This was always the case - I remember it happening since at least the late 1980s. In fact I was on the front cover of the Putney and Wandsworth Guardian in September 1994 for stopping a bus that was parked outside Putney Station without a driver on board, awaiting a new driver, which started moving backwards down the hill. I was sat upstairs when I noticed the bus had started moving and heard panic downstairs. On being tested, it was found that the bus had a fautlty handbrake. I no longer live in Putney so don't know if this is still the practice, but in those days, if the replacement driver wasn't there, the driver going off shift would switch the engine off (it wasn't left idling), leave the middle (exit) door open, the front (entrance) door closed but the driver's swing door open, and would go, leaving the bus with passengers on board but no driver. Does this still happen?
David Beeney ● 35d