John and Lynne Connelly fell in love on the No.57 bus

Video: Next Stop? Love. Glasgow Couple's Chance Encounter Leads to Everlasting Love

  • Lynne and John Connelly met on the No.57 bus in Glasgow in 2005
  • The Scots couple have been married for 13 years and share two children

There are sliding doors moments in life, and sometimes those are the doors to a double decker bus.

Eighteen years ago, Lynne Connelly took her usual commute on the No.57 bus from Pollokshaws to Glasgow city centre. One day, in 2005 Lynne caught the eye of fellow passenger, John.

John decided to make the No.57 his new daily commute. With each journey spent building up the confidence to speak to Lynne and hand over his phone number.  Eventually, he plucked up the courage and made his move.

Their first date closely followed in Shawlands, with the second soon after, when they took the No.57 ‘together’ for the first time into town, to go to the cinema.

As their dates continued, so did their love story. John and Lynne married in married in Italy in 2011 and now have two children, daughter Catherine, 16, and son Finlay, 12.

They both agree if it hadn’t been for the serendipitous events on the No.57 bus, their lives would have turned out remarkably different.

Lynne Connelly said: “It’s crazy to think how different our lives could have been had we not locked eyes on the bus that morning. We wouldn’t have the family and the life we have now. The bus definitely played a significant part of our life.”

“I used to get the bus to work every morning and John used to get the same bus. I didn’t notice John at first, as you’re just in your own bubble going back and forth, but he did get my attention when he came over for a chat.

“We sat chatting together and just before he got off the bus he asked if I wanted to go out sometime, and I said yes. He, very smoothly, slipped me his phone number on a piece of paper and made a quick sharp exit off the bus. I couldn’t believe he gave me his phone number and ran off, meaning I had to make the first move!”

First Bus is shining a spotlight on the experiences of the thousands of people they carry every day across Scotland through new content series First Bus Firsts. Everyone who uses the bus has their own story and the series aims to capture special tales, highlighting the opportunities bus travel offers to people in their lives.

Watch the full video of Lynne and John's 'My First Love' video below:

Notes to editors

Notes to Editors

About First Bus

First Bus is one of the UK’s largest bus operators. Making journeys easier for our customers, we were the first national bus operator to accept contactless card payments across all of our services and our First Bus App is voted ‘best in class’ amongst UK bus operators. Our most recent investments are in new, state-of-the-art buses across our key networks.

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