroneously to Nexus as a bus *operator*.

Whether or not bus station staff should allow or encourage enthusiasts to take pictures was a hot topic in Buses magazine during the summer of 2004. Omnibuses doesn’t wish to resurrect the old arguments – and there *are* two sides – but it is vaguely ludicrous that PTE staff across Britain should be taking this stand when they cannot possibly be vigilant enough to prevent mobile phone camera users doing their worst. An ordinary camera’s a little more obvious.

Some station staff use data protection as a reason for refusal, some health & Safety. Data protection legislation’s in place to protect the individual from an organisation, not the other way around. There's a strong argument for ensuring photogrpahers don't endanger themselves or others.

We’ve heard it tell that others fear enthusiasts are spies for rival companies. In the end though, bus stations are private property.

In the Nexus situation, a spokesperson said, “Our customer service staff are advised to challenge people taking pictures at interchanges and Metro stations. The man was correctly told for security reasons that he would have to leave the station to continue taking his photographs.”

For security reasons? If anyone’s going to notice something odd, strange or out-of-place in a bus station, we’d bet it would be the enthusiast well ahead of any customer service staff. Shouldn’t the industry cultivate rather than alienate the enthusiast?

That this tale reached a daily newspaper like the Mirror does no one any good – enthusiasts or the industry.