The crew bus: the strangest, best and worst crew transport in the world, base by base

The crew bus is where the day starts and ends and every base has its own version, and I have decided it deserves a proper thread. From Dubai, where the bus is a character in every crew member's life, here is my contribution. Add your base.

Dubai

The big coaches from the accommodation buildings to the airport, on a schedule that is almost right. The bus at 5am is silent and everyone is asleep with their hats on their laps. The bus at 11pm from a long haul is either silent or a party depending on the crew. There is a culture of saving seats that would start a war anywhere else. And the bus driver who has done the same route for eleven years knows more crew gossip than the whole of HR.

What I have heard about other bases

Heathrow: the car park shuttle, which is a public bus that happens to carry crew and is late on a schedule of its own. Doha: same as Dubai, with more security checks. Singapore: crew taxis, apparently, which sounds civilised. Istanbul: a long bus from the city that is either 45 minutes or two hours and you never know which. Manila: a jeepney, according to my Filipino colleagues, which I refuse to believe. New York: your own car, your own problem.

The best

The layover hotel bus in Cape Town with the view of the mountain on the way in. Every crew member who has done the route says the same. It is the only crew bus anyone has ever photographed.

The worst

A crew bus in a city I will not name that broke down on the motorway at 4am with a crew who had to be on a flight at 6. We made it. The bus did not.

Your base's bus. The stranger the better.