bus captain

It seems that Bill Shorten might have come up with the title bus captain when he invited Kristina Keneally to be his spokesperson on the campaign bus. The last election was all about buses.

 In Singaporean English the term bus captain is used to distinguish between a mere driver and someone who is not only the bus driver but also the bus conductor, and who takes care of the maintenance of the bus as well.  I don’t think this had any influence on Shorten who arrived at the term in his own way. And I am sure Kristina Keneally had much too much on her plate wrangling the mix of politicians, journalists, and locals that milled through the bus on their travels, to be worried about bus maintenance and etiquette.

 It remains to be seen if buses and bus captains retain their popularity in the next election.