• YOUR letter writer complains of passengers being allowed to travel free on buses when they get on and blurt out a “sob story” to the driver (Fare dodgers rule OK? March 16).

As a driver I can tell you that we are in a no-win situation. If we go by the book and we refuse to allow the passenger on then we’re the subject of abuse; we call the police at which point all the passengers turn on the driver as this means the bus will have to wait for the police to turn up, minimum 30-40 minutes.

If all bus drivers did this there would be buses parked everywhere with hazard lights on waiting for the police who are hopeless­ly overstretched as it is.

The fault lies with Transport for London who run London buses as a business and not a service, all they care about is buses maintaining headway.

As people see on the new Routemaster bus, fare evasion is a massive problem. When the last Labour mayor introduced the bendy bus he was vilified in the media, however this new bus is even worse. People drinking and smoking on the upper deck, and the back door used by people who just don’t want to pay.

TfL are losing millions of pounds on these buses.

Revenue protection inspectors rarely venture outside Zone 1 as it’s too dangerous. Later this year lots of routes are being shortened as TfL are saying passenger numbers have dropped. Totally untrue – we still have the same amount of passengers but they don’t pay. It’s that simple. But TfL are in complete denial.

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