My Profile on Robbie: The legendary Bournemouth bus driver

Robbie Bartle: Always smiling

ROBBIE Bartel, a bus driver for Wilts and Dorset buses in Bournemouth and Poole for 10 years, has been coined a ‘legendary’ bus driver and even has his own Facebook group created by his fans.

The bus driver from Canford Heath in Poole, aged 31, could not be any more delighted with his Facebook group with 535 members. In fact, he said he used to carry around a printout of the group to begin with which he proudly displayed.

Robbie said, “A student friend of mine, Alex Cooper, in Herne House started the group off. I was really touched and the group just continues to grow and grow. I have 1,577 friends on Facebook at the moment, people just keep on adding me.”

He has earned the respect and adoration of his passengers, mainly students, who ride the A, B, C and E buses, with his extremely friendly and kind nature, which according to them, is unusual for a bus driver.

Amaka Osakwe, a student from Wooten Mount in Bournemouth, aged 23, said: “Everybody that ever goes on the buses in Bournemouth knows Robbie. They might not all know him by name, but as soon as you describe him they realise who you’re talking about.

“He’s such an amazing guy. Usually drivers are boring and not very happy but he’s the friendliest bus driver ever!”

Sehliselo Ngwenya, aged 20, a student from Frederica Road in Bournemouth, said : “Robbie really brightens up my mornings, I’ve never seen him without a friendly ‘ello!’ and a huge Cheshire-cat grin.”

Robbie said: “I love being a bus driver, my dad has been one all his life, I used to go with him to work on his bus sometimes. I decided to follow his footsteps.With each day driving the bus, every day is different, no trip is the same.

“I meet many interesting characters and I love to make people happy. Everybody gets on the bus and expects a miserable driver – and then they get on mine.”

A glimpse at his kitchen fridge shows his sweet nature. It is covered with animal pictures and he reveals he feels passionately towards animal and child cruelty. I had seen he was a member of several anti-child cruelty and anti-animal cruelty groups on Facebook.

He said: “I’m disgusted with the Baby P case. I think it’s disgraceful that the child’s services should have figured out he was being abused and they should have done something about it ASAP.”

Robbie’s lovable character has resulted in him previously been written about in the Nerve magazine for Bournemouth university students.

He said: “On my last Birthday I was driving the B bus to Cranborne House and all the students came down the stairs and sung happy Birthday in harmony. It even made it to Nerve magazine. I went absolutely red and I didn’t know what to say – I was gobsmacked.”

Dylans bar is one of Robbie’s favourite karaoke spots, and he can often be seen at the Talbot Campus bar singing along to a number of old hits and socialising with the students.

He said: “I really love singing ‘Through the Baracades’ by Spandau Balle. They are some really good singers in Dylans but some are downright awful. I’ve got a bad throat at the moment but give me a few weeks and I’ll be back!”

Robbie mentioned that his bus driver colleagues get very jealous of the attention he receives.
Robbie said: “A few weeks ago I was with a colleague at the Corfe House student refractory. We were both eyeing up the pizza and my colleague ended up buying a slice.

“A student friend of mine came over and insisted on buying me some. My colleague couldn’t believe his eyes. I was a bit cheeky and asked him how his pizza was. Then I teased him and said that mine tasted better because it was free.”

However, being a bus driver can be difficult. Robbie said: “The running times are a kick up the backside. Sometimes they give you a month to get back and other times you have to drive it like you stole it.”

Bus drivers also often face difficult situations with rowdy drunk passengers in particular. Robbie thankfully hasn’t really experienced any big problems.

He said: “The government should ban drunks who always cause trouble on the bus. I’ve never been abused physically or verbally. I never have a problem with drunks so long as they sing in harmony and are in key.

“I have had a window smashed when they threw something from the outside though and I’ve had an egg thrown at my bus, free range, in the middle of Winton.”

Robbie clearly has a great sense of humour and he doesn’t take things too seriously. What makes him such a special character is the fact he claims he can block out all the negative things in his life and remain happy, despite having experienced a few personal tragedies.

Robbie said: “I married in 1999 when I was 23. My wife was 21, we were both so young but I was so deeply in love with her. I proposed to her at dinner on bended knee. We weren’t even married a year when I came home from work early and I found my wife in bed with our lodger.

"We had the flat in both our names and he was paying for his rent in return for sexual favours. I couldn’t believe it, I divorced her immediately. It only took her 32 days to remarry after our divorce was finalized.”

I’m not sure what is more shocking – the fact she would do this extremely cruel thing to such a lovely person, how she could remarry so soon after or how Robbie ever married such a woman in the first place.

Robbie may not have made the best decision in getting so deeply romantically involved with such a woman, but he very surprisingly, revealing his forgiving nature, said: “I don’t regret it. We’re amicable now since we’ve got an 8 year old sprog.” His son, Robbie junior, sometimes accompanies Robbie when he drives his bus, just like he accompanied his father.

Robbie has also experienced the pain of seeing someone he loves very deeply affected by the mentally crippling disease of meningitis. His brother, David, who is five years older than Robbie, got meningitis when he was 4 days old. He was affected mentally, but still manages to live a normal life, something Robbie is very proud of.

Robbie said: “He’s been working for Asda for 17 years. He began as a work assistant in Poole and they offered him a full time job as a trolley assistant, and then he began working in the Bournemouth St Paul’s Branch. Now he’s been there so long he’s part of the fixtures and fittings.”

Robbie’s parents, brother and sister live just around the corner from him. They are a very close family and are always there for each other. When I asked Robbie why he is as lovable as he is he said: “I have my parents to thank for that. It’s the way I’ve been brought up. I owe it all to mum and dad.”

Bournemouth’s most popular bus driver has a lot he can teach us on our attitudes to life. Robbie said: “I’m always positive, never ever negative at all. I just cut all the negative thoughts out. I haven’t read any self help books it just comes naturally I don’t know why. Maybe it’s all the jelly babies I eat.”

If only adopting his attitude was as easy as a trip to the sweet shop, but for most of us, we have to make a big effort to remain happy in times of adversity.




If you wish to check out the lovable Robbie's group on facebook, simply type in 'Legend Bournemouth Uni Bus Driver' into the seach box at the top of the page and you will be sure to find it.