Eva Arias and Montserrat Ferrer are night intercity bus drivers in Barcelona and often deal with the challenges of a night job in which alcohol, drugs, lack of inhibition and machismo must be added to the equation. As happened to a colleague whose video expelling a drunk passenger fed up with her macho comments went viral this week, her day-to-day life is also plagued with uncomfortable situations.
"The siege is daily," says Eva Arias. She is 40 years old and she has been a "bus driver" for seven years, the last five on the night shift. She previously worked in the field of cleaning and she has also been a cook. When she lost her job as a replenisher, it was her ex (who also drives a bus) who encouraged her to get the D card and change to a "booming" sector. Like many other of her colleagues, she went to this complicated schedule to be able to reconcile. She has been separated for a year and the mother of two boys aged 16 and 12, she leaves the kids dinner and in bed and leaves home at 10:30 p.m. to start the shift at 11 p.m. She finishes it at 6 in the morning and back home, she makes sandwiches, meals, accompanies the children to school and around 9:30 she goes to bed. Her idea is to wake up at 3:00 p.m., but she admits that it ends up being normal to sleep for just over five hours. For this reason, due to the harshness that she supposes for the biorhythm at night, she knows that this shift is not forever.
And the hardness (although he admits that he enjoys it) is multiplied if the one driving the wheel is a woman. "They sit in the front and don't take their eyes off you," explains Montserrat Ferrer, who is 57 years old and has been driving at night for four years.
Eva Arias takes a N17 from Barcelona's Plaza Catalunya to the airport and although tonight (Thursday) has been quiet for a "Friday", there has been a raid in San Cosme. Every night it starts over. "You don't know what it's going to bring you." All with the added bonus of being a woman. "There are comments every day and sometimes it depends on who comes in, I prefer not to even say good night because they think that by being polite you want to flirt with them." This Catalan explains that she supports young people taking photos of her, surprised because she drives a large vehicle when she is a woman. Or that they ask her why she works at night. "They throw you the cane and give you the phone number, but I tell them that I am married and have four children," says Montserrat Ferrer. She is actually separated and she has two older children and she was the youngest of hers who sent the resume to apply for a bus driver after a lifetime as a hairdresser.
Getting on a bus driven by a woman seems to give carte blanche to machismo, inappropriate comments or unpleasant looks. “In summer I have come to wet the seat with water so that he does not feel like the typical man who spends the whole journey looking at the neckline with an obsessive face”, says Eva Arias. She doesn't want to be looked at like that. “Often they ask you what time you finish your shift and I just point to the Do not disturb the driver sign”, she explains resignedly. She regrets that there are too many men who think that "because they are a woman they have the right to go overboard with you." The cars have also been placed next to the bus to make comments. "There is a lot of slime and machismo is daily," explains Arias. There are many nights that she regrets what she has to put up with "because she is a woman." At those times she is tempted to ask for a shift change in the morning, but even in the morning slot they do not escape the comments.
There is also insecurity. So much so that when Eva arrives at Plaza Catalunya she prefers not to go to the bathroom because of what she might go through. "At three in the morning there are only drugged zombies." Exactly the same thing happens to Montserrat and she explains that sometimes when she is left alone with a single passenger she goes “in tension”. And if at the end of the line two men stay in the canopy, they also avoid going to the WC.
Eva also admits that 90% of the people she had to throw off the bus were men. Wednesday night was not so calm and she had to end up calling the Mossos for a fight. Although she understands the reaction of the partner who went viral, she acknowledges that she tries not to leave the cabin. And she hasn't even been saved from having her partition beaten up to three times. Nor is Montserrat used to go out. And, although the driver's management was understood by the dozen colleagues on duty, they also agree that they prefer not to go out: "At most I stand up," says Eva, who regrets that on some occasion of the 60 people in the passage no one has come out to defend it. Although there are also friendly people.
On certain dates such as the festival of Sant Joan or New Year's Eve, they have come to ask if they could make a line on the counter. Because the night forces them to live in the most diverse, uncomfortable and dangerous situations. Fellatios at the back of the bus, drug sales, fights of all kinds... And on occasion he has had to drive aggressively with brakes to try to stop a violent argument between a couple. And once he had to activate the tamper, the button to notify the central office and the police in case of an emergency.
Together with their colleagues, men and women, they form a small family on the night shift. The children of Eva and Montserrat encourage them in their exciting profession. Eva's little one always says goodbye to her with "have a good service". It's what she wants every night.
