According to current data, the average English woman measures 1.62 meters, which is 13 centimeters shorter than Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, but ten centimeters taller than Tracey Scholes, a bus driver from Manchester. The height of the recently 40-year-old Duchess Kate has not been an issue in England recently, but the height of 57-year-old Tracey Scholes has. On Tuesday afternoon, demonstrators even wanted to gather at the local bus operator in Manchester because of Scholes and her 1.52 meters.
A few weeks ago it became public that the company Go North West, which has been operating public bus services in Manchester since 2019, had terminated Scholes because it was too small to run the new buses safely. The British media are constantly reporting on larger and smaller individual fates somewhere in the kingdom, and the story of Tracey Scholes initially seemed like one of those local antics that will soon be lost in the sea of stories. But then a few celebrities became aware of it, actors from the popular series “Coronation Street” for example, and campaigned for Tracey Scholes on social platforms. In 1987 she was the first female bus driver in the region, and that she, a widow with three children, will be thrown out after 34 years because of her height: a scandal, isn’t it?
Support for Scholes grew, a petition was launched, 25,000 people signed, and outrage grew. The friendly spokesman for the company said a little ironically on the phone on Tuesday that he was “flattered” by the interest even in international media.
She was the only one who complained, says the spokesman
The company is one of five larger companies operating the largely privatized public bus service in the UK. Especially outside of London, bus transport is always a political issue, after all, the state only regulates routes and prices in London. The rest of the country is often more about business than basic services, and several companies have long recognized that exterior mirrors, for example, reduce profits. There are many narrow streets in British cities, which is why it is not uncommon for buses with their wing mirrors to get stuck somewhere. In order to reduce the damage, there has been a program in Manchester for years in which the protruding exterior mirrors are replaced with new mirrors integrated in the bus. Last year it was also the turn of the buses that Tracey Scholes drove 25 hours a week.
The company spokesman says there are at least two other bus drivers Scholes’ tall in Manchester, but only she complained that the new mirrors made her sit back so that she could no longer reach the pedals. She was offered various other options, including that she could start her route in the morning at the bus station, where she could choose a bus that suits her. She refused because of the unfavorable working hours, so she was offered a job as a school bus driver with the same pay. Only: School buses do not run 25 hours a week, so Scholes would have had to accept a de facto reduction in their salary. “Loyalty doesn’t count anymore,” a disappointed Tracey Scholes told the BBC that she couldn’t afford to earn less. “I’m being punished and I can’t help it.”
She would also clean the buses, the main thing is that she keeps her job, Scholes also said. Clean the buses? The spokesman does not want to comment, but one can assume that the unions, which have long been active in the Scholes affair, would not have responded enthusiastically to such an offer. In the end, there was no other option than to terminate the employment relationship, the spokesman formulated. There is probably no happy ending in this story, this primal conflict in society, big versus small.
On Tuesday, the two parties met again at the company’s headquarters in Manchester, which was discussed, both sides initially did not want to say anything. The notice period ends on February 5th.