Why do all buses in Beijing need a conductor?

Many people will say that there are some problems in raising this question, because the buses in Beijing are now full of security guards and drivers, and there are no conductors at all. But I want to remind everyone that in Beijing’s early buses, conductors were required. Why?

1. The conductor, as the name suggests, is the one who sells tickets! Beijing's earlier buses did not have a payment method such as a bus card, let alone payment via mobile phone and swiping a QR code. At that time, there were only manual ticket sales and cash transactions. The conductor hung a ticket holder with bus tickets of various prices on it. Someone asked, why are there different colors? Because it is easy to distinguish, different lengths have different prices. When selling tickets, the conductor aunt will tear off the tickets and draw on them with colored pens to avoid forged tickets.

2. In addition to the responsibility of selling tickets, conductors in Beijing also have a very important skill, which is to announce the station. From many cross talk works, you should have heard the voice of the Beijing conductor announcing the station. Most of them imitated the less serious station announcement sounds later on. It's so casual and wordy that many people don't understand it at all. In fact, the earlier station announcements were formal and pleasant to the ears. I still miss the chirpy voices of Beijing conductor aunts.

3. The conductor in Beijing also plays a guiding role. Of course, don't encounter impatient conductors. As long as they are serious about service, most of them can give you directions. Especially in the era before electronic navigation, first-time tourists did not know many place names in Beijing. The conductor was a window to Beijing. They could tell you where to get off at Beihai, where to get off at Jingshan, and where to get off. What are the characteristics of your park?

Of course, many lines in Beijing are now equipped with security guards. In other words, the security guards who follow the driver mainly focus on security. Every time they see a passenger boarding the train, they are only mechanically reminded not to carry dangerous goods on the train, and many transfer stations and tourist attractions in Beijing are also unfamiliar to them.

Sometimes, on older and longer lines, you can encounter conductors and, of course, security guards. Those conductors basically no longer give directions, but when the e-mail station is not clear, they will remind you where to go. I personally miss the old conductors very much. The impression they give people is the style of Beijing and the enthusiasm that Beijing should have.

I don’t know what you think, please leave a comment!