A city like Barcelona, polyhedral, has an infinite number of faces. There is the one that is offered during the day, for example, and the one that is shown at night, totally different. Night bus (NitBus) drivers know the difference well. This week, without going any further, a video showed a driver of the N1 line, operated by the Tusgsal company, expelling a man who did not stop rebuking her from the vehicle. The scene suggested the question of whether it is something habitual or casual, a question that we tried to elucidate early Friday morning by traveling on several NitBus lines. A preview: the drivers are fed up.
It's 4:25 in the morning. Along with a fellow photographer, we boarded the last bus of the night. It will be here, aboard the N2 line -which Tusgsal also operates and which goes from L'Hospitalet to Badalona (passing through Barcelona)- where I collect the most alarming testimonies of the early morning. Several people wait for the bus at the Gran Via – Padilla stop. Among them, two young foreigners with clear symptoms of having drunk too much. The bus arrives and we get on. Inside, and from the appearance, I presume that the majority of passengers are citizens going to or coming from work. I wait a couple of stops and decide to approach the driver.
He explains to me, very kindly, that he is 50 years old, that he has been doing this line for 16 years and that "in no other sector" in which he has worked had he felt "so unprotected". "It is not something of mine personally, it is the feeling of many drivers," he emphasizes. And he gives examples. He recounts that he has been the victim of insults and even attacks: "They have spit on me on several occasions." He tells that one day he almost came to blows with a passenger.
While narrating these experiences, he shows me a piece of seat: "It belongs to one for disabled people on the bus, they broke it tonight," he says while holding it for a second. He affirms that, for his safety, he "never" leaves his cabin and that he has learned "not to see or listen": "I look out the window when I detect inside the bus something that is far from normal."
Of course, if the event takes on an alarming aspect, he does not hesitate to stop the vehicle and connect with the center to notify the Mossos. "I've done it countless times." He explains that the bus has a GPS and that the central office knows where it is at all times.
We chatted with a partition in between. He says that it helps him feel "somewhat more protected" and that they were installed "during the pandemic": "The company would have installed them before but the drivers, via internal surveys, decided that they were not necessary."
I leave him behind the wheel and a minute later I start a conversation with a passenger at the back of the bus. It is Darwin (29 years old), who for work is forced to take this line to return to L'Hospitalet, where he lives. The clock says 4:40 a.m. He says that he has seen many “very ugly” scenes traveling on the bus. “Girls who are drunk – and he points with a nod to the two foreigners who are quite drunk and who are half asleep on the other side of the corridor – groped by groups of young people”. He emphasizes that he has witnessed it "several times" and that the driver on duty often "has not done anything" either because he "preferred to look the other way" or simply did not see him.
The night ends with his testimony, but it had started a little over three hours earlier in Plaza Catalunya. It's 1:23 p.m. We start the journey on the N-14 line, operated by Avanza and departs from Plaza Catalunya (where we got on) with our final destination in Castelldefels. About 25 people access the vehicle, which is not articulated and fills up quite quickly. The driver complains about the low capacity of the bus, taking into account that it leaves the Catalan capital and crosses populated cities such as L'Hospitalet, Esplugues, Cornellà, Viladecans, Gavà or Castelldefels itself. At the second stop (Plaza Universitat) it is confirmed that his complaint is well founded: the vehicle has just filled up.
To my left is a 26-year-old man, Marwane, originally from Morocco and resident of L'Hospitalet. He usually takes this line because he works at night in Barcelona. He says that it is normal to meet "drunken young people who sting each other, but who are not used to bothering the rest of the passage." Roger (27), who is going to Viladecans, supports the thesis, although he remembers a day when a man began to approach a passenger and "between four", taking advantage of the fact that the bus had stopped at a stop, they kicked him out.
His aunt, Marta, who travels with him and has been using the line for "20 years," says she has not run into "big problems" either, but complains about the cameras that the vehicle has built-in. "I don't like them. I they make them uncomfortable.” Roger replies that it's okay, that they don't have to bother her, and they start a discussion in which they both defend their position without giving up.
After more than 20 stops, at the height of Esplugues, we decided to get off the bus to take another one back to Barcelona and look for another line to get on. It's 2:15 p.m. After 15 minutes of waiting, one picks us up and takes us back to the Catalan capital. It's almost empty. I take the opportunity to talk to the driver (55 years old). She says that she has been doing this line since last August and that she has learned (like the driver of the N2 line) to “not see or hear”. “I look in the rearview mirror but I focus on driving,” she asserts. She claims that if nothing serious happens, she keeps moving forward.
Also like her colleague, she does not leave the cabin and has been forced to call the Mossos on occasion. A few days ago, and after finishing a journey in Plaza Catalunya, two men refused to get off the bus. She had to go to the bathroom before starting a new journey and she had to leave the vehicle empty. After insisting for several minutes, the wayward occupants ended up going down, but then they went back up. "Before they got on, I pulled the bus forward a bit to put it at the exact starting point, and then the windows hit me from the outside." Seeing her behavior, she decided to contact the headquarters. “Three minutes later a Mossos patrol arrived. They kicked them out."
However, it's not all bad on the night shift, he says. To the point that he wouldn't change it for the daytime one, which he has also worked on. “People who behave, not the four who mess it up, are more tolerant. During the day, people are stressed, they haven't gotten up before to avoid rushing, they are jumping. Those at night are quiet. You even get to have a certain friendship with some of them ”, he concludes.
