An old city bus that is given a new life in Gambia thanks to the efforts of seven friends from Boxtel. The bright yellow vehicle was refurbished and still drives like a charm, because the journey of more than six thousand kilometers to the African country was completed without any problems. Now the old one will serve as a means of transport for schoolchildren. And there are thousands of other ‘discarded’ buses from our country that travel around the world.
Kazakhstan, Ivory Coast, Georgia and Ghana, they are popping up everywhere. The great thing is that you can still clearly see that these are BBA or Arriva buses. Even the place where they once rode in Brabant can still be read on the sign at the front. Bus line 158 from Veghel now tours between the palm trees in Cuba, just like a vintage car from Vlijmen.
Erik started spotting buses at an early age: “As a little boy I would stand along the road looking at buses.” Just in his birthplace Veghel.
When he got older, Erik started traveling and he still sees Brabant buses all over the world. He also has a number of buses at home and a lot of photos of his travels. “For example, a photo of an old American car from the 1950s, under a tree in Cuba and behind it a Dutch bus with the final destination still visible.”
“A bus driver in Cuba asked if I could help him.”
Erik has plenty of stories to tell. This also applies to a bus driver in Cuba. “The man came to me and asked if I could help.”
The roll with place names was still in the mailbox, but there was a small problem. “He had obtained a map of the Netherlands and he had already found Gilze, Breda, Tilburg and Den Bosch. Only he could not find ‘No service’ and ‘Extra line’. I then explained that to him.”
“Sometimes a driver asks how the air conditioning works.”
During his travels he can also give tips to drivers who do not yet know the buses very well, because Erik himself knows the buses inside and out. “Sometimes a driver asks how the air conditioning works, for example.”
Erik finds it fantastic to see how public transport is organized in other countries. “And yes, it is also fantastic to see how Brabant buses drive around the world.”
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These drivers drove more than 6,000 kilometers to Gambia in a refurbished city bus